Sympathy for the Devil (2023)

F

A film made for LIVE, a workshop held by Bianco-Valente. Curated by Giusy Caroppo as a part of the InContemporanea exhibition.

Film for Aliens

Fourteen-year-old Jeremi is a YouTuber. His father works in a space agency and promised to show him a rocket launch, but plans changed at the eleventh hour, and he called off the trip. Instead, the teenager is sent to his grandpa in the countryside. To drag Jeremi away from the Internet, his dad gives him a special mission.

A Christmas Carol

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

Believe in Me

In a conservative small town, a young man's wish to coach high school basketball are tweaked by a school board decision that makes him the new coach of the girls' team.

Osomoy

Caught between her middle-class background and her rich university friends, Urbi navigates a world of wealth and privilege. But as she chases her dreams, she falls into a life-changing chaos, paying a high price for her ambitions.

Dead End Drive-In

In the future, a health nut and his tag-along girlfriend become trapped in a drive-in theater that has become a concentration camp for outcast youths.

Sauna

It is 1595. Brutal wars have just ended in an uneasy peace between Protestant Sweden and Orthodox Russia. We focus on the spiritual defeats of two conquered Finnish brothers, one a hardened near-psychopathic war hero, the other a gentle scientist in an age with no use for such men. They find themselves in the swampy interior, demarcating the new border with a unit of sadistic Russians.

The Pool

International students at an elite Prague school are stalked and murdered by a masked killer while holding a party in an abandoned water park.

The Aura

A quiet, epileptic taxidermist plans the perfect crime. All he needs is the right opportunity. An accident, perhaps…

River Wild

Follows a pair of siblings who love but distrust each other as they embark on a white-water rafting trip with a small group. One of their friends from childhood turns out to be more dangerous than he appears.

Assassin

A private military operation invents futuristic microchip tech that enables the mind of an agent to inhabit the body of another person to carry out covert, deadly missions. But when an agent is killed during a secret mission, his wife takes his place in an attempt to bring the man responsible to justice.

Me vuelves loca

Carolina has a perfect life: she lives in a luxurious house, works in a fashion magazine and is married to a successful publicist. One day everything goes to waste: she discovers that she is sterile, the same day that her husband leaves her for her best friend, who, in addition, is pregnant with him. After the impact of this news, Carolina has a crisis, drinks too much, trips and falls from the second floor of her house, a fact that is interpreted as a suicide attempt.Carolina is interned against her will, in the exclusive psychiatric center Eden. In that place she will meet a group of "madmen" who will help her heal and glimpse that her previous life was not so perfect. He also discovers that perhaps the craziest are those outside the psychiatric hospital.

Mob Land

A sheriff tries to keep the peace when a desperate family man violently robs a pill mill with his brother-in-law, alerting an enforcer for the New Orleans mafia.

Heart of Dragon

A policeman forsakes his dream of world travel to care for a mentally impaired brother, who is later kidnapped by gangsters.

Haute Couture

Esther is at the end of her career as Head Seamstress at Dior Avenue Montaigne workshop. One day, she gets her handbag stolen in the metro by a 20 years old girl, Jade. Instead of calling the police she decides to take care of Jade. She sees in her the opportunity to pass on her skills, the craft of dressmaking, her only wealth. In the frenetic world of Haute Couture, Esther will give Jade la beauté du geste, a way to reach beyond herself.

The Balconettes

As a heat wave brings a Marseille neighbourhood to the boil, three roommates gleefully meddle in the lives of their neighbours from their balcony. Until a late night drink turns into a bloody affair.

The Perfect Find

After a high-profile firing, everything is at stake for 40-year-old Jenna: her career, her ticking biological clock, and her bank account. Her fashion career comeback hits a snag when she falls for a charming, much younger coworker — who happens to be her boss’s son. As sparks fly, Jenna must decide if she’ll risk it all on a secret romance with the one person who could destroy her comeback.

There's Something in the Barn

An American family fulfills their dream of moving back to their roots after inheriting a remote cabin in the mountains of Norway. But there's a surprise waiting for them.

The Collective

A group of righteous assassins called The Collective take aim at a highly sophisticated human trafficking ring backed by a network of untouchable billionaires. With their backs against the wall, The Collective has no choice but to put their most important mission in the hands of rookie assassin, Sam Alexander.

A Million Miles Away

The life of engineer and former NASA astronaut José M. Hernández, the first migrant farmworker to go to space.

The Moon

In 2029, Korea's lunar probe Woori embarks on a historic journey to the moon, capturing global attention.

