SEBASTIAN LELIO (1974 - 2026)

Sebastián Lelio, the gifted Chilean filmmaker who received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his 2017 feature, "Una mujer fantástica (A Fantastic Woman)", has sadly passed away at the age of fifty-two. No clear details on the cause of death have been revealed to date beyond he was found nonresponsive at his home in Las Condes, Chile on November 6th.

Born in Mendoza, Argentina, Lelio moved to Viña del Mar, Chile at the age of two with his Chilean mother where he would continuously move every few years around the country throughout his childhood. While he was initially interested studying journalism, Lelio would attend and graduate from Escuela de Cine de Chile where he would make several short films. He went on to direct three feature films with "Navidad (Christmas)" from 2009 would become his first to be accepted in the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Directors' Fortnight section.

Lelio's first major breakthrough was "Gloria", a 2013 drama that starred Paulina García as a fifty-eight-year-old woman who starts dating again ten years after getting divorced. After premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival, Garcia won the Silver Bear for Best Actress and the film went on to be selected as the Chilean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards although it was not voted on as a nominee.

Then four years later came "A Fantastic Woman" which premiered at Berlinale, winning the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay and the Teddy Award for Best LGBTQ feature. The film about a young Chilean trans woman (played by Daniela Vega) struggling over the loss of her older lover would receive several more international prizes, leading to the Academy Award win.

This attracted the attention of Hollywood and Lelio made his English-language debut with "Disobedience", an indie drama with Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams involving a woman who returns to her strict Orthodox Jewish community for her estranged father's funeral. He would follow this with the 2018 English-language remake of his film, "Gloria Bell" with Julianne Moore in the title role and "The Wonder", a psychological period drama based on the novel by Emma Donoghue and starring Florence Pugh as a nurse assigned to prove if a young girl of faith has survived for months without eating. Lelio's final film, "The Wave" was released last year and found the filmmaker returning to his home country for this musical drama loosely based on the 2018 Chilean feminist protests.

While Lelio was only able to complete nine films during his all-too-brief career, he managed to leave behind an impressive body of work that dealt with the human condition in a way that was artful, compassionate and beautifully expressive. He was a cinematic artist of great distinction who will truly be missed.

YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING (2026)

Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim



Where & When: AMC Atlantic Times Square, Monterey Park, CA. October 18, 2026 1:00 PM

The riveting documentary, "You Can See Everything" opens with Billy Evans, the current romantic partner of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, on the phone with someone explaining why they have chosen to allow cameras unlimited access to film their lives thirty-four days before she begins her sentence in prison because of a fraud conviction in 2023. The reason was to give people the opportunity to see the real Holmes and for her side of the story to finally be revealed.

Made discreetly over three years by co-directors, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim with a secret premiere screening at this year's Telluride Film Festival, "You Can See Everything" certainly does give Holmes the chance to explain herself and speak her truth. Yet her weak revelations mostly fail to give us any real answers, only creating more confounding questions about her situation while her relationship with Evans stirs extreme wariness and concern. "You Can See Everything" might have begun as some sort of attempt at a public relations redemption story but the directors have pushed it much further away from that than anyone could have possibly imagined, cleverly merging non-fiction, investigative reporting and a touch of surreal melodrama into a compelling and exhilarating cinematic thrill ride.

Let's begin with a brief rundown on Holmes: she founded Theranos at nineteen in 2003, a health technology company that claimed their system could perform a massive panel of diagnostic tests, accurately and inexpensively, using a very small amount of blood. After securing millions in venture capital, the company struggled with questionable results, leading to claims of them actually using traditional blood testing machines. Journalists began digging around, followed by government investigations and lawsuits with Holmes and her business partner, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani (who was also her lover) eventually were federally convicted of fraud and conspiracy.

