The films at the 2025 New Orleans Film Festival are incredibly diverse. The majority are in competition with one another for awards at the festival, but there are also big Hollywood studio productions that attendees want to get a jump on seeing because they won’t be in theaters for months.
The 36th annual New Orleans Film Festival runs in-person from Thursday, Oct. 23, through Monday, Oct. 27, with virtual screenings available through Nov. 2. Passes to see six films in person are $90 with discounts for NOFS members and students. Single in-person screenings are $18-$25, but if you hope to walk up and buy a ticket at the box office, check the website to make sure seats are still available. Screenings often sell out early.
Venues include The Prytania Theater, The Broad, and the Contemporary Arts Center. A complete schedule and tickets are available at the festival’s website.
There’s been a lot of buzz about some of these films which have heavy hitters both in front of and behind the camera. Following is a brief synopsis of some of these much-anticipated films. Visit neworleansfilmsociety.org to check availability.
“Jay Kelly,” the festival’s Centerpiece Film, is about a famous movie actor, portrayed by a famous actor himself, Oscar winner George Clooney. He’s on a journey of self-discovery through Europe, with his devoted manager Ron, played by Adam Sandler. The two are confronting their pasts with respect to the choices they’ve made. Co-starring Laura Dern, Billy Crudup and a coterie of well-known faces, it’s directed by Noah Baumbach (“Barbie”), and is sure to be a crowd pleaser.
Among the Spotlight Films, “Is This Thing On?” is directed by 12-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper, who also has a role in the film. It stars Will Arnett as a man seeking solace in the New York comedy scene after his marriage unravels, and Laura Dern as his soon-to-be ex-wife who struggles with her own identity.
There’s “Rental Family,” starring Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser. The curious plot follows an American actor who lands an unusual gig in Tokyo working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. Eventually, the lines between performance and reality are blurred.
“Hedda,” starring Tessa Thompson, is a provocative reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play. Hedda finds herself torn between the ache of a past love and the suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one emotionally charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt — pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal.
This year’s Closing Night Film is the third installment of the “Knives Out” film series. “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” reunites us with world-renowned sleuth Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) for his most dangerous case yet. This chapter has an ensemble cast that brings big names together once again. Glenn Close, Josh O’Connor, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner and Kerry Washington are just some of the famous faces.
One of the standout films, which is part of the competition, is “The Big Sea,” brought to the screen by two British filmmakers. It exposes the bizarre connection between the $10 billion surfing industry and those who are dying along the so-called Cancer Alley in Louisiana, where Denka (maker of Neoprene, from which wetsuits are made) has discharged toxic chloroprene into the atmosphere for years. The filmmakers, surfers themselves in England, became aware of Cancer Alley after reading a yearlong exposé in The Guardian newspaper.
Speaking over Zoom from London, co-filmmaker Chris Nelson said he realized that the surfing community all over the world was unwittingly aiding and abetting the neoprene industry. “I realized that I owned between 10 and 15 wetsuits, and I was inadvertently part of the problem,” said Nelson, who produced the film along with director Lewis Arnold. “Lewis and I wanted to alert our surfer village and then mobilize the worldwide eco-conscious surfing community to step up and turn this problem around.”
The film, whose title is a double entendre for the euphemism often used for cancer, explores everything from environmental racism, and corporate greenwashing which exaggerates a company’s environmental credentials, to the surfing industry’s responsibility to embrace sustainable alternatives to known cancer-causing chemicals — like natural rubber. It’s not only an enlightening keyhole into an overlooked problem, but the film sheds a worldwide light on the very real problem of Louisiana’s industrial corridor and the absence of sufficient regulation and adherence to EPA standards.
One of the festival’s Special Presentation Features is the documentary feature, “Everyone is Lying to You for Money,” which takes a searing look at cryptocurrency — what it is, who’s involved in it, and whether it’s one of the most seductive scams of this century. Based on his New York Times bestseller “Easy Money,” actor Ben McKenzie (“OC,” “Southland,” “Gotham”) takes a lighthearted yet insightful look into crypto’s unsettling rise to prominence, even while most people he spoke with could not explain their own investments in the elusive coins.
“Around the time of the pandemic, a good friend of mine was trying to get me to invest in it, but it was never explained to my satisfaction, and I have a degree in economics,” said McKenzie, speaking by phone from his home in Brooklyn. “Yet I kept seeing celebrities endorsing it, even though they are not licensed to give out financial advice. So much of what I saw in filming this documentary was totally absurd — it needed explaining.”
Among the film’s highlights is an interview with Sam Bankman-Fried, just months before he was indicted for wire and securities fraud along with money laundering. He was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
McKenzie also interviews fellow actor Gerard Butler, another investor who self-deprecatingly admits he cannot explain just what it’s all about. McKenzie’s trip to El Salvador, where the country’s president wanted to make bitcoin the country’s official currency, is worth the price of admission. The film is an entertaining look at a phenomenon we should probably all be more familiar with, especially since President Donald Trump has now launched his own token.
The opening night film for 2025 is “Michalopoulos: The Art of Celebration,” a WLAE production, directed by Sean O’Malley, which traces the evolution of famed New Orleans artist James Michalopoulos. The film opens at 7 p.m. on Oct. 23 at the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts.
There are also 12 special presentation features, along with five special presentation shorts, documentaries, and more. For members of the film industry, there are roundtables and workshops on writing, directing and other aspects of craft. It can all be found on neworleansfilmsociety.org.
Fascinating, enlightening, funny and poignant: The 130-plus films at this year’s festival encompass all that and more.
Go to neworleansfilmsociety.org/lineup-events/ for a complete list of film titles, dates, times and venues.
Email Leslie Cardé at [email protected].
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SCHEDULE OF HIGHLIGHTS
“Rental Family”: 8:15 p.m. Oct. 24, Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St.
“Everyone is Lying to You for Money”: 2 p.m. Oct. 25, Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St.
“Jay Kelly”: 5 p.m. Oct. 25, Prytania Theater, 5339 Prytania St.
“The Big Sea”: 2:15 p.m. Oct. 26, The Broad Theater, 636 N. Broad St.
“Is This Thing On?” 3 p.m. Oct. 26, Prytania Theater, 5339 Prytania St.
“Hedda”: 5:30 p.m. Oct. 26, Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St.
“Wake Up Dead Man”: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27, Contemprary Arts Center, 900 Camp St.
