It’s fall, when cinemas are suddenly flooded with more capital-G Great Cinema in two months than the rest of the year combined, as studios angling for Oscar votes trot out their most prestigious offerings.
Fortunately, we have the tireless programmers at the Independent Film Festival Boston. Every October, IFFBoston takes up residence at the Brattle Theatre for its Fall Focus series, preview screenings of some of the year’s most anticipated films. This year’s Fall Focus again is broken into two separate programs bookending the month of October, the first of which kicks off on Thursday. To help you navigate this year’s offerings, Cambridge Day has whipped up this handy guide, with one pick from each day of the festival’s first leg. Follow our lead (and further investigate the series’ remaining offerings) and you’ll almost certainly see some award-winners.
1. “Possible Love” directed by Lee Chang-dong
Among the most anticipated films of the season is “Possible Love,” Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong’s follow-up to his 2018 international breakout “Burning.” An ambitious documentary filmmaker (Cho Yeo-jeong, “Parasite”) sets her camera on a couple (Sul Kyung-gu and Jeon Do-yeon, both of last year’s “Good News”) whose lives have been shattered following a labor dispute, only to find the artistic and personal lines between documentarian and subjects begin to blur. “Burning” ranks among the most acclaimed films of the 2010s (it topped our list of the top ten films of 2018), making “Possible Love” an instant must-watch. It should also be noted that it’s being distributed by Netflix, so it may be a good idea to catch it on the big screen while you can. (Screens Thursday, 10/8, 7:00pm)
2. “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” directed by William Greaves and David Greaves
Though overlooked in his lifetime, director William Greaves has become the subject of renewed interest in the decade since his death. His films, such as 1968’s “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One,” freely merge cinema verité realism with experimental theater, and he was among the few African American documentary filmmakers to rise to prominence in the ‘60s and ‘70s. His (presumably) final feature, “Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” may be the most ambitious of his lifetime. In 1972, Greaves assembled and filmed a meeting of the surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance (including Eubie Blake, Aaron Douglas and Arna Bontemps) at Duke Ellington’s Harlem townhouse, then stored the footage with instructions for it to be completed and released following his death. The resulting feature, newly reconstructed by Greaves’ son David, is an essential document of both a historic assembly and a singular artist. (Screens Friday, 10/9, 6:00pm)
3. “All of a Sudden” directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
For his latest film, director Ryusuke Hamaguchi (whose “Drive My Car” was our top film of 2021) travels from Tokyo to Paris for another sprawling yet deeply humane character study. Virginie Efira plays Marie-Lou, the director of an elder-care center, who bonds with one of her youngest clients, Mari (Tao Okamoto), a theater director battling terminal brain cancer. Hamaguchi is one of the great directors of actors working today, and “All of a Sudden” looks to be yet another masterful showcase of his work; Efira and Okamoto shared Best Actress honors at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and many of their co-stars are actual patients of the facility at which the film was shot. (Screens Saturday, 10/10, 12:00pm)
4. “Iron Boy” directed by Louis Clichy
Some of the most exciting work in animated films comes from far beyond the bounds of Disney and Dreamworks For “Iron Boy,” Pixar alum Louis Clichy leaves behind slick computer animation for an impressionistic, hand-painted style, telling the tender coming-of-age story of a young boy wracked with health issues in the farms of southern France. Drawn from Clichy’s own experiences and starring his son, Gary, as the voice of young Christophe, “Iron Boy” is the sort of intimate story which rarely gets told in any form in contemporary Hollywood, let alone in an animated feature. (Screens Sunday, 10/11, 12:00pm)
5. “Wild Horse Nine” directed by Martin McDonagh
The first leg of Fall Focus ends with the latest caustic black comedy from Irish filmmaker Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”). Sam Rockwell and onetime Cambridge resident John Malkovich play a pair of bickering 1970s CIA agents who stumble into a web of intrigue while on assignment among the stone heads of Easter Island. Filled with McDonagh’s trademark rapid-fire banter and backed by an irresistible supporting cast (including Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, and Tom Waits), “Wild Horse Nine” promises to be a jolt of energy among this year’s award contenders. (Screens Tuesday, 10/13, 8:00pm)
For the full Fall Focus schedule and ticket info for both legs of the series, be sure to check out IFFBoston’s website.
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