Indy Film Library

Wat we achterlaten [The Things We Leave Behind] (2025) – 4 stars Director: May Bresser Writer: May Bresser Cast: Sophie Anne Timman & Kiki Mettler Running time: 15mins I spent the first 26 years of my life in Norfolk, before abruptly upping sticks in early 2017. I’d just run an extremely expensive, extremely poorly attended film festival – and paying off the associated debts required either working night shifts at a mental health home, or crawling back to an earlier role at an insurance call centre.

Wat we achterlaten [The Things We Leave Behind] (2025) – 4 stars

Director: May Bresser Writer: May Bresser Cast: Sophie Anne Timman & Kiki Mettler Running time: 15mins I spent the first 26 years of my life in Norfolk, before abruptly upping sticks in early 2017. I’d just run an extremely…

Human Layers (2025) – 3 stars Director: Fatemeh Zare Running time: 5mins Typically, I refuse to read through a filmmaker’s submission notes before evaluating a film. It should be able to prompt talking points in its audience without an accompanying essay. The fact that Human Layers is one of those films where I will have to break that rule says something in itself. This is an inoffensive short animation which borders on being inconsequential.

"Over the course of its five-minute run-time, Human Layers explores the ways the behaviours of its two central characters differ in the office; when only in each other’s company; and when alone. And the primary response it seems to prompt is yes, and?"

Remembering Avaryl Halley Podcaster and cultural critic Avaryl Halley has passed away, after 18 months of cancer treatment. At this deeply sad time, it is worth looking back on a life cut short, but well lived in the pursuit of sharing joy and insight with the world at every opportunity. MovieBitches had been placed on hiatus after Avaryl was diagnosed with breast cancer, and commenced treatment.

Remembering Avaryl Halley

Podcaster and cultural critic Avaryl Halley has passed away, after 18 months of cancer treatment. At this deeply sad time, it is worth looking back on a life cut short, but well lived in the pursuit of sharing joy and insight with the world at every opportunity.…

I Saw the TV Glow: The 90s as horror and refuge As my spree of Halloween write-ups reaches its end, I Saw the TV Glow seems like the perfect place to leave things. A horror where most of the chills come from an uncanny recognition of parallels between the onscreen/offscreen lives of the characters and our own, it delivers a towering rebuttal to the cynical nihilism which some use to police the tone and content of culture that is ‘acceptable’ to the mainstream.

I Saw the TV Glow: The 90s as horror and refuge

As my spree of Halloween write-ups reaches its end, I Saw the TV Glow seems like the perfect place to leave things. A horror where most of the chills come from an uncanny recognition of parallels between the onscreen/offscreen lives of the characters…

@pranobaileybond.bsky.social Sorry, didn't realise you were on Bluesky or would have tagged you in the original post!

In total agreement there.

Fantasy as reality: the nightmarish world of Censor Prano Bailey-Bond's 2021 horror Censor should be considered a masterpiece of modern horror. Not only for its insights into the violence in our daily ideological fantasies, but for its examination of how the defanging of cultural criticism helps to maintain a society of horrors. In 2017, in another life, I was attempting to found a radical film festival in the east of England.

Prano Bailey-Bond's 2021 horror #Censor should be considered a masterpiece of modern #horror. Not only in its insight of the violence in our daily ideological fantasies, but in its examination of how the defanging of cultural criticism helps to maintain a society of horrors.
#moviereview #filmsky

Our Amsterdam horror showcase was a huge success. If you'd like to see this year's six competition movies, you can find all the films here, along with an Audience Choice voting form: indyfilmlibrary.com/ifl-digital-...
The password is: IFLPLAYER25.

Given the party's refusal to act on Pochin's brazen racism, it should be as socially unacceptable to vote for Reform as it was in the early 2000s to vote for the BNP.

And we should be prepared to say this to people's faces.

Halloween Horror Showcase 2025 Programme & Tickets The below live event has concluded. However, the six new films in competition can still be viewed on IFL’s private digital theatre. Use the password IFLPLAYER25 to access the movies, and to v…

Thank you! For international viewers, the films are now available on our website's theatre page: information is here indyfilmlibrary.com/halloween-ho...
You can also vote for Audience Choice award.

