We asked filmmakers and friends of Films We Like to pick a favourite from our catalogue, and tell us why.
Atom Egoyan picks1999 · Ron Mann
“Sometimes the smallest subjects hold the most. A film that finds revelation in what we walk past every day—not through metaphor but through pure observation. Patient, attentive, asking nothing but that you look. The kind of work that reminds you why cinema matters: it can make you see the world differently, starting now.”
Atom Egoyan picks1992 · Guy Maddin
“A film about precision in a careless world. Every frame, every sound, every gesture placed with intention. It rewards the same attention it demands. For viewers who understand that cinema at its best is a conversation between filmmaker and audience—and that conversation requires care from both sides.”
Atom Egoyan picks2026 · Marine Atlan
“An obsession with form, rendered as cinema. La Gradiva moves through layers of desire, art, and the spaces between reality and imagination with the precision of someone who understands that the best stories are the ones we project onto. Aesthetically rigorous, psychologically complex. For viewers drawn to work that trusts suggestion over statement.”
Guy Maddin picks2026 · Sandra Wollner
“A film that understands restraint the way most films understand spectacle. What grabs you isn't the plot machinery but the spaces between—the look held a beat too long, the silence that says more than dialogue ever could. It's the kind of movie that sticks around after the credits because it doesn't feel obligated to explain itself. There's real craft in that. The performances sit quiet and true. Recommended for people who think the best films trust their audience.”
Guy Maddin picks1994 · Larry Weinstein
“Weill's music lives in that rare space where sophistication and gut feeling meet. These songs carry the weight of exile, the precision of German composition, and something genuinely human underneath—not sentimental, just true. September Songs captures what makes his work endure: you can hear the wit, the melancholy, the formal control, all at once. It's for people who know that the best popular music is often the most intelligent music. A document of something that mattered, played by people who understand why it still does.”
Guy Maddin picks2026 · Rubika Shah
“History doesn't need dramatizing when you look at it straight. This film does that—unflinching, specific, refusing the easy move. It's the kind of work that sits with you because it doesn't perform its gravity; it just states it. The filmmaking serves the subject without competing with it. Essential viewing for anyone who thinks cinema has a responsibility to bear witness clearly, without ornament.”
Guy Maddin picks2026 · Sabine Lidl
“Hustvedt has always known that the self is not a fixed thing—it moves, contradicts, performs, hides. This film lets that philosophy breathe through movement and language, never settling into easy answers. It's an intellectual work that feels alive, not locked in a lecture. For viewers who think the best documentaries don't explain their subjects so much as inhabit them. A portrait of a mind in motion.”