Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere will open the the 38th year Virginia Film Festival set for October 22-26 in Charlottesville, VA.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere stars Jeremy Allen White and is directed by VAFF Advisory Board member and Virginia native Scott Cooper. The film tells the story behind the making of the Springsteen’s celebrated album Nebraska at a time when he was battling mental health issues and working to come to terms with his growing fame.
The Centerpiece Film is Train Dreams based on Denis Johnson novella of the same name and starring Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, and William H. Macy. The film captures the story of an ordinary life lived amidst the sweeping and revolutionary change that marked the early days of the 20th Century.
The Closing Night Film is Rental Family. Set in Tokyo, the latest film from HIKARI stars Academy Award-winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale) as an American actor who lands a gig with a Japanese “rental family” agency playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he forms real relationships that blur the lines between performance and reality and allow him to rediscover purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection. Director HIKARI will be on hand to accept the Breakthrough Director Award and to participate in a post-screening discussion.
“This year’s Virginia Film Festival delivers the kind of rich, deep, and highly engaging program that has made it one of the nation’s leading regional film festivals and one of the premier cultural events in the Mid-Atlantic region,” said VAFF Executive Director and UVA Vice Provost for the Arts Jody Kielbasa. “The breadth of storytelling and artistic talent among this year’s filmmakers and special guests allows us to uniquely celebrate the power of cinema while at the same time providing a vehicle to examine our own lives and the world where we live.”
2025 Gala Screenings
Christy stars Sydney Sweeney in a career-defining performance as trailblazing professional boxer Christy Martin with Ben Foster (Hell or High Water) as Jim Martin, her coach and husband, in a tale of an unforgettable woman’s historic battles both in the ring and on behalf of fellow domestic violence victims everywhere. Actor Ben Foster will be on hand to accept the Achievement in Acting Award and participate in a post-screening discussion.
Frankenstein – Decades in the making and fulfilling the filmmaker’s lifelong dream of making his own adaptation of Mary Shelley’s beloved Gothic novel, three-time Academy Award-winning writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s most sweeping film to date stars Oscar Isaac as Dr. Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi as The Creature in a widely acclaimed, larger-than-life role, Mia Goth as Elizabeth and Christoph Waltz as Harlander.
Hamnet from Academy Award-winning writer/director and former VAFF honoree Chloé Zhao, stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in a powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet. The film, based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, who co-wrote the film with Zhao, also features Emily Watson and Jacobi Jupe, and producers include Sam Mendes, Steven Spielberg, Pippa Harris, Liza Marshall, and Nic Gonda.
Hedda from noted writer/director Nia DaCosta (Candyman, Little Woods), stars Tessa Thompson in a tour-de-force performance as the title character in a provocative, dark, wicked, and modern reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic Hedda Gabler, set in the 1950s. Production Designer Cara Brower will be on hand to accept the Craft Award for Production Design.
Jay Kelly – Academy Award-nominee Noah Baumbach’s latest film stars George Clooney as a Hollywood megastar who embarks on an unexpected and profound journey through Europe with his longtime manager Ron (Adam Sandler), where they confront their past choices, family relationships, and legacies. The film also includes a memorable turn from Laura Dern as Kelly’s publicist. The screening will feature special guest Nicholas Britell, the film’s Emmy and Grammy Award-winning composer also known for his work on the highly decorated HBO series Succession as well as for his Oscar-nominated scores for films including Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Don’t Look Up. Britell will receive the Achievement in Film Composition Award and participate in a post-film conversation with The Hollywood Reporter’s executive editor of awards coverage Scott Feinberg that will be recorded live for a special episode of Feinberg’s Awards Chatter Podcast.
Other VAFF Gala screenings include The Choral directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Ralph Fiennes; Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater’s recreation of the making of Breathless; A Private Life from director Rebecca Zlotowski, starring Jodie Foster; and Sentimental Value, Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s second collaboration with Renate Reinsve following the Academy Award-nominated The Worst Person in the World.
2025 Spotlight Screenings
Come See Me In The Good Light tells the remarkable love story of two poets, Megan Falley and Andrea Gibson, as they embrace their life together in the face of an incurable cancer diagnosis. Producer Jessica Hargrave will receive the Chronicler Award.
Left-Handed Girl, directed by Shih-Ching Tsou and co-written with her frequent collaborator Sean Baker, follows a single mother and her two daughters as they relocate to Taipei to open a night market stall and the challenges and generations of secrets they encounter that threaten to open their family unity.