Fielder is our narrator and on-screen interviewer who planned to present some basic questions to Holmes, living at the time with Evans and their two children in a rented house in San Diego, that have been raised over the years and attempts to get some honest answers directly from the source. But we quickly know we are in trouble after Fielder starts with a softball question, asking Holmes if she has ever lied. With her soft doe eyes and sweet, open face, she informs him that she has never told a lie. Ever. In her entire life. Despite Fielder's incredulous look, he presses on, trying to get Holmes to admit something about what she knew about Theranos. Yet regardless of her insistence that she wants to be forthright and truthful, Holmes largely remains slippery and elusive, never owning to even the slightest possibility that some of her actions might be viewed as deceptive.

So where do we go from here? As we watch Holmes eventually turn herself in to serve her time in prison, it seems like the story might be over. Yet the focus of the film begins to shift more towards Evans who at the beginning was understandably highly protective of his partner (there are rumors that they did secretly marry, yet another mystery) but we soon see his erratic, passive/aggressive behavior emerge as he demands profit payment for their involvement in this documentary and taking over Holmes' social media, assuring Fielder that he knows exactly what she wants to say. And not to reveal any spoilers on my end, a person who has a connection to Holmes makes an appearance later in the film to help Fielder get a handle on Evans and recreate some moments that they were unable to film.

if you are familiar with Fielder's work (whose long career of offbeat, deadpan humor has been highlighted recently in the HBO docu-comedy series, "The Rehearsal" and the comedy series, "The Curse" with Emma Stone), then "You Can See Everything" will not come as much of a surprise. Convention and the expected are just not part of the Canadian satirist's style who has created many characters that have been fictionalized versions of himself. Oppenheim has a history of making documentaries on highly unusual subjects that have included the world's largest retirement community in Florida, sperm donors and their recipients and hunters competing in a python removal contest in the Everglades. He also released this year his debut feature film, "Primetime", a turbulent drama with Robert Pattinson starring as the "To Catch a Predator" host, Chris Hansen.

Together, they have merged their peculiar sensibilities for a documentary that largely defies the traditional template. Using tight close-ups throughout the film to create an even greater sense of discomfort and unease, the filmmakers succeed in shifting our perspectives on Holmes continuously: victim, manipulator, exploited, imposter. Instead of clearing up who she really is, we only get more confusion and skepticism. With Fielder inserting himself deeper into the lives of Holmes and Evans (even briefly moving into a guest room in their home), he winds up blurring his objectivity on his subjects and we get more of a sense of performance from them which creates more doubt about their words and actions in this film. And at almost three hours in length, "You Can See Everything" does feel overextended, especially since this story has been thoroughly covered in other films and books, yet still manages to keep us fully engaged for every minute of this unsettling and complex film.

Holmes ended up having no real success in being able to convince people of her complete innocence in the Theranos scandal with this film. But what was accomplished, inadvertently, was creating some doubt on how intentional and complicit she was in this deception, even managing to alter the narrative of her being this ruthless entrepreneur to stir a bit of sympathy for her in this situation. Fielder and Oppenheim may have had their own agenda when deciding to take on Holmes' story but what they have ultimately constructed with "You Can See Everything" is a remarkable achievement of truth and fiction, leading to truly one of the most fascinating and innovative film experiences of the year.

COMING SOON

Mike Flanagan is currently enjoying the success of his reimagining of Stephen King's breakthrough 1974 novel, "Carrie" (which achieved even greater fame as a horror film from Brian De Palma two years later) as a television series. The writer/director has put a modern spin on the source material while expanding the story far beyond Carrie White and her struggles with her mysterious telekinetic powers. The Amazon Prime show has proven to be very popular with the series being renewed for a second season.

Flanagan has now taken on another supernatural horror classic, "The Exorcist" to reimagine. Following the blockbuster 1973 first film directed by William Friedkin that was based on the novel by William Peter Blatty, there have been five sequels and one television series with them all, more or less, sticking largely to the same plot of people possessed by a demonic creature and the need of a priest to help set them free.

