Steve Coogan stars in this poignant dramedy that follows an Englishman's personal and political awakening after he adopts a penguin during a cataclysmic period in Argentine history.

Argentina’s 1976 military coup d’état, along with the sustained period of violence and forced disappearances that it ushered in, isn’t an obvious historical backdrop for a heartwarming tale of human-animal bonding. But that’s how the timing worked out for Tom Michell, an English teacher stationed at an elite Buenos Aires private school, at the time of the turmoil: With the country in chaos and many of his colleagues in crisis, he was figuring out what to do with the Magellan penguin he had accidentally adopted on a weekend jaunt to Uruguay. Director Cattaneo is best known for ‘The Full Monty’ and ‘Military Wives’, and Coogan brings his signature dry irony to proceedings, but the penguin is the real star here.

UK 2024 Peter Cattaneo 110m

A unique take on a seminal time in the lives of one of music’s most famous couples, exploring the eighteen months John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent living in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s.

1972, New York. In John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s apartment, the TV is permanently on, acting as a ‘window to the world’. Through their television this inventive documentary explores the America of that time, the Lennons’ evolving politics and their complex personal life as they search for Yoko’s estranged daughter Kyoko against the backdrop of the Nixon-McGovern election. Featuring previously unheard phone recordings and music from John’s only post-Beatles concert, it reveals the world that John and Yoko inhabited and the couple’s relevance, which still stands today. You may remember director Kevin MacDonald from his brilliant ‘Touching the Void’ (documentary) and ‘The Last King of Scotland’ (feature).

UK 2024 Kevin Macdonald & Sam Rice-Edwards 100m

Vingt Dieux

A carefree teenager’s life takes a turn when he must provide for his little sister. Seeking income, he channels his energy into producing an award-winning cheese.

After the tragic death of his father, 18-year-old Totone (Clément Faveau) is thrust into the unexpected and very adult role of looking after his younger sister Claire (Luna Garret) and their failing family farm in the Jura region of France. When he hears about the prize money that can be earned in competitions from making the local Comté cheese, he decides to go for it. He realises that good milk is a factor in success and not being able to afford it, he has the idea of stealing it from the farm where he is working, where he submits to a relationship with the sexually eager Marie-Lise (Maïwene Barthelemy). A "verité" look at the life of French agriculture, simultaneously a moving love story and above all an ode to the love of cheese. In showing the techniques of artisan cheese-making, you almost feel you know enough to do it yourself after watching it. (Subtitles)

France 2024 Louise Courvoisier 92m