In 18th-century France, painter Marianne gets asked to make a portrait of the headstrong Héloise. With tenderness and sensuality, Céline Sciamma explores what it means to be a woman, and to fall in love with another woman. A story of lesbian desire seen through a lesbian gaze.. She won the Queer Palm and the award for Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival.

Four teacher friends decide to test a theory which states that people’s lives improve when they maintain a certain level of alcohol in their blood. The first results are positive: their classes improve and they feel alive again. However, some less positive consequences soon arise as well. A film by the acclaimed Danish director Thomas Vinterberg with Mads Mikkelsen in a leading role.

Twitch is an extremely popular online platform where viewers can follow their favourite content creators and interact with them. An accidental encounter at the airport turns Spencer's livestream into a film. In one long shot, the viewer is invited to reflect on the difference between the rules of the real and the virtual world.

‘Play me’ is an experimental piece of fiction, documentary and livestream with Spencer Bogaert and Xenia Borremans in the leading roles.

Op zondag rollen we de rode loper uit voor de (aller)kleinsten en hun familie. Kinepolis Oostende wordt omgetoverd tot een kinderparadijs met films, kleurplaten, spelletjes en lekkers. Kortom: een unieke festivalervaring voor de jongste filmfans!

TOT 6 JAAR:
Boze bui & andere verhalen

VAN 6 TOT 12 JAAR
Royals Next Door en Galactic Agency

In het zonnige Mexico, brengt de jonge Frida Kahlo haar dagen door in de weelderige natuur met haar familie en het straathondje Chiquita. Wanneer de beproevingen van het leven op haar pad komen, trotseert ze die met haar overvolle fantasie. De perfecte film voor creatieve kinderen vanaf zes jaar en hun families.

Colin works during the day as a parking attendant and shares dinner with his parents at home by night. His harmonious life is disrupted upon meeting the charismatic Ray. He is the irresistible and handsome leader of a queer motorcycle gang, whose members celebrate their freedom in an unusual way. Among the kinky bikers, Colin discovers a desire he never knew he had. Director Harry Lighton delivers a daring debut film that is brimming with courage and emotion.

De Marx-broers proberen bekendheid te verwerven in de Italiaanse operawereld door een aantal van hun vrienden voor te doen als grote sterren.

‘A Night at the Opera’ is een klassieke komedie van de befaamde Marx-broers uit 1935. De film volgt de ludieke belevenissen van de drie broers, en geeft tegelijk kritiek op de pretentieuze en oppervlakkige kant van het operaleven.

Gigi is a perfectly normal 13-year-old girl. She just happened to have been raised by mountain goats. Now she faces the biggest challenge of her life: going to school. At boarding school, she will be surrounded by real people and will have to make friends. Let’s hope that goes well!

This charming animated film is a quirky coming-of-age story about feeling good about yourself and embracing all your typical traits but also your oddities.

De film onderzoekt jonge liefde als een mysterieus fenomeen en capteert hoe twee meisjes intimiteit leren begrijpen. Door de grenzen tussen documentaire en fictie te vervagen, schept het verhaal een sfeer die zowel de schoonheid als de complexiteit van liefde en leven onthult. Het nodigt de kijker uit om de zintuiglijke en fysieke dimensies van cinema te heroverwegen.

After 30 years, brothers Franz and Horst meet again in the residential care home where Horst stays against his will. Despite his dementia the reunion causes a lot of sensitivities to resurface. Especially when an old familiar face appears. Past passions erupt, old wounds are opened again and the rivalry between the two brothers seems deeper than ever. With ‘Sunday the Ninth’ Kat Steppe, known for ‘Taboe’, ‘Goed volk’ and ‘The Vatican - The State of the Church’, makes her debut feature film.

After the previous year’s failed uprising, the atmosphere of the communist Budapest in 1957 is grim. Andor, the 12-year-old orphan of the title, is actually not an orphan at all. His mother is still alive and takes care of him as best she can. Andor seeks support mainly from his missing father, whom he idolises as a war hero. But a brutal butcher and the secrets of his mother suddenly turn his life upside down. The Hungarian director László Nemes won an Oscar for his debut film, ‘Son of Paul’.

'Het sacrament' van Hugo Claus, destijds geselecteerd werd voor het prestigieuze filmfestival van Cannes, biedt een indringende blik op familiegeheimen en de verstikkende invloed van de Vlaamse klei. De Vlaamse film, gebaseerd op zijn eigen roman ‘Omtrent Deedee’, vertelt het verhaal van een familie die jaarlijks samenkomt om hun overleden moeder te gedenken, maar al snel worden oude wonden opengereten en verborgen waarheden onthuld.

Fifteen-year-old Malou is a promising rower, however to the displeasure of her teammates she prefers to go out on the water in a single-seat boat. Apart from her training, she spends the endless summer days at her vacation job at the gas station or at home with her older brothers. But when one of her brothers introduces his girlfriend, a whole new world opens up for her. Director Cecilia Verheyden (‘Undercover’, ‘Ferry’, ‘Rough Diamonds’) created with ‘Skiff’ her most personal film to date. The scenario was written together with Vincent Vanneste.

In an abandoned outskirt near the Italian coast, the sweet and gentle Marcello runs a dog grooming salon. He’s a discrete man, loved by everyone. His peace and quiet soon get disrupted when the enormous and coke addicted ex-boxer Simoncino shows up at his front door. Marcello quickly finds himself entangled in a spiral of violence. The Italian director Matteo Garrone (‘Gomorra’) based this rock-hard crime drama on a true story from the late 1980s. Marcello Fonte won the Palme d'Or for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.

