Best movies like Festival

Muffin's wedding to Dino Corelli is to be a big affair. Except the ageing priest isn't too sure of the ceremony, only the families actually turn up as the Corelli Italian connection is suspect, security guards watch the gifts rather over-zealously, and Dino's grandma expires in bed just as the reception starts. Could be quite an occasion.

Bob returns home for his mother’s funeral knowing that he must fulfill a promise made 30 years earlier—to care for his younger brother DJ, who is schizophrenic. When Bob eventually takes over responsibility for his younger brother’s well-being, he embarks upon the most difficult challenge of his life.

The death of the Kimbrough family matriarch affects the three male survivors of the clan. Widower Easy tries to reconnect with his old flame, Marg. Eldest son and struggling musician Guy moves back to town, feeling guilty that he missed the funeral. His brother, Beagle, who was his mother's caretaker, falls for Marg's granddaughter, Georgia, a chronically ill girl who fears her time is growing short.

During a writing slump, playwright J.M. Barrie meets a widow and her four children, all young boys—who soon become an important part of Barrie’s life and the inspiration that lead him to create his masterpiece. Peter Pan'.

Louis, a terminally ill writer, returns home after a long absence to tell his family that he is dying.

A myriad of outrageous calamities befalls an eccentric English clan with more than a few skeletons in its closets when the family's patriarch dies an unexpected death.

When their father passes away, four grown, world-weary siblings return to their childhood home and are requested -- with an admonition -- to stay there together for a week, along with their free-speaking mother and a collection of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. As the brothers and sisters re-examine their shared history and the status of each tattered relationship among those who know and love them best, they reconnect in hysterically funny and emotionally significant ways.

Successful writer and scholar Jonathan Merrick falls under the spell of the irresistible, bewitchingly beautiful Ligeia. She's fighting a fatal illness and she will stop at nothing to defeat death, her one true enemy.

A mother and daughter dispute is resolved by the "Yaya sisterhood" - long time friends of the mother.

Suffering from acute kidney failure, Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave—the birthplace of his first life.

As the denizens of a Tibetan village prepare for their arduous annual trek to exchange salt for grain, the community's allegiances are split between aging chieftain Tinle (Thilen Lhondup) and rebellious young Karma (Gurgon Kyap). Tinle tries to maintain his clout and preserve obedience to ancient customs when Karma challenges the old man's power.

A lawyer tries to prove her mother's innocence and uncover the secrets of a small village with the help of the local mayor. Her mother was accused of murder after the rice wine was poisoned at her husband's funeral, but she is suffering from memory loss and cannot defend herself.

After the death of Lama Dorje, Tibetan Buddhist monks find three children — one American and two Nepalese — who may be the rebirth of their great teacher.

A neurotic, twice-divorced sci-fi writer moves back in with his mother to solve his personal problems.

A group of college friends are reunited after the death of their very successful friend. The will dictates that each person will receive a large sum of money if they can all successfully stay in his mansion for a week. If one person leaves, everyone forfeits the money.

When famed photographer Christina Eames dies unexpectedly, she leaves her estranged daughter, Mae, hurt, angry and full of questions. When Mae finds a photograph tucked away in a safe-deposit box, she soon finds herself delving into her mother's early life -- an investigation that leads to an unexpected romance with a rising journalist.

Hard-drinking novelist Dave Hirsh returns home after being gone for years. His brother wants Dave to settle down and introduces him to English teacher Gwen French. Moody Dave resents his brother and spends his days hanging out with Bama Dillert, a professional gambler who parties late into the night. Torn between the admiring Gwen and Ginny Moorehead, an easy woman who loves him, Dave grows increasingly angry.

Residents of the small town of Peyton Place aren't pleased when they realize they're the characters in local writer Allison MacKenzie's controversial first novel. A sequel to the hit 1957 film.

When old Mr. Park dies, his first son Chan-Wu, a film director, and his troublesome daughter Mi-Seon hurriedly come back to their rural hometown, and third son Chan-Se comes back to Korea from America. As the quiet country village gets busy preparing funeral, the house in mourning becomes a meeting place where villagers gather to ask how they are getting along and meet old friends. The children mourn their father's death and above all Mi-Seon, who caused her parents a lot of grief, can't stop crying. Chan-Wu, the chief mourner, has a revelation about his career, and Chan-Se prepares to sing hymns for the Confucian funeral service. Old Man Park's sister sells insurance products and gradually the funeral service becomes for the living rather then the dead.

On Ironbound Island, native Fiona McKay arrives from Europe with her teenage daughter Clair, hoping that the peace of the island will help the girl get over the death of her boyfriend. The girl finds comfort in the company of a visiting American girl and more so in the stories of Celia, a crazy old local who weaves enchanting tales which cleverly combine her own experiences on the island with mystifying legends.

