Here is an appealing movie about older people, life-long friends who gather for a reunion where you just know hurtful secrets will slowly creep out. The Palm Beach of the title is a glitzy northern Sydney enclave where the sun unfailingly shines. Director Rachel Ward—a former sultry Hollywood star– populates it with a virtual murderer’s row of durably sparkling acting talent including her husband Bryan Brown, Richard E. Grant, Sam Neill and Greta Scacchi. Expect trials and tribulations at the host’s spectacularly airy beach house and for them to be predictably resolved. Ward and Brown — who met on The Thorn Birds set and have been married for 40 years — discuss their film beforehand on Zoom.

Australia 2019 (100 minutes)

Sponsor: Australian Consulate General San Francisco

An icon of European art films in the swinging ‘60s, Charlotte Rampling has lost none of her hypnotic power onscreen which she displays in this insightful family saga from first-time New Zealand director Matthew J. Saville. Rampling tears into her role of a veteran war photographer famous for her courage and hard drinking. Now wheel-chair bound and afraid to be alone, she moves to New Zealand to be with her son and winds up the ward of her troubled grandson, a task assigned to him as punishment for being expelled from school. You’ll be touched watching these two slowly resolve their intense dislike.

New Zealand 2021 (94 minutes)

British director Georgia Oakley has set her critically praised and quietly searing first feature in the homophobic era of Margaret Thatcher where a Tory peer is heard to proclaim the utter superiority of heterosexual families. Rosy McEwen (of the TV series The Alienist) hits just the right notes suppressing her insecurity and fear as a closeted lesbian teaching at a state school. When a gawky teen arrives in her class the teacher senses her sexuality and must decide whether to defend her and invite schoolroom suspicion.

UK 2023 (97 minutes)

Sponsor: Rachel Herbert and Dana Oppenheim