We’ve got a packed lineup of film coverage for you this week! The 2021 Sundance Film Festival was held online, and we reviewed some of the most notable movies to keep your eye on for the rest of the year. Similarly, the virtual edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam is now in progress, and the Animation First Festival begins soon. Enjoy!

Multiple films at Rotterdam this year coalesced around ideas of resistance, exploring landscapes and people’s relationships with them, or often both at once. I looked at some of the highlights.

This weekend also marks the beginning of the 2021 Animation First Festival. Hosted by the French Institute Alliance Française, it presents the best of both recent and historical French animated work. Christopher Inoa dives into the roster.

And Japan Society is launching a retrospective of films made in Japan since the dawn of the new century. Ren Scateni rounds up the program.

For this week’s streaming column, we’ve spotlighted the terrific Afrofuturism series currently available on the Criterion Channel.

Anthology Film Archives has kicked off Anarchism on Film, a new program dedicated to movies about the oft-misunderstood political philosophy. It includes various documentaries and narrative works from everyone from Ken Loach to Peter Watkins.

Our editor-in-chief Hrag Vartanian wrote about Egg Cream, a new short film tribute to New York’s classic drink, and how it explores the history of downtown Jewish life.

I’ve long enjoyed the work of Philosophy Tube. Abigail Thorn finds ways to make philosophical ideas and subjects accessible, often via wonderfully imaginative ways. In her most recent video, she both comes out as transgender and uses the works of Descartes, Audre Lorde, and more to examine the nature of identity. And she embodies these ideas by having a cis male actor perform the role of her closeted self, demonstrating literally the performance of gender.

Until we can see you in the theater again, stay safe!