The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF), presented by Artemis Rising Foundation, announced its full lineup. The 33rd edition of the festival, which runs October 3 – 13, 2025, will present a curated lineup of narrative and documentary films, features and shorts, spanning from around the globe. The 33rd edition of the festival will feature a lineup of films with 85 features and 57 shorts with 12 World Premieres, 8 North American Premieres, 21 US Premieres, 20 East Coast Premieres, and 27 New York Premieres.
2025 Hamptons International Film Festival Lineup:
OPENING NIGHT FILM
ETERNITY
dir. David Freyne (USA), 2025
U.S. Premiere
In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with (Miles Teller) and her first love (Callum Turner), who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive. An A24 Films release.
UBS BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR SPECIAL SCREENING
SORRY, BABY
dir. Eva Victor (USA), 2025
Something bad happened to Agnes. But life goes on… for everyone around her, at least. When a beloved friend visits on the brink of a major milestone, Agnes starts to realize just how stuck she’s been, and begins to work through how to move forward. An A24 Films release.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
*Based on nine competitions in 2024: The Irish Whiskey Masters, IWSC, ISC, BTI, SFWSC, NY World Wine & Spirits Competition, Singapore World Spirits Competition, Luxury Masters, and World Whiskies Awards
MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG
dir. Maria Friedman (USA), 2025
World Premiere
In a bold new cinematic presentation of the Tony Award®-winning musical filmed across multiple performances during its sold-out run in July 2024, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG invites audiences into the heart of the beloved story—not just watching it unfold, but inhabiting it. Spanning two decades, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG traces the complex, often heartbreaking unravelling of a once-unbreakable friendship between composer Franklin Shepard (Jonathan Groff) and his two closest friends—playwright-lyricist Charley (Daniel Radcliffe) and writer Mary (Lindsay Mendez). But this is no ordinary story. Told in reverse, the story winds backwards through time, beginning in fractured adulthood and journeying back to the bright-eyed optimism of youth—when everything still seemed possible. Long considered a cult classic ahead of its time, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG features some of Stephen Sondheim’s most personal and piercing songs. Shot with intimacy and immediacy, this film places viewers on stage and inside the action, offering a deeply immersive experience that reveals the emotional truth of the piece in a way no theatre seat ever could. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
CENTERPIECE FILM
CHRISTY
dir. David Michôd (USA), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Christy Martin (Emmy Award® nominee Sydney Sweeney) never imagined life beyond her small-town roots in West Virginia—until she discovered a knack for knocking people out. Fueled by grit, raw determination, and an unshakable desire to win, she charges into the world of boxing under the guidance of her trainer and manager-turned-husband, Jim (Ben Foster). But while Christy flaunts a fiery persona in the ring, her toughest battles unfold outside it—confronting family, identity, and a relationship that just might become life-or-death. Based on remarkable true events, CHRISTY is a story of resilience, courage, and the fight to reclaim one’s life. Sweeney’s transformative performance showcases her deep commitment to her craft, earning the HIFF 2025 Achievement in Acting award. A Black Bear Pictures release.
SPOTLIGHT FILMS
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
© 2025 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
AFTER THE HUNT
dir. Luca Guadagnino (USA), 2025
In this gripping psychological drama, a college professor (Academy Award® winner Julia Roberts) finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Emmy Award® winner Ayo Edebiri, The Bear) makes an accusation against one of her colleagues and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light. Director Luca Guadagnino (CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, CHALLENGERS) returns to HIFF with this shrewd and titillating story written by Nora Garrett, featuring all-star supporting cast including Andrew Garfield, Chloë Sevigny, and Michael Stuhlbarg. An Amazon MGM Studios release.
BLUE MOON
dir. Richard Linklater (USA), 2025
On the evening of March 31, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardi’s bar as his former collaborator Richard Rodgers celebrates the opening night of his groundbreaking hit musical “Oklahoma!”. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
Credit: Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
BUGONIA
dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (UK), 2025
East Coast Premiere
Academy Award® winner Emma Stone (LA LA LAND) and nominee Jesse Plemons (THE POWER OF THE DOG) star in this explosive psychological thriller about a high-powered pharmaceutical CEO (Stone) who gets kidnapped by two conspiracy-obsessed young men (Plemons and newcomer Aidan Delbis). Convinced she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth, the pair hold her hostage in hopes of disrupting her sinister plans. Academy Award winner Yorgos Lanthimos (POOR THINGS, THE FAVOURITE) returns to HIFF this pitch-black comic window into our modern age of madness. A Focus Features release.
THE CHORAL
dir. Nicholas Hytner (UK), 2025
U.S. Premiere
As World War I rages on the Western Front, the Choral Society in Ramsden, Yorkshire has lost most of its men to the army, leaving a ragtag group of women, elderly men, and boys too young to enlist. Determined to press ahead, the Choral’s ambitious committee hires a new chorus master, Dr. Henry Guthrie (Academy Award® nominee Ralph Fiennes)—driven and uncompromising, but controversial due to his many years working in Germany. In the face of uncertainty, sacrifice, and loss, Guthrie sets out to help the community cope with the chaos laying waste to their lives through the power of music. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER
East Coast Premiere
dir. Kristen Stewart (USA), 2025
Based on the beloved memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch and marking the directorial debut of Kristen Stewart, The Chronology of Water is a raw and unflinching portrait of survival, sexuality, and self-invention. The film traces Lidia’s life from her earliest memories in the Pacific Northwest, as a promising swimmer, through fractured relationships, near-motherhood, addiction, and encounters with artistic heroes. Told as a fluid memory wash, the story transforms trauma into art, embodying Yuknavitch’s defiant voice that made her work a modern cult classic. It is not only a chronicle of a woman becoming a writer, but a visceral journey through the wreckage and resilience of a life lived against the grain.
DREAMS
dir. Michael Franco (Mexico/USA), 2025
New York Premiere
In this sharp, unflinching social critique, a powerful American philanthropist (Academy Award® winner Jessica Chastain) and the promisingly talented Mexican ballet dancer she champions (Isaac Hernández) begin a salacious and dangerous affair. Each with their own threshold for risk and ramification, the pair revel in the compounding pleasure and destruction that threatens their reputations and livelihoods. But when the power imbalance between them shifts, any remaining affection transforms into pain and revenge. Charged with searing chemistry between Chastain and Hernández, DREAMS offers a heightened, allegorical portrayal of class dynamics with glaring honesty from director Michel Franco. A Greenwich Entertainment release.
FANTASY LIFE
dir. Matthew Shear (USA), 2025
New York Premiere
Winner of the SXSW Audience Choice Award, Matthew Shear’s directorial debut follows overly anxious and out of work Sam (Shear), who agrees to join his psychiatrist’s (Judd Hirsch) family as a nanny for the summer on Martha’s Vineyard. When Sam meets his charges’ mother (Amanda Peet), a middle-aged actress in a rocky marriage, the pair form an intimate and unexpected bond. This charming indie comedy playfully explores themes of self-doubt and self-discovery and features a winning ensemble cast including Alessandro Nivola, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet, and Holland Taylor. A Greenwich Entertainment release.
Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Joe Alwyn as Bartholomew in director Chloé Zhao’s HAMNET, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Agata Grzybowska / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
HAMNET
dir. Chloé Zhao (UK), 2025
East Coast Premiere
Academy Award®-winning writer/director Chloé Zhao (NOMADLAND, HIFF 2020) returns with the powerful story of love and loss that likely inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece Hamlet. Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel of the same name, HAMNET follows William Shakespeare (Academy Award nominee Paul Mescal, AFTERSUN) and his wife Agnes (Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley, WOMEN TALKING) from their early courtship to their unimaginable loss, and how their all-consuming grief influenced the writing of a masterpiece. With immersive and textured cinematography, Zhao’s latest work is an emotional testament to the healing power of art. A Focus Features release.
HEDDA
dir. Nia DaCosta (USA), 2025
East Coast Premiere
From writer-director Nia DaCosta comes a provocative, modernized reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play Hedda Gabler. Tessa Thompson (HIFF Variety 10 Actors to Watch 2015) stars as Hedda, a brilliant but unsatisfied new bride who finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one debaucherous party at her extravagant estate, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt—pulling her and everyone around her into a titillating spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal. An Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios release.
IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU
dir. Mary Bronstein (USA), 2025
Golden Globe® Award and Emmy® Award nominee Rose Byrne (Damages) gives a wrenching, career-defining performance as Montauk therapist Linda, an overwhelmed mother whose life is crashing down around her. As she attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her own therapist (Conan O’Brien), she becomes desperate for some kind of relief from her difficult reality. Director Mary Bronstein delivers a harrowing, surreal ride through Linda’s psyche, vividly excavating anxieties around motherhood and the impossible expectations we place on ourselves, also starring A$AP Rocky and Christian Slater. An A24 Films release.
IS THIS THING ON?
dir. Bradley Cooper (USA), 2025
As their marriage quietly unravels, Alex (Will Arnett) faces middle age and an impending divorce, seeking new purpose in the New York comedy scene while Tess (Laura Dern) confronts the sacrifices she made for their family—forcing them to navigate co-parenting, identity, and whether love can take a new form. A Searchlight Pictures release.
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN
dir. Bill Condon (USA), 2025
New York Premiere
Valentín (Diego Luna), a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina (Tonatiuh), a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez). A Roadside Attractions release.
NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR
dir. F. W. Murnau (Germany), 1922
Kick off HIFF’s second weekend with silent film and live music! For over a century, NOSFERATU has been celebrated as a masterpiece of the silent era. The saga of the vampire Count Orlok (Max Schreck) has inspired generations of gothic horror—including Robert Eggers’ acclaimed version last year. Now the original’s raw power has been reborn with a modern score written and performed by Austin-based band Invincible Czars. With this one-of-a-kind event, the group brings its unique musical achievement to the Southampton Playhouse as part of its monthlong Halloween programming. Past and present collide as the Czars imbue the movie with new life. Film courtesy of Kino Lorber.
NUREMBERG
dir. James Vanderbilt (USA), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Imprisoned Nazi leader Herman Göring (Academy Award® winner Russell Crowe) awaits the consequential Nuremberg Trials while chief prosecutor for The Allies Robert H. Jackson (Academy Award® nominee Michael Shannon) maps out his case against Göring. As US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Academy Award® winner Rami Malek) is tasked with keeping him alive through the trial, the pair develop a complicated doctor-patient dynamic in which boundaries dissolve and psychological warfare ensues. NUREMBERG’s lauded leads and standout ensemble cast—including John Slattery, Colin Hanks, Richard E. Grant, and Leo Woodall—imbue this lesser-known piece of World War II history with thrilling suspense and palpable personal stakes. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
ON THE END
dir. Ari Selinger (USA), 2025
World Premiere
Tom (Tim Blake Nelson) is a down-on-his-luck Montauk mechanic who finds his fortune changing when he unexpectedly falls in love with Freckles (Mireille Enos), a fellow outcast. Their love is jeopardized when the town of East Hampton conspires to forcibly remove Tom from his beachfront home and auto repair shop. With delightful performances from an ensemble cast including Anna Chlumsky, Lois Smith, and Sawyer Spielberg, ON THE END is a love story inspired by true events that evolves into a David vs. Goliath battle against greed and power in the rapidly changing East End.
PETER HUJAR’S DAY
dir. Ira Sachs (USA/ Germany), 2025
Ira Sachs’ (FRANKIE, HIFF 2019) latest is a rich cinematic rendering of a conversation recorded in 1974 between two major figures in the legendary 1970s New York downtown scene: the singular writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) and the brilliant and famously uncompromising photographer Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw). As the sun sets in Linda’s West Side apartment, she interviews him about every detail of his previous 24 hours, including vivid recounts of interactions with contemporaries Allen Ginsberg and Susan Sontag. A masterclass in acting from Whishaw and Hall, PETER HUJAR’S DAY is an immersive rumination on both an artist’s life and the ephemerality of time itself. A Janus release.
The film will be preceded by a screening of a short film:
CAROL & JOY
dir. Nathan Silver (USA), 2025
A documentary portrait of the relationship between Academy Award®-nominated actress Carol Kane and her mother Joy, a music teacher still giving singing (and life) lessons at 98.
A PRIVATE LIFE
dir. Rebecca Zlotowski (France), 2025
Academy Award® winner Jodie Foster (NYAD, HIFF 2023) stars in this playful and thrilling mystery from French director Rebecca Zlotowski. Lilian (Foster) is a renowned American psychiatrist living in Paris. Deeply troubled by the sudden death of one of her longtime patients (Virginie Efira), Lilian teams up with her ex-husband Gabriel (French film star Daniel Auteuil) to investigate what she believes is foul play. Foster and Auteuil light up the screen in this delightful Cannes hit, which merges titillating pursuits, whodunit intrigue, and even experimental hypnosis with the sophistication of French arthouse cinema. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
REBUILDING
dir. Max Walker-Silverman (USA), 2025
East Coast Premiere
Writer-director Max Walker-Silverman (2020 HIFF Screenwriters Lab alum) returns with this gently humanist story of the American West. Dusty (Josh O’Connor, CHALLENGERS) is a divorced father whose ranch burns down in a devastating wildfire. Living in a government-run trailer campsite with nearly nothing left, he seeks a way forward by reconnecting with his young daughter Callie-Rose (Lily LaTorre) and ex-wife Ruby (Emmy Award® nominee Meghann Fahy, The White Lotus) and by finding common ground with his new neighbors. Filmed against the rapturous backdrop of southern Colorado, REBUILDING is a ruminative, moving portrait of resilience and human connection in the wake of loss. A Bleecker Street release.
RENTAL FAMILY
dir. HIKARI (USA), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Set in modern-day Tokyo, RENTAL FAMILY follows an American actor (Academy Award® winner Brendan Fraser) who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality. Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection. RENTAL FAMILY is a touching depiction of the quiet beauty of human connection. A Searchlight Pictures release.
SENTIMENTAL VALUE
dir. Joachim Trier (Norway/France/Denmark/Germany), 2025
SENTIMENTAL VALUE reunites Renate Reinsve with director Joachim Trier (THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, HIFF 2021) in this Cannes Grand Prix winner. After the loss of their mother, Nora (Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) reconnect with their estranged father, the charismatic, once-renowned filmmaker Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård). When Nora turns down a role written for her in Gustav’s ambitious, highly personal new film, she soon finds he has instead given her part to an eager young Hollywood star (Elle Fanning). With masterfully rendered emotion, Trier delivers a stirring portrait of a family grasping for connection through grief and art when ordinary language fails. A NEON release.
TRAIN DREAMS
dir. Clint Bentley (USA), 2025
East Coast Premiere
Based on Denis Johnson’s beloved novella of the same name, TRAIN DREAMS is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton, in a magnetic lead performance), a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing American West of the early 20th century. Academy Award®-nominated writer-director Clint Bentley (JOCKEY, HIFF 2021) and Academy Award® nominated co-writer Greg Kwedar (SING SING, HIFF 2024) craft a sweeping and visually lush epic of one man’s place in American history, featuring fantastic supporting turns from Felicity Jones, William H. Macy, and Kerry Condon. A Netflix release.
WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
dir. Rian Johnson (USA), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Everyone’s favorite modern movie detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back on the case for the third installment of this beloved murder-mystery franchise, following KNIVES OUT (HIFF 2019) and GLASS ONION (HIFF 2022). Set in a small-town church, WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY follows Blanc as he cleverly tries to solve another seemingly uncrackable case. Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Josh O’Connor, and Mila Kunis join the star-studded ensemble for the most dangerous installment of Rian Johnson’s franchise yet. A Netflix release.
NARRATIVE COMPETITION FILMS
HYSTERIA
dir. Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay (Germany), 2025
U.S. Premiere
When a burned Quran is found on a film set, the shoot takes a dark turn and the crew is thrown into turmoil. Caught in the crossfire of accusations, 24-year-old intern Elif is drawn into a dangerous game of secrets and lies, finding herself at the heart of an all-absorbing conspiracy.
OMAHA
dir. Cole Webley (USA), 2025
New York Premiere
After a family tragedy, siblings Ella and Charlie are unexpectedly woken up by their dad and taken on a journey across the country, experiencing a world they’ve never seen before. A Greenwich Entertainment release.