The Mermaid: Lake of the Dead

An evil Mermaid falls in love with Marina's fiancé Roman and aims to keep him away from Marina in her Kingdom of Death under water. The Mermaid is a young woman who drowned a few centuries ago. Marina only has one week to overcome her fear of the dark water, to remain human in the deathly fight with the monsters and not to become one herself.

Significant Other

Ruth and Harry decide to take a romantic backpacking trip through the Pacific Northwest, but amongst the beautiful scenery, Ruth makes an unexpected discovery that sets her off on a strange, frightening new path. The couple aren't alone in the woods, and they might not be the same when they come out...if they come out.

Monsters of Man

A robotics company vying to win a lucrative military contract team up with a corrupt CIA agent to conduct an illegal live field test. They deploy four weaponized prototype robots into a suspected drug manufacturing camp in the Golden Triangle, assuming they'd be killing drug runners that no one would miss. Six doctors on a humanitarian mission witness the brutal slaughter and become prime targets.

The Retirement Plan

When Ashley and her young daughter Sarah get caught up in a criminal enterprise that puts their lives at risk, she turns to the only person who can help: her estranged father Matt, currently living the life of a retired beach bum in the Cayman Islands. Their reunion is fleeting as they are soon tracked down on the island by crime boss Donnie and his lieutenant Bobo. As Ashley, Sarah, and Matt become entangled in an increasingly dangerous web, Ashley quickly learns her father had a secret past that she knew nothing about and that there is more to her father than meets the eye.

The Calendar Killer

Klara is going to die today unless she kills her husband instead. The Calendar Killer has given her that impossible choice. When Jules starts his night shift at a telephone safety helpline for lonely women on their way home, Klara's call reaches him. He soon becomes her last hope for survival and races against time to save her.

The Bricklayer

Someone is blackmailing the CIA by assassinating foreign journalists and making it look like the agency is responsible. As the world begins to unite against the U.S., the CIA must lure its most brilliant – and rebellious – operative out of retirement, forcing him to confront his checkered past while unraveling an international conspiracy.

Night on Earth

A quintet of cabbies in five cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

Star Trek: Section 31

Emperor Philippa Georgiou joins a secret division of Starfleet tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets and faces the sins of her past.

Reign Over Me

A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.

Breakdown

On their cross-country drive, a married couple, Jeff and Amy Taylor, experience car trouble after their SUV breaks down. Stranded in the New Mexico desert, the two catch a break when a passing truck driver offers Amy a ride to a nearby café to call for help. Meanwhile, Jeff is able to fix the car and make his way to the café, but Amy isn't there. He tracks down the trucker ― who tells the police he's never seen Jeff or his wife before. Jeff then begins a desperate, frenzied search for Amy.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Final

In 1879, Kenshin and his allies face their strongest enemy yet: his former brother-in-law Enishi Yukishiro and his minions, who've vowed their revenge.

All Hallows' Eve

While watching two children on Halloween night, a babysitter finds an old VHS tape in the kids' trick or treat bag. The tape features three tales of terror, all linked together by a murderous clown.

Thesis

While doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured to death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student at her college...

The Killer

When retired hitman’s wife goes on vacation with her friend, she asks him to look after the friend's teenage daughter. Things go awry when he is forced to use a little violence to protect the girl from juvenile delinquents, but then they are found dead and the girl is kidnapped.

Paradise

A man sees the dark side of the time-manipulating biotech company he works for when a crushing debt forces his wife to give up 40 years of her own life.

Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms

Based on the most well-known classical fantasy novel of China, Fengshenyanyi, the trilogy is a magnificent eastern high fantasy epic that recreates the prolonged mythical wars between humans, immortals and monsters, which happened more than three thousand years ago.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Finding himself in a new era, and approaching retirement, Indy wrestles with fitting into a world that seems to have outgrown him. But as the tentacles of an all-too-familiar evil return in the form of an old rival, Indy must don his hat and pick up his whip once more to make sure an ancient and powerful artifact doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Silent Night

A tormented father witnesses his young son die when caught in a gang's crossfire on Christmas Eve. While recovering from a wound that costs him his voice, he makes vengeance his life's mission and embarks on a punishing training regimen in order to avenge his son's death.

Psycho

When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates cares for his housebound mother.

THX 1138

People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs for the first time he has feelings for a woman and they start a secret relationship.

Along Came a Spider

After the harrowing death of his partner, forensic psychologist and best-selling author Alex Cross cannot forgive himself and has retreated to the peace of retirement. But when a brilliant criminal kidnaps a senator's young daughter, he is lured back into action as the kidnapper wants to deal with Alex personally. Teamed with Jezzie Flanigan, the Secret Service agent assigned to protect the missing girl, Alex follows a serpentine trail of clues that leads him to a stunning discovery - the kidnapper wants more than just ransom.

