Paweł Pawlikowski is back with another black-and-white stunner. His new film “Fatherland” premieres October 23 at Film Forum in New York, and it’s already racking up serious attention.

The film stars Sandra Hüller (fresh off “Anatomy of a Fall”) as Erika Mann, daughter of legendary author Thomas Mann, played by Hanns Zischler. Set in 1949, they’re driving through a bombed-out Germany after years of exile in the U.S. Mann’s returned as a Nobel Prize winner with celebrity status, but the country he knew is gone. Erika’s coordinating his trip while dealing with her own family trauma, trying to break through her father’s distant facade.

Pawlikowski won Best Director at Cannes for this one. It’s also Poland’s official Oscar submission for Best International Feature. If you know his work, the pedigree checks out. “Ida” won the Oscar in 2014, and “Cold War” scored three nominations including Best Director.

The reviews are glowing. Critics are calling it “a perfectly cut jewel” and praising cinematographer Łukasz Żal’s gorgeous monochrome work. At just 82 minutes, Pawlikowski keeps it lean and devastating.

For indie cinema lovers, this is the kind of restrained, visually striking filmmaking that reminds you why arthouse matters. Film Forum’s the place to see it first.

Jordan Firstman is bringing his feature directorial debut to San Francisco before it hits theaters nationwide. SFFILM just announced a special 35mm screening of Club Kid at the Castro Theatre on November 2, with Firstman sticking around for a post-screening Q&A.

The film made waves at Cannes before A24 scooped it up. Firstman wrote, directed, and stars as Peter, a New York City club promoter whose party-heavy lifestyle gets flipped upside down when a 10-year-old son he didn’t know existed shows up at his door. The ensemble includes Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Reggie Absolom, and Colleen Camp.

“The anarchic humor, incredible ensemble, and unexpected tenderness make this a distinctive film,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. She called out the needle drops as “thrillingly precise” to the characters and story.

SFFILM Executive Director Anne Lai pointed out the fitting venue. “For decades, gathering to see movies at The Castro has been at the heart of San Francisco’s queer culture and history.”

Tickets go on sale to SFFILM members September 22 at 10 am, with general public access starting September 24. General admission is $35, members pay $30. Club Kid opens in select cities November 6.

A long-lost Michael Apted documentary is coming back. The Long Way Home: Remastered and Expanded drops on major streaming platforms October 20 in the U.S., Canada, and UK.

The film follows Boris Grebenshchikov, the Soviet underground rock icon who became the first Russian artist to record in the West during Glasnost. Shot in the late ’80s, it captures Grebenshchikov working with Dave Stewart, Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, and members of Crosby, Stills & Nash. But it also shows the cost: his longtime band Aquarium felt abandoned, and Russian fans weren’t sure what to make of his English-language material.

The doc premiered at Sundance and aired in the UK decades ago, then vanished. Now producer Steven Lawrence has restored it from the only surviving 16mm print. He and editor Susanne Rostock also added a new epilogue tracking Grebenshchikov’s life after his U.S. album Radio Silence flopped, including his exile and his public criticism of Putin’s war in Ukraine. Apted wanted to make a sequel before his death in 2021. This epilogue is the closest we’ll get.

For indie musicians navigating crossover dreams or political pressure, this one hits close to home. It’s a reminder that freedom and creative risk don’t always pay off the way you hope.

The zombie apocalypse is back, and this time it’s going bigger.

Prime Video just dropped the teaser for Apocalypse Z: New World, the sequel to last year’s surprise international hit. The film hits the platform October 30, right in time for Halloween scares.

Director Carles Torrens returns to expand the post-apocalyptic universe, this time shifting the action to the Canary Islands, Europe’s last refuge after the TSJ virus outbreak. When a supply mission heads to the mainland, things go sideways fast. The crew gets caught between hordes of infected and their own conflicting loyalties.

The ensemble cast includes Carlos Alcaide, Julia Martínez, and Mónica López. Jose María Yazpik reprises his role as Pritchenko, and Berta Vázquez returns as Lucía. Even Pedrito the cat is back, playing fan-favorite Lúculo.