With Flanagan's "The Exorcist: Martyrs", this upcoming feature film will merge serial killers and possession with a potential connection to "The Exorcist III", the 1990 box-office disappointment written and directed by Blatty that has since gone on to become a cult classic. NY Homicide Detective Julie Miller (Scarlett Johansson) had been involved in ending the reign of terror by a serial killer who claimed to be possessed known as "Father Sunday". But years later, a string of new gruesome murders begins in the city with her name scrawled in blood on a church wall which forces her back into the darkness. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne and John Leguizamo also star.

"The Exorcist: Martyrs" is due in US theaters on March 12, 2027

QUEER, PERIOD

To celebrate the release of "La Bola Negra (The Black Ball)", the award-winning Spanish drama from the filmmaking team of Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, Netflix is presenting "Queer, Period", a film series curated by Ambrossi and Calvo that highlights LGBTQ+ stories of freedom, legacy, and visibility to be screened at The Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood beginning on October 21st and concluding on November 24th. 

The films featured are traditional period pieces yet re-examines history through a queer lens: bold, radical and romantic works from some of cinema’s most acclaimed filmmakers. Sally Potter’s adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s "Orlando"; Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s final and perhaps most provocative film of his brief yet prolific career, "Querelle"; James Ivory’s cinematic rendition of E.M. Forster’s romantic novel, "Maurice"; the sapphic love story set in Japanese-ruled Korea, "The Handmaiden" by Park Chan-Wook; Céline Sciamma's "Portrait of a Lady on Fire", the story of a brief affair between two young women set in 18th-century France and "Carol",  a 1950's romance based on the Patricia Highsmith novel from director, Todd Haynes.







For additional information and to purchase tickets, please click below:

Queer, Period

EVA MARIE SAINT (1924 - 2026)

Eva Marie Saint, one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood, has passed away at the remarkable age of one hundred and two. The luminous actress would win the 1954 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, which was her film debut, for "On The Waterfront" and would go on to have an extensive career in film, the stage and television.

While Saint was attending college at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, she began studying acting and appeared in some stage productions there. After graduating in 1946, Saint headed to New York and one of her first jobs was being a part of the NBC Page program. She would later get bit parts in some NBC television shows. Her first big break came when she became part of the original Broadway cast of Horton Foote's "A Trip To Bountiful" in 1953 and would also appear in the live television version on NBC's Philco Television Playhouse.

This helped bring her to the attention of the director, Elia Kazan for his film, "On The Waterfront" which starred Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger. This story about widespread corruption, extortion, and racketeering on the waterfronts of Hoboken, NJ would go on to receive twelve Academy Award nominations, winning eight, including for Saint, Best Actor for Brando, Best Director for Kazan and Best Picture.

Saint would go on to co-star with Bob Hope in the romantic-comedy, "That Certain Feeling", the Civil War drama, "Raintree County" with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift and starred with Don Murray in "A Hatful of Rain", an early drug-addiction drama. Then Alfred Hitchcock came calling (and surprising many) by casting her as the femme fatale in his now classic 1959 suspense thriller, "North by Northwest" with Cary Grant and James Mason. The director worked with Saint to shed her "good girl" image, transforming her into a glamourous ice blonde by having her lower her voice and wearing form-fitting outfits. "North by Northwest" was a box-office hit, remains a highly influential film and one of Saint's most notable movie roles.

While Saint was enjoying this high-profile career, she decided to step back a bit in order to spend more time with her husband, the director Jeffrey Hayden and their two children. Saint and Hayden would be married for sixty-five years until Hayden's death in 2016. She still did make a few films throughout the 1960's: "Exodus" with Paul Newman, "All Fall Down" with Warren Beatty, Norman Jewison's "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming" and "Grand Prix" with James Garner.