La Grazia – Academy Award-winner Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film stars Toni Servillo (Il Divo) as an Italian President wrestling with weighty moral dilemmas, including a pair of controversial pardons and euthanasia legislation, as he heads toward the end of his term and political career.
The Peace Particle – After the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a group of scientists came together in a vow that it would never happen again. They formed CERN, building the world’s biggest machine in search of its smallest particles. As the organization turns 70, director Alex Kiehl delivers a fascinating look at the inspiring and untold stories behind humanity’s biggest nuclear physics experiments.
Pep Banned – Directors Bill Reifenberger and Chris Farina (World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements) share this no-holds-barred look back at one of the most entertaining and controversial ensembles in the history of (halftime) show business. The University of Virginia Pep Band debuted in 1974 and was loved by fans, tolerated by administrations, and often reviled by opposing schools for their creative musical skits that never failed to push boundaries and cross lines all the way to its final performance in 2003. Filmmaker Chris Farina will receive the Governor Gerald L. Baliles Founder’s Award, presented for excellence in Virginia filmmaking.
The Plague – The second film featuring Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams) in this year’s Film Festival, this psychological thriller from writer/director Charlie Polinger is about a socially anxious 12-year-oldboy roped into a cruel tradition at an all-boys water polo camp that ultimately makes him question what is real.
The Secret Agent, set in Brazil in 1977, earned multiple awards at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, including Best Director honors for Kleber Mendonça Filho and Best Actor for Wagner Moura (Narco, Dope Thief). The political thriller follows a forty-something technology expert who travels to Recife during carnival week to reunite with his family while staying a step ahead of the trained government assassins who are hot on his trail. Director of Photography Evgenia Alexandrova will be on hand to receive the Craft Award for Cinematography.
Urchin is the directorial debut from acclaimed actor Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness, Babygirl), and offers a raw, absurd tale of a young man in London trying to turn his life around amidst a cycle of self-destruction.
The program also includes 14 official entries for Best International Feature for the Academy Awards: It Was Just An Accident (France), Late Shift (Switzerland), Left-Handed Girl (Taiwan), The Love That Remains (Iceland), No Other Choice (Korea), Peacock (Austria), A Poet (Columbia), The President’s Cake (Iraq), The Secret Agent (Brazil), Sentimental Value (Norway), Sirât (Spain), Sound of Falling (Germany), The Tale of Silyan (North Macedonia), and The Things You Kill (Canada).
2025 Film Series
After Hours
Films that walk on the wild side—genre, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and more. This series is curated by guest programmer Igor Shteyrenberg
Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon
Dust Bunny
Sinners
Black Excellence
Bird in Hand
The Chaplain & the Doctor
Hedda
Seeds
Sinners
Speak
Indigenous Cinema of the Americas
Curated by guest programmer Melissa Bisagni
Free Leonard Peltier
Moloka’i Bound
Powwow People
Jewish
Andy Kaufman is Me
The Chaplain and the Doctor
Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire
Korean
Curated by guest programmer Hyeyon Moon
No Other Choice
Spring Night
Winter Light
Latinidades
Dear Sobriety: You’re Killing Me
Espina
A Poet
The Secret Agent
Street Smart: Lessons from a TV Icon
LGBTQIA+
Cactus Pears
Christy
Come See Me In The Good Light
Hedda
It’s Dorothy!
Peter Hujar’s Day
Speak
Middle Eastern and South Asian Cinema
Curated by guest programmer Samhita Sunya.
Cactus Pears
It Was Just An Accident
The President’s Cake
The Things You Kill
Music on Film
Burt
The Choral
Deathgasm II: Goremageddon
Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie
Pep Banned
Powwow People
Sinners
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
Nature & Environment
Presented by Southern Environmental Law Center
Arco
Been Here Stay Here
Divia
Ghost Elephants
The Peace Particle
Seeds
Shenandoah
The Tale of Silyan
Underland
Page to Screen
Come See Me In The Good Light
Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Hedda
A Magnificent Life
No Other Choice
Peter Hujar’s Day
Two Prosecutors
Underland
Virginia Filmmaking
Presented by Virginia Film Office
Andy Kaufman is Me
Been Here Stay Here
Bird in Hand
Multiple Choice
Pep Banned
Shenandoah
Voices of the Formerly Incarcerated
Inthrive: Incarceration Survivor’s Voices
Moloka’i Bound
Songs Inside
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