September 25, 2025
LIVING THE LAND (SHENG XI ZHI DI)
DescriptionBiosDescription In his second feature film, director Huo Meng (Silver Bear for Best Director, 2025 Berlin Film Festival) confirms his talent with an epic tale of a farm family navigating life-changing events in ‘90s rural China — recalling the work of both early Zhang Yimou and Meng’s mentor, Jia Zhangke. Sent to live with his...
September 25, 2025
LEFT-HANDED GIRL
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription Screening to be followed by a conversation with director, screenwriter and producer Shih-Ching Tsou. Shih-Ching Tsou’s delightful solo directorial debut, co-written, produced and edited by her longtime collaborator Sean Baker, is a kaleidoscopic portrait of life in contemporary Tapei — as seen through the eyes of three generations of women, each contending with the...
September 25, 2025
LOCAL ONE
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Screens as part of SHORTS PROGRAM: DOCUMENTARY 1 The Amazon Labor Union launches a nationwide strike during peak holiday shopping season. LOCAL ONE takes us into the first days of the strike at two Amazon warehouses in NYC. Bios Brett Story is an award-winning filmmaker, professor and author based in Toronto whose films have...
September 25, 2025
LONG LIVE LIVIA
DescriptionBiosDescription North American Premiere Screens as part of SHORTS PROGRAM: DOCUMENTARY 2 An animator discusses a scene from the TV series, THE SOPRANOS, while meticulously crafting stop-motion recreations of his family’s home movies. Bios Zach Dorn is a filmmaker and performing artist living between Seoul and Los Angeles. His first stop-motion film, CHARLOTTE, premiered at...
September 25, 2025
LAST CALL
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Screens as part of SHORTS PROGRAM: AFTER DARK Claudia, a fast-riding motorcycle rebel, indulges in her worst vices to avoid confrontation with a mysterious serpent woman who taps into her most grotesque fantasies. Bios Winnie Cheung is a Hong Kong-born, New York-based artist and storyteller at the intersection of experimental video, nonfiction, horror and...
September 25, 2025
KOKUHO (国宝)
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Adapted from Shūichi Yoshida’s two-part novel in a creative journey 15 years in the making, filmmaker Sang-il Lee’s sumptuous period epic tells a decades-spanning tale of devotion and sacrifice for the craft of onnagata in Kabuki (where men cross-dress as female characters in theater). Opening in 1964, Nagasaki, a timid yet strong-willed 14-year-old Kikuo...
September 25, 2025
KONTINENTAL ’25
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription Radu Jude won the Best Screenplay award at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival for this scabrous black comedy about a guilt-wracked civil servant’s effort to clear her conscience, instead discovering that guilt is only a relative concept in contemporary Romania. Distraught over an unexpected, fatal tragedy during her work as a court bailiff in...
September 25, 2025
LAB MAN
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Screens as part of SHORTS PROGRAM: DOCUMENTARY 2 LAB MAN is a docu-portrait about Arturo Arnold, a master of emulsion who processes all the 8mm and 16mm motion picture film for a busy film lab in North Hollywood. Bios Neil Butler is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator. Neil edited the documentary BETYE SAAR:...
September 25, 2025
JAY KELLY
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription The new film from writer/director Noah Baumbach (MARRIAGE STORY, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, co-screenwriter of BARBIE) follows famous movie actor Jay Kelly (George Clooney) and his devoted manager Ron (Adam Sandler) as they embark on a whirlwind and unexpectedly profound journey through Europe. Along the way, both men are forced to confront the...
September 25, 2025
JUNKIE
DescriptionBiosContactDescription World Premiere Screening to be followed by a conversation with AFI Alumnus, director, screenwriter and producer William Means, AFI Alumna and executive producer Patty Jenkins, AFI Alumna and producer Rachel Weise, AFI Alumnus and editor Noam Klement and actors Rocky Shay, Rett Keeter, Jessica Lea Risco, Kian Morr and Drew Faulkner. Executive-produced by AFI...
