American Film Institute has revealed some of the films that joined its 2025 AFI Fest range. “Jay Kelly,” “Nürnberg,” “Dead Man’s Wire” and “Christy” will round out the LA-based October festival’s premiere episode. These films go with “Springsteen: Deliver me from Nowhere” and the world premieres for “Song Sung Blue” and “The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants” in the red carpet.
AFI Fest also announced a robust slate of films to join the Special Screenings section. These films 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”, “Testament by Ann Lee” and the Testament by Ann Lee “and the Testament. “Bad apples” from director Jonatan Etzler will have his American premiere at the festival, while Thom Zimny’s “Nebraska Live” will have his world premiere.
Zimny has worked with Bruce Springsteen on a number of projects, including the concert films “Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band: Live in New York City” and “Springsteen on Broadway.” The filmmaker won an Emmy for each and made outstanding image editing with multiple cameras for a mini -series, film or a special for the former and outstanding director for a variety special for the latter. “Nebraska Live” marks another collaboration for the two, a black and white performance of Springsteen’s iconic album “Nebraska.” This album is also at the center of Fellow Afi Fest movie, “Springsteen: Deliver me from Nowhere.”
Directed by Etzler, “Bad Apple” is a dark satire after Saoirse Ronan as a school teacher on the brink who accidentally kidnaps a problem student from his classroom. The German comic thriller, based on Rasmus Lindgren’s novel “The Unwanted”, premiered at TIFF in September.
A number of high -profile directors will show their latest works at AFI Fest. “Bugonia”, the new collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, was announced as part of the special views section. In that section, Bradley Cooper’s latest director’s effort is, “Is this thing on?” -Following Will Arnett as a long-lasting father and husband who takes up stand-up comedy in the shadow of divorce.
Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” (premiere on Thursday 23 October), who plays George Clooney as an aging movie star and Adam Sandler as his boss, helps round out the red carpet. James Vanderbiltt’s film about the Nürnberg trial (premiere on Friday 24 October), based on “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist” by Jack El-Hai, will also be shown in the section. Rounding the new red carpet’s premiere is “Christy”, which plays Sydney Sweeney as the acclaimed boxer Christy Martin and “Dead Man’s Wire”, the first movie from Gus van Sant since 2018. Both films premiere on Saturday October 25.
AFI Fest, presented by Canva, will go from October 22 to October 26. The entire lineup for the festival will be announced on September 30.
Red carpet has premiere
“Christy,” David Michôd
“Dead Man’s Wire”, Gus van True
“Jay Kelly,“ Noah Baumbach
“Nuremberg,” James Vanderbilt
Special views
“Bad apples,” Jonathan Etzler (US premiere)
“Bugonia,” Yorgos Lanthimos
“Choral,” Nicholas Hytner
“The chronology of water”, Christian stewart
“Is this thing on?”, Bradley Cooper
“A fantastic life,” Sylvian Chomet
“Very we roll with,“ Maria Friedman
“Nebraska Live”, Thom Zimny (world premiere)
“Rebuilding”, Max Walker-Silverman
“Rental family,” Hikari
“Testament of Ann Lee,“ Mona Fastvold
“Train Dreams,” Clint Bentley
