THE CAST – Nasser Bakhshi & Roghayeh Najdi

THE TEAM – Mani Haghighi (Director/Writer)

THE RUNNING TIME – 76 Minutes

Amid the thousands of lives lost and infrastructure destroyed during the last half-century in Iran, there was the quiet erasure of an entire culture. In both the era of the Shah and the years after the 1979 revolution, both regimes took the same cultural tack: destroy anything—documents, photographs, personal letters—that didn’t conform to the official state narrative. At last, many of these cultural treasures are now being unearthed by a team of scouts, junk dealers and sorting managers, many of whom are being financed by collectors. One such collecting team is a married couple, Nasser Bakhshi and Roghayeh Najdi, who have created a massive museum archive in Tabriz which holds their collection of over 120,000 historical documents, manuscripts, and pre-Islamic artifacts. That collection, and the eccentric couple behind it, are the focus of this latest documentary by Iranian director Mani Haghighi, “I Deserve a Lover Whose Every Rise Sets Fiery Dooms Raging Across the Skies.”

In his past documentaries, Haghighi has been drawn to artists who have forged their own paths and are obsessive about their work, so profiling a collector as dedicated as Bakhshi is a logical next step. A man of many talents, Bakhshi is known as a painter, conceptual artist, collector, and curator, and he has amassed enormous wealth over the years, much of which he has used to fund both his collecting and archival efforts. A highly regarded artist, Bakhski is best known as a portrait painter, using as his subjects the vintage photographs he has collected over the years. But he is the first to argue that his museum collection of Iranian artifacts is his true masterpiece.

Haghighi, in fact, opens his film with footage of the artifacts collected in the digs being sorted out by Bakhshi’s (mostly female) team of handlers. Wearing surgical gloves and masks, the handlers sift through and sort bags of trash, throwing out obvious garbage. Because Bakhshi isn’t present to direct operations, the sorters presumably select what to keep according to the boss’s directives. So it’s surprising to see just how many items that can only be described as junk are actually kept and claimed as artifacts. Though the film presents Bakhski as a selective collector, the junk he chooses to keep leads the viewer to suspect he is more of a hoarder than a discriminating collector. Bakhski argues that by keeping everything, he is protecting remnants of Iranian culture that the current regime is trying to erase. Still, one wonders how objects Iranians throw in the trash contribute to that culture.

Yet his collection has produced several enormously valuable artifacts. The most compelling is a photo album containing pictures of young girls and women kidnapped from their homes to become sex slaves. The photos, taken by a former prison guard and featuring images of girls as young as 10 or 11, were suppressed from government records, with Bakhski’s album being the only evidence. To Haghighi’s credit, he did pursue more information about human trafficking in Iran, but the footage he shot was kept in a warehouse that was ultimately destroyed by bombs during the current war.

Haghighi took that extra step, yet the film suggests Bakhski is the champion of the marginalized and persecuted. Certainly, there are artifacts shown, such as love letters or photos of queer couples, that might support that belief, but the film fails to connect the dots back to any kind of political fervor from the collector. Instead, he comes across as a man whose collecting is tied to his ego, and who can go to extreme lengths to control both his public image and his collection.

The most blatant example is how he treats his sorting staff, strictly enforcing rules of behavior that may seem questionable. On the job, for example, workers are banned from wearing digital watches, since their movements can be tracked. His rules even extend to workers’ lives outside the workplace, as he has forbidden them from having boyfriends or any other kind of personal relationships. His workers are most upset by the hypocrisy this reveals: an employer who prides himself on championing the common man runs his shop like an authoritarian. Yet when given the chance to confront Bakhski on this double standard, Haghighi backs off, letting the collector wave away his employees’ concerns as trivial.

This lack of follow-through on Haghighi’s part is the film’s primary problem. To take on the subject of cultural erasure by Iran’s governmental forces, a surface-level examination is not enough. If Bakhshi claims to be the champion of those without a voice, a documentarian should dig deeper to see whether that assertion is genuine and what steps he personally took to put that belief into action. Taking his word and showing his collection is not enough if it can’t be backed up. But you need a filmmaker willing to do that.

