Two very different but truly nuanced films screening at this year’s New York Film Festival are taking on many themes, including society’s rush to judgment and the punishment that follows when one does not capitulate to what is expected. Both are International Feature Oscar submissions. Fjord (Romania’s entry) and Rose (Austria’s selection).
Fjord
Inspired by a true story and winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Cristian Mungiu’s mesmerizing drama, Fjord, is easily one of the best films of 2026 and a front-runner for the Best International Feature Oscar (along with La Bola Negra) as well as a potential Best Picture candidate.
The film boasts remarkable performances, especially from an unrecognizable Sebastian Stan and a deliberately understated Renate Reinsve, who play Mihai and Lisbet Gheorghiu, an Evangelical Christian couple, Romanian and Norwegian respectively, with five children who move from Romania to Norway.
The new and proudly progressive yet remote community they now live in have little tolerance for religion, especially the fervent kind. When one of the daughters shows up at school with bruises on her body, the teachers are quick to assume abuse and immediately call Child Services, who barely investigate before they take all five kids away from their parents, completely upending their lives.
But the story isn’t as simple as one might think and the brilliance of this masterful film is that you can’t trust any of your judgments as the narrative unfolds, because each time you feel sure or indignant or outraged by something there’s a new wrinkle introduced. And just when you think you’re on the right side, it flips again. There are no easy right or wrong answers. That the film exists right now when our society seems to only see things in one extreme way or another is a miracle.
Besides the sublime work of Stan and Reinsve, special mention goes out to Henrikke Lund Olsen as wild child Noora as well as Lisa Carlehed as Mia a friend of the Gheorghiu’s who agrees to be their attorney in both the civil and criminal cases (yes, criminal charges are incredulously brought against the couple).
As someone who was smacked around quite a bit by his father as a child, I have mixed feelings about parents hitting their children. But the idea that they could be jailed for it is pretty outrageous. Yet as a proud gay man, I think teaching your children that gay people are going to hell is an even worse form of abuse.
Fjord is easily one of my fave films of 2026 and will likely be one of its most talked-about.
Rose
Markus Schleinzer’s Rose won Sandra Hüller the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at this year’s Berlinale. And when you see the film there’s no denying it’s a commanding turn, always beguiling to behold in its unapologetically defiant, yet thoughtful, portrait of a woman figuring out her identity in a world that demands capitulation to patriarchal norms.
The chilly and sometimes chilling film, shot in stark black and white, is set in rural Germany, right after the Thirty Years’ War, in the 17th century, and is focused on the titular character, a woman who fought in the war as a man, and has now completely taken on the identity of one of her fellow soldiers who died during the war. She journeys to his village claiming to be the heir of a long-abandoned farmstead, with documents to prove it.
Rose (the surname she uses) is allowed to take ownership of the farm, though suspicion in the village remains. But she (as he) shows them just how hardworking she is, and they come around—especially after she slaughters a bear.
But greed soon overtakes Rose and in order to secure more land, she agrees to marry Suzanna (Caro Braun), the daughter of a neighbor. A bee sting changes the course of her life and Rose is able to finally unburden herself of her secret, but with dire consequences.
Schleinzer’s work here is reminiscent of Von Trier and Haneke in its depiction of fearmongering villagers. I especially appreciated the hopeless elegance of the work, even when the film meandered.
What always had me entranced was Hüller character immersion, disfigured face, abrupt PTSD body movements— she never tried to deepen her voice, yet she was totally believable as a man.
This is yet another film that shows the intolerance of a patriarchal community that feels betrayed by a woman simply trying to find some independence.
Watch my VIDEO chat with Hüller.
Fjord will be released in theaters October 9, 2026, by NEON.
Rose is set for release in the U.S., via MUBI, on December 11, 2026.
Both Fjord and Rose are screening at this year’s New York Film Festival. TIX/MORE INFO
