Starting the year with Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a wonderful choice by Mubi. It’s also a great opportunity to discover the restoration of Touki Bouki, a visually stunning film that more than deserves its place among the world’s greatest masterpieces.

Premieres in the Spotlight

Or Something

Directed by Jeff Scotti Schroeder, 2025

Date: December 31, 2025

Synopsis: Two strangers show up at the same Brooklyn apartment to collect cash they’re both owed. Forced to spend the day together on a journey through New York City, the pair reveal intimate details about their lives. One of them happens to be hiding a harrowing secret. Co-written by lead actors Mary Neely and Kareem Rahma, the film had its World Premiere at the inaugural Downtown Festival in New York.

Plainclothes

Directed by Carmen Emmi, 2025

Date: January 16, 2026

Synopsis: A promising undercover agent assigned to lure and arrest gay men defies professional orders when he falls in love with a target. Carmen Emmi’s directorial debut stars Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey. Plainclothes had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast.

The classics arriving

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Directed by Céline Sciamma, 2019

Date: January 1, 2026

Synopsis: In late 18th-century France, painter Marianne is commissioned by a countess to paint the wedding portrait of her daughter Héloïse. While posing as her hired companion, Marianne is instructed to complete the portrait in secret. However, intimacy and attraction begin to blossom between both women. The film premiered in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, where it won Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm

Touki Bouki

Directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1973

Date: January 30, 2026 (Exclusively on MUBI)

Synopsis: In 1970s Senegal, disaffected young lovers Anta and Mory, fed up with Dakar, long to escape to the glamour and comforts they imagine France has to offer. But their plan is confounded by obstacles both practical and mystical. Touki Bouki screened at Cannes in 1973 and was featured on Sight and Sound’s 2022 Greatest Films of All Time list.