Stardom 15th Anniversary Series ~ New Year Stars 2026 in Korakuen ~ Day 1 (2026)

When a group of White women are invited to dinner by an Indian woman and a Black woman to talk about race in America, sparks fly.

Prajdnik Awasthi’s film uses a mix of metaphor and more grounded details to tell the story of childhood sexual abuse that caused the narrator to close himself off from his father.

A film loosely based on the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, with major twists to the original story.

With The Father, writer-director Florian Zeller- who wrote and developed the play upon which the film is based- pulls no punches as he confidently makes every effort to put the audience in the mind of someone whose grip on reality has all but vanished. It’s a dazzling testament to Zeller’s abilities as a director as he makes his first transition from stage to film appear as if he’s been working behind a camera his entire career. The dialogue he fashions with co-writer Christopher Hampton, along with the work of production designers Peter Francis and Cathy Featherstone, collectively makes the downward spiral of dementia startlingly tangible, doing so in a way that can be comprehended by everyone except the person it directly affects.

Hope has great characters, inventive ideas, an incredible imagination, a palpable intensity, and numerous other aspects that make it one of the best of the year. 

This delightfully odd horror movie presents a whimsically strange alternate reality to younger audiences.