Synopsis

Conclave follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events – selecting the new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.

Synopsis

2021. A wooden statue depicting King Gezo, who ruled the Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin) in the mid-1800s, is carefully packed into a box. He is among the 26 stolen artifacts selected to make a long-overdue return journey from Paris to Benin. As he’s stowed away, his internal monologue booms on the soundtrack. How does he feel about his imminent homecoming? Master filmmaker Mati Diop (Atlantics) ponders this question and many more in this imaginative meditation on post-imperial Benin and its continuing, complex colonial legacy. Inflected with fantastical flourishes, Diop carefully documents the painstaking work of transporting these priceless objects and observes a debate among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi. How should these treasures, stolen from their ancestors, be received by a nation that has reinvented itself in their absence?

Synopsis

Ahmad is an aging trans man who has long suppressed his desire for other men, fearing stigma and questioning if his gender identity and sexuality are at odds. He turns to an LGBTQ archive for answers, digging through oral histories and interviews from trans men past and present. He immerses himself so deeply in the archive that he begins to time travel through it, living among stories and activism that crack open binary notions around gender identity and sexual desire. Aided by these stories — and by a young trans archivist — Ahmad begins to unravel his own complicated identity. In Desire Lines, narrative and documentary intertwine to relate a dizzying quest towards personal and collective trans liberation.

Synopsis

It’s late October at Soldiers Field, and two scruffy adult baseball teams in New England are ready to play one last game on their beloved turf before it’s demolished. But Eephus, like the unexpectedly slow curveball it’s named for, is far from straightforward. You might recognize the quaint setting, the “final big game” framework, or characters like Ed, an ornery old pitcher, and Graham, the forthright Riverdogs coach. But director Carson Lund is pitching something different here. The two teams remain neck and neck, daylight turns to dusk, team members have to leave to go home to their families, and yet the game goes on. Eephus is less about baseball and more of a leisurely look at suburban life, the foibles of middle-age masculinity, and the passing of time. Smartly written, occasionally very funny, and entirely unique, it’s a delightful and nostalgic portrait of a fading America.

Synopsis

From renegade auteur Jacques Audiard (Dheepan, Rust and Bone) comes this audacious fever dream that defies genres and expectations. Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this Mexican odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women, each pursuing their own kind of happiness.

The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self. Written and directed by Audiard (Rust and Bone, A Prophet), the double Cannes-winning film also stars Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Édgar Ramírez.