© 2026 The Couch Critic
A playful and personal journey through Lebanon’s audiovisual memory, composed entirely of archival footage. It is a love letter to Beirut, spanning 70 years of film, TV, home videos, and photography, exploring the Lebanese collective psyche – marked by joy and intimacy, destruction and loss. Through the eyes of citizens, filmmakers and artists, the film reconstructs a fragmented history in a country without a national archive, celebrating creative expression as both resistance, renewal and a way to preserve memory.
Thirteen years after moving to L.A. following his father’s death, Javi is forced to return to Puerto Rico for his grandpa’s funeral. He soon meets Luife and Kiki, two social misfits who turn his summer around and entangle him in the middle of a love triangle.
Valera, a flawless driver with 30 years behind the wheel, loses his job just as his dog Lincoln needs an expensive lifesaving surgery. Desperate for income, he’s approached by a sleek, AI-powered self-driving taxi. To avoid spooking passengers, the car asks Valera to pretend to be its driver and help it achieve a top user rating — in exchange for all the earnings from their rides. For Valera, it’s his dog’s only chance; for the taxi, it’s a fight for its own survival.
The older brother and younger sister filming a documentary about the story of a man who recounts that after he drove through a forest at night, he began experiencing strange events that haunted him. He believes that something from that forest followed him back. The local legends about that forest provide clues that lead the siblings to encounter something that will haunt both of them for the rest of their lives as well.
A tormented painter, consumed by grief, begins a surreal journey after a visit from his partner. Through symbols and inner trials, he finds the strength to embrace transformation.
Based on the folklore about the 7 warriors and the mystery of the tomb of Emperor Dinh.
As destiny turns lovers into enemies, duty tears them apart, but love remembers what kingdoms forget, the love can end even the oldest war.
A supermarket as both a microcosm of Japanese society and the setting for a socially critical horror film. Expressionless faces and a supervisor who demands zombie-like friendliness. Only the young Sakai doesn’t stop hoping.
Daughter of Nectar, a gracefully carved marble nude from 1921 by Huang Tu-shui, Taiwan's inaugural modern sculptor, encapsulates a complex century of Taiwanese history, spanning from Japanese colonisation to Chiang Kai-shek's authoritarian rule and the White Terror era. This sculpture, both delicate and resilient, stands as a silent sentinel, mirroring the enduring struggles, suppressed voices, and profound cultural transformations of its homeland.
30-year-old Anna seeks a stable foundation in her relationships but unknowingly repeats the manipulative patterns learned from her mother. When she crosses paths with a terminally ill patient and his devoted wife, Anna experiences a profound love that transforms her life.
The eighth and final night of Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2026 took place on May 1, 2026, at Aira City Sports Park Gymnasium in Aira, Kagoshima, Japan.
A former investigative journalist goes undercover at a psychedelic wellness center to find her missing sister. What she uncovers is far more unsettling than she expected. Wet Paper Bag is a psychological drama that explores identity, control, and the quiet tension beneath carefully constructed lives.
Milo, a strong-willed feminist, discovers the long-sought power to wander around freely in Baghdad by dressing in her brother’s clothes. Khalili, a young and ambitious filmmaker, realises that his camera can be the strongest of all weapons.
In the French countryside, wild boars ravaging crops spark an open war between farmers and members of a gentlemen’s hunting club, who feed the game between hunts. Brun, a bankrupt farmer, struggles to keep his farm afloat. When the club’s president pushes him to his limits, Brun shoots him and disappears. A year later, Fulda, a volatile police officer just transferred to the region, leads the investigation. Still struggling after a recent breakup, and as wild boars proliferate across the region, he is pushed to the brink of sanity.
Feature-length Story based on the "Siren Arc" from Nagano's popular Manga.
An expansion of the Mavka universe and a continuation of the romantic fantasy Mavka. A Real Myth, featuring some of the heroes and heroines from the first part.
Wide-eyed Julián spends a summer of discovery in NYC with his Abuela. Nearly strangers, they brace themselves for tense conversations and new adventures. The colourful chaos of Abuela’s world, and the stories she tells him, awakens something within Julián... questions about who he is and who he could be. Julián’s journey will reach across the diaspora, from Brooklyn block to the depths of the ocean, in an intergenerational ebb and flow. Through Abuela’s world, Julián explores his identity, gender expression and the hidden heritage of his family.
Rio Reiser would have been 75 years old. Before he became the “König von Deutschland”, he was the King of Kreuzberg - together with his band Ton Steine Scherben. In 1968, Rio moved to Berlin-Kreuzberg, at the time a blank spot on the city map, and made the area around Heinrichplatz his home. Together with R. P. S. Lanrue (1950 - 2024), Kai Sichtermann and Wolfgang Seidel, he founded Ton Steine Scherben and changed German rock music forever.