A POET
dir. Simón Mesa Soto (Colombia), 2025
New York Premiere
Middle-aged and erratic, Oscar is a failed writer who has given up on life. Unemployed and living with family, he wanders the streets of Medellín in a drunken stupor, lamenting the state of literature in his home country, where he has succumbed to the cliché of the tortured artist. However, the opportunity to mentor a young student offers a chance at redemption, if he doesn’t screw it up first. In a performance marked by darkly comic pathos, first-time actor Ubeimar Rios stars in Simón Mesa Soto’s Un Certain Regard Jury Prize-winner A POET, a raw and riotous farce about how good deeds are often met with the universe’s idea of cruel and unusually poetic punishment. A 1-2 Special release.
THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE
dir. Hasan Hadi (Iraq/USA/Qatar), 2025
U.S. Premiere
While people across 1990’s Iraq struggle to survive, 9-year old Lamia has been selected to prepare a cake to celebrate the President’s birthday. In a landscape of fear and scarcity, where basic ingredients are nearly impossible to find, Lamia sets out on a determined journey throughout the big city in search of eggs, flour, and sugar. Accompanied by her grandmother, her loyal friend Saeed, and her pet rooster Hindi, she navigates vendors and police officers along the way. THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE, winner of the Camera D’Or and Audience Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, embodies innocence, imagination, and inner strength. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
SOUND OF FALLING
dir. Mascha Schilinski (Germany), 2025
Four girls, Alma, Erika, Angelika, and Lenka, each spend their youth on the same farm in northern Germany. As the home evolves over a century, echoes of the past linger in its walls. Though separated by time, their lives begin to mirror each other. A MUBI release.
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION FILMS
ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT
dir. Anthony Benna (USA), 2025
New York Premiere
Unexpected, irreverent, and absurdly funny, ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT is a wildly life-affirming film about death. When André, a brilliant idiot, learns he’s dying from a disease he could have detected with a colonoscopy, he decides to document his final journey. As an iconoclastic ad man, he had defied convention throughout his life. True to form, André approaches mortality with his trademark humor and curiosity, determined to learn how to die both happily and ridiculously. In a unique collaboration with director Tony Benna, André’s stories and musings are brought to life with imaginative stop-motion animation, capturing his unique approach to life’s challenges and joys. ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT is a celebration of resilience, inappropriate humor, and the beauty of fully embracing the human experience– even at its end.
THE EYES OF GHANA
dir. Ben Proudfoot (USA), 2025
U.S. Premiere
From Oscar®-winning director Ben Proudfoot, THE EYES OF GHANA is a stunning feature documentary following 93-year-old documentarian Chris Hesse—personal cinematographer to forgotten African icon Kwame Nkrumah—as he races against blindness and time to rescue and repatriate a secret trove of over 1,300 films that captured the birth of African independence in the fifties and sixties. Yet unseen by the public, these films may not only rewrite Ghanaian and African history—but world history itself.
THE NICEST MEN ON EARTH
dir. Josefine Exner, Sebastian Gerdes (Denmark), 2025
International Premiere
The Nicest Men on Earth is a tender group portrait of the sensitive men who find themselves disoriented by a loss of status and wavering self-esteem. Through three generations of men—the lovesick high schooler, the unemployed, humanities-educated father, and the struggling architect—all based in Denmark’s second-largest city, the film tells a story of not being the best, of losing both at home and in the wider world, and of feeling stuck while everyone else rushes ahead. A humorous reflection on the new gender reality and our ingrained ideas about what it means to be a “real man”.
REMAINING NATIVE
dir. Paige Bethmann (USA), 2025
Ku Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American competitive runner, is determined to become a college athlete at his dream school. Outstriding all local competition and the bounds of his hometown in Northwest Nevada, Ku must push beyond his physical and regional limits to have a chance at recruitment. As he prepares to leave home for the first time, Ku finds deeper meaning in his sport as an opportunity to honor his great-grandfather, who escaped an abusive Indian boarding school by running 50 miles across the desert. Winner of the SXSW Documentary Feature Audience and Special Jury Awards, REMAINING NATIVE is an inspiring, emotional triumph from first-time feature filmmaker Paige Bethmann.
TO THE WEST, IN ZAPATA
dir. David Bim (Cuba/Spain), 2025
New York Premiere
Landi is a father who secretly camps in the marshlands of Zapata, where he hunts crocodiles with his hands to feed his family. The radio reports hundreds of daily deaths from the pandemic and strong social tensions in Cuba. On the coast, his wife Mercedes searches for charcoal to cook and takes care of their son, who suffers from severe autism. Days go by, and Mercedes becomes impatient. Landi should have returned by now, and there is no news of him. She fears something has happened to him, but she cannot say anything to avoid giving them away. He finally appears, carrying the food that enables them to survive, before having to return to the marsh. Their lives are a cycle, plagued by need and absence.
FILMS OF CONFLICT AND RESOLUTION SIGNATURE PROGRAM
COVER-UP
dir. Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus (USA), 2025
COVER-UP is a political thriller that traces the explosive career of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Urgent and deeply reported, Cover-Up is both a portrait of a relentless journalist and an indictment of institutional violence—revealing a cycle of impunity in the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. Drawing on exclusive access to Hersh’s notes, and interweaving primary documents and archival footage, COVER-UP captures the power and process of investigative journalism. Directed by Academy Award® and Golden Lion winner Laura Poitras and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Mark Obenhaus.
THE EYES OF GHANA
dir. Ben Proudfoot (USA), 2025
U.S. Premiere
From Oscar®-winning director Ben Proudfoot, THE EYES OF GHANA is a stunning feature documentary following 93-year-old documentarian Chris Hesse—personal cinematographer to forgotten African icon Kwame Nkrumah—as he races against blindness and time to rescue and repatriate a secret trove of over 1,300 films that captured the birth of African independence in the fifties and sixties. Yet unseen by the public, these films may not only rewrite Ghanaian and African history—but world history itself.
HOLDING LIAT
dir. Brandon Kramer (USA), 2025
On the morning of October 7, 2023, Israeli-American Liat Atzili and her husband Aviv were at home when Hamas attacked their kibbutz. By nightfall, Liat and Aviv are captives in Gaza along with 250 other people—12 of whom, like Liat, are American citizens. Caught between international diplomacy and a rapidly escalating war, their family must face their own uncertainty and conflicting political perspectives in the pursuit of Liat and Aviv’s release. This agonizing process, and the ultimate fate of their loved ones, challenges how the members of the family understand themselves and their place in the conflict. Through the intimate lens of a family’s experience, HOLDING LIAT poses complex questions of identity across generations, as the family is thrust into the epicenter of a global conflict rapidly unfolding in real-time.
LOVE+WAR
dir. E. Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin (USA/UK), 2025
Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynsey Addario has risked her life to capture the stark realities of war — from the Middle East and Afghanistan to Ukraine. From National Geographic Documentary Films and Academy Award®-winning filmmakers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, LOVE+WAR reveals Addario’s ascent in the male-dominated world of conflict photography. But her work comes at a steep personal cost — each assignment means stepping into danger and leaving behind her husband and two young sons. Behind the camera, Addario is torn between her unwavering commitment to the essential work of journalism and the powerful, competing demands of motherhood—grappling with what it truly means to follow your passion when it threatens everything you love.
THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB
dir. Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia), 2025
U.S. Premiere
January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A 6-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab. A Willa release.
AIR, LAND, AND SEA PROGRAM
A LIFE ILLUMINATED
dir. Tasha Van Zandt (USA), 2025
New York Premiere
In A LIFE ILLUMINATED, marine biologist Dr. Edie Widder embarks on a groundbreaking journey to unveil the mysterious light of bioluminescence—a phenomenon that allows life to communicate in the darkness of the ocean’s depths. As one of the first women in her field, Edie transformed our understanding of the deep sea – once perceived as a dark and empty void, into a vibrant world filled with life and light. Known for being the first person in history to film bioluminescence in the deep sea, as well as capturing the first footage of the elusive giant squid in its natural habitat, she has transformed the world’s view of our oceans. Now, she embarks on her most daring expedition yet: a descent 3,300 feet beneath the ocean’s surface to document a mysterious bioluminescent phenomenon she has pursued her entire life – one that could forever change how we understand life on Earth. Blending cinematic vérité footage from her journey into the deep with never-before-seen archives from her lifetime of expeditions, the film captures Edie’s quest to reveal the profound beauty of bioluminescence while emphasizing the urgent need to protect the fragile ecosystems of the deep sea.
