The 49th Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) running March 27 – April 5, 2025, has revealed the year’s spotlight films, with For Worse, the directorial debut of actress Amy Landecker as Opening Night Film. The documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore directed by Shoshannah Stern will screen as Centerpiece, and Love, Brooklyn directed by Amy Landecker as Closing Night Film.
The 17th ReelAbilities Film Festival: New York (RFFNY) celebrating the lives, stories, and artistic expressions of people with disabilities worldwide, returns April 3-9, 2025.
The 39th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival taking place March 19 – 30, 2025, unveiled its full program. BFI Flare is divided into three thematic program strands: Hearts, Bodies and Minds and presents 34 World Premieres (across features and shorts) with 56 features, 1 series and 81 shorts from 41 countries.
The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) announced the award-winning films with Out of Plain Sight directed by Daniel Straub, Rosanna Xia winning the Audience Choice Award.
Ahead of the world premiere at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival on February 16th and screening at the Slamdance Film Festival in Los Angeles on February 23rd and 24th, here is the first official trailer for Stolen Kingdom, director Joshua Bailey’s documentary feature debut.
Circusboy (Zirkuskind) by German film directors Julia Lemke and Anna Koch will celebrate its world premiere in the competition program of the Berlinale Generation section / Kplus at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival taking place February 13-23, 2025.
Directed by filmmaker Andrew Abrahams (Academy Award shortlisted films ‘Under Our Skin’ and ‘American Justice on Trial,’ Emmy nominee ‘Bubbeh Lee & Me,’ National PBS’ ‘The Grove,’ the Sundance Channel’s ‘Hope Is The Thing With Feathers’), the feature documentary Complicated tells the story of kids with the devastatingly complicated connective-tissue disease Ehler’s-Danlos syndrome (EDS). The film looks at parents who risk losing them if they go too far to help (including potentially losing their parental rights).
Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter’s documentary The Stand will have its US premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, which takes place February 14 to 23 in Missoula, Montana.
The BFI Future Film Festival 2025, the festival for young, emerging filmmakers, returns from February 20 – March 6, 2025 with a hybrid format, and the traditional live and in-person screenings and events at BFI Southbank from February 20 – 23, 2025.
The World premiere of Tornado, Scottish director John Maclean’s survival thriller will open the 21st Glasgow Film Festival 2025 (GFF25) taking place from 26 February to 9 March 2025.
The hybrid documentary Fiume o morte! directed by Igor Bezinović wins the top Tiger Award along with the FIPRESCI Award at the 54th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Through dramatic reconstruction and documentary asides, Igor Bezinović captures the spirit of Italian poet, playwright, journalist, aristocrat and army officer Gabriele D’Annunzio, and the nascent fascism in his attempts to annex the city of Fiume (Rijeka) to Italy in the aftermath of the First World War.
