San Francisco Film Festival

Jenna Hasse born in 1989 in Lisbon, Portugal. Swiss and Portuguese nationality. Grew up in Switzerland. Studied cinema at Lausanne University, then acting at INSAS (Brussels). Actress and director. Her award-winning short En Août (2014) had its world premiere at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes and was also screened at IFFR Rotterdam and BFI London. His second short, SOLTAR (2016), and his medium-length documentary, THE PROTAGONIST (2020), were shown at FIFF Namur, Curtas Vila do Conde and DocLisboa, among others. His award-winning debut feature L'AMOUR DU MONDE had its world premiere at the Berlinale Generation in 2023, where it received the jury's special mention. It was nominated for the Young Audience Award at the European Academy in 2023 and nominated for the Swiss Film Prize for Best Fiction Film in 2024.

Justin Pechberty co-founded the production and distribution company Les Valseurs with Damien Megherbi in 2013. They have produced about thirty short films including Sideral by Carlos Segundo, part of the Official Competition in Cannes 2021, Nefta Football Club by Yves Piat, nominated for an Oscar in 2020, Wicked Girl by Ayce Kartal, César in 2019 for best animated short and She Runs by Qiu Yang, Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prix 2019. In tandem, they are developing a theatrical distribution for feature films in France. They have accompanied Boris Khlebnikov’s Arrythmia (Toronto 2017), Sarah Marx’s The Truck (Venice 2018), Carlo Sironi’s Sole (Venice 2019) and Miss Marx by Susanna Nicchiarelli (Venice 2020). Justin is also elected to the board of directors of the French Academy Awards, where he advocated for the creation of a César for short documentary films. He is also a member of the Oscars Academy.

Michelle Carey is an Australian-born, Berlin-based film programmer and curator. She serves as member of the selection committee and programmer at the International Film Festival Rotterdam; she is a program advisor at the New York Film Festival, and the co-founder of The Red Balloon Alliance, an initiative designed to provide family-friendly solutions at film festivals. Prior to that, she was on the selection committee of the Directors’ Fortnight, and ran the Melbourne International Film Festival as its artistic director between 2011-2018. In 2017 she was awarded the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French government.

A struggling single mother, Sylvie tends bar at a rowdy nightclub to provide for her two sons. When her younger boy, Jean-Jacques, accidentally burns himself while at home unsupervised, he is snatched away from her by child services. So begins a fraught, escalating custody battle between a mother and a bureaucratic infrastructure that seems hell-bent on keeping her family apart. Deloget’s gritty drama is by turns raw, infuriating, and deeply compassionate as she throws a spotlight back in the face of a hypocritical welfare system that often does more harm than good.

Isabelle Huppert reunites with Hong Sang-soo for a languid, breezy afternoon ramble through the streets of Seoul, spending her day on a series of encounters. As Iris, she gives walk-and-talk French lessons, while enjoying the milky rice wine makgeolli and getting her students to talk about their feelings. In their third film together, the director and star sketch an elusive outline of an enigmatic character, leaving spaces for viewers to fill with their imagination. Huppert brings a cosy familiarity to the cryptic universe of the prolific Korean auteur. Grand Jury Prize, Berlinale

Pierre-Joseph is 16 when he begins his gardener training, under the watchful eye of matriarch Françoise. What follows is an entire life dedicated to the sensuality of plants, in which he meets Alberto, Adrian, and eventually Kutta, Françoise’s first adopted son, all of whom play a pivotal role in PierreJoseph’s sexual education. A highlight of last year’s Director’s Fortnight at Cannes, Pierre Creton’s revelatory film is a multi-layered erotic romance that finds, in the delicately rugged world of botany, salt-of-the-earth labourers, hunters, and gardeners, a vision of love unbound by time.

Blaga is a seventy-year-old retired teacher who has been recently widowed. When she falls victim to a gang of telephone scammers, she loses her life savings, which were to go towards a grave for her husband, as well as her dignity. As she searches desperately for work, her strong morals steadily begin to erode. Local audiences will be only too familiar with this increasingly omniscient blight of criminality, and the frustration and shame that comes with falling prey to such ruses, which Komandarev parlays deftly into a withering commentary on modern society..

After a diagnosis of mental illness, acclaimed Samoan writer Sia Figiel uncovers the source of her pain, but her path towards healing comes at an unspeakable cost.

Exploring the deep bond between soldiers and their horses in the harsh desert, showing how these animals provided comfort, security, and emotional stability during the horrors of war.

In New Zealand's heartland, teams of aspiring female rugby players must shatter glass ceilings both on and off the field to achieve their improbable dream of international glory.

"The Two-Faced Empire" exposes the hypocrisy behind America's claims of democracy and freedom, revealing its double standards in politics, trade, and human rights, urging viewers to reflect on the complex reality.