Instead, Haghighi takes Bakhshi’s offhand remark that he doesn’t like tattoos and turns it into an entire sequence of Iranians showing off the ink on their bodies. I suppose you could argue that the scene is included to show another way to archive a nation’s history, though what a tattoo of the “Interstellar” film logo says about Iran is questionable. Worse, the film treats Najdi as Bakhshi’s equal partner in business and in life. Yet she gets only one segment to display and explain her art, which has been acclaimed as among the best of contemporary feminist artists. Otherwise, she is seen relegated to sitting quietly in the back seat of a private car beside her husband, a dismissal that may reflect the role of women in contemporary Iran today. 

These kinds of missed opportunities make “I Deserve a Lover Whose Every Rise Sets Fiery Dooms Raging Across the Skies” so disappointing. Even at 76 minutes, the film (tattoo segment and all) still feels padded. If they’d taken the time to follow one more lead or ask one more question, we might have gotten a more substantive look at how rescuing cultural artifacts from destruction can preserve a nation’s precious history. “I Deserve a Lover Whose Every Rise Sets Fiery Dooms Raging Across the Skies” may be pretty to look at, but there’s precious little beneath its glossy surface that’s lasting.

The post “I DESERVE A LOVER WHOSE EVERY RISE SETS FIERY DOOMS RAGING ACROSS THE SKIES” appeared first on Next Best Picture.

THE CAST – Ivan Savov, Tanya Shahova, Margita Gosheva & Ivan Barnev

THE TEAM – Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov (Directors), Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov & Decho Taralezhkov (Writers)

THE RUNNING TIME – 94 Minutes

As authoritarian regimes pop up around the world, political corruption has come to the fore. In the current elections in the United States, for example, using one’s elected position for personal gain has been seen as an enormous net negative. In Bulgaria, however, taking money under the table for routine services is seen as just another Tuesday.

Meet Gosha (Ivan Savov) and Marina (Tanya Shahova), a longtime married couple who live in Sofia. Gosha works as a railway dispatcher who pads his pockets by turning a blind eye to thieves who siphon diesel fuel from tankers at the station. For her part, Marina, a maternity nurse, regularly accepts “gratuities” from nervous parents-to-be in exchange for preferential treatment. At the end of every workday, they pool their newfound income into a jar to fund their every desire.

For Marina, one of those long-held desires is to fund a dream vacation to see the white nights in Russia. Gosha, anxious to please his wife, agrees, so they meet with a travel agent, who lays out a promising itinerary. There’s a discount if the trip is paid for in cash up front, so, despite Marina’s misgivings, Gosha forks over their savings for a ticket set for months in advance. Even when Russia invades Ukraine, the travel agent assures them that all will be fine.

The day of their departure, however, is anything but fine. When their bus to the airport never arrives, Gosha marches to the travel agency, only to find the agency gone, along with all of their money. With nowhere to turn, Marina must swallow her pride and phone her resentful sister Lyudmila (Margita Gosheva) and her cabbie husband Kosyo (Ivan Barnev) for help. While Lyudmila is still griping to her sister over a long-unpaid debt, Kosyo offers to help a vengeful Gosha track down the scammers and get their money back. However, Kosyo hooks him up with a notorious underground gangster, a decision that Gosha soon regrets when it leads to brutally painful consequences.

There is, of course, a certain delicious irony in seeing those who take bribes getting scammed themselves. But it’s much to the credit of directors Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov that they never laugh at the expense of their bedeviled characters. Instead, the film shows empathy and an understanding that they’re only part of a corrupt system, and that to keep their household (and marriage) afloat, Gosha & Marina must go along with it.

None of this would have worked if the audience didn’t believe in the inherent goodness of Gosha and Marina’s lasting love for one another, and much of the credit goes to the chemistry between Savov and Shahova. Both their physical and verbal interactions suggest two people who have been together long enough to know each other’s moves and finish each other’s sentences. As unlikely as it may sound, they truly make us care that these two swindlers will both turn out all right.

The film moves briskly, thanks to the editing of Yorgos Mavropsaridis, the longtime Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator who cuts right on the beat, allowing the film’s many jokes to land solidly. In addition, much of DP Alexander Stanishev’s cinematography has an almost doc-like look, especially early in the film, as his hand-held camera follows the couple as they wander aimlessly amid what looks like a genuine gay pride celebration in Sofia. Most importantly, the screenplay by both the directors and co-writer Decho Taralezhkov is sharp, succinctly arguing that institutionalized corruption can filter down and threaten to ruin the everyday lives of citizens.

