Ab Film Review & The Last New Wave

One of the standout films from the 2026 batch of Flickerfest shorts has been Damien Power's docu-drama Return of the Champ. With this excellent hybrid experience, the stand up comedian turned director spins the cameras on his relationship with his brother, Will Power, a world champion and Indy 500 winner, who spins a story about a crash that he once witnessed. It's a story that Damien hadn't heard before, and within Return of the Champ he utilises that story to explore sibling rivalry, masculinity, and what it means to be vulnerable or open with one another.If I'm painting the film to be a deep experience, the rest assured, it definitely is. What Damien has crafted here is something that will stick with me for quite a while, with the resulting film creating a fascinating and memorable nexus points of the quiet space of ocker comedy, reserved masculinity, loud cars, laughter at stand up comedy gigs, and frustration about fathers. There's a lot going on under the hood of this flick, with the film simmering alon