Submitted by the Orcas Island Film Festival.

The Orcas Island Film Festival has announced the complete lineup for its 2025 edition, taking place Oct. 15-19. This year’s festival will feature 41 films from 35 countries, including 12 official Oscar submissions for Best International Feature to the Academy Awards, and a rich selection of titles direct from Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Berlin, Sundance and the New York Film Festival.

“This is our most dynamic and internationally diverse program yet,” said Carl Spence, artistic director of OIFF. “From Palme d’Or winners to star-studded dramas, urgent documentaries, and bold first features, the 2025 edition gives audiences a first look at the films shaping the conversation heading into awards season.”

Recognized by USA TODAY as one of the Top 10 Film Festivals in the United States, OIFF has earned a reputation as a “must-attend” destination festival for film lovers and industry insiders. “Film festivals are about more than watching movies—they’re about connection,” says Donna Laslo, OIFF co-director/producer. “At OIFF, the parties, panels, and special events are where the magic happens: conversations spark, collaborations are born, and audiences feel like part of something bigger.”

With its intimate, walkable setting and curated global program, OIFF offers audiences a chance to see the year’s most acclaimed films first, paired with filmmaker Q&As, panels, parties and island hospitality.

The opening night film is “Christy,” David Michôd’s gripping true story of groundbreaking boxer Christy Martin, starring Sydney Sweeney and Ben Foster.

OIFF will present the Jean-Marc Vallée Vanguard Award, including a $10,000 cash prize, as part of its fourth annual tribute and remembrance to the late visionary director Jean-Marc Vallée. The award honors innovative filmmaking and a fearless artistic voice — qualities Vallée exemplified throughout his career.

This year’s honoree is director Charlie Polinger for his debut feature, “The Plague,” a haunting and psychologically gripping drama set at an all-boys water polo camp. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim and recently won the Grand Prix, Top Prize at the Deauville Film Festival. This annual award is underwritten by David Dotlich and Douglas Elwood.

Full 2025 lineup

Narrative features

• “All That’s Left of You” (Cherien Dabis) — A moving, decades-spanning portrait of a Palestinian family’s love, loss and survival.

• “Arco” (Ugo Bienvenu) — An animated adventure about two children from different eras joining forces to save the future.

• “Calle Malaga” (Maryam Touzani) — Carmen Maura shines as a mother who refuses to give up her Tangier home.

• “The Choral” (Nicholas Hytner) — Ralph Fiennes leads a soaring period drama of young men who find hope and harmony through music during WWI.

• “Christy” (David Michôd) — The astonishing true story of boxer Christy Martin’s battle for survival in and out of the ring.

• “Frankenstein” (Guillermo del Toro) — A lush and haunting reimagining of Mary Shelley’s gothic classic.

• “La Grazia” (Paolo Sorrentino) — A reflective portrait of a fictional Italian president facing the twilight of power.

• “Hamnet” (Chloé Zhao) — Shakespeare’s life and grief told through the eyes of his wife Agnes in a lyrical drama.

• “Hedda” (Nia DaCosta) — Tessa Thompson commands in a bold, feminist reinvention of Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.”

• “It Was Just An Accident” (Jafar Panahi) — Palme d’Or–winning moral thriller about revenge, justice and courage under repression.

• “Jay Kelly” (Noah Baumbach) — George Clooney stars as a fading movie star reckoning with fame, regrets and redemption.

• “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” (Mäilys Vallade and Liane-cho Han) — Based on the bestselling novel, this film looks at the world in post-WWII Japan through the eyes of a Belgian girl.

• “Little Sister” (Hafsia Herzi) — A tender, Cannes-winning coming-of-age story of faith, identity and desire.

• “The Love That Remains” (Hlynur Pálmason) — A poetic, humorous chronicle of a family’s transformation against Iceland’s landscapes.

• “Magellan” (Lav Diaz) — Gael García Bernal stars in Lav Diaz’s sweeping decolonial retelling of the explorer’s life.

• “Miroirs No. 3” (Christian Petzold) — A pianist recuperating from trauma finds herself drawn into a mysterious, haunting relationship.

• “My Father’s Shadow” (Akinola Davies Jr.) — A father’s day trip through Lagos becomes a moving meditation on love and duty.

• “No Other Choice” (Park Chan-wook) — A darkly comic, razor-sharp satire of ambition and ruthless competition.

• “Nouvelle Vague” (Richard Linklater) — A love letter to the birth of the French New Wave.

• “Palestine 36” (Annemarie Jacir) — A sweeping historical epic set in 1930s Palestine starring Hiam Abbass and Jeremy Irons.

• “Peter Hujar’s Day” (Ira Sachs) — A hypnotic, minute-by-minute reconstruction of a day in the life of an iconic photographer.

• “The Plague” (Charlie Polinger) — A gripping psychological thriller set at an all-boys water polo camp.

• “A Poet” (Simon Mesa Soto) — A mentorship between an obscure writer and a teen prodigy spirals into obsession.

• “Queens of the Dead” (Tina Romero) — Drag queens versus zombies in a wild horror-comedy romp.

• “Resurrection” (Bi Gan) — A visually dazzling, five-part cinematic dream exploring love and memory.

• “Romería” (Carla Simón) — An intimate, sunlit coming-of-age story about family, memory and belonging.

• “The Secret Agent” (Kleber Mendonça Filho) — A portrait of a man on the run in 1970s Recife.

• “Sentimental Value” (Joachim Trier) — A moving, multilayered drama about an actress reconnecting with her estranged director father.

• “Sirât” (Oliver Laxe) — A breathtaking psychological journey of a father’s desperate search through the Moroccan desert.

• “Sound of Falling” (Mascha Schilinski) — A multigenerational saga of ghosts, grief and grace across a century in a rural farmhouse.

• “Train Dreams” (Clint Bentley) — An elegiac, Pacific Northwest–set adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella.

• “Two Prosecutors” (Sergei Loznitsa) — A darkly comic, absurdist thriller about justice during Stalin’s Great Terror.

Documentaries

• “BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions” (Kahlil Joseph) — A bold cinematic collage of the Black experience.

• “Cover-Up” (Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus) — An urgent portrait of journalist Seymour Hersh’s six-decade fight to expose the truth.

• “Love + War” (Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin) — A gripping profile of war photographer Lynsey Addario.

• “Orwell: 2+2=5” (Raoul Peck) — A timely and urgent exploration of George Orwell’s warnings about truth and authoritarianism.

• “Parrot Kindergarten” (Amy Herdy) — A joyful exploration of a woman teaching her parrot to communicate and heal.

• “The Snake and the Whale” (John Carlos Frey) — A passionate call to save the Snake River’s salmon runs and orcas.

• “Sweet Störy” (Sarah Justine Kerruish and Matt Maude) — A tender look at saving a Swedish island café.

• “Turtle Walker” (Taira Malaney) — A stunning tribute to Satish Bhaskar, who single-handedly pioneered India’s sea turtle conservation.

• “The White House Effect” (Bonnie Cohen, Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk) — A riveting political thriller about the United States’ turning point on climate change.