“A Poet” dir. Simón Mesa Soto (2025)

IFC Center via 1-2 Special – Opens Jan. 30

Simón Mesa Soto’s latest film is a wry, quietly devastating portrait of curdling artistic ambition that took home the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival this past year. Following a struggling Colombian poet whose want for recognition begins to eclipse his better judgement, the film balances deadpan humor with an increasingly uneasy moral gaze.

“(The film’s) tone shifts from absurdist to serious to satirical and back again. This odd mix should not work, but Soto pulls it off with a sure hand and precisely exacting storytelling. That it succeeds in being both funny and poignant makes ‘A Poet’ even more of an achievement.” – Murtada Elfadl, Variety

For fans of: that guy who keeps calling himself a “visionary,” “The Rehearsal”

Spanish with English subtitles 

“Sirāt” dir. Oliver Laxe (2025)

Film at Lincoln Center via NEON – Opens Feb. 5

A hypnotic epic that earned nominations at both the 98th Academy Awards (best international feature, best sound) and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, solidifying its place as one of the year’s most formally daring films. Traveling through southern Morocco, a father and son search for a daughter missing after a desert dance festival and their journey darkens into a stark test of grief and survival.

“The sort of overwhelming cinematic experience and undeniable work of sound and vision that could be life-changing for those ready to receive it.” – David Fear, Rolling Stone

For fans of: spiritual vertigo, sensory overload, questioning everything on your walk home

Spanish, French, Arabic with English subtitles

“The Lovers on the Bridge” dir. Leos Carax (1991)

Metrograph via Janus Films – Feb. 13-14

Leos Carax’s deliriously romantic masterpiece returns to the big screen where it belongs. Set on the streets of Paris, the film follows a man and a woman who find love amid their personal declines. With equal parts swooning love story and apocalyptic fantasy, “The Lovers on the Bridge” is an emotional free fall.

“An outrageously contrived paean to freedom, a crazy mixture of scabby naturalism and rock-video mescaline staged on a movie set worthy of Stroheim.” – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

For fans of: grand gestures, doomed romance, loving someone like it is the end of the world, “Paris, Texas”

French, Serbian with English Subtitles 

“The Love that Remains” dir. Hlynur Pálmason (2025)

Film at Lincoln Center, IFC Center via Janus Films – Opens Jan. 30

Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Palm Dog Award, Hlynur Pálmason delivers a rigorous  meditation on family, time and scattered emotion. Set over the course of a year amid an Icelandic landscape, a couple navigates their separation, showing what can linger after relationships have ended.

“The landscape in which this family makes its domestic life is wild and lovely, and Palmason signals the changing of the seasons by showing us all of its beauty.” – Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times

For fans of: staring out a window for too long, “Scenes from a Marriage,” sprawling landscapes

Finnish, Swedish, Icelandic with English Subtitles 

“By Design” dir. Amanda Kramer (2026)

Quad Cinema via Music Box Films – Opens Jan. 30

Following its premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Amanda Kramer’s surreal, deadpan comedy follows a woman who swaps bodies with a chair, only to discover she is more appreciated as an object than she ever was as a person.

“The alienating nature of the premise is what makes it fascinating, pushing us to question how we want to be seen and experienced as people in the world.” – Jourdain Searles, The Hollywood Reporter

For fans of: the concept of being perceived, Charlie Kaufman, thoughtful absurdity

English 

“Nirvanna: The Band The Show The Movie” dir. Matthew Johnson (2025)

IFC Center via NEON – Opens Feb. 13

An expansion of Matthew Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s Canadian mockumentary series and winner of the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness at Toronto International Film Festival, the film pushes the prank-comedy ethos to the extreme, blurring reality and fiction while following the duo as they are accidentally sent to 2008 and have to find their way back to the present.

“Hilarious as the movie can be, there’s an even more amusing meta level on which we laugh at how insane it is that it exists at all, marveling how they pulled it off.” – Peter Debruge, Variety

For fans of: “This Is Spinal Tap,” committing to the bit, “Nathan for You”

English

“Casablanca” dir. Michael Curtiz (1942)

Village East by Angelika via Warner Bros. Pictures – Feb. 14

Set in Morocco during World War II, the cinematic classic and 1943 best picture winner follows nightclub owner Rick Blaine as he wrestles with lost love and morality in a story of romance, sacrifice and political intrigue.