The Glass House

When Ruby and Rhett's parents are killed in a car accident, their carefree teenage lives are suddenly shattered. Moving to an incredible house in Malibu with the Glasses', old friends of the family, seems to be the beginning of a new life for them.

Memento

Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.

After Darkness

To salve his guilty conscience an elder brother removes his disturbed younger sibling from a mental institution after a suicide attempt and tries to bring him back to mental competency through one on one contact. Free of the institution he continues to be haunted by dreams of a lost twin and chants the eerie phrase "Do I stand before the king?" It is the elder brother that seems doomed to lose himself in his brother's insanity.

The Silence of the Lambs

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

Vertigo

A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.

The Reflection

A social worker recounts the case of Ella Jackson, a girl who sees a man standing behind her in the mirror

Kiss the Girls

Forensic psychologist and detective Alex Cross travels to North Carolina and teams with escaped kidnap victim Kate McTiernan to hunt down "Casanova," a serial killer who abducts strong-willed women and forces them to submit to his demands. The trail leads to Los Angeles, where the duo discovers that the psychopath may not be working alone.

Desperate Measures

San Francisco police officer Frank Connor is in a frantic search for a compatible bone marrow donor for his gravely ill son. There's only one catch the potential donor is convicted multiple murderer Peter McCabe who sees a trip to the hospital as the perfect opportunity to get what he wants most: freedom. With McCabe's escape, the entire hospital becomes a battleground and Connor must pursue and, ironically, protect the deadly fugitive who is his son's only hope for survival.

Don’t Leave Me

A boy who is kicked out of his post-apocalyptic camp is forced to try and find a new home, as well as, civilisation without being caught by the unknown beings that lie ahead.

Deepwater

A drifter comes to the town of Deepwater and is seduced into a twisted game of deceit and murder.

Kill Your Darlings

A desperate young writer is lured on a wild ride through the desert by a mysterious woman in this darkly comic take on the all-American road trip. Along the way they cross paths with a hapless mobster, a 6 foot transvestite and a lovesick housewife, all on the way to their celebrity TV shrink in Las Vegas... Things quickly spiral out of control into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game... a writer's frantic search for inspiration becomes intertwined with a motley crew of quirky characters seeking love and adventure at any cost.

Tides

A troubled boy learns to open up to his therapist by reliving his traumatic past.

The Tenant

A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.

Dead Again

In 1949, composer Roman Strauss is executed for the murder of his wife. In 1990s Los Angeles, a detective comes across a mute amnesiac woman who is somehow linked to the Strauss murder.

Shutter Island

World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.

The Man Who Kept Silent

A web-designer receives a letter that says that he must keep silent, beginning with the next Saturday. By the time Saturday comes, the poor designer totally forgets about the weird letter.

Gazer

Frankie, a young mother with dyschronometria, struggles to perceive time. Using cassette tapes for guidance, she takes a risky job from a mysterious woman to support her family, unaware of the dark consequences that await.

Perfect Blue

Rising pop star Mima quits singing to pursue a career as an actress. After she takes up a role on a popular detective show, her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima's reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia.

Joy Ride

Three young people on a road trip from Colorado to New Jersey talk to a trucker on their CB radio, then must escape when he turns out to be a psychotic killer.

Fear

Nicole Walker always dreamed of being swept away by someone special — someone strong, sexy and sensitive who would care for her more than anything else in the world. David is all that and more: a modern-day knight who charms and seduces her, body and soul. But her perfect boyfriend is not all he seems to be. His sweet facade masks a savage, dark side that will soon transform Nicole's dream into a nightmare.

Us

Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.

Love Kills

When a charming murderer falls in love while on a killing spree in Barcelona, he must control his sociopathic tendencies, before he loses love forever.

The Order

For centuries, a secret Order of priests has existed within the Church. A renegade priest, Father Alex Bernier, is sent to Rome to investigate the mysterious death of one of the Order's most revered members. Following a series of strangely similar killings, Bernier launches an investigation that forces him to confront unimaginable evil.

Terribly Happy

Robert Hansen, 34, a young police officer from Copenhagen, is transferred against his will to the small town of Skarrild in Southern Jutland as a substitute Marshall. The transfer is Robert’s chance to start over. Whether he is allowed to return to his job in Copenhagen, all depends on how well he performs in this frontier town.

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS

Two years after his friend’s disappearance, a young man returns to his hometown to solve the mystery, coming to terms with his childhood, lost love, and friendship.

Funny Games

Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.