But an unpleasant cruelty lurks just beneath the surface, occasionally seeping through. True, it’s rooted in narrative, Marina believing that the couple has been cursed by God for breaking a crucifix and deserves all the punishment that they get. But the brutality of that retribution that the film’s elderly characters must endure, such as a physical beating that nearly costs Gosha his life, comes as a jolt and is at times an uncomfortable fit with the film’s otherwise satiric tone.

Directors Grozeva and Valchanov have bitten off a lot by attempting to indict an entire society’s practices with a single film. But they take a perceptive route: they start small, telling what’s essentially a story about one marriage; when the narrative broadens, and we see where these two small-timers fit into the larger map of corruption, it hits us harder. Even with its imperfections, “Black Money for White Nights” offers a stark warning that turning a blind eye to corruption can cause enormous rot not only in the soul of a nation but even down to its lowliest citizens.

The post “BLACK MONEY FOR WHITE NIGHTS” appeared first on Next Best Picture.

THE CAST – Pegah Ahangarani

THE TEAM – Pegah Ahangarani (Director/Writer), Ehsan Abdipur & Amir Ahmadi Arian (Writers)

THE RUNNING TIME – 101 Minutes

Until I saw Pegah Ahangarani’s stirring new documentary, “Rehearsals for a Revolution,” I was unfamiliar with the Iranian concept of “yād,” or “memory,” in which recollections of the events of one’s life are processed and applied to the actions that we take today. For Ahangarani, a celebrated film actor for the past quarter century who has now turned to directing, those memories have manifested themselves in visuals. In her latest doc, she has collected many memories from her life – home movies and family photographs, along with historical news footage – and deftly weaves her family’s story into the larger picture of what life has become in Iran over the past four decades.

Ahangarani comes from a family of filmmakers. First, her father Jamshid, who photographed the Iranian Revolution, and her mother Manijeh, who later became one of the few women working as a director in Iran at the time. The footage shot by her parents has always been held dear by Ahangarani, who was inspired by them to become a filmmaker herself. She turns that footage into an essay of sorts, of those special people in her life whose personal experiences have touched her life and inspired them to become revolutionaries, whether on a political or a personal level.

You might expect any film set in Iran titled “Rehearsals for a Revolution” to be take on the political conflicts of the time, and Ahangarani’s doc certainly does that. But what she has achieved so skillfully here is to view them through the lens of five people whom she has chosen: in addition to Jamshid, she offers a warm tribute to her “dearest teacher” Shermin Sarraf, her uncle Rashid, her close friend and ex-boyfriend Amir, and her young daughter Lily. Each visual essay offers a different perspective on the political turmoil in the streets of Tehran and how that affected young Pegah and her family.

In assembling her documentary, Ahangarani eschews traditional talking heads to offer insight of her own via a personal narration that offers perspective on the visuals that she has chosen to tell her story. This is especially valuable in the case of her first essay, dedicated to her father. A filmmaker before the 1979 revolution, Jamshid became enamored with the revolutionary ideas of Ayatollah Khomeini and took his handheld camera to the streets to cover the successful revolt against the Shah’s regime. When peace in Iran returned, Jamshid and Manijeh wed, but two years later when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, Jamshid quickly joined the Army to defend his homeland. But after it became clear that Khomeini’s authoritarianism was just as oppressive as the Shah’s, he left the service, triggered additionally by the execution of his best friend Davoud, who has the primary star of Jamshid’s early movies.

Another early influence on Pegah was her Uncle Rashid – Jamshid’s younger brother – who was the first to open a young girl’s eyes to the need for political action in her country. She recalls her uncle’s belief that change for the better will come, but only if the people rise up and fight for that change. However, in 1999 when the regime violently raided the dormitories at Tehran University, Rashid became traumatized by the response. The ongoing crackdown following the raids disillusioned Rashid and effectively ended his career as a budding journalist. His spirit completely broken, he eventually committed suicide.

Ahangarani readily admits that the Rashid section of the film was the most difficult for her to complete, not just for the sadness in revisiting her uncle’s tragic story, but also because she had so little actual footage of Rashid. Indeed, his mother was so devastated by her son’s suicide that she destroyed almost all physical photographs of Rashid, leaving Ahangarani precious little material with which to work. Only a number of audio cassette tapes of his voice were saved, which Ahangarani uses to give him at least a presence in the film. It is a credit to her filmmaking skills that she could rely only on those tapes and her powerfully narrated script and still create a segment that’s so compelling.

