AFI Fest Adds Films Starring George Clooney, Emma Stone, Sydney Sweeney and Bruce Springsteen

AFI Fest Adds Films Starring George Clooney, Emma Stone, Sydney Sweeney and Bruce Springsteen

The lineup for the 2025 edition of AFI Fest is coming into view.

Rounding out the red carpet premieres section will be Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly starring George Clooney as a movie star grappling with his legacy (Oct. 23), James Vanderbilt’s historical epic Nuremberg starring Rami Malek and Russell Crowe (Oct. 24), Gus Van Sant’s ripped-from-the-headlines Dead Man’s Wire starring Bill Skarsgård (Oct. 25), and David Michôd’s Christy toplined by Sydney Sweeney as a boxer fighting for her place in the sport (Oct. 25).

Also revealed today are the films that make up the special screenings section of the festival: Jonatan Etzler’s Bad Apples starring Saoirse Ronan as an overworked schoolteacher that makes some questionable decisions, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia starring Emma Stone as a high-powered CEO that gets kidnapped by Jesse Plemons’ alien obsessed conspiracy theorist, Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral starring Ralph Fiennes as a man tapped to lead a choral society in Ramsden, Yorkshire, Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut The Chronology of Water starring Imogen Poots, Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern as a New York couple whose separation leads to major midlife self-reckoning and reinvention, Sylvian Chomet’s A Magnificent Life, Maria Friedman’s Merrily We Roll Along featuring Stephen Sondheim’s most celebrated songs, Thom Zimny’s Nebraska Live featuring Bruce Springsteen performing songs from his 1982 album, Max Walker-Silverman’s Rebuilding starring Josh O’Connor and Meghann Fahy in a story about recovering from wildfire, Hikari’s Rental Family starring Brendan Fraser, Mona Fastvold’s experimental musical The Testament of Ann Lee starring Amanda Seyfried as the founder of the Shakers, and Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams starring Joel Edgerton.

“Our goal is nothing short of a global embrace – where we discover and rediscover the power of a shared story on a big screen,” said AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale. Added AFI Fest director Todd Hitchcock: “AFI Fest’s special screenings section includes some of the most buzzed-about films from the festival circuit, an eclectic mix that promises to surprise and delight film lovers.”

AFI Fest, presented by Canva with Fiji Water back as the official water sponsor, will take place at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatres from Oct. 22–26. The full festival lineup will be unveiled on Sept. 30. It will feature a selection of red carpet premiere screenings, special screenings, world cinema, documentaries and shorts. As previously announced, Guillermo del Toro is confirmed as guest artistic director. The fest will open with Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere starring Jeremy Allen White as the iconic rocker. Other high-profile premieres include Song Sung Blue starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, and The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants.