Aspen Film is proud to announce the program for its 46th annual Filmfest, which will showcase top filmmaking from around the world over six days: Sep.16-21. This annual fall festival features films that will have premiered at prestigious global film festivals, including Cannes, New York, Sundance, SXSW, Telluride, Toronto, Tribeca, and Venice. Filmfest 2025 will take place exclusively at the Aspen Film Isis Theatre.
Comprised of 15 invited films and one beloved classic, this non-competitive festival presents highly anticipated, provocative fall 2025 titles. Themes of family, perseverance, identity, justice, and love shine through many of the selections, along with unflinching and unforgettable characters.
Aspen Film member tickets go on sale today, August 19th, and the general public tickets go on sale August 22.
A great kickoff to the 46th anniversary of Filmfest, the Opening Night film is renowned Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s latest LA GRAZIA, coming off a Venice Film Festival Opening Night world premiere.
The Filmfest lineup features 16 films – 10 impressive features and 6 bold documentaries, including the World Premiere of DREAMBOATS, directed by Zach Thompson, about two chefs who take on the challenge of a 3,000-mile row across the Atlantic. The festival boasts the Palme d’Or and Grand Prize winners from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, as well as Sundance US Documentary Directing and Audience Award winners, and the SXSW Audience Award winner.
Closing Night of Aspen’s 46th Film Fest will feature Bill Condon’s visionary new adaptation of KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN starring Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, and Jennifer Lopez, with support from Justice for Migrant Women. The festival will officially close on Sunday, September 21, after a FREE community matinee screening of THE MUPPET MOVIE (1979), in commemoration of the year Aspen Film began.
46th ANNUAL ASPEN FILMFEST LINEUP
To view the full Filmfest schedule, film descriptions, and lineup, FILMFEST 2025 is live at Aspen Film’s website https://aspenfilm.org/festival/2025-filmfest/
Tuesday, September 16
5-6:30 PM
46th Filmfest Opening Reception
Private Reception, RSVP Required
LA GRAZIA
Oscar®-winner Paolo Sorrentino’s portrait of a man reflecting on his life and his relationships with power, duty and family. LA GRAZIA centers around the fictional Presidente Mariano De Santis (starring Sorrentino’s muse Toni Servillo), whose term is nearly up.
(Italy, 2025) 133 MIN
Director Paolo Sorrentino
Writer Paolo Sorrentino
Festivals Venice Film Festival 2025; New York Film Festival 2025
With Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti, and Orlando Cinque
Wednesday, September 17
2 PM
THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR
Using bodycam footage from dozens of police visits, THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR bears witness to a tight-knit community navigating one neighbor’s relentless harassment. But her hostility takes a sinister turn when it escalates into a fatal crime.
(US, 2025) 94 MIN
Director: Geeta Gandbhir
Festivals: Sundance Film Festival 2025, WINNER – Directing Award, US Documentary; Sheffield International Documentary Festival 2025; SXSW 2025; Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2025
5 PM
FANTASY LIFE
After getting laid off, a thirty-something paralegal in New York starts babysitting his psychiatrist’s three granddaughters and falls for their mother, an actress in a rocky marriage.
(US, 2025) 91 MIN
Director Matthew Shear
Writer Matthew Shear
Festivals SXSW 2025, WINNER – Special Jury Award, Audience Award, Narrative Feature
With Amanda Peet, Matthew Shear, Alessandro Nivola, and Judd Hirsch
Community Partner: HeadQuarters
8 PM
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
What begins as a minor accident sets in motion a series of escalating consequences.
(Iran, France, Luxembourg, 2025) 101 MIN
Director Jafar Panahi
Writer Jafar Panahi
Festivals: Cannes Film Festival 2025, WINNER – Palme d’Or; Toronto International Film Festival 2025; New York Film Festival 2025
With Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, and Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Thursday, September 18
2 PM
ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT
André, a brilliant idiot, is dying because he didn’t get a colonoscopy. His sobering diagnosis, complete irreverence, and insatiable curiosity send him on an unexpected journey learning how to die happily and ridiculously without losing his sense of humor.
(US, 2025) 88 MIN
Director Tony Benna
Festivals Sundance Film Festival 2025, WINNER – Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award, Audience Award, US Documentary; Cannes Film Festival 2025; Sydney Film Festival 2025
With André Ricciardi
Community Partner: Pathfinders
5 PM
BOY GEORGE + CULTURE CLUB
A provocative, chaotic, and impossibly fun look at one of music’s most groundbreaking bands. An intimate portrait of the band’s meteoric rise to fame, their dramatic split, and their remarkable reunion for the film.
