AFI Fest Sets Lineup With Films by Jim Jarmusch, Paolo Sorrentino, Kaouther Ben Hania and More

The American Film Institute has revealed the complete list of movies for AFI Fest 2025. The event, sponsored by Canva and supported by Fiji, will happen from October 22 to 26 at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatres. There will be over 160 films, including seven red carpet premieres, 12 special showings, 20 international movies, 15 documentaries, six midnight movies, 23 films from the AFI Conservatory Showcase, 14 selections from famous filmmakers, and a big short film competition. Guillermo del Toro is confirmed as the guest artistic director. The festival will start with the movie Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, where Jeremy Allen White plays the famous rock star. Other big premieres include Song Sung Blue, with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, and The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants.

The lineup includes Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother, which won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

 The film includes Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Vicky Krieps, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Luka Sabbat, and Indya Moore. Another Venice winner, Kaouther Ben-Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, will be shown in Los Angeles. Other movies coming to Hollywood include Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants, Charlie Kaufman’s new short film How to Shoot a Ghost with Jessie Buckley, Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling, Charlie Polinger’s The Plague with Joel Edgerton, Ildiko Enyedi’s Silent Friend, Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl made with Sean Baker, William Means’ Junkie, and Joan Bofill Amargos’ documentary The Hanging of Stuart Cornfeld about a film producer. This film includes appearances by Jack Black, Mel Brooks, David Cronenberg, Guillermo del Toro, David Lynch, Steven Soderbergh, and Ben Stiller.

AFI Fest will also show new movies by Fatih Akin, Cherien Dabis, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Lav Diaz, Annemarie Jacir, Radu Jude, Nadav Lapid, Sergei Loznitsa, László Nemes, François Ozon, Amanda Kramer, Hylnur Pálmason, Christian Petzold, Ira Sachs, Lee Sang-il, Hong Sang-soo, Erige Sehiri, and Carla Simón.

The documentary section features Clay Tweel’s Andy Kaufman is Me, Gianfranco Rosi’s Below the Clouds, Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s Cover-Up, Ben Proudfoot’s The Eyes of Ghana, Brandon Kramer’s Holding Liat, Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard’s I Was Born This Way, Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Love+War, Tamara Kotevska’s The Tale of Silyan, Brittany Shyne’s Seeds, and Isabel Castro’s Selena y Los Dinos.

As previously announced, the festival will feature high-profile showings of Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, where George Clooney plays a movie star dealing with his legacy (Oct. 23), James Vanderbilt’s historical epic Nuremberg starring Rami Malek and Russell Crowe (Oct. 24), Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire with Bill Skarsgård (Oct. 25), and David Michòd’s Christy, featuring Sydney Sweeney as a boxer fighting for her place in the sport (Oct. 25).

 Films in the special screenings section include Bad Apples, Bugonia, The Choral, The Chronology of Water, Is This Thing On?, A Magnificent Life, Merrily We Roll Along, Nebraska Live, Rebuilding, Rental Family, The Testament of Ann Lee, and Train Dreams.

AFI Fest director Todd Hitchcock said, “With more than 90 features and nearly 70 shorts, AFI Fest 2025 will be our biggest program in recent memory.

 But more importantly, this year’s selection reflects a diversity of viewpoints, artistry, and daring from filmmakers across the globe.”

AFI Fest programming director Abbie Algar added, “AFI Fest’s unique mix of red carpet premieres, major works from established auteurs and impressive debuts from new talents makes for an action-packed five days of great cinema, which will spark conversation and stir imagination.”