TURTLE WALKER
dir. Taira Malaney (India/USA), 2024
In the late 1970s, Satish Bhaskar embarked on an epic journey along India’s coastline and the spectacular Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where he uncovered the vital nesting beaches of sea turtles. During his death-defying quest, he unravels mysteries surrounding these enigmatic ocean creatures—and sets out to save them from extinction. After a devastating tsunami strikes in 2004, Bhaskar grapples with a pressing question: What happens to sea turtles when their nesting beaches disappear?
YANUNI
dir. Richard Ladkani (Austria/Brazil/USA/Canada/Germany), 2025
YANUNI is a cinematic portrait of Juma Xipaia, an Indigenous chief from the Brazilian Amazon who rises from a remote village to the frontlines of climate justice. After surviving six assassination attempts, she is appointed Brazil’s first Secretary of Indigenous Rights—while her husband, a federal IBAMA agent, leads dangerous operations against illegal gold miners. As Juma navigates political power, growing threats, and impending motherhood, she is forced to confront the personal cost of resistance. At once intimate and epic, YANUNI is a powerful story of Indigenous sovereignty, love, and the urgent fight to protect the planet we call home.
COMPASSION, JUSTICE, AND ANIMAL RIGHTS SIGNATURE PROGRAM,
FOREVER HOME
dir. Allison Argo (USA), 2025
World Premiere
In North Carolina, two dreamers are transforming animal care through groundbreaking architecture. Their sanctuary, Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge, reveals rescued animals in a new light—from goats who thrive in vertical spaces to chickens whose house opens with the sun. As they build a new home for rescued cows, this moving documentary unveils a vision for how we can see and care for the animals most people overlook. Through masterful storytelling and endearing animal and human characters, Forever Home invites us to reimagine our relationship with farm animals, showing us who they truly are when they’re allowed to simply be themselves.
GHOST ELEPHANTS
dir. Werner Herzog (USA), 2025
East Coast Premiere
For a decade, Dr. Steve Boyes has been in search of a mysterious, elusive herd of Ghost Elephants in the highlands of Angola, a wooded plateau – virtually uninhabited, but in size as large as England. He sets out with master trackers from Namibia, the best remaining in the world, but there is a deep underlying question: would it not be better to keep these gigantic elephants rather as a dream, as ghosts, as the White Whale, than finding them in reality.
TRADE SECRET
dir. Abraham Joffe (UK/Australia), 2025
TRADE SECRET follows three unlikely allies on a mission to protect polar bears from international commercial trade. Filmed over six years across nine countries, the film exposes the sanctioned sale of hundreds of polar bears each year on the global market. But as the investigation deepens, it uncovers a disturbing truth: those entrusted with safeguarding the species may be entangled in their continued commercialisation. The film raises urgent questions about how we protect vulnerable species in a world where the lines between protection and exploitation have become blurred.
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
ASK E. JEAN
dir. Ivy Meeropol (USA), 2025
East Coast Premiere
ASK E. JEAN is the thrilling story of E. Jean Carroll’s life, from her early days as Miss Cheerleader USA to her rise as a trailblazing journalist, author, and beloved advice columnist. Carroll broke barriers as the first female editor at Esquire, Playboy, and Outside, helping to redefine women’s roles in media with her sharp wit and fearless voice. In recent years, she reignited public discourse by standing up to power, becoming the only woman to beat Donald Trump twice in court, and sparking a national conversation about truth, accountability, and resilience. This film is a portrait of an indomitable woman who proved it’s never too late to reclaim your voice, rewrite your story, and change the world.
COVER-UP
dir. Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus (USA), 2025
COVER-UP is a political thriller that traces the explosive career of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Urgent and deeply reported, COVER-UP is both a portrait of a relentless journalist and an indictment of institutional violence—revealing a cycle of impunity in the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. Drawing on exclusive access to Hersh’s notes, and interweaving primary documents and archival footage, Cover-Up captures the power and process of investigative journalism. Directed by Academy Award® and Golden Lion winner Laura Poitras and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Mark Obenhaus.
THE CYCLE OF LOVE
dir. Orlando von Einsiedel (UK/Sweden/India), 2025
East Coast Premiere
In 1977, PK, a 23-year-old Delhi street artist from a poor, ‘untouchable’ family, picked up a handful of paintbrushes and a second-hand bicycle and set off on a 6000-mile cross-continent mission—to find Lotta, the woman who had captured his heart. A love story like no other, THE CYCLE OF LOVE is an inspiring, heart-warming, epic true-life adventure about the search for self-belief and risking everything for what your heart tells you.
THE LAST MUSICIAN OF AUCHIWITZ
dir. Toby Trackman (UK), 2025
North American Premiere
How can there be music in the worst place in the world? The story of how inmates of Auschwitz performed and composed music, as a lifeline—and a way to resist. A BBC Select release.
THE LIBRARIANS
dir. Kim A. Snyder (USA), 2025
As an unprecedented wave of book banning largely addressing race and LGBT issues is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy. Filmmaker Kim A. Snyder (NEWTOWN, US KIDS, 2025 Oscar®-Nominated DEATH BY NUMBERS) takes us to an unexpected front line where librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy, free access to information, and our First Amendment Rights. As they well know, controlling the flow of ideas means control over communities. In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQIA+ stories—triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of White Christian Nationalism fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work—the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale.
MARILYN MINTER: PRETTY/DIRTY
dir. Jennifer Ash Rudick, Amanda M. Benchley (USA), 2025
World Premiere
PRETTY DIRTY is an intimate portrait of Marilyn Minter, the provocateur who’s been electrifying the art world since the 1970s. Minter famously transforms forbidden subjects—such as alternative beauty, sex, shame, and aging—into hypnotic, larger-than-life masterpieces that seduce and disturb in equal measure and have profoundly influenced fashion, film, and generations of artists. From a Southern childhood right out of Faulkner through New York’s raw underground to today’s billion-dollar art market, Minter’s journey unfolds through rare archival footage and powerful testimonies from art world luminaries including Jeff Koons, Glenn Ligon, Laurie Simmons, and Mickalene Thomas. We follow her ascent until one explosive exhibition detonates her career and she learns a hard truth: sex doesn’t always sell. Three decades later we watch as Minter tackles some of her most ambitious work yet: portraying cultural icons from Lizzo to Jane Fonda, Pamela Anderson and Monica Lewinsky. Each canvas becomes a battleground between glamour and grit, reverence and reinvention. Though her paintings now command million-dollar prices, the art establishment has yet to vote her into the pantheon. Will the institutions that once rejected her finally confront what they were too frightened to see? Addict, survivor, trailblazer… as Minter nears 80, she’s proof you can get dirty, stay brilliant, and never fade from frame.
NATCHEZ
dir. Suzannah Herbert (USA), 2025
After generations of showcasing its antebellum homes and hoop-skirted docents, Natchez, Mississippi, is now reckoning with a romanticized past, an uncertain future and the debt it owes to the descendants of slavery. A cinematic portrait of a tourist town at a crossroads, NATCHEZ follows an array of historic homeowners, activists and tour guides as they tell their versions of the past, and clash over who gets to tell America’s story. An Oscilloscope release.
The film will be preceded by a screening of the below short film:
BUICK
dir. Michael Godere (USA), 2025
New York Premiere
Three teenagers in the 1990s spend Friday night cruising to Brand Nubian. On their way to a late movie, an encounter escalates into violence.
THE NEST
dir. Chase Joynt, Julietta Singh (Canada), 2025
International Premiere
At the end of her mother’s life, decolonial writer Julietta Singh returns to say goodbye to her childhood home. As she digs into the history of the house, she uncovers 140 years of forgotten matriarchs and political histories she never knew. In this genre-defying cross-community collaboration, a single home is transformed from a place of siloed stories into a site of radical potential.
