What's new at Odeon's this week : Thursday 22nd May 2025

This years 65th Krakow Film Festival takes place between 25th May and 1st June in the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Krakow Film Festival is one of the oldest events in the world dedicated to documentary, animated and short feature films. Its core consists of three competitions of equal rank - documentary film competition, short film competition and national competition. During the eight festival days, the viewers have a chance to watch about 250 films from Poland and from around the world. The festival is accompanied by exhibitions, concerts, open-air shows and meetings with artists. Every year, the festival is visited by approximately 900 Polish and international guests - Directors, Producers, festival programmers and numerous Krakow audiences. Since its beginnings, the Krakow Film Festival has been a platform for exploring the world through film. Their mission is to bring audiences closer to important issues, discover new talents and boldly present artistic cinema . . . so reads the official website.

In the International Documentary Competition, the newest documentary films from all around the world are presented. The winner of the Golden Horn Award is eligible to enter Oscar selection, and is awarded a cash prize of PLN30K (Polish Zloty worth approx. US$8K)

Those titles are :-

* 'Child of Dust' - from Poland, Vietnam, Sweden, Czech Republic and Qatar and Directed by Weronika Mliczewska.

* 'Do Painters Die Elsewhere' - from Poland and Directed by Michał Pietrak.

* 'Pet Farm' - from Norway and Directed by Finn Walther and Martin Walther.
* 'Tooth and Nail' - from Romania and Directed by Mihai Dragolea and Radu Mocanu.
* 'Shadowland' - from Finland and Directed by Otso Tiainen.
* 'Lovers in the Sky' - from Argentina, Germany, the USA and Directed by Fermin de la Serna.
* 'New Beginnings' - from Belgium and Directed by Vivianne Perelmuter and Isabelle Ingold.

* 'The Gardener, the Buddhist & the Spy' - from Norway, the UK, Ireland and Germany and Directed by Havard Bustnes.
* 'The Propagandist' - from the Netherlands and Directed by Luuk Bouwman.
* 'Sanatorium' - from Ireland, the Ukraine and Directed by Gar O’Rourke.
* 'Silver' - from Poland, Finland and Norway and Directed by Natalia Koniarz.
* 'Tata' - from Romania and Directed by Lina Vdovii and Radu Ciorniciuc.
* 'The Big Chief' - from Poland, France and the Netherlands and Directed by Tomasz Wolski.

For the other awards presented in the Documentary Competition plus the details of the Short Film Competition, the National Competition, plus the Non-Statutory Awards and a bunch of other good stuff, you can visit the official website at : https://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/en/65th-kff/

This week then, we have five new cinematic releases coming to a big screen Odeon near you, kicking off with the highly anticipated and heavily promoted eighth instalment in this spy action franchise that sees our titular hero and the IMF team race against time to find the Entity, a rogue artificial intelligence that can destroy mankind. This is followed by an American psychological thriller in which a young mother with a brain disorder struggles to perceive time, and so she takes a risky job from a mysterious woman to support her family, unaware of the dark consequences that await. Next up is a Canadian film set in a surreal interzone between Tehran in Iran and Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada where the lives of eccentric characters intertwine. Then we turn to a French English language comedy drama about three generations of women from the same family who are thrown together under tragic circumstances and must learn to live together on a small rural chicken farm; before closing out the week with a live action animated remake of a 2002 animated Disney film in which a lonely Hawaiian girl befriends a runaway alien, helping to mend her fragmented family.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING' (Rated M) - is an American spy action film Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. This film serves as a direct sequel to 2023's 'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' and is the eighth and possibly the final film in the 'M:I' franchise. McQuarrie's previous feature film Directing output takes in his debut in 2000 with 'The Way of the Gun', which he would follow up with 'Jack Reacher' in 2012, 'Mission : Impossible - Rouge Nation' in 2015, 'Mission : Impossible -Fallout' in 2018 and 'Mission : Impossible : Dead Reckoning Part One' in 2023. The first seven films in this hugely popular and successful franchise grossed a total of US$4.14B at the global Box Office from combined production budgets of US$1.5B, with this eighth instalment costing somewhere between US$300 and 400M, making it one of the most expensive films ever made. 