Met zijn vierde langspeelfilm ‘Here’ werpt Bas Devos zijn blik op een Roemeense bouwvakker in Brussel die op het punt staat terug te verhuizen naar zijn thuisland. Tijdens de voorbereidingen van zijn afscheidscadeau voor vrienden en familie, ontmoet hij een jonge Belgisch-Chinese vrouw die haar doctoraatsstudie wijdt aan mossen. Haar interesse in het nauwelijks zichtbare fenomeen intrigeert hem. De film ging eerder in wereldpremière op de Berlinale, waar hij de hoofdprijs won in de Encounters-sectie.

Op zondag rollen we de rode loper uit voor de (aller)kleinsten en hun familie. Kinepolis Oostende wordt omgetoverd tot een kinderparadijs met films, kleurplaten, spelletjes en lekkers. Kortom: een unieke festivalervaring voor de jongste filmfans!

Vanaf 10u00 kan je doorlopend de zaal betreden en kennismaken met nieuwe afleveringen van Mush-Mush & de Zwammetjes (2x 20 min.) of Waiko (2x 25 min.)

TOT 6 JAAR:
Mush Mush & de Zwammetjes

VAN 6 TOT 12 JAAR
Waiko

The swamps on Cuba’s Zapata island are protected. That’s why Landi has to do his work secretly. He catches wild crocodiles with his bare hands, to feed his family. His wife Mercedes stays at home. While she is waiting anxiously for his return, she searches for charcoal to cook and takes care of her son with autism. In the background, the radio reports on the daily deaths caused by the pandemic and the social tensions in Cuba. Director David Bim made his feature debut with his balck-and-white documentary ‘To the West, in Zapata’. He worked largely alone on this immersive film.

After the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, North and South Vietnam were reunited under communist rule. During this tumultuous period of recovery and change, a young, ambitious translator moves to Saigon. He is working on a new translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's ‘The Little Prince’. When he moves into a ramshackle apartment building, he meets Ky Nam, an elderly widow from the south. The two residents seem to come from two different worlds, but slowly grow closer to each other. ‘Ky Nam In’ is a film about longing for collection, beauty, and liberation.

Eleven-year-old Ginto lives in the slums of Manilla, the Philippine capital. His sister tries to keep him on the straight and narrow, but Ginto chooses the path of least resistance and ends up in a street gang. At the same time a Dutch tourist, Michael, is in the Philippines to meet his digital girlfriend. When it turns out she lied to him, he is at his wit’s end. He descends into the underbelly from the city, where his path crosses Ginto’s. In his first feature film, the Dutch director Morgan Knibbe tells a story about inequality, poverty and queer identity.

Mathieu is an ambitious police commissioner working with the Brussels anti-drug unit. He and his colleagues work day and night, relentlessly fighting the dealers and drug couriers. Curiously enough, his work is at odds with his personal life as his brother suffers from a severe heroin addiction. To save him, Mathieu shields him from the outside world. He is convinced that only strict isolation can help him overcome his addiction. However, the line between necessary help and suffocating control is becoming somewhat blurred. Clean is director Koen Van Sande’s first feature film.

Mathieu is an ambitious police commissioner working with the Brussels anti-drug unit. He and his colleagues work day and night, relentlessly fighting the dealers and drug couriers. Curiously enough, his work is at odds with his personal life as his brother suffers from a severe heroin addiction. To save him, Mathieu shields him from the outside world. He is convinced that only strict isolation can help him overcome his addiction. However, the line between necessary help and suffocating control is becoming somewhat blurred. Clean is director Koen Van Sande’s first feature film.

Boedapest, 2123. In een post-apocalyptische toekomst zijn dieren en planten verdwenen en wonen de laatste mensen in een kunstmatige koepel. De prijs om te overleven is hoog: iedere bewoner die vijftig jaar wordt, krijgt een zaadje geïmplanteerd dat hen uiteindelijk in een boom zal transformeren. De film volgt Stefan en Nora, een getrouwd koppel. Wanneer Nora beslist om zich vroegtijdig op te offeren voor de samenleving, stelt Stefan zijn geloof in het systeem in vraag.

‘The General’ is een stille film uit 1926 met Buster Keaton, de iconische slapstick acteur, in de hoofdrol. De komedie speelt zich af tijdens de Amerikaanse Burgeroorlog en volgt Johnnie Gray, een treinmachinist, tijdens zijn queeste om zijn gestolen trein met daarin zijn vriendin Annabelle terug te bemachtigen uit de handen van Noordelijke spionnen. ‘The General’ staat bekend om zijn innovatieve stunts en special effects en wordt beschouwd als een meesterwerk uit de stomme filmperiode.

'Soundtrack to a Coup d’État' onthult een van de meest verraderlijke politieke intriges van de 20e eeuw. De film belicht hoe de Belgische monarchie, de Amerikaanse regering en multinationals samenspanden om kunstinstellingen en beroemde jazzmuzikanten te gebruiken als dekmantel voor geheime operaties met als doel de moord op de Congolese premier Patrice Lumumba.

Deze indringende documentaire biedt een schokkende blik op de duistere kant van politieke manipulatie en onthult de verborgen krachten achter deze historische gebeurtenis.