THE NEW YORKER AT 100
dir. Marshall Curry (USA), 2025
It’s the fall of 2024, and editor David Remnick and his team at The New Yorker are preparing to face one of their most important deadlines yet: the magazine’s seminal 100th anniversary issue due on newsstands in just a few months. Meanwhile, journalism is facing unprecedented challenges from every direction. In a new documentary by Academy Award-winning director Marshall Curry (The Neighbors’ Window, Street Fight) and narrated by Julianne Moore, THE NEW YORKER AT 100 gives viewers a rare glimpse inside the century-old machine, showing how the words and images printed on its pages have shaped politics and culture, from changing how we think about nuclear war to introducing the world to the Addams family. Using archival materials alongside interviews with heavy-hitting contributors like Hilton Als, Roz Chast, and Ronan Farrow as well as notable fans of The New Yorker including Jesse Eisenberg, Ronny Chieng, and Molly Ringwald, the film provides a rare glimpse into the legacy and current dynamics of one of America’s preeminent publications, bringing viewers inside its peerless fact-checking department, lively story meetings, and delightfully idiosyncratic cartoon selection process that showcases the journalistic integrity and intrepid creative spirit required to preserve a celebrated institution.
NEWPORT & THE GREAT FOLK DREAM
dir. Robert Gordon (USA), 2025
North American Premiere
Before Coachella and Woodstock, there was Newport: a stage where a generation found its voice and reshaped a nation. From 1963 to 1966, the Newport Folk Festival brought together Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Howlin’ Wolf, Mississippi John Hurt, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Bessie Jones, and more. Newport & the Great Folk Dream, from award-winning filmmakers Robert Gordon and Joe Lauro, captures this charged moment when freedom songs met work songs, tradition met innovation, and the spirit of protest filled the air. Drawn entirely from rare and previously unseen archival footage, the film is both a thrilling musical experience and a reflection on art’s power to drive change. What emerges is a living folk tradition: elders sharing songs and techniques, young artists pushing boundaries, and audiences discovering unexpected bonds across race, class, and geography. Documenting four years of cultural upheaval – culminating in Dylan going electric—NEWPORT & THE GREAT FOLK DREAM reveals how music can illuminate struggle, inspire courage, and keep democracy alive.
THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR
dir. Geeta Gandbhir (USA), 2025
Award-winning filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir’s new documentary film reveals the fatal consequences that can occur when individuals feel emboldened by the law to act on their fear and prejudice. For years, disgruntled neighbor Susan Lorincz calls the police on the children who play in the vacant land next to her Florida home. Initially, the kids and parents commiserate with local law enforcement about her antics. But her increasing hostility takes a sinister turn, culminating in a devastating crime. With striking humanity and unflinching clarity, The Perfect Neighbor is told almost entirely through police bodycam footage, bearing witness to an intimate community contending with their ongoing nightmare. The chilling escalation of events leads to Lorincz shooting Ajike “AJ” Owens, a beloved and vibrant mother of four. Owens’ killing sparked a reckoning throughout the United States about controversial state laws like “Stand Your Ground,” which can allow individuals to use deadly force if they feel their life is in danger. A Netflix release.
THE RAFTSMEN
dir. Chadden Hunter (Australia), 2024
North American Premiere
Twelve misfits from seven countries unite on an explorer’s crazy dream. Their aim is to cross the world’s largest ocean on three handmade wooden rafts with only the stars and sun to guide them. Battling storms, sharks and psychological demons, their epic six months at sea remains the world’s longest ever raft journey. Now, fifty years on, their original 16mm footage has been beautifully remastered into 4K and the surviving raftsmen finally share their incredible story.
RAOUL’S: A NEW YORK STORY
dir. Greg Olliver, Karim Raoul (USA), 2025
RAOUL’S, A NEW YORK STORY is a very unique look at one of New York City’s most iconic restaurants – Raoul’s Restaurant – an unassuming cozy spot on Prince Street that’s been a French bistro mainstay for the last fifty years. Opened in 1975 by two brothers from Alsace, France—their goal was to bring affordable French cooking to New York for a short time while the eldest brother, Serge Raoul, took a break from his filmmaking career. The restaurant became loved by the art crowd of Soho in the 70’s and 80’s – and as business started to boom—Serge became an accidental restaurateur with his brother Guy becoming the best-known French chef in Soho. Thomas Keller walked in one day looking for a job—and became friends with Serge. The two of them opened up their own restaurant together in Tribeca—helping launch careers of Tom Colicchio, Andrew Zimmern, Alison Price-Becker and more. Fifteen years ago, Serge’s son Karim turned a camera on to capture the family story and the history of the restaurant—not knowing that during the process he would also get sucked into a business that he hadn’t planned on being part of. The film features appearances by Matthew Broderick, Daniel Boulud, Kate Spade, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Thomas Keller, Tom Colicchio, Andrew Zimmern, Alison Price Becker and more. It’s a family story. An immigrant story. A New York story. And it’s a story about a filmmaker turned accidental restaurateur who is making a documentary about his father who is a filmmaker turned accidental restaurateur.
SEEDS
dir. Brittany Shyne (USA), 2025
Interweaving the stories of three Black generational farmers to create a collective and intimate portrait of farming today, SEEDS is a moving and powerful exploration of their lives, joys and struggles as well as the fragility of legacy and owning land. With remarkable intimacy, the film documents their everyday lives—cotton harvesting, chasing cows, dealing with broken machinery and financial precarities. The camera relishes simple moments – conversations through car windows, candy from grandma’s purse as it captures moments of warmth, joy and fulfillment – turning them into striking vignettes that honor the families’ connection to the land and each other. But the sobering reality underscores the urgency of their story. Black farmers owned 16 million acres of land in 1910 but today, that number has dwindled to a fraction. The farmers in the community struggle to access funding that white farmers nearby seem to secure with ease. Through these inter-generational stories, we see the cycles of inequity and embedded racism that persist to this present day, and the signs of hope and renewal with younger generations of farmers. SEEDS emphasizes how human beings are innately tied to our foundational roots, roots which carry our ancestral memories – somber, bitter, and sweet.
THE STRINGER
dir. Bao Minh Nguyen (USA/Vietnam), 2025
East Coast Premiere
A former Saigon photo editor reveals a secret he’s been plagued with for 52 years, setting off a gripping two-year investigation into the truth behind one of the Vietnam War’s most iconic photographs. Acclaimed war photographer Gary Knight and a small team of journalists embark on a relentless search to locate and seek justice for a man known only as “the stringer.” A Netflix release.
UNDERLAND
dir. Robert Petit (UK/USA), 2025
We know so little of the world beneath our feet. To most it is a place only of fear and darkness, though to a brave few it is one of knowledge and wonder to be found nowhere else. Based on the bestselling book by Robert Macfarlane, UNDERLAND is a cinematic documentary that voyages into worlds rarely glimpsed by human eyes. Beginning in the shallow soils beneath an old ash tree, we travel alongside several ‘astronauts of the underworld’ into ancient sacred caves, flooded storm drains, melting glaciers, underwater burial chambers and a deep underground laboratory built to solve the mysteries of the Universe. Narrated by Oscar-nominated Sandra Hüller, and with a uniquely poetic approach, UNDERLAND is a deep dive into the Earth that ultimately presents a groundbreaking vision for rethinking our lives on this fragile surface.
WORLD CINEMA NARRATIVE
ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU
dir. Cherien Dabis (Germany/Cyprus/Palestine/Jordan/Greece/Qatar/Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), 2025
East Coast Premiere
After a Palestinian teen gets swept up into a West Bank protest, his mother recounts the family story of hope, courage and relentless struggle that led to this fateful moment.
AMRUM
dir. Fatih Akin (Germany), 2025
U.S. Premiere
It is the Spring of 1945 on the German island of Amrum, a remote outpost in the North Sea. The front is far away, and 12-year-old Nanning (newcomer Jasper Billerbeck) spends his days working the nearby farm and his nights fishing, helping his mother to feed their family. Despite the hardship, life on the beautiful, windswept isle seems idyllic. When their anti-fascist neighbor Tessa (Diane Kruger) mentions to Nanning that the war will soon be over, the boy – too young to understand the political implications – is pleased to imagine that his father, a Nazi officer, might soon be coming home. But his mother Hille (Laura Tonk) is a true believer, and word of Germany’s imminent defeat sends her into decline. One day from her sick bed, she wishes for white bread, butter and honey, near impossible luxuries on Amrum which Nanning innocently tries to find for her. But as he sets off on his quest, he learns from his neighbors that the enemy is far closer than he imagined. From Golden Globe Award-winning filmmaker Fatih Akin (In the Fade, Head-On), Amrum is a tender coming-of-age tale about the loss of innocence set against the waning days of the Second World War. A Kino Lorber release.
