The 16th edition of Film Comment magazine’s annual festival is back with its customarily unpredictable blend of sublime wonders and hard-hitting visions. We’ve got the sublime covered by our Opening and Closing Night selections, a long-awaited must-see from Terence Davies and a revival of the late Chantal Akerman’s utterly delightful Golden Eighties. Among the hard-hitters is a pair of wrenching discoveries from Serbia and Iran and a harrowing yet serene vision of World War I by Damien Odoul, not to mention a two-film spotlight on Charles Bronson taking its cue from our November/December issue. Other revivals include a rare glimpse of Kinks’ singer-songwriter Ray Davies’s 1984 film (also featured in our November/December issue) and a sidebar of restored works by the Polish master Andrzej Żuławski, occasioned by  the U.S. premiere of his new film, Comos. Add to that the latest from Benoît Jacquot, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Alexei German Jr., and, well, what more could a right-thinking cinephile wish for?

Programmed by Gavin Smith.