Sundance Audience Award winner ‘Hold Onto Me’ comes to West Newton Cinema Monday

The Cypriot film “Hold Onto Me,” winner of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, has its East Coast premiere Monday, May 4, at 7 p.m. at the West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington St. The screening is part of the Belmont World Film’s 24th International Film Series, “Thicker Than Water.” It will be followed immediately by a Q&A with director Myrsini Aristidou, recorded especially for Belmont World Film, as well as a live discussion led by film critic and filmmaker Tim Jackson and psychotherapist Suzanne Boucher.

The film stars Christos Passalis (Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth”) as a father estranged from his family, who returns to Cyprus for his own father’s funeral. It’s summer, and his 11-year-old daughter Iris is running wild through the streets and beaches with her older friend Danae. Determined to know him, Iris tracks him down to a dilapidated shipyard, where he’s been keeping to himself. What begins as a stubborn attempt to reconnect slowly unfolds into a fragile bond. The film is in Greek with English subtitles.

Tickets for “Hold Onto Me” and other films in the series are available in advance online, with remaining seats sold at the door at the West Newton Cinema.

Individual tickets are $14 in advance with no fees and $16 at the door. Passports, which can be shared with one other person, provide admission to eight films for $96, and memberships that include tickets or passports plus benefits such as free ticket exchanges are also available. Tickets and passes are half-price for EBT, WIC and ConnectorCare cardholders. For tickets or more information, visit belmontworldfilm.org or call 617-484-3980.