By the 1970's, she would be working mostly in television but by the 1980's, Saint would make a return to films, making the occasional appearance in "Nothing in Common"(playing Tom Hanks' mother), "I Dreamed of Africa", "Because of Winn-Dixie" and "Superman Returns" where she played Martha Kent. 

DIGGER (2026)

Written by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone and Sabina Berman



Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu



Where & When: Fox Studios, West Los Angeles, CA. September 27, 2026 1:00 PM



Like most actors, Tom Cruise worked his way up the career ladder, appearing in brief supporting roles in low budget films before breaking out with a starring role in the teen sex comedy, "Risky Business" back in 1983. Determined to prove he had more to offer than just a handsome face, Cruise was very selective in the following films he would make: compelling dramas (often pairing up with established actors with prestige and history like Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson), thrilling action movies and connecting with intriguing indie-minded filmmakers. And this calculation worked out very well for Cruise and helped make him a true movie star.

After spending over the last ten years sticking largely with making action-adventure movies (which included a "Top Gun" sequel and five "Mission: Impossible" films), it seems like Cruise must be ready to push himself further once again as an actor. He has teamed-up with Alejandro González Iñárritu, the two-time Oscar-winning director who has a history of making intense and complex dramas on the human condition, and has brought us "Digger", a pitch black satire on climate change and the wealthy and powerful who have more control over this situation than we realize.

Buried under elaborate make-up to make himself appear older and out-of-shape, Cruise delivers an energized performance that blazes with brilliance as "Digger" Rockwell, an oil scion filled with Texan bluster and capitalist arrogance. And there is absolutely no denying that Iñárritu has made a film that is beautifully rendered, expertly performed and intellectually stimulating. Yet narratively the impressive results of "Digger" still end up being clunky and a bit confounding with the crucial messages being muddled through a story made far more convoluted than is probably necessary.

Our story begins with Digger (Cruise) waking up one morning in his palatial estate sleeping next to his beloved cat, Maggie. That this cat is seriously ill and looks near death is besides the point as Digger, with his vast resources, is doing all he can to keep her breathing. His day is interrupted with a video call from an operator (Danny Kirrane) from one of his oil fields in Greenland, explaining to him that there are dangerous levels of methane leaking through the ice. Just demanding that he take care of it, Digger is later surrounded by a group of scientists including his environmental safety chief, Dr. Nirav Ganesh (Riz Ahmed) informing him that there was a major explosion at his Greenland oil refinery. This has caused a massive ice glacier to break off and slowly drifting towards Norway where in three days there will be a collision that will cause incredible destruction and many will be killed due to this horrific impact.

In a panic, Digger has a meeting with the US president (John Goodman), vice-president (Michael Stuhlbarg) and members of his cabinet to discuss how to possibly stop this disaster and to delay Europe from finding out about this approaching catastrophe.

But everything we have seen so far is not what it appears to be, leading to a considerable plot twist that I will not spoil here. Let's me just say that everything we are seeing in this story has actually happened but not actually as we are seeing it. Does that sound a bit confusing? Well, that isn't exactly Iñárritu intention but he also had no real interest in constructing this narrative in a conventional manner. The director came up with a clearly defined idea of this character, Digger Rockwell about ten years ago yet struggled with a compelling way how to tell his offbeat story. He worked with several screenwriters, Sabina Berman and his "Birdman" co-writers, Nicolas Giacobone and Alexander Dinelaris Jr, for a number of years before settling on this unusual story structure.

The focus of "Digger", in a far from subtle way, is on the impending crisis that the planet is experiencing with a rapidly and undeniably changing of the climate. And it is a politically charged film yet it's not a judgement call on any one particular legislative party. The blame has been placed squarely at the feet of a largely indifferent global society. We have a very small number of wealthy people in power who have far too much say in universal decisions, always seeming to put profits over the continued health of the planet. And then we have the average citizen who is either gravely concerned or living in complete denial about what is happening with our climate yet very few really want to be inconvenienced in any significant way by having to alter their lives from the comforts of modern living.