ARCO
dir. Ugo Bienvenu (France), 2025
U.S. Premiere
In 2075, a ten year old girl, Iris, witnesses a mysterious boy in a rainbow suit fall from the sky. It’s Arco. He comes from an idyllic far future where time travel is possible. Iris shelters him and will do whatever it takes to help him return to his time. A NEON release.
CALLE MALAGA
dir. Maryam Touzani (Morocco/France/Spain/Germany/Belgium), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Maria Angeles, a 79-year-old Spanish woman, lives alone in Tangier, Morocco, and enjoys her daily routine. However, her life is turned upside down when her daughter arrives from Madrid to sell the apartment in which she has always lived. Determined to stay, she does everything she can to get her home and her belongings back and, unexpectedly, rediscovers love and sensuality.
CHARLIEBIRD
dir. Libby Ewing (USA), 2025
Al (Samantha Smart) works as a music therapist at a children’s hospital, taking things day by day and trying to make ends meet. Charlie (Gabriela Ochoa Perez) comes into her life as a patient, an ever immovable and unmotivated teenager. As their worlds collide following the revelation of a secret passion project, Al and the pessimistic young Charlie become a source of strength and love for each other whilst they chart a course through an unknown future.
DJ AHMET
dir. Georgi M. Unkovski (North Macedonia/Czech Republic/Serbia/Croatia), 2025
New York Premiere
Ahmet, a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, finds refuge in music while navigating his father’s expectations, a conservative community, and his first experience with love— a girl already promised to someone else.
GOOD BOY
dir. Ben Leonberg (USA), 2025
Our canine hero, Indy, finds himself on a new adventure with his human owner–and best friend–Todd, leaving city life for a long-vacant family home in the country. From the start, two things are abundantly clear: Indy is wary of the creepy old house, and his affection for Todd is unwavering. After moving in, Indy is immediately fexed by empty corners, tracks an invisible presence only he can see, perceives phantasmagoric warnings from a long-dead dog, and is haunted by visions of the previous occupant’s grim death. When Todd begins succumbing to the dark forces swirling around the house, Indy must battle a malevolence intent on dragging his beloved Todd into the afterlife. An IFC Entertainment Group release.
ISLANDS
dir. Jan-Ole Gerster (Germany), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Tom is the tennis coach at a luxurious island hotel, filling the time between lessons with alcohol and one-night stands. The arrival of an affluent young British family pulls Tom out of his normal routine and suggests a new beginning.
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
dir. Jafar Panahi (Iran/France/Luxembourg), 2025
What begins as a minor accident sets in motion a series of escalating consequences. A NEON release.
KÖLN 75
dir. Ido Fluk (Germany/Poland/Belgium), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Keith Jarrett’s legendary performance in January 1975 nearly didn’t happen. Based on a true story, Köln 75 follows how the concert was conceived and orchestrated by the efforts of a teenage up and coming concert promoter, Vera Brandes, (played by German actress Mala Emde). Her enthusiasm set her to multitasking – from organizing the concert venue (the Cologne Opera House), promoting the event, and selling the tickets, to convincing Jarrett to perform when he almost dropped out when the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano he was promised was nowhere to be found. John Magaro plays Jarrett with his own intensity, a sublime counterpoint to Mala Emde’s joyful portrayal of the enthusiastic and unstoppable Vera. Köln 75 captures the compelling, entertaining and, until now, unknown back story about Jarrett’s one-hour, entirely improvised concert, which became the best-selling solo album in jazz history. A Zeitgeist Films release.
LATE SHIFT
dir. Petra Volpe (Switzerland/Germany), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Nurse Floria works with passion and professionalism in the surgical ward of a Swiss hospital. Her every move is perfect. She has an open ear for patients, even in the most stressful situations, and is immediately on hand in an emergency – ideally. But in the harsh reality of her daily routine, things are often unpredictable. When she starts her late shift one day, a colleague is absent from the fully occupied, understaffed ward. Amidst the hustle and bustle, Floria looks after a seriously ill young mother and an old man desperately waiting for his diagnosis with the same care and routine as a private patient with extra demands. But as the night progresses, her work becomes more and more of a race against time. A Music Box Films release.
MAGIC HOUR
dir. Jacqueline Christy (USA), 2025
New York Premiere
Harriet, a once-promising filmmaker, is stuck in the suburbs of New Jersey. Alienated from her cheating husband and spurned by her teenage daughter, she secretly enrolls in film school. She leads a double life and loves the grueling yet exhilarating world of student filmmaking. But, when she gets fired off her own film and found out by her daughter, Harriet must decide if her life’s ambition is pure folly or a dream worth saving.
Photo by Christian Schulz/ Schrammfilm
MIROIRS NO. 3
dir. Christian Petzold (Germany), 2025
During a weekend trip to the countryside, Laura, a young piano student from Berlin, miraculously survives a shocking car crash. Awakening in a nearby house, Laura finds herself in the care of a local woman, who tends to her with motherly devotion . As she recuperates, Laura begins to integrate herself into the lives of the woman and her initially reluctant husband and son. By turns haunted and hopeful, Laura and her adopted family reawakens to the world and comes to find a strange harmony together. However, they cannot outrun the ghosts of the past, which begin to stir,as acclaimed director Christian Petzold (PHOENIX, TRANSIT) spins a modern gothic fairytale about the lies we tell ourselves and the strange ways that grief, connection, and humanity bind and sustain us. A 1-2 Special release.
NOUVELLE VAGUE
dir. Richard Linklater (France), 2025
Nouvelle Vague is Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater’s love letter to the spellbinding magic of French cinema, reimagining the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s revolutionary Breathless, which ultimately cemented Godard as a pioneer of the French New Wave. As critic-turned-director Godard makes and breaks the rules, a mix of fresh faces and daring talents — including Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg, Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Guillaume Marbeck as Godard himself — bring his spontaneous, electric film to life. Capturing the youthful dynamism and creative chaos at the heart of one of the world’s most beloved and influential movies, Nouvelle Vague transports us to the streets of 1959 Paris for an ode to the power of cinema to transform our lives. A Netflix release.
ORPHAN
dir. László Nemes (Hungary/UK/Germany/France), 2025
U.S. Premiere
- In Budapest, after the uprising against the Communist regime, a young Jewish boy, Andor, raised by his mother with idealized tales of his deceased father, has his world turned upside down when a brutish man appears, claiming to be his true father…
SIRÂT
dir. Oliver Laxe (France/Spain), 2025
The glorious and forbidding Moroccan desert provides the backdrop for this extraordinary psychological journey from Oliver Laxe, a sensory experience of audacity and shock about a middle-aged father (Sergi López) searching for his missing daughter. A NEON release.
THE LOVE THAT REMAINS
dir. Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland/Denmark/Sweden/France), 2025
A year in the life of a family as parents navigate their separation. Through playful and heartfelt moments, the film portrays the bittersweet nature of faded love and shared memories amidst the changing seasons. A Janus release.
THE MASTERMIND
dir. Kelly Reichardt (USA), 2025
Celebrated filmmaker Kelly Reichardt (First Cow, Showing Up) directs an unforgettable Josh O’Connor in THE MASTERMIND, her latest Cannes triumph. In a sedate Massachusetts suburb circa 1970, unemployed family man and amateur art thief J.B Mooney sets out on his first heist. With the museum cased and accomplices recruited, he has an airtight plan. Or so he thinks. A brilliant look at the folly of man, THE MASTERMIND also features Alana Haim, Gaby Hoffmann, John Magaro, Hope Davis and Bill Camp. Rich in textured detail, this sly depiction of an era subverts long-held illusions and confronts disillusionment. A MUBI release.
THE PLAGUE
dir. Charlie Polinger (Romania/USA), 2025
East Coast Premiere
At an all-boys water polo camp, a socially anxious twelve-year-old is pulled into a cruel tradition targeting an outcast with an illness they call “The Plague.” But as the lines between game and reality blur, he fears the joke might be hiding something real. An IFC Entertainment Group release.