Not only is Ahangarani’s creativity on full display here, but also her frankness about her own failings. This is particularly true when she looks back at her character weaknesses as a young girl. In school, she developed a strong relationship with her beloved teacher, Mrs. Serraf, so much so that Pegah was able to insinuate herself into her teacher’s family. Pegah was even invited to a Serraf family party in which photos were taken of her teacher dancing while not wearing her hajib. She gave the photos to Pegah as a keepsake, but when Pegah began showing off the photos to others, the authorities cracked down and expelled Mrs. Serraf from teaching. Knowing that she was responsible for upending her teacher’s life is a regret that Pegah still feels to this day.

Similarly, in 2009, Pegah experienced her first big romance with then-boyfriend Amir, who was active in the Green Movement, which was calling for the removal of conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office. At Amir’s urging, Pegah tried to join Amir for a major demonstration in Tehran’s Revolution Square but was forced to run for cover when troops began firing on the protestors. Even as marchers were running for their lives, Pegah admits she failed to take notice of the historical events taking place around her, focusing instead on trying to see her new boyfriend. The Green Movement was eventually crushed, and Pegah broke up with Amir, who now happens to be one of the screenwriters credited on this film.

As Pegah achieved stardom in her mother’s movies and went on to become a director, she married and eventually emigrated to the UK where she has been raising her daughter Lily, to whom the film’s fifth and final essay is dedicated. Unlike the other chapters which serve as profiles of its subject, this last chapter is essentially a love letter to her daughter. Pegah has shaped it as if it is to be shown to Lily when she gets older so that she can know the people and the events that helped to shape her mother’s life. The segment’s footage not only explores Pegah’s past, but also her present: the challenge of a life in exile, as well as her continued love of Tehran, which is now being bombed once again in yet another war. For Pegah, her daughter stands as a symbol of hope that her new generation can live in a society with such freedom that rehearsals will no longer be necessary.

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Thank you so much for listening. The Next Best Picture Podcast is proud to be a part of the Evergreen Podcasts Network. You can subscribe to us anywhere you listen to podcasts or listen in the embedded player below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you’re feeling generous, you enjoy what you hear, and you want to hear more, please help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month, and you’ll receive some exclusive podcast content from us.

You can follow Matt, Dan & Tom and hear more of their thoughts on the Oscars and Film on X @NextBestPicture, @dancindanonfilm & @thomaseobrien

The post The Next Best Picture Podcast: Episode 513 – AFI Fest, “Above The Below,” “Bunker,” “Slayground,” “Tangles,” “Coward” & “In Waves” Trailers appeared first on Next Best Picture.

Thank you so much for listening. The Next Best Picture Podcast is proud to be a part of the Evergreen Podcasts Network. You can subscribe to us anywhere you listen to podcasts or listen in the embedded player below. Please take a moment to review us on Apple Podcasts here. And if you’re feeling generous, you enjoy what you hear, and you want to hear more, please help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month, and you’ll receive some exclusive podcast content from us.

You can follow Matt, Lauren & Giovanni and hear more of their thoughts on the Oscars and Film on X @NextBestPicture, @laurenlamango & @TheGiovanniLago

The post The Next Best Picture Podcast: Episode 512 – AFI Fest Preview, “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew,” “The Beekeeper 2,” “The Mosquito Bowl” & “A Long Winter” Trailers appeared first on Next Best Picture.

The evening will include a conversation with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino following a screening of ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD. Ahead of David Fincher’shighly anticipated new film THE FURTHER MIS-ADVENTURES OF CLIFF BOOTH, the festival will revisit Cliff Booth’s original misadventures on Friday, October 23 at the TCL Chinese Theatre, where ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD held its U.S. Premiere in 2019.

“As the world awaits THE FURTHER MIS-ADVENTURES OF CLIFF BOOTH, AFI is proud to celebrate where it all began,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI President & CEO. “And to do so with one of the greatest storytellers of our generation is a gift to all who love the movies.”

As previously announced, the 40th edition of AFI FEST will run October 21 to 25 at the TCL Chinese Theatres in the heart of Hollywood. This year’s festival now presents 158 films across 6 Red Carpet Premieres, 12 Special Screenings, 13 Luminaries selections, 18 Discovery titles, 16 World Cinema selections, 17 documentaries, 3 After Dark films, 4 Guest Artistic Director presentations, 45 films in the Short Film Competition and 24 films from the AFI Conservatory Showcase presented by AMC Global Media. Of the official selections, 45% are directed by women and 32% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.

