New Directors/New Films is celebrating its 46th anniversary with a lineup featuring over two dozen films by some of the world’s most exciting auteurs. Feature films from Argentina, Nepal and South Africa, will be presented alongside experimental shorts showcasing new techniques and non-narrative filmmaking that ought to inject the season with possibility. Here are five essential films being presented this year:

4 Days in France

Screen travelogues are rarely as sensuous as director Jérôme Reybaud’s exploration of desire as seen through the eyes of the restless Pierre (Pascal Cervo), who one day picks up his toothbrush and sets out on an aimless road trip guided only by the Grindr app. As Pierre meets men, and women, along the way, his lover (Arthur Igual) sets out in his search making for a strangely seductive experience. Pierre’s ennui is captured beautifully by Sabine Lancelin’s camera which frames him like a rabbit trying to release himself from a hunter’s trap. As with most travel films, Reybaud acknowledges that the richness is in the journey rather than the destination, and when this film includes stops such as existential lessons in acting from a character played by Liliane Montevecchi, we know we’re on the road to something unique. - Jose Solis

The Future Perfect

Nele Wohlatz’s debut feature is an insightful tale about starting over, as we meet Xiaobin (Xiaobin Zhang), a young Chinese woman who moves to Argentina and takes a job in a grocery store to help pay for her Spanish lessons. As she learns about verb conjugations she imagines what her life would be like if she began an affair with another student (Saroj Kumar Malik). Combining documentary and fiction techniques Wohlatz crafts a film that works as a delightful, almost whimsical, romance while serving as a timely reminder about the plight of immigrants who arrive into new places with so little, only to become essential contributors. - Jose Solis

Happy Times Will Come Soon

Alessandro Comodin’s sophomore feature takes on the concept of storytelling by framing how our perception changes when given the appropriate context. The film begins with a strange, but hypnotic account of two fugitives trying to survive in the wilderness, only to then turn towards a documentary-like vignette in which interviewees speak about a popular Italian folktale, which in itself is followed by a reenactment of the tale done in contemporary garb. But the more we think we’re grasping onto what the film is trying to say, the more turns it takes, forcing us to let go of our preconceptions and surrender to its enchantment as if we were little children dazzled by the power of a bedtime story. - Jose Solis

Lady Macbeth

Sold into a harsh and dispassionate arranged marriage in Victorian England, Lady Katherine (Florence Pugh) finds escape in a lustful affair with her husband’s servant Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis). When that relationship is threatened, the embittered lady of the house goes to extreme and unimaginable measures to protect it. Florence Pugh undergoes a startling on-screen evolution as she gradually transcends from sympathetic victim to cold-hearted mastermind. A magnificent feature debut from William Oldroyd, Lady Macbeth is a chilling tale of obsession and a terrifying exploration of the abuse of power. - Joseph Hernandez

Pendular

Imagine working in the same office as your significant other? Now, imagine if you also lived there together? Much to their friend’s bewilderment, this is exactly what two artists in love decide to do. One a sculptor (Rodrigo Bolzan) and the other a dancer (Raquel Karro), they divide their loft with tape into separate work spaces. The loft quickly becomes a cinematic tapestry of their relationship. The give and take of space resembling compromise and sacrifice that only seems to intensify as the loft fills up with the products of their artistic lives. Julia Murat’s deeply intimate film captures in great depth the clash between art and desire and the choices we make to be with the people we love. - Joseph Hernandez

For tickets and more information on New Directors/New Films click here.