Sackville Film Society
Winter 2025 Schedule
The Amherst Theatre
Thursdays, 7:30PM
Singles $12, Six Packs $60 & Full Season Memberships available at Box Office and by e-transfer
ALL WELCOME
JANUARY 9
LEE
Dir. ELLEN KURAS, USA, 2024, 111 min.
Lee, the directorial feature from award-winning Cinematographer Ellen Kuras, portrays a pivotal decade in the life of American war correspondent and photographer, Lee Miller (Kate Winslet). Miller's singular talent and unbridled tenacity resulted in some of the 20th century's most indelible images of war, including an iconic photo of Miller herself, posing defiantly in Hitler's private bathtub. Miller had a profound understanding and empathy for women and the voiceless victims of war. Her images display both the fragility and ferocity of the human experience. Above all, the film shows how Miller lived her life at full-throttle in pursuit of truth, for which she paid a huge personal price, forcing her to confront a traumatic and deeply buried secret from her childhood.
JANUARY 16
THE RETURN
Dir. UBERTO PASOLINA, Italy, USA, 2024, 116 min
After 20 years away, Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has returned from the Trojan War, but much has changed in his kingdom. His beloved wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) is a prisoner in her own home, hounded by suitors vying to be king.
JANUARY 23
ANORA
Dir. SEAN BAKER , USA 2024,139 min.
Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner ANORA is an audacious, thrilling, and comedic variation on a modern day Cinderella story. Mikey Madison (ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD) captivates as Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn whose life takes an unexpected turn when she meets and impulsively marries Vanya, the impetuous son of a Russian billionaire. However, when Vanya's parents catch wind of the union, they send their henchmen to annul the marriage, setting off a wild chase through the streets of New York.
JANUARY 30
SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE
Dir. TIM MIELANTS, UK, 2024, 97 min.
Small Things Like These takes place over Christmas in 1985, when devoted father and coal merchant Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) discovers startling secrets kept by the convent in his town, along with some shocking truths of his own. The film reveals truths about Ireland's Magdalene laundries -- horrific asylums run by Roman Catholic institutions from the 1820s until 1996, ostensibly to reform "fallen young women." Adapted from the Booker Prize nominated novel by Claire Keegan.
FEBRUARY 6
ROOM NEXT DOOR
Dir. PEDRO ALMODOVAR, Spain, 2024, 107 min. Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.
FEBRUARY 13
CONCLAVE
Dir. EDWARD BERGER, UK., USA, 2024, 120 min.
Conclave follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events— selecting the new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.
FEBRUARY 20
THE LAST SHOWGIRL
Dir. GIA COPPOLA, USA 2024, 89 min.
The Last Showgirl, a poignant film of resilience, rhinestones and feathers, stars Pamela Anderson as Shelley, a glamorous showgirl who must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run.
FEBRUARY 27
HARD TRUTHS
Dir. MIKE LEIGH , UK., 2025, 97 min.
Legendary filmmaker Mike Leigh returns to the contemporary world with a fierce, compassionate, and often darkly humorous study of family and the thorny ties that bind us. Reunited with Leigh for the first time since multiple Oscar-nominated Secrets and Lies, the astonishing Marianne Jean-Baptiste plays Pansy, a woman wracked by fear, tormented by afflictions, and prone to raging tirades against her husband, son, and anyone who looks her way. Meanwhile, her easygoing younger sister, played by Michele Austin (Another Year), is a single mother with a life as different from Pansy's as their clashing temperaments -- brimming with communal warmth from her salon clients and daughters alike. This expansive film from a master dramatist takes us into the intensities of kinship, duty, and the most enduring of human mysteries: that even through lifetimes of hurt and hardship, we still find ways to love those we call family.
MARCH 6
BABYGIRL
Dir. HALINA REIJN, USA 2024, 108 min.
Babygirl is an erotic thriller film written, directed, and produced by Halina Reijn. The film stars Nicole Kidman as a high-powered CEO who puts her career and family on the line when she begins an affair with a much younger intern (Harris Dickinson). Sophie Wilde and Antonio Banderas also star.
MARCH 13
LA COCINIA
Dir. ALONSO RUIZPALACIOS, Mexico, USA, 2024, 139 min.
La Cocina captures the frenetic energy of the lunch rush at The Grill, a bustling restaurant in Manhattan's Times Square. When money goes missing from the till, suspicion falls on Pedro (Raúl Briones), an undocumented cook who dreams of a better life and is in love with Julia (Rooney Mara), an American waitress who cannot commit to a relationship. Rashid, the restaurant owner, has promised to help Pedro obtain legal status, but a shocking revelation about Julia compels Pedro to spiral into an act that threatens to shut down one of the city's busiest kitchens once and for all. The film is a comic and tragic tribute to the invisible people who keep our restaurants running and our stomachs full, all while chasing an elusive version of the American dream.
MARCH 20
I’M STILL HERE
Dir. WALTER SALLES, Brazil, France, 2024, 135 min. A political biographical drama film directed by Walter Salles from a screenplay by Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva's 2015 memoir of the same name. Eunice Paiva investigates her husband Rubens' disappearance while maintaining family stability. Rubens is a former PTB deputy who has gone missing.
MARCH 27
SEED OF THE SACRED FIG
Dir. MOHAMMAD RASOULOF, France, 2024, 167 min.
Shot entirely in secret, Mohammad Rasoulof's award-winning thriller centers on a family thrust into the public eye when Iman is appointed as an investigating judge in Tehran. As political unrest erupts in the streets, Iman realizes that his job is even more dangerous than expected, making him increasingly paranoid and distrustful, even of his own wife Najmeh and daughters Sana and Rezvan.
APRIL 3
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