Locarno 2026 Round Table #2

Blake Williams is joined by critics Lawrence Garcia, Savina Petkova, Alexander Mooney, and Mark Asch to wrap-up our coverage of the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, including thoughts on:- David Turpin’s Ancestors- Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut- Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva- Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love- Anna Biller’s The Face of Horror- Matthew Rankin’s Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney- and another look at Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care

Blake Williams is joined by critics Darren Hughes, Daniel Kasman, Vikram Murthi, and Mark Peranson to discuss the first four days of the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, including thoughts on:- The festival's new Market- Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care- May el-Toukhy's Woman Unknown- Yoon Dan-bi's The World Before- Zack Snyder's The Last Photograph- Géssica Généus's Marie Madeleine

In our second and final roundtable in Locarno, critics Blake Williams, Joshua Bogatin, Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal, and Öykü Sofuoğlu discuss the state of the Locarno Film Festival after their time at this year's edition, including comments on Luise Donschen's Tomorrow a Long Time Ago, Hong Sang-soo's Nowhere to Lay My Eyes, Isabelle Stever's I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming, this year's retrospective, "Red & Black: Hollywood Left and the Blacklist," and some award predictions.

In part 1 of our first roundtable in Locarno, critics Blake Williams, Öykü Sofuoğlu, Joshua Bogatin, Matilda Hague, and Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal discuss films from the first half of this year's Locarno Film Festival 2026, including:- Beatrice Gibson's At Night- Alessandra Sanguinetti's The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer- Denis Côté's Nobody's ViolencePart 2 of this conversation will be available shortly over on Patreon for our Wave and Signal tier members, so head over there to hear our discussion of:  - Nicolaas Schmidt's September Afternoon- Albert Serra's Sixteen Moments of My Life- Mohanad Yaqubi's Revolutionaries Never Die

Critics Blake Williams, Beatrice Loayza, Diego Lerer, Jorge Negrete, Eric Hynes, Maja Korbecka, Öykü Sofuoğlu, and Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal wrap up Cannes 2026, including:- Valeska Grisebach's The Dreamed Adventure- Emmanuel Marre's A Man of His Time- Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi's La Bola Negra- Lukas Dhont's Coward- Bruno Dumont's Red Rocks- Quentin Dupieux's Vertiginous- Awards Predictions

Critics Blake Williams, Daniel Kasman, Mark Peranson, Öykü Sofuoğlu, and Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal discuss some of the major premieres of Cannes 2026, including:- Na Hong-jin's Hope- Sandra Wollner's Everytime- Arthur Harari's The Unknown- Cristian Mungiu's Fjord- Andrey Zvyagintsev's Minotaur- Nicolas Winding Refn's Her Private Hell- Jia Zhang-ke's Torino Shadow

Critics Blake Williams, Savina Petkova, Öykü Sofuoğlu, Flavia Dima, Nicholas Bell, and Jordan Cronk discuss highlights from the first weekend of Cannes 2026, including:- Paweł Pawlikowski's Fatherland- Asghar Farhadi's Parallel Tales- Radu Jude's The Diary of a Chambermaid- Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden

Critics Blake Williams, Mark Peranson, Daniel Kasman, Öykü Sofuoğlu, and Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal discuss films from the first two days of Cannes 2026, including:- Pierre Salvadori's The Electric Kiss- Kantemir Balagov's Butterfly Jam- Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma- Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet's A Woman's Life- Kôji Fukada's Nagi Notes

Blake Williams is joined by critics Maja Korbecka and Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal to discuss the final days of the 2026 Berlinale, including thoughts on:- Hong Sang-soo's The Day She Returns- James Benning's EIGHT BRIDGES- Beth de Araújo's Josephine- Abdallah Alkhatib's Chronicles from the Siege- Nurith Aviv's Given Names

Blake Williams is joined by critics David Hudson, Darren Hughes, Daniel Kasman, and Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal to discuss some of the best films they've seen at the midpoint of the 2026 Berlinale, including:- Angela Schanelec's My Wife Cries- Lance Hammer's Queen at Sea- André Novais Oliveira's If I Were Alive- Sebastian Brameshuber's London- Tudor Cristian Jurgiu's On Our Way- Kelly O’Sullivan & Alex Thompson's Mouse- Mohammad Shirvani's Cesarean Weekend