The full lineup represents 50 countries and includes 12 official submissions for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards: 9 TEMPLES TO HEAVEN (Thailand); ALL OF A SUDDEN (Japan); BEN’IMANA (Rwanda); CITIZEN OSAMA (Palestine); ELEPHANTS IN THE FOG (Nepal); EVERYTIME (Germany); THE MELTDOWN (Chile); NINA ROZA (Canada); POSSIBLE LOVE (South Korea); REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION (United Kingdom); ROSE (Austria) and WE ARE ALL STRANGERS (Singapore).

The festival opens with the U.S. premiere of WILDWOOD and closes with BEING HEUMANN. Additional Red Carpet Premieres include the World Premiere of THE MOSQUITO BOWL, I PLAY ROCKY and RAY GUNN. Special Screenings include 14th, ASHES, BEHEMOTH!, BITTER CHRISTMAS, BUNKER, CLARISSA, ELSINORE, JOSEPHINE, THE MAN I LOVE, MOUSE, TANGLES and WILD HORSE NINE.

This year’s Guest Artistic Directors are Academy Award-winning filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The Guest Artistic Director Program will include “An Evening with Lord and Miller,” which will feature a Q&A with the directors followed by a screening of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) as well as screenings of HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971), THE MUPPET MOVIE (1979) and RIFIFI (1955).

Explore the full AFI FEST 2026 program presented by Canva.

Are you excited for this announcement? Are you looking to attend the AFI Film Festival this year? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on our X account.

The post “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” Will Screen With Quentin Tarantino In-Person At The 2026 AFI Film Festival appeared first on Next Best Picture.

This year’s festival presents 157 films across 5 Red Carpet Premieres, 12 Special Screenings, 13 Luminaries selections, 18 Discovery titles, 16 World Cinema selections, 17 documentaries, 3 After Dark films, 4 Guest Artistic Director presentations, 45 films in the Short Film Competition, and 24 films from the AFI Conservatory Showcase presented by AMC Global Media. Of the official selections, 45% are directed by women and 32% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.

Rounding out the impressive slate of already announced titles are highlights including Lee Chang-dong’s Venice Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize winner “POSSIBLE LOVE”; Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Cannes prize-winning “ALL OF A SUDDEN,” starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto; Werner Herzog’s highly anticipated “BUCKING FASTARD,” starring Kate Mara and Rooney Mara; Andrew Haigh’s “A LONG WINTER,” starring Fred Hechinger, Kit Connor, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Caitríona Balfe; Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert’s “THE IDIOT(S)” starring Johnny Flynn and Aimee Lou Wood; Mike Leigh’s San Sebastián Golden Shell winner “TENDER LOVING CARE”; and the North American Premieres of Asghar Farhadi’s “PARALLEL TALES,” starring Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel and Virginie Efira; and Céline Sciamma’s “TUTTI FRUTTI,” which premiered earlier this year at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Additional highlights include several eagerly anticipated award winners, including İlker Çatak’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner “YELLOW LETTERS”; Markus Schleinzer’s “ROSE,” starring Sandra Hüller, winner of the Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance; Sandra Wollner’s “EVERYTIME,” winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard top prize; Marine Atlan’s Cannes’ Critics’ Week Grand Prize winner “LA GRADIVA”; Louis Clichy’s “IRON BOY,” winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize; Stephanie Ahn’s “BEDFORD PARK,” winner of the Sundance U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Debut Feature; and Lance Hammer’s “QUEEN AT SEA” starring Juliette Binoche alongside Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall, who shared the Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance.

This year’s edition will also include new works from top auteurs such as Ali Asgari (“A BIT OF LIGHT”), Clio Barnard (“I SEE BUILDINGS FALL LIKE LIGHTNING”), Anna Biller (“THE FACE OF HORROR”), Anthony Chen (“WE ARE ALL STRANGERS”), Quentin Dupieux (“FULL PHIL”), Fernando Eimbcke (“FLIES”), Radu Jude (“DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID”), Barbara Kopple (“UNION TOWN”), Marie Kreutzer (“GENTLE MONSTER”), Hong Sang-soo (“THE DAY SHE RETURNS” and “NOWHERE TO LAY MY EYES”) and Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“THE BELOVED”).

