Every year, as the dog days of summer give way to the crisp air of fall, filmmakers and distributors from all over the world, as well as the haughty residents of outer Long Island, flock to the affluent community of East Hampton for a celebration of World Cinema. Not quite as cinephilic as Telluride, or as commercially minded as Cannes, the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) inhabits something of an in-between space within the festival world, consistently attracting works from some of the finest auteurs working today, not to mention projects from many brilliant young filmmakers.

While most of the festival takes place inside the walls of the Regal UA theaters, located in the heart of downtown East Hampton, there are also screenings at the Sag Harbor Cinema, an independent theater about a 15 minute drive away. Some of the spotlight programming was also screened at the East Hampton Middle School and East Hampton Guild Hall, where state of the art sound systems and screens had been set up.

This year, the festival ran for an ambitious 10 days, from October 4-14, and attendees were blessed with fantastic weather throughout. Film royalty showed out for the festival too, with Demi Moore, fresh off her performance in The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, 2024), receiving the Career Achievement in Acting Award and Liev Schreiber accepting the festival’s Dick Cavett Artistic Champion Award. On the writing and directing side, Malcolm Washington, whose adaptation of The Piano Lesson (Malcolm Washington, 2024) screened at the festival, received the Breakthrough Director Award. Finally, the Achievement in Screenwriting Award was given to Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein, the cowriters of Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann, 2024). Andrew Garfield, Barry Sonnenfeld, and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton all spoke at the festival as well.

I can’t speak for how previous years have gone, but at the 32nd HIFF, everything was organized outstandingly, not only in terms of the excellent selection of films, but also the general level of coordination amongst staff. If there is a complaint to be made about the festival at large, it’s only about the audience. Despite the staff’s hard work and best efforts, multiple screenings I attended were tainted by obnoxious and disruptive audience members who talked or used their phones at full volume or loudly walked around the theaters. To be clear, I’m no curmudgeon on this matter, audience engagement is one of the best parts of the cinematic experience, and of course the advent of cell phones has fundamentally changed moviegoing forever. Nonetheless, I felt that the behavior of some of these audiences went far beyond what one might see at a multiplex on a weekend night.

SPOTLIGHT

For whatever minor issues there may have been with some of the audiences, it would be impossible to take issue with the outstanding work that the programmers have done this year. Much of the festival is built around the so called “Spotlight” section, which as the name suggests, includes the biggest titles with the most notable talent.

The centerpiece of the spotlight section was clearly Palm d’Or winner Anora (Sean Baker, 2024), already one of the most discussed films of the year. With his outrageously entertaining, crowd-pleasing screwball epic, Sean Baker has given us reason to believe the hype yet again. In a festival so full of delicate examinations of trauma, generational and otherwise, the madcap energy of Anora felt like an especially welcome change of pace. Even while working in a mode much more lighthearted than usual, and with a budget clearly on a different scale than the rest of his oeuvre, Baker has not lost even a bit of his deeply humanistic and empathetic touch.

Outside of Anora, the highlight of this year’s Spotlight section would have to be Bird (Andrea Arnold, 2024), which made its New York premiere at the festival. The English auteur’s latest is a heartfelt but incredibly intense coming of age story set in an impoverished community in the UK. Bird follows 12 year old Bailey (played by the outstanding nonprofessional Nykiya Adams) as she navigates her complicated relationship with her immature Dad (Barry Keoghan at what may be his very best), her estranged mother, and the appearance of a mysterious stranger known only as Bird. Making excellent use of a cast that includes both professional and nonprofessional actors, Arnold combines elements of neo-realism and magical realism to create a world that is absolutely enthralling but that never shies away from the harsh realities it depicts.

Two of the most daring swings within the Spotlights could be found with two musicals: The End (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2024) which also celebrated its New York premiere, and Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard, 2024). Oppenheimer, who is best known for his documentary work on The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014) has commendably stepped outside of his comfort zone with The End, a film he has described as a “golden age musical”, taking place entirely within an underground bunker, years after Earth has become uninhabitable. Different as it may sound from his previous work, The End ultimately explores many of the same themes that were covered in The Act of Killing, tackling the evil that humans are capable of and the lies we are able to feed ourselves in order to avoid living with the weight of our actions. The End is a powerful and devastating work that suffers from one major roadblock: most of the (otherwise excellent) cast frankly can’t sing showtunes all that well. Understandably, this is sure to rub a lot of audiences the wrong way, and reception at the festival was mixed, although it’s still quite an achievement and well worth a watch for any fans of Oppenheimer’s work.