Doing our best! Thanks for the support! <3

Letters forwarded from Hell: The cruel comedy of Phil Tippett’s Mad God Many of the reviews for Mad God inevitably focused on trying to describe one of “the bleakest dystopias science fiction”, as The Hollywood Reporter’s John Defore put it. And in many ways, that is only right: the scope and majesty of Phil Tippett’s masterpiece should be fawned over in as much detail as the film press can afford to print.

"Capitalism has run out of room to expand. When that happens, imperialist adventure abroad, and the creation of hostile, totalitarian grifts at home, are the instinctive reach, in a bloody and brutal race to the bottom."
#madgod #philtippett #animation #filmsky #horror #halloween #review

One week to go until the Amsterdam Halloween Horror Showcase The days are shrinking, the nights are drawing in, and the dark half of the year is almost upon us. As spooky season gets into full swing, our showcase of short horror films is just one week away! …

On the 25th of October, at 17:30 we will present our annual #Halloween #Horror Showcase. You should come see us at #Amsterdam 's Supermercator cultural space! Tickets are still available via the website.

#filmfestival #nederland #movienight #filmsky

Tube Rats: Episode 57 – Halloweenies It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Tube Rats are back to bring you your Halloween fix – and this year Jack, Jimmy and Georgia are scaring themselves silly with four short found-f…

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Tube Rats are back to bring you your #Halloween fix – and this year Jack, Jimmy and Georgia are scaring themselves silly, with four short #foundfootage #horror movies from the vaults.

#podcast #filmsky #moviereview #youtube #mrblobby #blairwitch

‘Alles is OK’ director Felipe Baréa Prado on horror and mental health in cinema Ahead of the Indy Film Library Halloween Horror Showcase on October 25th - tickets still available here - Jack spoke to Felipe Baréa Prado. The director and writer for Alles is OK - a short playing as part of the selection - Felipe explores his artistic process, hopes for the film industry, and the differences between living and working in the Netherlands, and Brazil. You can listen to the whole interview here:

Ahead of the Indy Film Library Halloween Horror Showcase on October 25th, Jack spoke to Felipe Baréa Prado; the director and writer for Alles is OK - a short playing as part of the selection.

Neverending ending: Spinal Tap II is good fan-service but will create few fresh converts Sometimes, old bands find it hard to play the hits: they want to show they still have some of the old magic, when it comes to producing new material. Spinal Tap’s decades-late encore suffers from this impulse, but all is forgiven in the moments when it just gives us what we want: more time in the company of Smalls, Tufnell and St Hubbins.

Neverending ending: Spinal Tap II is good fan-service but will create few fresh converts

Sometimes, old bands find it hard to play the hits: they want to show they still have some of the old magic, when it comes to producing new material. Spinal Tap’s decades-late encore suffers from this impulse,…

The Flourishing of Love (2025) – 3 stars Director: Myra Bax Writer: Myra Bax Cast: Vicu Bazan Szelest &amp; Jasper Koopmans Running time: 5 mins There is a frame of mind that says routine is the mortal enemy of passion. The Flourishing of Love centres on a relationship which seems to prove that, both intentionally and unintentionally – as two apparently star-crossed lovers drift apart over the course of two-dozen bouquets.

"The film is just going through the motions – and after the many years of RuPaul-style advice that have already flooded mainstream messaging, most audiences already love themselves well enough not to be wooed by that."

#filmsky #moviereview #shortfilm #romance #netherlands #flowers

Weapons, and the enduring horror of metaphor 2025 has seen a number of rather facile attempts to suggest the problem with modern horror is it has too much to say about modern life, and – to coin Clarisse Loughrey’s particularly ham-fisted phrase – leave audiences feel like they’ve been “bonked on the head by the metaphor hammer”. But after the jump scares and the superficial stuff fades away, the metaphoric ways the horror touches on our lived reality are the source of the most potent terror of all – as Zach Cregger’s&hellip;

After the jump scares and the superficial stuff fades away, the metaphoric ways horror touches on our lived reality are the source of the most potent terror of all – as Zach Cregger’s Weapons shows.

