September 25, 2025
S THE WOLF
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription Screens as part of SHORTS PROGRAM: ANIMATION 1 A middle-aged man reflects on his tumultuous adolescence through intricate and deeply personal musings all tied to his hair growing or receding. Over time, we accumulate meaning into the larger journey of his life. Bios Sameh Alaa is an Egyptian filmmaker whose short films FIFTEEN and...
September 25, 2025
RENTAL FAMILY
DescriptionBiosTrailerDescription Screening to be followed by a conversation with director, screenwriter and producer HIKARI and actors Brendan Fraser and Mari Yamamoto. Academy Award® winner Brendan Fraser is Philip, an American down on his luck and unable to find meaningful work as an actor in Tokyo, landing only bit parts in commercials and TV shows. That...
September 25, 2025
REBUILDING
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Screening to be followed by a conversation with director and screenwriter Max Walker-Silverman. In this tender and timely follow-up to his wistful, timeless debut feature, A LOVE SONG (2022), Max Walker-Silverman continues to explore forgotten corners of the American West and the rural communities residing in them. Divorced Colorado rancher Dusty (played with self-effacing...
September 25, 2025
PROMISED SKY (PROMIS LE CIEL)
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription Erige Sehiri’s open-hearted sophomore fiction feature follows three resilient Ivorian women living in Tunisia whose bonds are tested amid a ruthless immigration crackdown. In the film’s opening moments, the three women take in a young girl who recently survived a capsized refugee boat in the Mediterranean and has been orphaned by the tragedy. Their...
September 25, 2025
THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE (MAMLAKET AL-QASAB)
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Screening to be followed by a conversation with director and screenwirter Hasan Hadi. Premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Hasan Hadi’s striking debut made history as the first Iraqi feature screened in the sidebar, winning both the Audience Award and the Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature. Inspired by...
September 25, 2025
RED EGG & GINGER
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Screens as part of SHORTS PROGRAM: LIVE ACTION 2 Hannah, a half-white, half-Chinese teenager, meets her newborn, 100% Chinese half-sister at a traditional Chinese event, forcing Hannah to question her cultural identity and where she fits in her family. Bios Olivia is an American writer/director from the Bay Area. She views storytelling as a...
September 25, 2025
POSTER BOY
DescriptionBiosContactDescription U.S. Premiere Screens as part of SHORTS PROGRAM: LIVE ACTION 1 In the cutthroat world of 1990s boy bands, a desperate 16-year-old dancer betrays his best friend and bandmates in a misguided attempt to secure his spot in the limelight. Bios India Opzoomer is a British Canadian artist based in Austin, Texas. She is...
September 25, 2025
POOLBOY
DescriptionTrailerDescription Screens as part of CONSERVATORY SHOWCASE 3 Kaspar is a medical tech diagnosed with terminal cancer and six months to live. Confronting mortality, he quits his job to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a Los Angeles pool boy. Trailer
September 25, 2025
A POET (UN POETA)
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription Screening to be followed by a conversation with director, screenwriter and producer Simón Mesa Soto. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Colombian director Simón Mesa Soto's (AMPARO) delightfully deadpan sophomore feature is an unexpectedly absurdist tragicomedy that explores the challenges of pursuing an artistic life and...
September 25, 2025
PIN DE FARTIE
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription Adapting Samuel Beckett’s iconic 1957 play “Endgame” with gleeful, reckless abandon, maverick Argentine filmmaker Alejo Moguillansky returns to AFI FEST for the first time since he last adapted the Irish master with his breakthrough film CASTRO (AFI FEST 2009). While Beckett’s original work contained just four characters trapped on stage in a bleak far-off...
