ODE TO JOY
EUROPEAN CINEFEST SAN FRANCISCO
Nov 7 – 9, 2025
Italian Cultural San Francisco @INNOVIT, Alliance Française, Delancey St Screening Room
Organized by the EU Office in San Francisco in collaboration with European Consulates and Cultural Institutes, the first European Film Festival of San Francisco, Ode to Joy: European CineFest San Francisco, celebrates the joy of storytelling and Europe’s diversity on the big screen — a three-day cinematic journey through the continent’s cultures, languages, and emotions.
Free public event with reservation required.
PROGRAM
Friday, November 7 | 5:30 PM | Italian Cultural Institute, 710 Sansome St
DIAMANTI
Italy, 2024, 135 min
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Cast: Luisa Ranieri, Jasmine Trinca, Stefano Accorsi, Luca Barbarossa
In Italian with English subtitles
A director gathers his favorite actresses — those he has worked with and loved. He wants to make a film about women but reveals little: he observes them, takes inspiration from them, until his imagination transports them to another era, a past where the hum of sewing machines fills a workshop run and inhabited by women, and where men play only small, marginal roles. Here, cinema can be told from another perspective — that of costume. Between loneliness, passion, anxiety, pain, and unbreakable bonds, reality and fiction blend together, just as the actresses’ lives intertwine with those of their characters, competition with sisterhood, and the visible with the invisible.
Watch the trailer
Saturday, November 8 | 11:30 AM | Alliance Française, 1345 Bush St
BECOMING ASTRID
Sweden, 2018, 163 min
Director: Pernille Fischer Christensen
Cast: Alba August, Maria Bonnevie, Trine Dyrholm
In Swedish and Danish with English subtitles
A biographical film about Astrid Lindgren, creator of Pippi Longstocking. Astrid faces a series of life challenges stemming from her humble beginnings. Through her personal and professional journey, the film also reflects on the role of women in Europe between the two World Wars and portrays one of Sweden’s most beloved writers of the 20th century.
Watch the trailer
Saturday, November 8 | 2:00 PM | Alliance Française, 1345 Bush St
LES CHORISTES (The Chorus)
France, 2004, 97 min
Director: Christophe Barratier
Cast: Gérard Jugnot, François Berléand, Kad Merad
In French with English subtitles
A touching story about Clément Mathieu, an unemployed musician who becomes a supervisor at a boarding school for troubled boys. Despite the harsh discipline of the headmaster, he forms a choir with the students and, through music, transforms their lives — offering them hope, trust, and a new sense of freedom.
Watch the trailer
Saturday, November 8 | 6:30 PM | Italian Cultural Institute, 710 Sansome St
THE SOUTHERN CHRONICLES
Lithuania, 2025, 121 min
Director: Ignas Miskinis
Cast: Dziugas Grinys, Robertas Petraititis, Digna Kulionyte
In Lithuanian with English subtitles
The Southern Chronicles follows Rimants, a young man more interested in rugby, music, and black-market deals than studying. When he falls in love with Monika, his faith in love and the future is put to the test.
Watch the trailer
Sunday, November 9 | 12:00 PM | Delancey St Screening Room, 600 The Embarcadero
FLOW – A WORLD TO SAVE
Latvia, 2024, animation, 85 min
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
In a world where humans seem to have disappeared, a massive flood upends life on Earth. A solitary cat, used to independence, is swept away by the waters and must find a way to survive — learning that he cannot do so alone.
Watch the trailer
Sunday, November 9 | 2:00 PM | Delancey St Screening Room, 600 The Embarcadero
TOVE
Finland, 2020, 103 min
Director: Zaida Bergroth
Cast: Alma Pöysti, Krista Kosonen, Shanti Roney
In Swedish with English subtitles
Tove tells the story of Finnish artist Tove Jansson, beloved creator of the Moomins. Set in postwar Helsinki, the film follows her pursuit of artistic and personal freedom, her passion for painting, the creation of her iconic characters, and her complex love affair with theater director Vivica Bandler. It’s an intimate portrait of a woman striving to assert her creativity and identity in a changing world.
Watch the trailer
Sunday, November 9 | 4:00 PM | Delancey St Screening Room, 600 The Embarcadero
LISTEN TO THE LAND SPEAK: A JOURNEY OF RETURN
Ireland, 2025, documentary, 27 min
Director: Maurice O’Brien
Cast: Manchán Magan
Listen to the Land Speak follows Irish author and documentarian Manchán Magan as he explores the wisdom and spiritual knowledge embedded in Ireland’s landscapes and myths — from rivers to mountains, from Winter Solstice to Samhain — revealing how reconnecting with these stories can help rebuild our relationship with nature. Along the way, his personal health struggle gives the journey a deeply human layer of reflection.
Sunday, November 9 | 5:30 PM | Delancey St Screening Room, 600 The Embarcadero
ZWEI ZU EINS (Two to One)
Germany, 2024, 120 min
Director: Natja Brunckhorst
Cast: Sandra Hüller, Max Riemelt, Ronald Zehrfeld
In German with English subtitles
Set in the summer of 1990, just before German reunification, a group of childhood friends in East Germany discover a bunker full of DDR marks soon to become worthless. Together with their neighbors, they hatch a daring plan to use the money to buy Western goods before the currency loses its value. But their sudden fortune tests their friendships, values, and ability to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
Watch the trailer
Sunday, November 9 | 7:45 PM | Delancey St Screening Room, 600 The Embarcadero
I’M NOT EVERYTHING I WANT TO BE
Czech Republic, 2024, documentary, 90 min
Director: Klára Tasovská
Cast: Libuše Jarcovjáková
In Czech with English subtitles
This documentary portrays the life of Czech photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková, who documented her quest for freedom, identity, and belonging through thousands of photos and diary entries during the communist era. Blending visual autobiography and narration, the film explores her years in Prague’s queer underground, her moves to Berlin and Tokyo, and her return after the fall of the Berlin Wall — an intimate reflection on art, the body, desire, and the courage to be oneself.
Watch the trailer