Picking up two months after the events of 'Mission : Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One' IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, who also Co-Produces here)  continues his mission to stop Gabriel (Esai Morales) from obtaining the AI programme known as 'the Entity'. Also starring Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, Shea Whigham and Hannah Waddingham. The film had its World Premiere screening in Tokyo on 5th May and was screened at the Cannes Film Festival on 14th May and it set for a worldwide release from this week onward although a handful of territories (including Australia) saw its release brought forward to 17th of May.  

'GAZER' (Rated M) - this American psychological mystery thriller film is Co-Written, Co-Produced, Directed and Co-Edited by Ryan J. Sloan in his feature film Directorial debut. Here, Frankie Rhodes (Ariella Mastroianni, who also Co-Wrote and Co-Produces here), a young single mother with dyschronometria (is a condition in which an individual cannot accurately estimate the amount of time that has passed), while also causing sudden blackouts. And so Frankie relies on self-recorded cassette tapes to help her navigate the world around her. Desperate to make ends meet while she fights for custody of her young daughter, she accepts a risky but high-paying job from a mysterious woman, which draws her into a world of paranoid conspiracies that threatens to swallow her whole. The film saw its World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in late May 2024, was released in the US in early April this year, has garnered generally positive critical reviews and has so far grossed just US$36K.

'UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE' (Rated G) - is a Canadian absurdist comedy-drama film, Co-Written and Directed by Matthew Rankin in only his second feature film offering following 2019's 'The Twentieth Century' although he has been making short films since 2005. The film is set in an alternate reality in which Persian, rather than English, is the dominant language of Canada, although it remains in coexistence with French. Set 'somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg', the film blends the initially unrelated, but gradually converging, stories of Negin (Rojina Esmaeili) and Nazgol (Saba Vahedyousefi), who find money frozen in ice and try to claim it; Massoud (Pirouz Nemati), a tour guide in Winnipeg who is leading a confused and disoriented tour group; and Matthew (Rankin), who quits his unfulfilling job with the government of Quebec and travels home to Winnipeg to visit his mother. The film had its World Premiere in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival in mid-May last year, has generated universal critical acclaim, was released Stateside in mid-February this year and has so far grossed US$234K from a production budget of less than US$3.5M.

'FUNNY BIRDS' (Rated M) - this French, Belgian and UK Co-Produced English language comedy drama film is Co-Written and Co-Directed by Marco La Via and Hanna Ladoul in only their second joint feature film outing following 2018's 'We the Coyotes'. Here, Charlie (Morgan Saylor), a twenty year old student returns to the family farm in Virginia to help her ailing mother. They have a different view of life: Charlie studies finance while Laura (Andrea Riseborough) runs a chicken farm in Virginia. After a long absence, Solange (Catherine Deneuve), Laura’s mother, Charlie’s grandmother, also arrives at the farm. She’s French, feminist and eccentric. Solange left America while her daughter was still a child and they never saw each other again. Will these three women, whom nothing seems to bring together, manage to live together?

'LILO & STITCH' (Rated PG) - is an American science fiction comedy-drama film Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, and is a live-action animated remake of Disney's 2002 animated film 'Lilo & Stitch'. A lonely six-year-old native Hawaiian human girl named Lilo Pelekai (Maia Kealoha) adopts a blue koala-like illegal alien genetic experiment known as Experiment 626, named Stitch (voiced by Chris Sanders) to mend her fractured family, unaware that Stitch is genetically engineered to be a force of destruction, and is being pursued by aliens and social workers, while Lilo teaches Stitch the idea of family. Also starring Zach Galifianakis, Billy Magnussen, Courtney B. Vance, Hannah Waddingham, Tia Carrera, and Jason Scott Lee. The film is released Stateside this week too, and cost US$100M to produce.

With five new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-