The first film became Prime Video’s most-watched international original movie, second only to Your Fault. That kind of response gave the sequel room to scale up the action and widen the scope.

Before streaming, New World gets its world premiere at Spain’s Sitges Film Festival on October 10, then screens at Screamfest in LA on October 13.

For genre filmmakers grinding away at zombie stories, this franchise proves there’s still appetite for fresh takes on the undead, especially when you lean into character-driven survival drama.

John Wilson just pulled off one of the year’s most impressive theatrical runs.

His feature debut, The History of Concrete, earned $90,000 at a single theater over opening weekend. That makes it the second-biggest opening in IFC Center history, behind only Parasite. It’s also the highest-grossing documentary opening the New York venue has ever seen.

The film, which sits at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, sold out nearly every screening all weekend, including multiple Q&As with Wilson in attendance.

“Young moviegoers turned out in force, leading to multiple sold-out screenings all weekend,” said IFC Center’s Harris Dew.

Magnolia Pictures, the distributor behind the release, hasn’t been shy about making noise. They parked a concrete truck wrapped in the film’s key art outside the theater for the premiere, staged a live Gumbusters demo, and commissioned a 125-pound poster made of actual concrete that now sits in the IFC Center lobby.

This is Magnolia’s second record breaker at IFC Center this year. John Early’s Maddie’s Secret opened to $58,242 over the summer, landing as the theater’s seventh-biggest opener ever.

The film expands to Los Angeles and other cities next weekend, with wider rollout planned for early October. Magnolia is also partnering with the NYC Department of Education to host a free screening for high school students in architecture, construction, and film programs later this month.

Mat Hames has spent more than 20 years chasing stories where history refuses to stay buried. His latest might be his most personal yet.

The Austin documentarian’s new film, Home from the Vietnam War, follows decorated Army Lt. Lee Alley back to Vietnam over 50 years after the war. Joined by his friend John Nguyen, who fled the country as a child, Alley confronts wounds he spent most of his life avoiding. The journey leads to one of the war’s bloodiest battle sites, where Alley comes face to face with the Vietnamese soldiers he once fought.

Home from the Vietnam War premieres at Heartland Film Festival on October 16, then screens at St. Louis International Film Festival on Veterans Day. Wyoming PBS will host a special screening with Lt. Alley and fellow veterans the same day. The film streams November 12 on Wyoming PBS’s YouTube channel before hitting national PBS distribution.

Hames has built a quiet but formidable résumé. His work has aired twice on PBS’s Independent Lens, screened at SXSW and Hot Docs, and earned 12 regional Emmys. He was even knighted by the King of Belgium for his World War II documentary Last Best Hope.

While Home from the Vietnam War starts its run, his mountain guide film A Life Outside wraps its own festival circuit. His next projects include a doc on Texas governor Bill Clements and season three of Power Trip: The Story of Energy.

For indie filmmakers grinding it out, Hames proves longevity beats hype every time.

A house fire in 1989 set Andrew Carroll on a 30-year mission to save war letters from attics and basements across America. Now his story is getting the documentary treatment, and it’s loaded with A-list talent.

“Behind the Lines” drops October 22nd on Amazon, Apple+, and YouTube. The 88-minute film is narrated by four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening, with letter readings from Laura Dern, Michael C. Hall, Gary Cole, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Paul Walter Hauser, DeWanda Wise, and Common.

Director John B. Benitz, a Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize recipient, follows Carroll’s journey through all 50 states and 40 countries, including war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Carroll’s collected over 250,000 war-related letters and emails spanning every U.S. conflict.

The letters themselves are the real stars. A Black Union soldier threatening his former master. A Pearl Harbor sailor describing the attack from inside a sinking ship. A Vietnam vet confessing he’d killed someone. A 9/11 survivor’s handwritten account from Ground Zero.

The release coincides with Carroll’s new campaign, Operation Post War, focused on preserving correspondence from post-9/11 troops and veterans.

For indie docs tackling big subjects, this is how you do it: find the human story, then get out of the way and let the voices speak.