Guy Lodge

You can't evaluate a movie year — not really — when you're only halfway through it. But you can take its temperature.

Adapted from Michael Morpurgo's children's novel 'Welcome to the Moon,' Frenchman Olivier Clert's debut feature is stylistically indebted to Studio Ghibli, but its storytelling is more surprising.

Sasha Waters' thoughtful documentary is conventionally assembled but holds its share of surprises — including the revelation that Oliver was close friends with invaluable talking head John Waters.

The Oscar-winning DP for Scorsese, Tarantino and Oliver Stone is a droll, unfiltered and engagingly eccentric subject for this portrait by Czech filmmaker Jana Hojdová, premiering in Karlovy Vary.

A senior couple's long-planned dream vacation slips out from under them — along with any financial or moral standing — in a strong fifth feature from former Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe winners Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov.

After an immaculate first half, Miroslav Terzić's third feature might divide viewers as to the payoff of its cold-sweat finale, but its icy formal rigor and raw ensemble playing impress throughout.

In Rebekah Fortune's second feature, a sunny au pair attempts to heal a closed-off widower and his eight-year-old son — a familiar premise lifted by tender performances from Maria Bakalova, Rory Kinnear and winning newcomer Ezra Carlisle.

Bruce McKenzie and newcomer Cemre Paksoy hypnotize in Georgia Bernstein's daring feature debut, an erotic thriller that spins a real-world tale of exploitation into a disturbingly sumptuous fantasy.

Though it lurches a bit heavily into melodrama toward its close, Aung Phyoe's promising first feature builds an affecting drama of small gestures, silences and everyday sensory pleasures.

This year's crowdpleasing winner of the Proxima competition at Karlovy Vary announces an original and endearing comic voice in freshman writer-director Martina Buchelová.