Screen Queens

The International Chopin Piano Competition, founded in 1927, has been hosted every five years since 1955 in Warsaw, where the competition’s namesake composer grew up. With the city’s historic claim to Chopin – perhaps the greatest composer for solo piano in the history of Western classical music – and its regular yet infrequent schedule, the competition is a necessary stop on the path of concert pianists at the beginning of exceptionally gruelling careers.

All life came from the water. This biological fact of the evolution of advanced life forms is then borne out in sociological histories of human civilisation: name a great city of past or present, and water – a source of irrigation, transport, and defence – is a main feature. And around all five boroughs of New York – the perennially on-screen, alive city – is lots and lots of water.

The UK city of Bradford is premiering its first Queer Film Festival this year. A spin-off of the established Bradford Queer Film Club, the Bradford Queer Film Festival (BQFF) offers an array of new and cult screenings across diverse genres, ranging from documentary to horror and Bollywood cinema.

All life came from the water. This biological fact of the evolution of advanced life forms is then borne out in sociological histories of human civilisation: name a great city of past or present, and water – a source of irrigation, transport, and defence – is a main feature. And around all five boroughs of New York – the perennially on-screen, alive city – is lots and lots of water.

November 22, 2023 • In 2008, a presenter on NPR dubbed Las Vegas the suicide capital of the United States, with residents 50% more likely to take their own lives than those who live in any other state. It is also a city near an enormous store of nuclear waste – enough to kill four times the city’s population. Neither of these are perfect metrics, but the unnerving facts drive filmmaker L. Frances Henderson to investigate the human circumstances and possible connecting factors behind the statistics.

Studio Ghibli Returning from his seventh retirement (yes, you read that right), the 82-year-old creator of the iconic fuzzy Totoro and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away is once again back at the helm of Studio Ghibli, a decade after releasing his biographical drama on the life of Jiro Horikoshi.

Known for her feral female protagonists, Ottessa Mosfegh’s debut novel Eileen is the first of her oeuvre to make it to the big screen. Set in the dead of winter in 1960s Massachusetts, the eponymous girl (Thomasin Mackenzie) works in a juvenile correctional facility. It is clear that she doesn’t belong; between the jaded adults twice her age and the disturbed boys half her age, she floats on by with mild curiosity at the abuses that go on, but there is no way out from this suffocating small town.

Known for rom-coms like Sleepless In Seattle, When Harry Met Sally…, and You’ve Got Mail, Meg Ryan turns to the big screen for the first time after an almost ten-year hiatus with What Happens Later, which she also directed and co-wrote (with Steven Dietz and Kirk Lynn). The film follows Willa (Ryan) and Bill (David Duchovny) who are travelling cross country in different directions when they find themselves stranded at an airport when their connections are disrupted by a blizzard.

Known for rom-coms like Sleepless In Seattle, When Harry Met Sally…, and You’ve Got Mail, Meg Ryan turns to the big screen for the first time after an almost ten-year hiatus with What Happens Later, which she also directed and co-wrote (with Steven Dietz and Kirk Lynn). The film follows Willa (Ryan) and Bill (David Duchovny) who are travelling cross country in different directions when they find themselves stranded at an airport when their connections are disrupted by a blizzard.

For a long time, I wouldn’t have identified as a horror fan. It’s not that I’m afraid of blood, guts, or a suspenseful moment — rather, the inescapable darkness of the genre sometimes proves too much for me. I don’t always want to see the dark underbelly of humanity exposed.