THE SECRET AGENT
dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil/France/Netherlands/Germany), 2025
Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. He arrives in Recife during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son but soon realizes that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks. A NEON release.
TWO PROSECUTORS
dir. Sergei Loznitsa (France/Germany/Netherlands/Latvia/Romania/Lithuania), 2025
Thousands of letters from detainees falsely accused by the regime are burned in a prison cell. Against all odds, one of them reaches its destination, upon the desk of the newly appointed local prosecutor, Alexander Kornyev. Kornyev does his utmost to meet the prisoner, a victim of agents of the secret police, the NKVD. A dedicated Bolshevik of integrity, the young prosecutor suspects foul play. His quest for justice will take him all the way to the office of the Attorney General in Moscow. In the age of the great Stalinist purges, this is the plunge of a man into the corridors of a totalitarian regime that does not bear said name. A Janus release.
WE BELIEVE YOU
dir. Charlotte Devillers (Belgium), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Today, Alice stands before a judge, knowing there’s no room for error. She must speak up for her children and confront their father, as custody is being called into question. Can she make their voices heard and protect them before it’s too late?
YOUNG MOTHERS
dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne (Belgium/France), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Jessica, Perla, Julie, Ariane and Naïma are housed in a shelter for young mothers. Five teenagers hoping for a better life for themselves and their babies. A Music Box Films release.
VIEWS FROM LONG ISLAND
ARTHUR ELGORT: MODELS & MUSES
dir. Warren Elgort (USA), 2025
World Premiere
Famed photographer and Southampton resident Arthur Elgort defined an era of Vogue, introduced the candid ‘snapshot’ style of modern fashion photography, and lensed the legendary supermodels of the ’80s and ’90s. Now, the artist becomes muse and subject in this dynamic and affectionate portrait directed by his son Warren Elgort. Pairing iconic archival footage and photos with present-day, star-studded interviews with industry icons including Anna Wintour, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, and Grace Coddington, ARTHUR ELGORT: MODELS & MUSES effectively blends nostalgia with timeless style and inspiration.
ON THE END
dir. Ari Selinger (USA), 2025
World Premiere
Tom is a down-on-his-luck Montauk mechanic who finds his fortune changing when he unexpectedly falls in love with Freckles, a fellow outcast. However, their love is jeopardized when the town of East Hampton conspires to forcibly remove Tom from his beachfront home and auto repair shop. Inspired by true events, the tale of Tom and Freckles is a love story that evolves into a David vs. Goliath battle against greed and power in the rapidly changing town known locally as “The End.”
THE SECRETS WE BURY
dir. Patricia E. Gillespie (USA), 2025
World Premiere
George Carroll walked out on his family in the early 1960s, leaving his wife, Dorothy, and their four children behind– at least, that’s what the Carroll children were told. However, the youngest of the four, Mike, never believed that story. Now an eccentric man in his 60s, Mike works to unravel the mystery of his father’s disappearance, ultimately uncovering a story much darker than anything he could have imagined, which threatens to shake the foundations of his tight-knit family. Part mystery, part family drama, THE SECRETS WE BURY is a meditation on the love between parents and children that raises important questions about whose stories we chose to believe, and why.
THOUGHTS OF INFINITY
dir. Halina Krystyna Dyrschka (USA), 2025
World Premiere
Abstract painter James Howell has created over 400 works composed entirely of varying shades of gray. For Howell, gray embodies the “in-between” space of both color and existence. His paintings reflect not only his technical skill but also a deep, meditative spirit that permeates this documentary, exploring ideas of Taoism, meditation, and Howell’s relationship with public perception. Transporting viewers from the chaos of everyday life to the serene landscapes of the Pacific Northwest and Montauk—where he had a home for 20 years—THOUGHTS OF INFINITY is a tastefully crafted portrayal of a thought-provoking artist.
SHORTS PROGRAM: 2025 NARRATIVE SHORT FILM COMPETITION
BLUE HEART
dir. Samuel Suffren (Haiti), 2025
New York Premiere
In Haiti, Marianne and Petion wait for a call from the USA, where their son has gone in search of the American dream.
THE CURFEW
dir. Shehrezad Maher (USA), 2025
North American Premiere
The language barrier between Ayaan and his grandmother raises specters of a colonial past.
GOD IS SHY
dir. Jocelyn Charles (France), 2025
New York Premiere
While Ariel and Paul pass the time sketching their deepest fears during a train ride, their game takes an unexpected turn.
RAGAMUFFIN
dir. Kaitlyn Mikayla (USA), 2024
New York Premiere
As a 12-year-old motocross racer attends a race with her father, she explores her identity, her deafness, and what it means to be a girl.
SAMMI, WHO CAN DETACH HIS BODY PARTS
dir. Rein Maychaelson (Indonesia), 2025
Sammi can remove his body parts, and he shares them with loved ones throughout his life. When he dies, his mother tries to collect the pieces.
SHORTS PROGRAM: 2025 DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM COMPETITION
CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG
dir. Hao Zhou (USA/Germany), 2025
New York Premiere
In a struggle of love, legacy, and beliefs, a desperate family in Southwest China tries to purge an entity from their queer heir.
GRANNY & THE FISHES
dir. Maria Mavati, Ehsan Farrokhi Fard (Iran), 2025
New York Premiere
By the dried-up Hamoon Lagoon, a lone granny remains, walking each day to gather the dead fish left behind.
HOOPS, HOPES & DREAMS
dir. Glenn Kaino (USA), 2025
New York Premiere
The untold story of how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a team of civil rights activists took to basketball courts to connect with young voters.
LANAWARU
dir. Angello Faccini Rueda (Colombia/Mexico/USA), 2024
New York Premiere
When a local community member disappears, a boy faces an early memory, seeking comfort in Indigenous traditions, healing rituals, and guidance from his grandfather.
TIGER
dir. Loren Waters (USA), 2024
New York Premiere
TIGER highlights award-winning, internationally acclaimed Indigenous artist and elder Dana Tiger, her family, and the resurgence of the iconic Tiger t-shirt company.
SHORTS PROGRAM: 2025 NEW YORK WOMEN IN FILM & TELEVISION: FILMMAKERS CALLING THE SHOTS
CHASING THE PARTY
dir. Jessie Komitor (USA), 2024
Melissa and Stephanie dream of becoming the “It” girls they worship, but their fantasy shatters when the photographer they idolize lifts the veil.
THE INCREDIBLE SENSATIONAL FIANCÉE OF SÈYÍ ÀJÀYÍ
dir. Abbesi Akhamie (USA/Nigeria), 2024
In the stylized African nation of Alkebulan, a brilliant scholar discovers her fiancé’s secret engagement and takes spectacular revenge, earning the recognition she always deserved.
I WOULD NEVER FUCK YOU
dir. Mika Lungulov-Klotz, Alanna Murray (USA), 2024
North American Premiere
Close friends Ira and Morgan ready themselves for a big night out, preparing to look amazing before an impending confrontation with their crushes at the bar.
MY MOTHER IS A COW
dir. Moara Passoni (Brazil), 2024
New York Premiere
Left in her aunt’s care at the edge of the Brazilian wetland, 12-year-old Mia is desperate for her mother’s love.
NUN’S BEACH
dir. Kate diRienzi (USA), 2024
East Coast Premiere
When introduced to a fellow nun’s family, Sister Flora questions her romantic relationship with Sister Muriel and her devotion to God.
SUPER HIGH: A PERIOD PIECE
dir. Bianca Lambert (USA), 2024
To combat fibroid pain, Amanda tries edibles. When objects start speaking to her, she realizes she has bitten off more than she can chew.
SHORTS PROGRAM: 2025 UNIVERSITY SHORT FILMS SHOWCASE
BREASTMILK
Dir. Ifeyinwa Arinze (USA/Nigeria), 2025
A new Nigerian mother struggles to breastfeed her baby while navigating both her tense relationship with her husband and her family’s expectations.
CRAZY FOR YOU
dir. Greta Díaz Moreau (Spain), 2025
New York Premiere
Rural Spain, Y2K. Alma is 16 and desperate to be seen. Overlooked by everyone, she finds an unexpected guide in a cow.
MOTHER AND ULYSSES
dir. Mushi Cai (UK), 2024
North American Premiere
Against her wishes, Anna’s estranged son becomes a film director. When his film is set to screen in the city, Anna travels to see it.