Vacancy

A young married couple becomes stranded at an isolated motel and find hidden video cameras in their room. They realize that unless they escape, they'll be the next victims of a snuff film.

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte

An aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after the arrival of a lost relative.

Ultraviolet

Plot unavailable

Serpentine Pink

Set in the desert-weird wilds of Joshua Tree, California, Serpentine Pink is a distinctively visceral and surreal independent, female-centric film that digs into the various and rigorous ways a heart heals from trauma. Inspired by France's Grand Guignol style of horror theatre, and utilizing a lyrical language both visual and verbal to capture the strange poetry of the Mojave land and soundscape, Serpentine Pink follows a reclusive biker woman and her John Wayne-obsessed exotic dancer lover's disturbing fallout after a violent acid attack. An ethereal psychic and her aspiring healer companion converge with supernatural forces in an attempt to confront and then heal the women's - as well as their own - deep-rooted, personal pain that comes from trying to break the cycle of possessive love.

The Chaser

Joong-ho is a dirty detective turned pimp, who's in financial trouble as several of his girls have recently disappeared without clearing their debts. While trying to track them down, he finds a clue that the vanished girls were all called up by the same client, whom one of his girls is meeting with right now.

Summer's Blood

A demented handyman comes to the rescue of a young woman, then imprisons her in his basement.

Blink Twice

When tech billionaire Slater King meets cocktail waitress Frida at his fundraising gala, he invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. But despite the epic setting, beautiful people, ever-flowing champagne, and late-night dance parties, Frida can sense that there’s something sinister hiding beneath the island’s lush façade.

Woman in the Dunes

A vacationing entomologist suffers extreme physical and psychological trauma after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village and made to live with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.

Hitcher in the Dark

A sick young man drives around in his daddy's camper, looking for lone stray females to kidnap, torture, rape and murder.

The Entity

Carla Moran is raped and attacked by an invisible force. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Phil Sneiderman, believes the events stem from childhood psychological trauma, while Carla becomes increasingly convinced something supernatural is at play.

You Came Back

Marco and Anita discover they are expecting a child. Finally a ray of light in Marco’s life after his heartbreak following the loss of Leo, his first born with his former wife Clara. Suddenly, however Perla, the new owner where the couple lived until the tragic accident, bursts into Marco’s and his ex-wife’s lives. The mysterious woman claims she keeps feeling a strange presence and hearing the voice of a child that is tormenting her and her son. Marco therefore finds himself torn between the ties of the past and an unwritten future.

Follow the Crows

Long after the end of the world survivors wander the fields and wastelands that once housed the cities of Britain. One such survivor, the Man, isolates himself from human contact, until he meets a young woman and the pair begin an adventure that will teach them both what it is to be human.

Shadow on the Wall

Angered that her sister Celia has stolen her fiance, Dell Faring kills her and allows Celia's husband David, knocked out in an argument with Celia, to take the blame and end up on death row. Later Dell, finding out that David's young daughter Susan was witness to the crime and is undergoing psychiatric treatment, plans to eliminate her before her memory returns.

The Hand of Now

A palm reader comes between a woman and her boyfriend on a night that will change their lives forever.

Joker

During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.

Unthinkable

The government gets wind of a plot to destroy America involving a trio of nuclear weapons for which the whereabouts are unknown. It's up to a seasoned interrogator and an FBI agent to find out exactly where the nukes are.

Os Santos

Kaio just wanted a night of sex with Eduardo, a guy he just met on a dating app. But strange things happen when the Santos family shows up unannounced and prepares a special feast for the two of them.

Maniac

When a stranger enters a quiet, country town and is seduced by a sensuous married woman he unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a storm of sexual guilt and murder.

Roadkill

Vengeance rides the open road when a young woman, traveling alone, encounters a renegade drifter and ends up in a fight for her life.

BIRD IN THE SKY

BIRD IN THE SKY is a gritty, poetic tale of a young man’s spiritual struggle on the streets of New York City. Rob has been given a second chance to right the wrongs of his street-wise past; he must perform a miracle to be saved. His fate lies in his love for a young woman, Kay, who is coping with the loss of her child.

Trapped

Short drama film made in 5 days on the BFI Film Academy at Film Oxford 2024. Two uni students go to their accommodation for the first time, but is all as it seems?

The Forbidden Door

A successful sculptor's life is turned upside down when he starts to receive mysterious messages from someone asking for his help. As he digs deeper, he discovers a boy is being abused and has to choose between saving the boy or losing everything.

Come Back Home

Having a car accident at night, a man comes to a strange house nearby to ask for help. What he sees in the house makes him more confused and worried.