(UK, 2025) 97 MIN
Director Allison Ellwood
Community Partner: AspenOUT
8 PM
SENTIMENTAL VALUE
Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star. Suddenly, the two sisters must navigate their complicated relationship with their father — and deal with an American star dropped right into the middle of their complex family dynamics.
(Norway, France, Denmark, Germany, 2025) 133 MIN
Director Joachim Trier
Writers Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt
Festivals: Cannes Film Festival 2025, WINNER – Grand Prize of the Festival; Toronto International Film Festival 2025; New York Film Festival 2025
With Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning, Anders Danielsen Lie, and Jesper Christensen
Friday, September 19
12 PM
REBUILDING
A gentle humanist story of resilience that follows a cowboy to a trailer camp in the American West after losing his family ranch to wildfire. As he reconnects with his daughter and ex-wife, he finds an unlikely community in his neighbors.
(US, 2025) 95 MIN
Director Max Walker-Silverman
Writer Max Walker-Silverman
Festivals: Sundance Film Festival 2025; Seattle International Film Festival 2025; Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2025; Melbourne International Film Festival 2025
With Josh O’Connor, Meghann Fahy, Amy Madigan, Kali Reis, Lily LaTorre, Nancy Morlan, and Zeilyanna Martinez
Community Partner: Aspen Fire Department
2 PM
SHE RUNS THE WORLD
Allyson Felix is the most decorated track and field athlete of all time. At the height of her career, she faced a life-threatening pregnancy—and a nearly 70% pay cut from Nike, exposing a sports industry without maternal protections. But Felix turned adversity into action, redefining what it means to be a champion and sparking a movement far beyond the track.
(US, 2025) 86 MIN
Q+A to Follow
Directors Perri Peltz + Matthew O’Neill
Festivals: Tribeca Film Festival 2025
With Allyson Felix and Wes Felix
Community Partner: The Women’s Desk at Aspen Public Radio
5 PM
THE LIBRARIANS
As an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians under siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy.
(US, 2025) 92 MIN
Q+A to Follow w/ Director Kim A. Snyder
Director: Kim A. Snyder
Festivals: Sundance Film Festival 2025; Dallas International Film Festival 2025, WINNER – Grand Jury Prize; SXSW 2025; Sarasota Film Festival 2025, WINNER – Jury Prize; Seattle International Film Festival 2025, WINNER – Lena Sharpe Award for Persistence of Vision; Full Frame Documentary Festival 2025; Miami Film Festival 2025; DC/DOX Film Festival 2025;
Community Partner: Aspen Words
8 PM
HEDDA
From writer/director Nia DaCosta comes a provocative, modern reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play. HEDDA (Tessa Thompson) finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt—pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal.
(US, 2025) 107 MIN
Director Nia DaCosta
Writer Nia DaCosta
Based on: “Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Ibsen
Cast: Tessa Thompson, Imogen Poots, Tom Bateman, Nicholas Pinnock and Nina Hoss
Saturday, September 20
12 PM
THE MARCHING BAND
Thibaut is an internationally renowned conductor who travels the world. When he learns he was adopted, he discovers the existence of a younger brother, Jimmy, who works in a school cafeteria and plays the trombone in a small marching band. Everything seems to set them apart, except their love of music. Sensing his brother’s exceptional talent, Thibaut decides to remedy the injustice of fate. Jimmy begins to dream of a different life…
(France, 2025) 103 MIN
Director Emanuel Courcol
Writers Emmanuel Courcol, Irène Muscari
Festivals Cannes Film Festival 2024
With Benjamin Lavernhe, Pierre Lottin, Sarah Suco, Jacques Bonnaffé, Clémence Massart-Weit, and Anne Loiret
Community Partner: Aspen Music Festival and School
2 PM
DREAMBOATS – World Premiere
English-born restaurateur Ben Towill and chef Charlie Layton, self-proclaimed “slightly soft chefs” driven by a passion for food and adventure, find themselves at a crossroads during the pandemic. Seeking a new goal to anchor themselves amid the uncertainty, they set their sights on an audacious challenge: rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in the World’s Toughest Row.
(US, 2025) 95 MIN
Q+A to Follow with Subjects Ben Towill + Charlie Layton, and Director Zach Thompson
Director Zachary Thompson
5 PM
TRAIN DREAMS
Based on Denis Johnson’s beloved novella, TRAIN DREAMS is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly changing America of the early 20th Century.
(US, 2025) 102 MIN
Director Clint Bentley
Writers Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar
Festivals: Sundance Film Festival 2025; Toronto International Film Festival 2025
With Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Nathaniel Arcand, Clifton Collins Jr., John Diehl, Paul Schneider, with Kerry Condon and William H. Macy. Narrated by Will Patton.
Community Partner: Aspen Historical Society
8 PM
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN
Dreamgirls and Beauty and the Beast director Bill Condon returns to the movie musical in this dazzling Technicolor-hued fantasy. Valentín (Diego Luna), a political prisoner, shares a cell with Molina (Tonatiuh), a window dresser convicted of public indecency. The two form an unlikely bond as Molina recounts the plot of a Hollywood musical starring his favorite silver screen diva, Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez). Based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical hit.
(US, Mexico, 2025) 128 MIN
Director Bill Condon
Writers Bill Condon, Terrence McNally, and Manuel Puig
Festivals: Sundance Film Festival 2025; Locarno Film Festival 2025
With Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, Jennifer Lopez
Community Partner: Justice For Migrant Women
Sunday, September 21
12 PM
THE MUPPET MOVIE
Kermit and his newfound friends trek across America to find success in Hollywood, but a frog-legs merchant is after Kermit.
(US, 1979) 95 MIN
Director James Frawley
Writers Jerry Juhl, Jack Burns
With Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Dave Goelz
Community Partner: Buddy Program
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Sponsors: The 46th Annual Filmfest is made possible by the generous support of Alpine Bank, Aspen Daily News, Aspen Public Radio, The Addy Foundation, AspenOUT, Aspen Thrift Shop, Basalt Public Arts Commission, City of Aspen, Colorado Office of Film Television + Media, Justice for Migrant Woman, Les Dames d’Aspen, Rotary Club of Aspen.
TICKETS
Advance tickets to all Filmfest screenings will be available for purchase beginning:
August 19 – Aspen Film Members
August 22 – General Admission
Tickets can be purchased online at https://aspenfilm.org/festival/2025-filmfest/
Or, in-person:
September 9-12 – at the Aspen Film Office: 110 E Hallam Ave; Ste 115
AF Office ticket pickup hours: 12-4:30 PM, Tuesday – Friday.
September 16-20 – at the Filmfest Box Office: 420 E Hopkins Ave (driveway of Aspen Fire Station)
Filmfest Box Office hours: 11 AM – 8 PM, Tuesday – Saturday.
SINGLE TICKET ADMISSION FOR INDIVIDUAL FILMS
Matinees @ 12 or 2 PM:
$25 General Admission
$20 Aspen Film Members
Screenings @ or after 5 PM:
$30 General Admission
$25 Aspen Film Members
Sunday Funday – FREE FILM @ FILMFEST
12 PM Screening of THE MUPPET MOVIE (1979) FREE w/ RSVP*
*RSVP link will go live on 9/3
FREE for Roaring Fork Valley Students + Teachers
Complimentary tickets for students/teachers are secured by showing a current school ID at the box office.
PASSES
Passes are on sale now at aspenfilm.org. A $350 pass gives you full access to all films at Filmfest.
SPECIAL NEEDS
If you have special needs covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, please notify Aspen Film at 970.925-6882 or info@aspenfilm.org. Requests for ADA accommodations must be placed 14 days or more before the festival start date, to allow staff the time needed to coordinate.
SOCIAL
For up-to-date information visit aspenfilm.org
Social Media Icons: Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
@ASPENFILM | #Filmfest2025
About Aspen Film
Established in 1979, Aspen Film is one of Colorado’s most active film arts organizations, presenting dynamic programs and featured guest artists throughout the year. Internationally recognized, Aspen Film organizes major film events every season, along with an extensive education program: Aspen Filmfest (September 16-21 2025), Aspen Shortsfest (April 7-12, 2026), and FilmEducates (year-round). With a mission to enlighten, enrich, educate, and entertain through film, Aspen Film stimulates thought, encourages dialogue, and broadens our understanding of our world and ourselves. To learn more, visit aspenfilm.org.
PRESS CONTACT:
Lea Tucker
303.641.4370
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