#filmsky #weapons #review #moviereview

Pretty good, and then some: Jon Bois and the art of the ‘visual article’ At a glance, Jon Bois’ body of work is so eclectic that it’s hard to bind him on even a related group of topics, ranging from political documentaries to deep statistical sports analysis to multi-me…

"At his heart, Bois is essentially an extension of the avant-garde sector of sports-writing which found its home most regularly in baseball." - Charlie Giggle assesses the qualities of cultural critic @jonbois.bsky.social.

Eindwerk [Final Work] (2024) – 4 stars Director: Sando Heijnen Writer: Sando Heijnen, Eli Idsart &amp; Meander van Harrewijen Cast: Manu Zain Carmiggelt &amp; Roman Derwig Running time: 11mins As the years pass, I enjoy more and more how I get to see artists evolve, when they send their follow-up work. But the thing I like most about Eindwerk is not something new, but its commonalities with previous movies from Sando Heijnen.

Eindwerk [Final Work] (2024) – 4 stars

Director: Sando Heijnen Writer: Sando Heijnen, Eli Idsart & Meander van Harrewijen Cast: Manu Zain Carmiggelt & Roman Derwig Running time: 11mins As the years pass, I enjoy more and more how I get to see artists evolve, when they send their follow-up work.…

Indy Film Library and Cinemercator to host Amsterdam anthology of horror shorts Movies by talented six Netherlands-based and three international directors to be screened at Amsterdam’s Supermercator (Mercatorplein 3H, 1057 BX) from 17:30 on October 25th 2025 Partnering with Cinemercator, the event will include Felipe Baréa Prado’s mental health horror ‘Alles is OK’; Lisette Vlassake’s identity-crisis short ‘Onderaards’; and Mart van den Heuvel&hellip;

Indy Film Library and Cinemercator to host Amsterdam anthology of horror shorts

Movies by talented six Netherlands-based and three international directors to be screened at Amsterdam’s Supermercator (Mercatorplein 3H, 1057 BX) from 17:30 on October 25th 2025 Partnering with Cinemercator, the event…

Otets, and a treatise on the composition and conflicts of freedom Otets is billed as a “poetic-philosophical documentary” – and while the trappings of each one of those qualifiers contains a multitude of sticking points, it somehow manages to deliver on all three. That is no small feat, especially when throwing the powder kegs of contemporary European geopolitics, and familial trauma into the mix; so, writer-director Nataliya Golofastova and her team of editors (Srdjan Fink, Anna Bogolubova and Elja de Lange) should first be commended for making anything coherent out of the spiralling mass of footage and testimony before them.

Otets, and a treatise on the composition and conflicts of freedom

Otets is billed as a “poetic-philosophical documentary” – and while the trappings of each one of those qualifiers contains a multitude of sticking points, it somehow manages to deliver on all three. That is no small feat, especially…

MINE – ? (2025) – 3 stars Director: Catherine Forster Running time: 6mins The term ‘Anthropocene’ refers to a theory that in recent centuries, human beings have become the dominant planetary force for change – particularly noting the accelerating geophysical and biochemical changes the atmosphere has undergone in the last 200 years. But while rising global temperatures – and the mass extinction event tied to them – have our fingerprints all over them, the scientific community remains reluctant to confirm this new epoch.

MINE – ? (2025) – 3 stars

Director: Catherine Forster Running time: 6mins The term ‘Anthropocene’ refers to a theory that in recent centuries, human beings have become the dominant planetary force for change – particularly noting the accelerating geophysical and biochemical changes the atmosphere…

The 3rd (2023) – 1.5 stars Director:  Sheldon Armstrong Writers: Sheldon Armstrong Cast: Isaac J. H. Barnes, Ava Azadeh, Justin Basiner, Max Hofmann Running time: 46mins American cinema was obsessed with heist films at …

"The film has some glimpses of interesting ideas. It could evolve in the future, remastered into something fresh and enjoyable. But with its current form, it provokes more negative than positive comments."

