*Best of 2025* Little, Big, and Far - Director Jem Cohen

Little, Big, and Far hones in on the life and work of Karl, an Austrian astronomer, professor and museum consultant, is at a crossroads in life and work. At 70, he finds his jobs at risk and his physicist wife drifting away. At the same time, environmental instability begins to unsettle the astronomical field itself. His younger colleague Sarah, a specialist in citizen science, begins a relationship with Mateo, a passionate Ecuadorian astronomer. Together, they uncover a remarkable cosmic revelation at a forgotten telescope in New Jersey. As the group contends with personal and planetary tremors, Karl reflects on the Rosetta Mission, his wife’s odyssey through the American South in search of the eclipse, and the disorienting inheritance of a rapidly changing planet. It is in this quiet, expansive terrain—of solitude, wonder, and resistance—that director Jem Cohen has long made his cinematic home. For over 30 years, he has created truly independent, hybrid films, made possible via unorthodox low-budget production strategies. Cohen’s combination of guerrilla filmmaking with a wide-eyed, open-minded appreciation of science has led to a highly unusual film that is at once down-to-earth, deeply political and aesthetically bold. He joins us to talk about his latest stunningly beautiful masterwork, Little, Big, and Far.