Emilie Pérez on the other hand is almost sure to be a crowd pleaser. Jacques Audiard’s CV is about as idiosyncratic as they come, so is an operatic musical about a Trans Mexican cartel leader who becomes a human rights activist really such a wild leap? In contrast to The End, the songs in Emilia Pérez are incredibly catchy, and the musical and dance numbers are all expertly choreographed. It becomes apparent by the third act that Audiard thinks he has a lot more to say than he actually does, but Emilia Pérez is still a great time, and the three Cannes Best Actress Award winning performances at its center are outstanding.

Due to timing and other constraints, there were quite a few Spotlight programs that I unfortunately missed. Amongst these films, three stood out to me the most. The New York premiere of Presence (Steven Soderbergh, 2024), a rare horror outing from Soderbergh, seemed to draw mostly positive reactions, and was one of the few pure genre titles playing at the festival. The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar, 2024), Almodóvar’s first ever English language feature was met with a lukewarm response, but has gained some staunch defenders. Finally, Hard Truths (Mike Leigh, 2024), received seemingly universal raves, with many pointing specifically to the performance of Marianna Jean-Baptiste, best known for her incredible work in Leigh’s Secrets & Lies (1996).

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY

The selections for the World Cinema Documentary section were incredibly rich and diverse this year, with a huge range of stories being represented. Dahomey (Mati Diop, 2024), shined through as one of the most inventive of the bunch. Diop’s first feature: Atlantics (2019), was among the best films of 2019, and although Dahomey doesn’t quite reach that level, it certainly further solidifies Diop as a vitally important young voice in global cinema today. Unlike Atlantics which was a supernatural love story, Dahomey is an entirely nonnarrative documentary that follows the repatriation of artifacts looted by France, now being returned to the Republic of Benin. Diop frequently employs voiceover narration from the perspective of one of the artifacts itself, a brilliant conceit that works excellently. These voiceovers are in turn frequently interspersed with footage of the artifacts themselves, as well as a classroom full of Beninese University students having a heated debate about the significance of the repatriation effort. Dahomey does falter slightly however when it leans too far into experimental excess, sometimes presenting an overwhelming amount of colorful footage of Benin without any context or clear purpose.

Apocalypse in the Tropics (Petra Costa, 2024) is a downright terrifying look at the effect that the spread of evangelism has had on Brazilian politics, specifically focusing on the relationship between the televangelist Silas Malafaia and former President Jair Bolsonaro. For those who have seen Costa’s previous documentary, The Edge of Democracy (2019), some of the ground covered here may be familiar. Even so, Costa’s blend of personal commentary and meticulous historical research is incredibly riveting, and the history of how American style evangelism spread to Brazil is a fascinating one. Much as the context of Apocalypse in the Tropics is specific to Brazil, it’s impossible to watch the film without thinking of the parallels with the 2024 elections here in the United States.

WORLD CINEMA NARRATIVE

Most of what I saw at the festival was within the World Cinema Narrative program, consisting of all narrative features that were not spotlight selections or directorial debuts. The personal highlights of this year’s program were two family dramas that dealt with the more intimate impacts of major political events, each set in a vastly different context. I’m Still Here (Walter Salles, 2024) tells the true story of Rubens Paiva, a former congressman who forcibly disappeared and was murdered by the military junta in Brazil. The narrative unfolds entirely through the perspective of the close knit Paiva family, showing their years long search for answers and in the process raising provocative questions about what closure and justice really mean.

Whereas I’m Still Here ends with at least a hint of optimism, that’s significantly harder to find in The Seed of The Sacred Fig (Mohammad Rasoulof, 2024). It’s impossible to talk about Rasoulof’s latest without acknowledging his incredible commitment to the struggle for human rights in Iran, or his daring escape from his home country. Set in the backdrop of the women’s rights protests following the murder of Jina Amini (often incorrectly reported as Mahsa Amini), The Seed of the Sacred Fig centers around the family of Iman, a recently promoted judge who works for the Iranian regime. As his daughters and wife start to question the state’s suppression of protestors, Iman starts to grow increasingly paranoid. By the third act, the film turns into a full blown horror movie, an effective one at that, as Iman suspects his family has betrayed him and begins to apply the regime’s harsh brand of justice onto his own loved ones. At once a harrowing thriller and a powerful call to revolutionary change, The Seed of the Sacred Fig feels propulsive throughout its 168 minute runtime. Before the credits roll, real footage captured on smartphones from the Jina Amini protests plays, and in these images one can see scenes of bravery and horror more incredible than any professional filmmaker could ever hope to capture.

This year, the World Cinema Narrative program also included two very worthwhile animated features, Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot, 2024) which celebrated its New York premiere and Flow (Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) which had its East Coast premiere at the festival. Memoir of a Snail is an incredible achievement in stop motion animation, and in my view the best animated movie of the year so far. Without ever feeling emotionally manipulative, Elliot’s film left hardly a dry eye in the audience. This is a movie that absolutely oozes with creativity and it’s clearly a deeply personal labor of love on the part of the director. Flow, while never quite reaching the narrative and emotional heights found in Memoir of a Snail, is also a feat of animated storytelling. Entirely wordless, the film follows a cat and some animal friends as they struggle to survive in a postapocalyptic wasteland. The animation in Flow is probably amongst the most beautiful put to the big screen in a very long time, but even at a breezy 84 minutes, the movie starts to drag as it feels like minor variations on the same scenarios repeat over and over again.

