© 24 images Spanish filmmaking deals with the Franco regime (1939-77) even more cautiously, but all the more poetically. The starting point is always the opening of a mass grave that was created during the military dictatorship. For Pedro Almodovar, this was the beginning of the search for his long-lost grandmother in his 2021 drama "Parallel Mothers". In "The Teacher Who Promised Us the Sea", it is now elderly grandfathers who remember their village teacher: Antoni Benaiges once made an enemy of the fascists with his anti-authoritarian teaching methods.

Patricia Font
Born in 1978, Patricia Font studied film in her home city of Barcelona. While still a student, she gained experience as a script supervisor on national and international sets. She wrote several scripts for the successful European youth series "The Red Bracelet Club" (2011-13). Font filled Spanish cinemas in 2019 with her feature film debut as a director, "The People Come and Go". Her second film "The Teacher Who..." was nominated for five Goyas, the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Awards, in 2024.

© MFA Barry Keoghan ("Saltburn", 2023) and Franz Rogowski ("Passages", 2023) are undoubtedly among the most unusual, courageous and talented actors of their generation. Director Andrea Arnold brings them together in "Bird". One as a dubious father, the other as a mysterious friend of 12-year-old Bailey, who lives with her half-brother in a squat. It is a story of growing up under wonderfully adverse circumstances, for which cameraman Robbie Ryan creates picture-in-picture constructs into which Arnold stages the mixture of anger and love typical of puberty.

Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold, born in 1961 in Dartfort, England, is the director who lets her teenage protagonists discover tenderness and magic in the most unlikely places. Be it in a pub car park at night ("Wasp", 2005) or at the window of a council house ("Fish Tank", 2009), in the car of a gang of pushers ("American Honey", 2016) or in a cowshed ("Cow", 2021). She is regularly invited to the major film festivals in Cannes and Venice with her films, from which she usually returns to England without winning a prize.

© HBO Is there life at the White Lotus without Tanya? For two seasons, the shrewd nouveau riche was the star of the luxury hotel satire with her completely unauthorised guests. But showrunner and comedy specialist Mike White has enough neuroses, manias, phobias and family secrets up his sleeve to drive the current hotel manager (Christian Friedel) crazy in season 3. Comedy talents such as Parker Posey, Aimee Lou Wood and Leslie Bibb, the choleric streak of Walton Goggins and Jason Isaacs as a dodgy ace up his sleeve help him in his endeavours. The American broadcaster HBO has even given White eight episodes this time.

finji The pure joy when one thing comes together, fits together and creates a picture. With a bit of luck, even one that you like so much that you would hang it on your wall. This is exactly what "Wilmot Works It Out" is based on, a puzzle game that doesn't want to be overly puzzling. Inventor Richard Hogg's "Wilmot..." is all about that good feeling when something dissolves after a few minutes of pushing, twisting and shoving. And if there are still a few pieces left over for the next puzzle, all the better.