REEL | Willem Dafoe Waxes on 'Late Fame' in Life x SIFF 2026

"You must have been beautiful when you were young."

Magnolia Pictures / Vortex Media

Late Fame, based on late Austrian dramatist Arthur Schnitzler's posthumous 1895 novella (translated and published in 2014) of the same name, is directed by New York film critic and programmer turned independent filmmaker Kent Jones and stars Willem Dafoe as a largely unknown, long lost poet, Ed Saxberger, who, as the title suggests, experiences a bit of late-in-life interest and newfound resurgence in his previously published works within a privileged but affluent circle of wealthy, post-graduate literary admirers in present day Manhattan.

REEL | Tom Holland Resets the Emotional 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day'

"Enough of this soft-serve bullsh*t!"

Sony Pictures / Marvel Studios

Spider-Man: Brand New Day refreshes Tom Holland's enthusiastic interpretation of the webslinger superhero in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe canon and continuity. Led by the talented Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton this time around, we find a lonely Peter Parker struggling with his powers after the multiverse-changing events of No Way Home.

REEL | Olivia Wilde Teases Gen Z – 'I Want Your Sex' x SIFF 2026

"You're a sexual astronaut just exploring the outer limits of experience."

Magnolia Pictures / Elevation Pictures

I Want Your Sex, provocative New Queer Cinema pioneer and Teenage Apocalypse trilogy director Gregg Araki's highly sexual but lo-fi erotic comedy, co-written with sex columnist Karley Sciortino of Slutever fame, is another intriguing exploration of young adulthood through acts of intimacy and explicit desire.

SCREEN | Jake Johnson Slams 'The Dink' on Apple TV

"When you piss off the Hammer, everyone's a nail."

Apple Original Films / Rivulet Entertainment

Funny everyman Jake Johnson (also a producer) stars as a cantankerous and washed-up former tennis pro turned reluctant pickleballer, Dusty Boyd aka "the Hammer," in the formulaic but appealing sports comedy, The Dink. Produced by and co-starring Ben Stiller, director Josh Greenbaum focuses on the basic athletic aspects of the film's humour to mine its well-worn material clearly inspired by the similarly themed Dodgeball movie that Stiller also appeared in and produced.

CABLE | Anya Taylor-Joy Runs Out of 'Lucky' on Apple TV

"I don't have time for your cowboy haikus right now."

Apple Studios / Hello Sunshine

The talented and wide-eyed Anya Taylor-Joy stars capably in the entertaining crime thriller miniseries Lucky, based on bestselling author Marissa Stapley's novel of the same name. Created by screenwriter Jonathan Tropper and showrun by Cassie Pappas, audiences are dropped into the eponymous con woman's exciting identity-swapping dealings on the run when she wakes up alone in Las Vegas with no memory of what was supposed to be a getaway after one last big score.

REEL | Christopher Nolan and Matt Damon Conquer 'The Odyssey'

"It was a song of all the promises I failed to keep."

Universal Pictures / Syncopy

Oscar-winning, visionary British-American auteur Christopher Nolan adapts The Odyssey, the second of Homer's two ancient Greek epic poems (after The Iliad), into a metaphysical but immersive action blockbuster experience. Starring regular collaborator Matt Damon as the legendary Odysseus, the departed soldier-king of Ithaca, in another hero role as a man desperate to find his way home, the dense mythical fantasy is a monumental yet accessible journey of pure cinematic spectacle, filmed on the grandest of canvases.

REEL | 90s Baby! – Still 'Dazed and Confused' After All These Years

"It'd be a lot cooler if you did."

Universal Pictures / Focus Features

Beloved Austin-based, independent filmmaker Richard Linklater's highly influential but box office disappointment of a sophomore teen film, Dazed and Confused, famously took its title from the killer Led Zeppelin classic rock song whose music rights the film was unsuccessful at securing for its bitchin' soundtrack, all the way back in the year 1993. This was one of many omens of sorts for its eventual lasting cultural legacy as a stone cold cult classic. Some three decades after its debut, its all-in-one-day, last-day-of-high-school hangout vibes remain strongly rewatchable.

REEL | Zoey Deutch Cashes in 'Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass'

"Why don't we keep it loose and freaky?"

Sony Pictures Classics / Mongrel Media

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is comedian David Wain's wild, throwback sex comedy told as a contemporary Hollywood riff on The Wizard of Oz formula. When Zoey Deutch's small-town Dorothy Gale sound-a-like title character finds out her fiancé has cashed in his "celebrity sex pass" to sleep with Jennifer Aniston, she sets out on an adventure collecting sidekicks, including Mad Men co-star John Slattery playing a comically sad sack, loser version of himself, along the way to meeting and hopefully having sex with her own free pass, one mister Jon Hamm, standing in for the Wizard.

REEL | Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde Throw 'The Invite' x SIFF 2026

"We love a contentious environment!"

A24 / VVS Films

Actress/filmmaker Olivia Wilde directs and stars alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton in the comedic chamber-piece, The Invite, involving two middle-aged San Francisco couples and neighbours at a contentiously impromptu dinner party gone wrong. Adapted from the Spanish-language comedy, The People Upstairs (aka Sentimental), the stage-like production exploits our conceptions of contemporary romantic and sexual relationships.