When New York attorney Gordon Hocheiser meets Louise Callan, the girl of his dreams, he schemes to eliminate his aging, senile mother, even though he promised his late father that he'd always take care of her. He fears that his batty mom's eccentricities will shortly lead to Louise's departure.

A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.

David, a struggling comedy writer fresh off from breaking up with his boyfriend, moves from New York City to Sacramento to help his sick mother. Living with his conservative father and much-younger sisters for the first time in ten years, he feels like a stranger in his childhood home. As his mother’s health declines, David frantically tries to extract meaning from this horrible experience and convince everyone (including himself) that he's "doing okay.”

Toward the end of his life F. Scott Fitzgerald is writing for Hollywood studios to be able to afford the cost of an asylum for his wife. He is also struggling against alcoholism. Into his life comes the famous gossip columnist.

After spending 20 years in America, aging widower Marko Sekulovic (Karl Malden) returns to his Yugoslavian homeland to take care of his two young grandchildren. But Marko's quiet life is in for a shake up when he meets the pretty new village schoolteacher, Lana (Jodi Thelen). Malden pays tribute to his Yugoslav heritage in this affecting 1982 drama.

Pedro returns home to a small mountain village in Guerrero, Mexico after years of working in the US. He finds his daughters older, and more distant than he imagined. His wife still has the same smile. Having saved some earnings from two trips to the US, he hopes to now finally make a better life with his family, and even to pursue his dreams on the side by starting a band: Copa Kings. He cherishes the everyday moments with his family. The villagers think this year's crop will be bountiful. There is also good work in a growing city an hour away. But the locals are wise to a life of insecurity, and their thoughts are often of family members or opportunities far away, north of the border. While working in the fields, Pedro meets and begins to mentor a teenager who dreams of the US. That place somehow always feels very present, practically knocking at the door. "Aquí y Allá" is a story about hope, and the memories and loss of what we leave behind.

In a Yorkshire mining town, three educated brothers return to their blue-collar home to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of their parents, but dark secrets come to the fore.

Jason and his wife, Sarah, leave their adopted home of Shanghai and travel to Vancouver, British Columbia, for his uncle's funeral, staying with his Aunt Mei. Already disoriented, Jason and Sarah are unnerved when their son, Sam, begins seeing ghosts and violent deaths. After Sam is hospitalized, Sarah consults with a pharmacist who's well-informed about Chinese mythology and who tells her that supernatural forces threaten her son.

Filmed over twenty years, Tibetan Buddhist Master Choogyal Namkhai Norbu watches as his western-born son, Yeshi, who was recognized at birth as the reincarnation of a famous spiritual master, considers departing from tradition to embrace the modern world.

True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Hong Sang-Soo’s Lost in the Mountains (South Korea, 32min) the visitor is the supremely self-centred Mi-Sook, who drives to Jeonju on impulse to see her classmate Jin-Young – only to discover that her friend is having an affair with their married professor, who Mi-Sook once dated herself. The level of social embarrassment goes off the scale. In Naomi Kawase’s Koma (Japan, 34min), Kang Jun-Il travels to a village in rural Japan to honour his grandfather’s dying wish by returning a Buddhist scroll to its ancestral home. Amid ancient superstitions, a new relationship forms. And in Lav Diaz’ Butterflies Have No Memories (Philippines, 42min) ‘homecoming queen’ Carol returns to the economically depressed former mining town she came from – and becomes the target of an absurd kidnapping plot hatched by resentful locals. Serving as his own writer, cameraman and editor, Diaz casts the film entirely from members of his crew and delivers a well-seasoned mix of social realism and fantasy. —bfi

A young man returns to the family farm after being gone for six years. But it is not until he fights shoulder to shoulder with his father to save the farm from a flood that his father finally forgives him for leaving.

Returning home for the funeral of her grandmother, seventeen-year-old Ariadna must cross the unspoiled Georgian countryside to connect her grandmother’s soul with her resting body in an ancient burial custom. Traversing this exhausting and raw terrain, Ariadna is forced to confront the impact that the complex, sometimes cruel matriarch had on her not-so-distant childhood.

Stefan invites his daughter, Jennifer, to travel to Romania for the funeral of his mother. His mystic girlfriend Liz travels with them to the cursed village of Pelosoara, where they are welcomed by Stefan's brother Vladimir, and Jennifer finds the locals are very peculiar people. Jennifer learns that she is the only woman from the bloodline of her father. At the funeral a stranger approaches and asks Jennifer to meet him in the square in one hour. When Jennifer arrives at the meeting place, she sees a creature devouring the man she was there to meet and is saved by Thomas. The man tells her that he is the last druid on Earth, protecting the world against the evil ancients. They were defeated by the druids in the past and banished to the spiritual world. That night, there was to be a reclamation ceremony where the evil queen possesses a vessel to open a vortex between the spiritual and the real world to bring the ancients back to Earth...

A woman believes she is beginning to lose her mind when she begins seeing ghosts and spirits.