Art in Recent Films – Partnerships, Heists, and a Day in the Life of a Photographer
Films about the art world released in 2025, in cinemas or on streaming platforms, explore successful partnerships and collaborations in collapse, heists, and the hope that art can still save us. Most of these productions have demonstrated a fresh cinematic vision of the subject.
Curatorial has selected five feature films that are a must-see.
The Mastermind
“The Mastermind,” directed by Kelly Reichardt, centers on a failed architect who pulls off a heist at an art museum.
In 1970, James Blaine Mooney and his accomplices walk into a museum in broad daylight and steal four paintings. When keeping the artworks proves more difficult than stealing them, Mooney is sentenced to a life on the run.
”The Mastermind”
The feature film, starring Josh O’Connor, Sterling Thompson, and Alana Haim, was released in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, received two nominations at the Gotham Awards, among others, and was selected by the National Board of Review as one of the ten best independent films of the year.
Peter Hujar’s Day
The docudrama directed by Ira Sachs recreates a 1974 conversation between the photographer Peter Hujar (played by Ben Whishaw) and Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall). It sheds light on the dynamic artistic world of downtown New York and on an artist’s introspection.
Ben Whishaw, in „Peter Hujar’s Day”
The film is based on an interview conducted by Rosenkrantz for an unrealized book idea about artists and their lives.
Hujar tries to recall in meticulous detail telephone conversations, meetings with friends, a photo shoot with Allen Ginsberg, and the making of a sandwich. The film has been praised as an elegant, elegiac testament to artists and to the way every moment—whether fulfilled or not—can fuel creativity or connection.
Auction/ Le tableau volé
In “Auction / Le tableau volé,” a modern art specialist played by Alex Lutz receives a letter claiming that a painting by Egon Schiele has been discovered in Mulhouse. He learns that the work had been missing since 1939, and the discovery puts his career at risk.
Alex Lutz, in „Le tableau volé”
Directed by Pascal Bonitzer, the feature film is an amusing satire of manners and of the Machiavellian tactics to which auction houses resort in order to secure the highest bid.
Traffic
Focusing more closely on the situation of Romanians who have gone abroad to work, the film „Traffic/ Jaful secolului”, written by Cristian Mungiu and directed by Teodora Ana Mihai, is inspired by a true story—the theft in 2012 of seven valuable works of art from the Kunsthal Rotterdam by a group of Romanians.
Anamaria Vartolomei, in „Traffic/ Jaful secolului”
Mungiu kept the incident from 13 years ago as his starting point, but the characters are fictional, focusing on the theme of migration, how Romanians feel when treated abroad, and how the value of a Paul Gauguin painting, for example, is incomprehensible to those who work for little money.
”Traffic”, Romania’s entry for the 2026 Oscars in the “Best International Feature Film” category, won the Audience Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival, the Balkan Film Award (for best film in the Balkan competition) at the Sofia International Film Festival, the Grand Prix at the Warsaw International Film Festival (2024), the Grand Prix and the Best Actress Award (Anamaria Vartolomei) at the Tokyo International Film Festival (2024). In January 2026, the feature film will be presented at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Four Letters of Love
An Irish love story, full of drama and fantasy, “Four Letters of Love” centers on a painting that is only revealed to the viewer at the end.
Pierce Brosnan, in ”Four Letters of Love”
Pierce Brosnan plays the role of a civil servant who one day discovers that he is meant to paint. Through a competition (and a series of circumstances), the only painting that survives ends up with the Gore family, thanks to a poem written by Muiris, played by Gabriel Byrne, a teacher and poet.
Nicholas and Isabel, their children, are made for each other, but how will they ever find out? The cast is rounded out by Helena Bonham Carter, Donal Finn, and Ann Skelly. Directed by Polly Steele, the film is based on Niall Williams’ best-selling novel of the same name.
