Fuera de Competencia

In the twilight of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, an 8-year-old orphan and her two sisters find shelter in the house of their stern aunt and try their best to acclimatize to a new reality. Can they summon up the courage to grow up?

A regular housing estate with no specific problems wakes up one morning in a state of siege after learning that a 16-year-old resident, Abdel, is between life and death after being injured by a police inspector. Three of his friends wander around the city, waiting for news about his well-being.

Maria Isabel, of Indian descent, is destined to endure a life of servitude. From the country to the city, she must face the loss of what she loves most to those with power and fairer skin.

Out of nowhere, a gaunt man in a dark suit and a red baseball cap appears in the burning heat of the desert between the US and Mexico. Travis. He drinks the last sip from his water bottle, then he moves on, doggedly, into the inhospitable area that the locals call “The Devil’s Playground”. Travis might seem to be mute and amnesiac, but he’s driven by the desire to reconnect with his family.

Sal’s empty eyes reveal he has been living only on memories since he lost the love of his life, Zoe. Memories like fragments of a shattered mirror that cannot be put back together. Observing her brother with growing concern, Sal’s sister Ebe suggests that he tries “Another End”, a new technology that promises to ease the pain of separation by briefly bringing back to life the consciousness of a person who has died. In this way, Sal finds Zoe again – but in the body of another woman. It is a body he does not know but in which he is mysteriously able to recognise his wife. What was broken suddenly seems to be mended. In fact, “Another End” grants Sal the time to share a little more life with Zoe, to love her again, to be loved by her and, ultimately, to say goodbye. But this is a fragile, ephemeral and insidious joy. When Sal reaches the end of the programme, he has no intention of meekly watching as his love dissolves in the definitive loss of his wife.

A cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher re-enters his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student.

Michael, the last son of a shepherding family, lives with his ailing father, Ray. Burdened by a terrible secret, Michael has isolated himself from the world. When a conflict with rival farmer Gary and his son Jack escalates, Michael is drawn into a devastating chain of events, forcing him to confront the horrors of his past and leaving both families permanently altered.

Liane, 19, lives with her mother and sister in Fréjus in the south of France. Consumed by aspirations of beauty and stardom, she auditions for a reality show called “Miracle Island.

Avril, a young lawyer specializing in animal defense, goes to great lengths to save her client, a repeat-offender dog, from capital punishment. This dog helps Avril accept her own human complexity.

In a gentrifying New Jersey suburb in 2008, Leo (9), a Latino boy, plays alone in his backyard and yearns for a normal family while his mom, Sofia (29) grows marijuana in their basement. Brandon (23), Sofia’s Black business partner and father figure to Leo, visits to babysit for the night, but in the morning Sofia wakes up to a terrifying sight.

Jeff (64), a white policeman with a hero complex, and his grandson Tom (10) unexpectedly move into the apartment downstairs. After a close call clearing out the grow room, Sofia warns Leo not to interact with the new neighbors. Nevertheless, Leo defies his mother and makes friends with Tom. Leo is confronted by his estranged grandmother Maria, who is angrily forced away by Sofia. Leo grows closer to the new family, playing BB-Guns with Tom and going out for ice cream with Jeff, furthering his resentment towards his mother. Everything changes when Brandon is arrested and attacked by Jeff while Sofia and the boys watch in horror.

Seeking support after the brutality of her friend’s arrest, Sofia introduces Leo to Maria while Tom confronts Jeff about his violent act. Trying to make amends, Jeff takes everyone out to a fancy dinner — a night that erupts into a massive fight between the parents. The next morning Jeff mows the lawn, discovering the burnt marijuana leaf Leo plays with in the first scene. He tries to arrest Sofia, but Tom stops him with his own gun, allowing them to escape.

On the run from the law Sofia and Leo drive hopelessly, eventually finding a lake to swim in. They are momentarily free from the chaos as Sofia realizes the terrible choice she has to make. She decides she can’t put Leo through more turmoil and leaves him with her mother Maria, in one final act of selflessness.

The 90’s. Mauricio, a famous Spanish rock musician,crosses Latin America seeking to reconnect with hisvocation. There he meets Don Carlos, an elderly musiciangoing through hard times who, despite having writtensome of his country’s most famous folk songs, can hardlypay his bills. Carlos kindly takes in the strange visitor, alsoacting as his musicalMaster Miyagi. Together they form anoutlandish Quixote-style duo, with all the makings of total commercial failure.

Two intrepid sisters, Juliette (4) and Carmen (8), discover a passage to the extraordinary world of their favorite book, the Kingdom of the Air Streams.

Transformed into cats and separated from each other, the girls will have to be bold and daring to find their way back to each other and, with the help of the singer Selma, to their real world by confronting Sirocco, the master of winds and storms… But is he as terrifying as they’re fearing?

In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, SUGARCANE illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to persevere.

Seamlessly weaving together exclusive archival gems with dynamic tour footage, this documentary captures the transformative journey of Canadian Merrill Nisker into the internationally acclaimed cultural powerhouse that is Peaches.