The world cinema narrative section was also home to two of the most visually impressive films at this year’s festival. All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia, 2024), is another film that just like Bird, manages to blend elements of neorealism with magical realism in a really compelling manner. Following the forbidden romances and longings of two working nurses in Mumbai, the movie feels like a melancholic but loving tone poem dedicated to the city, all the while coursing with anger at the injustices and disparities that impact millions of those who live there. The third act falters a little due to some unnecessary diversions, for instance the introduction of a more explicitly political subplot that doesn’t really go anywhere, but this is still a sumptuous and heartbreaking work of artistry.

Equally visually engrossing, albeit in a very different way, was The Girl With The Needle (Magnus von Horn, 2024) which enjoyed its US Premiere. Based on a notorious case of infanticide in post-World War I Denmark, this was likely the bleakest film at the festival. From beginning to end, The Girl With The Needle feels like a waking nightmare, as well as a potent indictment of the kind of society that allowed these crimes to happen. The film simply would not work without the splendid black and white cinematography from Michał Dymek, who clearly has an immense talent for creating dread without ever sacrificing a sense of naturalism.

The other film from this section that I had a chance to see was On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Rungano Nyoni, 2024). Taking place in the southern African nation of Zambia, the film opens with our protagonist Shula finding the dead body of her uncle on the side of the road, leading into an elaborate and surreal family funeral where memories of abuse are confronted by Shula and her other female relatives. An A24 movie about  generational trauma may sound like old news in 2024, but Nyoni manages to imbue her film with enough style and biting humor that it feels like something genuinely novel.

 COMPETITION

At HIFF, the competition section is reserved for new and emerging filmmakers from all over the world, with one competition focused on documentary and the other focused on narrative features. Within the documentary competition, Grand Theft Hamlet (Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane, 2024) seemed to emerge as a particularly buzzworthy entry. The documentary is about a staging of Hamlet held online in the video game Grand Theft Auto, and was a Jury Award Winner at SXSW. HIFF marked the east coast premiere for Grand Theft Hamlet and the filmmaking team was in attendance. The documentary competition ended up being won by Viktor (Olivier Sarbil, 2024), a black and white portrait of a deaf Ukrainian man struggling to find his role in the conflict engulfing his country.

On the narrative side of the competition, Armand (Halfdan Ullman Tøndel, 2024), immediately distinguished itself as a seriously noteworthy feature debut, ultimately winning the HIFF Award for Best Narrative Feature. When it comes to filmmaking, Tøndel, who was in attendance at the festival, has some seriously huge shoes to fill (he’s the grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullman), and Armand is certainly a sign that he’s up to the task. Built around a career elevating performance from Renate Reinsve (American audiences will likely recognize her as the star of The Worst Person in the World), the action takes place entirely at a meeting between parents at a school following an incident between their first grade children. Claustrophobic as can be, Armand left audiences squirming in their seats and has already been selected as Norway’s entry to the Academy Awards.

The only other film that I caught in this part of the program was We Strangers (Anu Valia, 2024), a project that was borne out of the festival’s Screenwriters Lab. We Strangers got off to a promising start, deftly combining social satire with elements of thriller, but as the movie went on, it seemed to lose sight of its narrative and themes, culminating in a fairly uninteresting ending. Valia was in attendance at the screening however, and she spoke very eloquently about the film and her creative process. We Strangers may not have completely worked, but if the film is any indication, there’s no doubt that Valia is more than capable of sharpening her craft going forward.

FINAL REFLECTIONS

No film festival will ever be without its faults and certainly HIFF was no exception, although with all due respect, my gripes probably have far more to do with the residents of the Hamptons than the festival itself. Ultimately though, nothing matters so much as the films that are being shown, and HIFF knocked it out of the park this year in that regard. Anyone lucky enough to attend the festival was treated to a veritable showcase of the best, most thought provoking works in contemporary world cinema, across all genres and forms. The festival also truly lived up to the “international” part of its name, with films from Iran, Brazil, Zambia, Benin, Norway, India, Australia, and dozens of other countries all appearing in the program, providing an admirably panoramic view of the year in film. I certainly hope that I will have the chance to attend next year and have no doubt that the festival will continue to seek out the brightest most dynamic voices working today.

Volume 28, Issue 8-9-10 / August 2024 Festival Reports   hiff   hong kong cinema   sean baker