The American Film Institute’s annual festival each fall has long marked the unofficial start of awards season in L.A. A-list stars turn out for premieres and screenings at the TCL Chinese Theatre and the Chinese 6 Theatres next door at Ovation Hollywood. The fest will kick off with the world premiere of the documentary Music by John Williams on Wednesday, October 23, and run through October 27. With a lineup consisting of over 100 films, though—an assortment of A-lister vehicles, indie gems, world cinema, docs and shorts—it can be hard to know which ones are most worth your while. Not to worry: We’ve done our homework and feel confident offering up these seven films for your viewing pleasure.
Note: For a decade, tickets to AFI Fest screenings were free, but a few years back the fest switched to paid ticketing—$19 for a screening, $25 to $30 for Red Carpet Premieres. Advance tickets are sold out for some screenings—especially the premieres—but all sold-out screenings will have a “Rush Line” that sells tickets on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to seating availability.
Hugh Grant continues to pivot away from rom-coms in the much-hyped Heretic, a new take on the religious thriller genre from A24. He plays Mr. Reed, a “creepy shut-in who ‘welcomes’ two bright-eyed Mormons into his home,” says Time Out’s global film editor, Phil de Semlyen, trapping them in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse to prove their faith. As Grant embraces his dark side, we have to wonder: Are these the types of roles he was meant to play all along? The film was directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who cowrote A Quiet Place with John Krasinski.
Red Carpet Premiere
October 24 at 7:30pm
TCL Chinese Theatre
“This tough-but-touching Mumbai drama paints an empathetic portrait of three women of different generations tiptoeing through a minefield of poverty, gossip and social pressure, each trying to grasp whatever happiness is available to them,” says De Semlyen. “The three hospital workers at the film’s heart, women who will slowly find touching solidarity in each other’s company, strive to stay afloat in a city where life is rigged against them.” The sophomore feature from female filmmaker Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine as Light was the first Indian film in 30 years to premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival—and it won this year’s Grand Prix award. We won’t be surprised if it ends up an Oscar nominee for best international film. Read the full Time Out review here.
World Cinema
October 24 at 3:10pm (Chinese 3)
October 26 at 4:15pm (Chinese 5)
Based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize–winning follow-up novel to The Underground Railroad, Nickel Boys is a “powerful vision of life in a system of oppression,” says De Semlyen. “Nickel” refers to Nickel Academy—based on a real-life reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that operated for over 100 years—where the two young Black men at the heart of the story are subjected to abuse even amid the civil rights movement. “Expect awards chat for this one,” predicts De Semlyen.
Special Screening followed by a conversation with director RaMell Ross
October 25 at 9pm
Chinese 6
Marielle Heller helms this adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s subversive 2021 debut novel of the same name. Oscar-nominated Amy Adams plays an artist turned stay-at-home mom who’s struggling with domesticity until she begins to embrace the primal urges of motherhood both figuratively and literally. As in, she believes she’s turning into a dog when night falls. It’s a comedic, feminist twist on a classic werewolf tale.
Special Screening followed by a conversation with producer and actor Amy Adams moderated by writer and film critic, Scott Mantz
October 25 at 9:15pm
Chinese 1
Directed and written by Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain also stars the actor alongside Succession’s Kieran Culkin. The two play cousins who travel to Poland to retrace the steps of their recently deceased grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, making for an odd-couple road-trip dramedy that also tackles intergenerational trauma.
Writes De Semlyen, “Culkin, just as motor-mouthed and F-bombing as Succession’s Roman Roy, but here with an extra slug of despair, is the manic yin to Eisenberg’s neurotic but compassionate yang. It’s an inspired onscreen pairing that plays to both actor’s strengths and finds space for melancholy amid some deeply awkward laughs.” Read his full review here.
Special Screening
October 26 at 11:45am
Chinese 1
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
If you’re looking for a family-friendly film fest experience, you can’t go wrong with the latest from four-time Oscar winner Nick Park’s beloved duo. The latest madcap adventure from the cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his cleverer canine companion, Gromit, serves as a feature-length follow-up to 1993’s The Wrong Trousers, bringing back its dastardly penguin, Feathers McGraw, to thwart the heroes.
Red Carpet Premiere
October 27 at 2pm
TCL Chinese Theatre
AFI Fest closes with the world premiere of Clint Eastwood’s latest. Juror #2 stars Nicholas Hoult as a new father and juror for a high-profile murder trial who must face a moral dilemma as the case hits a little too close to home. The impressive supporting cast includes J.K. Simmons, Toni Collette, Zoey Deutch, Chris Messina and Kiefer Sutherland.
Red Carpet Premiere
October 27 at 7:30pm
TCL Chinese Theatre