Taking this opportunity to remind audiences that he's capable of doing more than just running fast and throwing himself into dangerous, high-flying stunts (and now that he's sixty-four, it might be time for him to do less physically challenging activities on screen), Cruise largely succeeds in transforming himself into Digger. Losing his glossy, Hollywood sheen and taking on a lumbering, paunchy, middle-aged Texan oil man, the actor easily captures our stereotypical ideas of a business man with his repellent nature driving him to win (or at the very least "look" like a winner) at all costs. Never for a moment does he make Digger remotely likable or appealing. Despite being directly responsible for many of his employees being killed during the oil site explosion and the impending doom to thousands of Europeans, the most Digger can muster over all of this tragedy is perfunctory concern, saving most of his actual distress and sympathies for his dying cat. And due to the plot twist, Cruise even gets to play another character, one that probably more closely resembles the actor.

No expense seemed to be spared on this film (at a reported of at least one and fifty million dollar budget) and it really shows up on screen with exquisite production design from Dennis Gassner and Richard L. Johnson and the masterful work of cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, with the three time Oscar-winner shooting on 35mm film using the widescreen technique, VistaVision, creating beautifully expressive imagery in a muted color palate. But after seeing the film, I'm not sure how they thought this would appeal to the casual movie-going audience. Much like Maggie Gyllenhaal's "The Bride!", the big-budget, Warner Bros. release from earlier in the year, "Digger" is an artful, experimental movie, visually and philosophically expansive, that is just too out there to have broad appeal to anyone but discerning cinephiles to justify such an elaborate investment.

I think the issue with "Digger" is less that it is poorly conceived and more that it's themes are not communicated in a way that is easily digestible, challenging some viewers far more than they would like. While watching the film, I was feeling more intrigued than fully engaged in this story. I understand completely how some can view "Digger" as gimmicky, overblown and extremely strained. And yet days after seeing "Digger", I am still thinking about what I witnessed, a daring film that provokes and engages, not entirely successfully yet still in a bold way that will stimulate passionate debates and contrasting reactions. In this age of sequels and remakes, "Digger" is a much needed jolt to the system that will help keep cinema alive and vital.

2026 AFI FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTED BY CANVA

The 2026 AFI Film Festival is on the way and this is also the 40th edition of this Los Angeles based celebration of new cinema from across the globe. This year's AFI Fest will run from October 21st to 25th at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. There will be a total of one hundred and fifty-seven films screened featuring red carpet premieres, special screenings, documentaries and short films.

The Opening Night Film will be the U.S. premiere of the stop-motion animated feature, "Wildwood" from director, Travis Knight. This epic fantasy adventure tells the story of a teenage girl and her classmate who travel into an enchanted forest in search of her infant brother after he has been abducted.



The four other Red Carpet Premieres are Peter Farrelly's biopic, "I Play Rocky" which covers the struggling actor, Sylvester Stallone's rise in Hollywood, the WW II drama based on the novel by Buzz Bissinger, "The Mosquito Bowl" from Peter Berg, "Ray Gunn", the animated retro-futuristic, neo-noir mystery from Brad Bird and the Closing Night film from the Oscar-winning filmmaker, Siân Heder, "Being Heumann" about Judy Heumann’s journey as a disability activist.

The Special Screenings, which highlights some of the most acclaimed films we will see throughout the season, will include "Wild Horse Nine", "Bunker", "Elsinore", "Clarissa", "Ceniza en la Boca (Ashes)" and "Amarga Navidad (Bitter Christmas)".





And the Guest Artistic Directors selected for the fest are Phil Lord and Chris Miller (the filmmaking team fresh off their big hit earlier this year with "Project Hail Mary") and they will present four of their favorite films that have helped shape their cinematic vision: "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Harold and Maude", "The Muppet Movie" and "Rififi".





For the complete list of films and to purchase tickets or passes, please click below:

AFI FEST 2026