“With an incredibly gripping narrative, filled with unforgettable characters and endlessly quotable dialogue, Casablanca is a heart-wrenching and inspiring tale of sacrifice, love, integrity, and the power of patriotism. … The greatest movie ever made.” – Mark Johnson, Awards Daily

For fans of: classic Hollywood, “Is it better to have loved and lost, or to have never loved at all?”, “Roman Holiday”

English

“Pillion” dir. Harry Lighton (2025)

Angelika Film Center & Cafe via A24 – Opens Feb. 6

Winner of the best screenplay category at Cannes Film Festival and a multi-category 2026 British Academy Film Awards nominee, Harry Lighton’s feature directorial debut follows a timid man whose life is upended when he enters a submissive relationship with the charismatic leader of a biker gang. As their bond deepens, the film traces his personal growth, using dry humor and tension to explore intimacy, power and ultimately self-discovery.

“An unconventional love story that finds pathos amid the PVC, this triumphant directorial debut bares so much more than flesh. Bruising and brilliant.” – Beth Webb, Empire Magazine

For fans of: emerging British auteurs, “Secretary,” unexplained magnetism

English

“Paying For It” dir. Sook-Yin Lee (2024)

Quad Cinema via Loco Films – Opens Jan. 30

Sook-Yin Lee adapts ex-partner Chester Brown’s graphic memoir of the same name into a candid exploration of intimacy, autonomy and transactional desire, approaching sex work and male vulnerability through the lens of of loneliness and connection. 

“Displays a maturity and thoughtfulness all too rare when focusing on a subject like this.” – Zachary Lee, RogerEbert.com

For fans of: relationship dynamics, texting someone and then turning your phone face-down

English 

Series and Festival Highlights:

Valentines Day Massacre 2026

Anthology Film Archives – Feb. 12-22

This is a series that marks Valentine’s Day by screening unsparing, abrasive movies about love, obsession and relationships gone wrong.

Showing: “We Won’t Grow Old Together,” “Modern Romance,” “Possession,” “Deprisa, Deprisa,” “The Witch Who Came from the Sea” and “Der Fan”

Looking for Ms. Keaton

Film at Lincoln Center – Feb. 13-19

“This week-long showcase celebrates a paradigm-shifting performer whose contributions to the art and craft of screen acting cemented her legacy as an auteur in the truest sense of the word.” (https://www.filmlinc.org) 

Showing: “Annie Hall,” “Looking for Mr. Goodbar,” “Love and Death,” “Marvin’s Room,” “Heaven,” “The Godfather” Trilogy, “Reds,” “Something’s Gotta Give,” “Crimes of the Heart,” “Mr. Soffel,” “Shoot the Moon,” “The Little Drummer Girl” and “Interiors”

Tenement Stories: From Immigrants to Bohemians

Film Forum – Feb. 6-26

A retrospective of over 50 films that trace New York City tenement life from immigrant survival to bohemian self-invention, presented in partnership with the Tenement Museum to connect cinema’s visions of the city with its lived histories. (filmforum.org) 

Showing: films by Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Joan Micklin Silver, King Vidor, Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Lois Weber, Preston Sturges, Sean Baker and more

Amour Fou: Valentine’s Day at Metrograph

Metrograph – Feb. 13-28

“For Valentine’s Day, join us for a quartet of carnal, combustible films … that plunge headlong into the delirium of absolute gut-gnawing ardor, movies brimming to bursting with moments of what Breton called ‘convulsive beauty’ … as well as the pained convulsions of those suffering the wounds of that little sadist Cupid’s arrows.” (Metrograph.com) 

Showing: “Lovers on the Bridge,” “Punch-Drunk Love,” “Mala Noche” and “Possession”

DOC NYC Selects Winter 2026

IFC Center – Feb. 3 – March 3

“DOC NYC, the festival for documentaries, presents the winter edition of its ongoing in-person screening series, DOC NYC Selects, an extension of its annual fall event.” (ifccenter.com)

Showing: “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez,” “Unless Something Goes Terribly Wrong,” “Blue Velvet Revisited,” “Scenes from the Divide” and “A Life Illuminated”

2001: The Year, Not The Movie 

Museum of the Moving Image – Feb. 14 – Apr. 11

“This series pays tribute to the films (and, in one case, a television series) of that spectacular year, which still hold sway over the imaginations of movie lovers everywhere — a treasure trove of new classics all celebrating their 25th anniversaries.” (movingimage.org) 

Showing: “In the Mood for Love,” “La ciénaga,” “Spirited Away,” “All About Lily Chou-Chou,” select episodes of season 3 of “The Sopranos,” “Mulholland Drive,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Ghost World,” “Millenium Mambo,” “Donnie Darko,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and more