Among the other high-profile documentary selections screening at this year’s festival are Pegah Ahangarani’s “REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION,” winner of Cannes’ L’Œil d’Or Prize; Joss Crowley’s Toronto-premiered “PRETENDERS”; Ahmed Hassouna’s Venice-debuted “CITIZEN OSAMA”; Rachel Mason’s “MY BROTHER’S KILLER”; Ayden Mayeri’s SXSW Grand Jury award-winning “SUMMER 2000: THE X-CETRA STORY”; plus Sundance award winners “ONE IN A MILLION” (Jack MacInnes and Itab Azzam), “NUISANCE BEAR” (Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden) and “SOUL PATROL” (J.M. Harper).

The lineup represents 50 countries and includes 10 official submissions for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards®: “9 TEMPLES TO HEAVEN” (Thailand); “ALL OF A SUDDEN” (Japan); “CITIZEN OSAMA” (Palestine); “ELEPHANTS IN THE FOG” (Nepal); “EVERYTIME” (Germany); “THE MELTDOWN” (Chile); “NINA ROZA” (Canada); “POSSIBLE LOVE” (South Korea); “ROSE” (Austria) and “WE ARE ALL STRANGERS” (Singapore).

“Our 40th edition of AFI FEST celebrates the cinematic artistry of bold, inspiring filmmakers from around the world,” said Todd Hitchcock, Director of AFI FEST and the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. “With more than 80 features and nearly 70 shorts, AFI FEST 2026 will once again light up the screen of the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre with a wide-ranging slate of films that includes highly anticipated awards favorites and a few surprises as well.”

“We’re thrilled to share some of the year’s most compelling films with the film lovers of Los Angeles at the 40th edition of AFI FEST — from red carpet premieres and major works by established auteurs to exciting debuts from emerging talents, this year’s lineup invites audiences to spend five days experiencing worlds beyond their own and making the connections that great art can spark,” said Abbie Algar, Director of Programming, AFI FEST and AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center.

Canva is the exclusive Presenting Sponsor of AFI FEST. FIJI Water is the festival’s Official Water Sponsor. American Airlines is the Official Airline of the festival.

As previously announced, the 40th edition of AFI FEST will run October 21 to 25 at the TCL Chinese Theatres in the heart of Hollywood. The festival will open with the U.S. premiere of “WILDWOOD” and close with “BEING HEUMANN.” Additional Red Carpet Premieres include the World Premiere of “THE MOSQUITO BOWL,” “I PLAY ROCKY” and “RAY GUNN.” Special Screenings include “14th,” “ASHES,” “BEHEMOTH!,” “BITTER CHRISTMAS,” “BUNKER,” “CLARISSA,” “ELSINORE,” “JOSEPHINE,” “THE MAN I LOVE,” “MOUSE,” “TANGLES” and “WILD HORSE NINE.”

This year’s Guest Artistic Directors are Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The Guest Artistic Director Program will include “An Evening with Lord and Miller” which will feature a Q&A with the directors followed by a screening of “2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY” (1968) as well as screenings of “HAROLD AND MAUDE” (1971), “THE MUPPET MOVIE” (1979) and “RIFIFI” (1955).

Passes to AFI FEST 2026 are now available for purchase online at FEST.AFI.com. Festivalgoers can choose from the Star Pass, Patron Pass and the new Marquee Pass. The AFI FEST Star Pass features access to all screenings (excluding Red Carpet Premieres), early screening selection and theater access, access to the AFI FEST Festival Lounge, AFI FEST merch and free rush access. The Patron Pass features all the benefits of the Star Pass, plus access to Red Carpet Premieres and priority screening selection and theater access.

Individual tickets will be available for purchase on October 3.

Are you excited for this announcement? Are you looking to attend the AFI Film Festival this year? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on our X account.

The post The 2026 AFI Film Festival Lineup appeared first on Next Best Picture.

Joining the red carpet premieres section are Peter Farrelly’s “I Play Rocky,” starring Anthony Ippolito, and Brad Bird’s new animated Netflix film “Ray Gunn,” featuring the voices of Sam Rockwell, Tom Waits, and Scarlett Johansson. Rockwell also stars opposite John Malkovich in Martin McDonagh’s Venice award-winning “Wild Horse Nine,” which will screen as part of AFI Fest’s special screenings section.