#filmsky #moviereview #independentcinema #heistmovies

Pepita (2025) – 4 stars Director: Femke Baeten Writer: Femke Baeten Cast: Lotte Jonker, Claire Schuyffel, Jadore Felter Running time: 19mins With a blank page before me, I am not really sure how to start this review. Instinctively, it feels like I should begin with a disclaimer: the story touches upon a number of themes and events which I have never had to directly experience, so I am out of my depth when speaking about them.

Pepita does an excellent job of making what could be an awkward topic for some accessible, and relatable.

War of the Worlds reflects a studio system desperate to connect with a digital generation With superhero fatigue here to stay, and video games having delivered catastrophic results, Hollywood is openly scrambling to find its next tie-in megatrend. War of the Worlds clearly isn’t it – but it might contain an especially tiresome blueprint, that many more films will deploy in the coming era. In the early 1990s, film producers kicked off development for a film starring Vanilla Ice.

War of the Worlds reflects a studio system desperate to connect with a digital generation

With superhero fatigue here to stay, and video games having delivered catastrophic results, Hollywood is openly scrambling to find its next tie-in megatrend. War of the Worlds clearly isn’t it – but it might…

écht? (2025) – 4 stars Directors: Jonathan Sipkema &amp; Jonathan Bergsma Writers: Jonathan Sipkema &amp; Jonathan Bergsma Cast: Jonathan Bergsma, Eline Bijman Running time: 30mins Clocking in at 30 minutes, écht (which translates as ‘real’) might be the longest music video I’ve ever seen. Following co-writer and director Jonathan Bergsma’s alter ego, ‘Johnny loves me’, the story sees an inability to talk about his feeling steadily distance him from his partner ‘The girl with the orange lipstick’ (Eline Bijman) – in a series of increasingly abstract musical vignettes.

"écht is pushing up against the limitations of experimental cinema to carry an audience with it – especially due to its length. In many places, the running time and format serve to emphasise the things which – for whatever reason – are not there."
#filmreview #filmsky #netherlands #relationships

Knor (2025) – 4 stars Director: Sterre Rutten Writer: Sterre Rutten &amp; Laila Tobi Cast: Laila Tobi Running time: 4mins I have said before that not every film needs to make a subversive point, or have social and historical importance to impress me. Despite arguably playing it safe from a thematic standpoint, director Sterre Rutten’s undeniably sweethearted offering Knor stillmanages to perform well on many other fronts.

"Knor touches on the emotional security blankets we all know, that stay with us through our lives. They not only remind us of the years before we had to worry about rent, or food budgets, or road tax; but stoke warm memories of the moments we were lucky enough to have someone else in our corner."

HUNGER (2023) – 4.5 stars Director: Natalie Spencer Writer: Natalie Spencer Cast: Maribella Piana, Zaira Ceraulo, Tom Spencer Running time: 8mins In the age of the Anthropocene, something which it has become all too easy to forget, is that we do not control nature. It is not our friend, or our enemy – it is not centred on our needs one way or the other.

"In the age of the Anthropocene, something which it has become all too easy to forget, is that we do not control nature. It is not our friend, or our enemy – it is not centred on our needs one way or the other. It is up to us to adapt to it – not the other way around."

#horror #nature #etna #italy

Ties Through Taste (2025) – 2.5 stars Director: Handy Mulya Erlangga Writer: Handy Mulya Erlangga Cast: Septiani Samba, Abu Firaz, Dhita Hayu Cahyani &amp; Frinka Maria Ambara Running time: 5mins Audiences are willing to suspend their disbelief for the right story, and the best independent animations recognise this. Films like Vestige are a great example; they find creative ways to economise on their motion, or their backdrops, and instead centre the time and energy of their animators to foreground details that bring the most emotional impact.

"Ties Through Taste is still head and shoulders about the flaccid, lifeless sewage that AI ‘animation’ continues to produce; so I would beg the director not to be dispirited by what I have said. There is clear potential here. But it needs to be channelled in the right way."