OUR OWN SHADOW
dir. Agustina Sánchez Gavier (Germany/Argentina), 2024
East Coast Premiere
The sky augurs bad omens. Where nature is despised, people disappear, trees fall and the sun is devoured.
PUNTER
dir. Jason Adam Maselle (South Africa), 2024
New York Premiere
Brett must navigate the underbelly of the gambling world as a seemingly harmless horse racing bet jeopardizes the surprise he’s prepared for his father’s birthday.
SHORTS PROGRAM: TA-DA! SHORTS FOR ALL AGES
CLAY BIRD
dir. Kiran Bhakta Joshi (Nepal), 2025
After 9-year-old Sichu loses her potter grandfather, she reclaims a clay bird she once broke to honor his memory.
DANCING IN THE RAIN
dir. Chao-chun Yeh (Japan/Taiwan), 2024
As a girl in Taipei falls asleep, she drifts off into a dreamy magical adventure, guided by mice.
FOREVERGREEN
dir. Nathan Engelhardt, Jeremy Spears (USA/Argentina), 2025
New York Premiere
An orphaned bear cub finds a home with a fatherly evergreen tree, until his hunger for trash leads him into danger.
POW!
dir. Joey Clift (USA), 2025
A Native American kid scrambles to charge his dying video game console at a bustling intertribal powwow.
ROBOT LEO
dir. Piret Sigus, Silja Saarepuu (Estonia), 2025
U.S. Premiere
Leo is a robot who lives in a cozy rusty house with his cat. As a visit from his first ever guest looms, Leo’s anxiety grows.
WEDNESDAYS WITH GRAMPS
dir. Chris Copeland, Justin Copeland (USA), 2024
When a teenage boy visits his Gramps at an assisted living facility, he finds they have much more in common than he thought.
SHORTS PROGRAM: THIS IS NOT MY BEAUTIFUL LIFE
DEAR MOTHER
dir. Theodor Solin (Sweden), 2025
North American Premiere
Hidden tensions resurface when Julius returns home to find his mother has replaced him with a lodger who now occupies his old room—and her affections.
FAME AND OTHER FOUR LETTER WORDS
dir. Miranda Kahn (USA), 2025
In a world where Instagram is dead and scientists are hot, one influencer must face her biggest fear: being irrelevant.
THE FINAL CUT
dir. Sascha Seinfeld (USA), 2024
East Coast Premiere
Alan’s life flashes before his eyes—but instead of powerful moments, it’s a sloppy sizzle reel. He meets with God and demands a re-cut.
MYSTERY SEEDS
dir. Nathan Truesdell (USA), 2025
East Coast Premiere
After mysterious packages sow the seeds of a xenophobic conspiracy, we track its growth through news, internet detectives, and online shopping history.
NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY
dir. Emily Everhard (USA), 2025
East Coast Premiere
A grieving septuagenarian widow with two left feet rediscovers herself in a ballroom dance studio.
SOMEONE SPECIAL
dir. Alice Gervat (France), 2024
New York Premiere
Lisa matched with Xuân through a dating app, and now she has one week to actually learn Vietnamese…
SOMETHING REAL
dir. Tamara Shogaolu (USA/Netherlands), 2025
World Premiere
In a near-future where breakups can be outsourced, a perfectionist orchestrates the ideal split. When the system falters, she collides with the absurdity of love.
SHORTS PROGRAM: BREAKING THE MOLD
EDGE OF DAYBREAK
dir. Dawn Porter (USA), 2024
In 1979, inmates at a maximum-security prison came together to record an album of original music —attesting to the power of creativity.
FREEMAN VINES
dir. Tim Kirkman, André Robert Lee (USA), 2025
82-year-old artist Freeman Vines hand-carves exquisite guitars, some from the wood of a tree linked to the lynching of a young Black man.
A MAN WHO TAKES PICTURES OF FLOWERS
dir. Yoo Lee (USA), 2025
North American Premiere
Jung Myung Kim is a photographer who has dedicated decades of his life to capturing wildflowers in Korea, discovering true happiness in the process.
THE NEW YORKER THEATER: A TALBOT LEGACY
dir. Sergio Maza (USA/Argentina), 2025
New York Premiere
The Talbots launched The New Yorker Theater in 1960 without money or experience, creating one of America’s most influential cinemas through innovative programming.
SHORTS PROGRAM: TURNING POINTS
INDIGO BLUE
dir. Albert Pritchard (USA), 2025
East Coast Premiere
After a risky medical procedure is denied by their insurance company, a young couple risks everything to save their daughter.
JEAN JACKET
dir. Maxim Nebeker, Lucy Nebeker (USA), 2024
Jean Jacket is a down-on-her-luck cowgirl trying to get it all back. With no real hope of success, she turns to the ultimate American Dream maker: the lottery.
LIGHTNING BUG
dir. Zane Pais (USA), 2025
World Premiere
When a family dinner spirals into theatrics, retired actress Lydia must take control of the situation.
SUSANA
dir. Amandine Thomas, Gerardo Coello Escalante (Mexico/USA), 2025
Alone in Mexico City, a middle-aged American tourist meets a group of young tourists who show her adventure and the power of her dollars.
WE HAD FUN
dir. Linda Lô (France), 2025
East Coast Premiere
Linda, Biram and Roger live far from their mother in Gabon. When the eldest goes on a weekend getaway, his siblings see their first snow.
WHAT IF THEY BOMB HERE TONIGHT?
dir. Samir Syriani (Lebanon), 2025
East Coast Premiere
A Lebanese family spends a sleepless night fearing an Israeli airstrike could shatter their glass walls. Should they stay or flee?
SHORTS PROGRAM: 2025 VIEWS FROM LONG ISLAND SHORTS
BORN 2 LOSE
dir. Carlos Cardona (USA), 2024
In 2005, sixteen-year-old Latino punk rocker Andrew navigates the hierarchical world of high school in the Hamptons.
LET’S NOT SUFFER AT THE END OF THE WORLD
dir. MC Harvey (USA), 2024
New York Premiere
In the hopes of spending a romantic weekend at the end of the world (Montauk), Mia waits for her boyfriend to arrive.
PORTRAIT OF THE LIGHTHOUSE
dir. Emily Anderson (USA), 2024
World Premiere
Painter Megan Euell sets out to capture the iconic Montauk Lighthouse, revealing a deep-rooted connection between place, memory, and art.
SHIRIN NESHAT: VOICE OF A WOMAN
dir. Sophie Chahinian (USA), 2024
Acclaimed and exiled Iranian-American artist Shirin Neshat discusses the foremost theme of her work: women’s bodies as a locus for political and religious exploitation.
SIREN
dir. Raina Yang (USA/China), 2025
World Premiere
After Raven grows apart from her husband, the haunting presence of a mysterious stranger ignites her unspeakable desires.
WEST LANDING
dir. Doug Gallo (USA), 2025
As open-water swimmers gather every morning in Hampton Bays, their daily swims provide a sense of community, friendship, purpose, and joy.
SHORTS PROGRAM: 2025 AIR LAND AND SEA SHORTS
ISLAND WILLING
dir. Cece King (USA), 2025
World Premiere
The community on Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island–home to more endemic species per square kilometer than the Galápagos–defends its culture of stewardship against outside pressures.
QOTZŨNI: PEOPLE OF THE LAKE
dir. Gastón Zilberman, Michael Salama (Argentina/USA), 2024
After the disappearance of Lake Poopó, the Uru-Murato communities must face what it means to be Qotzünis, or “People of the Lake.”
SALLIE’S ASHES
dir. Brennan Robideaux (USA), 2025
East Coast Premiere
Faced with terminal cancer, 80-year-old Sallie Smith rallies a team of fellow Alabama grandmas to fight for the removal of a toxic coal ash pit.
SHORTS PROGRAM: 2025 CONFLICT AND RESOLUTION SHORTS
ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS
dir. Joshua Seftel (USA), 2025
Reporter Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp embark on a cross-country journey to memorialize the bedrooms of children lost to school shootings.
CLASSROOM 4
dir. Eden Wurmfeld (USA), 2025
New York Premiere
In a course taught inside a prison, college students learn about the history of crime and punishment in the US alongside incarcerated classmates.
For more info, visit Hamptonsfilmfest.org
