© 2026 The Couch Critic
An actress is cast to bring Paula Modersohn-Becker, one of Germany’s most influential painters, to life. As she immerses herself ever deeper into the artist’s world, encountering key figures such as Otto Modersohn, Clara Westhoff-Rilke, and Rainer Maria Rilke, the lines between role and reality, portrayal and identification, begin to dissolve.
Emil is spending his summer vacation with his grandmother in Berlin. But on the train there, he is robbed by the ruthless con artist Max Grundeis and a wild adventure begins! Together with his friends Pony, Gustav, Dienstag, Anh, and Jason, Emil sets off in pursuit and embarks on a fast-paced detective hunt across Berlin.
An exposé of the hidden costs behind our cravings. Over the course of a month, Mo Gilligan embarks on an eye-opening journey from South London to the United States to reveal the historical origins of fried chicken and the social, economic and industrial forces driving our mass consumption of it — from fast-food chains to large-scale farming — and the impact on our health, our planet and the way we eat.
When his family stares down the barrel of criminal charges, a commoner channels his street smarts and knowledge of action films to tie the long arm of the law into an investigative Gordian knot.
2026 Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival finalist
When a private detective is murdered, a former colleague and a trainee detective are sent to investigate. Along the way, they uncover a tragic truth that triggers memories from their own haunted pasts.
A quiet student falls for an exchange girl, but a painful misunderstanding and her sudden departure drive him to cross the sea to find her.
In the near future, three young people document the final days of their hometown, knowing they will never see it again.
A never-ending battlefield ruled by madness, but there was a witch who would surely rise again.
An epic story about Joan of Arc, the young French peasant who believed God had sent her to lead an army to save her country during the Hundred Years War.
Upcoming short film from Katharine Rogers in collaboration with Bus Stop Films participants.
An action film about what happens when two mothers have an awkward conversation about a playdate that turns violent. A fun ride about Black maternal rage, a release for what we’re unable to do in real life — be angry, be messy in the face of both spectacular violence enacted on us and our families as well as the micro-aggressions that have a hidden violence that cuts deep.
When radical science backfires, miners and researchers confront apocalypse in Tiago Melo’s pulpy, politically charged sci-fi fusing local myth, dark humour, working-class grit and radioactivity in Brazil’s Northeast.
Anastasia, an 18-year-old ballet dancer at the Opéra Garnier, becomes the obsession of a disfigured man living in the opera's underground labyrinth.
Hyo-won, who dreams of becoming an actress, arrives at Seoul city after running away from country home with Eun-seo, who dropped out of high school. They are excited with their own hopes for the future. Hyo-won starts taking acting lessons from leading actor Su-yeon to become a member of the theater company. Eun-seo starts to work at a shabby restaurant when Hyo-won's lesson fee is urgent. Su-yeon teaches Hyo-won. Acting... It's about fully understanding and expressing other people's pain. But Hyo-won doesn't understand Eun-seo's pain. The same goes for Eun-seo. Life is full of questions for them
In a society marked by gendered violence, nine-year-old Arushi and Milena, twenty-one, reclaim space through Kalari—the world’s oldest martial art. The film follows their fight for self-empowerment and the freedom to be the women they chose to be.