The section will also feature Ava DuVernay’s documentary “14th,” Diego Luna’s “Ashes,” Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth!,” starring Pedro Pascal as a gifted cellist; Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas,” and Florian Zeller’s “Bunker,” starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. Also joining the lineup are Arie and Chuko Esiri’s “Clarissa,” starring David Oyelowo, Sophie Okonedo, and Ayo Edebiri, Simon Stone’s “Elsinore,” featuring Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson in a buzzed-about performance, Beth de Araújo’s stunning “Josephine,” starring Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan, and Mason Reeves, and Ira Sachs’ “The Man I Love,” led by a never-been-better Rami Malek, Rebecca Hall, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Tom Sturridge, and Maisy Stella. Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s sleeper indie “Mouse,” starring Sophie Okonedo and Katherine Mallen Kupferer, will screen alongside Leah Nelson’s animated Alzheimer’s drama “Tangles” starring Seth Rogen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Pamela Adlon, Sarah Silverman, Beanie Feldstein, Abbi Jacobson, Wanda Sykes, Adam Shapiro, Bowen Yang, Phil Rosenthal, and Samira Wiley.

“AFI Fest is where the world tells stories in the beating heart of Hollywood,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “This year, we are proud to celebrate 40 years of bringing artists and audiences together to be inspired in a powerful sense of community.”

The 40th edition of AFI Fest will take place at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatres from October 21st–25tth. The festival will open with the U.S. premiere of Travis Knight’s animated film “Wildwood.” Previously announced selections include Peter Berg’s Netflix film “The Mosquito Bowl,” starring Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson, and Berg, as well as Sian Heder’s “Being Heumann.”

Phil Lord and Chris Miller (“Project Hail Mary“) will serve as this year’s guest artistic directors. The complete festival lineup will be announced on September 29th, while passes are currently available for purchase.

Which of these films are you most excited to see at this year’s AFI Fest? Are you looking to attend the film festival this year? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on our X account.

The post More Films Added To The 2026 AFI Film Festival appeared first on Next Best Picture.

Based on a true story, “The Mosquito Bowl” follows four college football stars who enlisted in the Marines following the attack on Pearl Harbor and ultimately found themselves fighting in the brutal invasion of Okinawa during World War II.

Berg and Bissinger, cousins, previously collaborated on “Friday Night Lights,” with Berg directing the acclaimed 2004 feature adaptation before the story was later brought to television as the 2008-2011 series.

Berg co-wrote “The Mosquito Bowl” with Mark L. Smith (“The Dog Stars“) and directed and produced the film alongside Brian Grazer and Alex Gayner. Four stars lead the ensemble, with Nicholas Galitzine as John McLaughry, Bill Skarsgård as Bob Bauman, Ray Nicholson as Tony Butkovich, and Tom Francis as David Schreiner.

It’s long been rumored that this will be Netflix’s last Oscar contender of the season, and while many aren’t expecting much from it with such a stacked slate already this year, it could at least contend in the crafts. The crafts team includes nine-time Oscar-nominated sound designer Wylie Stateman, Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor Ariel Velasco Shaw, BAFTA-winning hair and makeup designer Angela Conte, BAFTA-nominated production designer Phil Ivey, cinematographer Jacques Jouffret, composers Explosions in the Sky, editors Jon Otazua and Garret Donnelly, and casting director Rachel Tenner.

Netflix will release “The Mosquito Bowl” in theaters on October 30th, before it arrives on the streaming service on November 25th.

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Siân Heder is an AFI alum, graduating from the AFI Directing Workshop for Women in 2005. In “Being Heumann,” she adapts disability rights activist Judith Heumann’s memoir “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist.” The film depicts the movement to make buildings more accessible and the iconic 28-day sit-in protest Heumann orchestrated. BAFTA-nominee Ruth Madeley plays the titular advocate, and Academy Award-nominee Mark Ruffalo is Joseph A. Califano Jr., the U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare who is reluctant to sign the Section 504 regulations that could grant equal access to those with disabilities.

Are you looking forward to seeing “Being Heumann“? Are you looking to attend the AFI Film Festival this year? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on our X account.

The post “Being Heumann” Will Close The 2026 AFI Film Festival appeared first on Next Best Picture.