The Philadelphia Film Festival returns October 15-25 for a milestone edition of the Philadelphia Film Society’s defining flagship fall event. This year’s edition is the 35th annual festival in the city (which PFS has playfully riffed on with its “Reel October” 35mm programming and year-long “Surprise 35” screenings). 

The festival also marks 25 years since PFS began organizing the event in 2001. Since 2022, PFS’s presence in the Philly film community has skyrocketed. Overall attendance across year-round programming has surged to over 250,000 while festival attendance has similarly grown to host over 30,000 moviegoers. If your website crashing upon ticketing release is a sign of strong demand in today’s market, then PFS has now checked that box.  

As an eleven-day burst of cinematic energy, the festival programs a wide array of titles with prior festival premieres at Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and more. The programming team also spotlights everything from locally produced filmmaking to global cinema curation. This year, the festival features 200+ screenings of 112 feature films across three theater locations (Film Society Center, Film Society Bourse, and Film Society East). 

The newest addition to PFS’s flagship fall event, however, is 70. This year’s festival is the first in which PFS’s Film Center venue is equipped with its new 70mm projector, bringing the rare and much-sought-after format into Philadelphia city-proper. PFS will debut the new system with 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the “From the Vaults” program.

Beyond the numbers, PFF35 opens with Noah Segan‘s endearing crime caper, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, starring John Turturro, and closes with Jesse Eisenberg‘s musical comedy ode to New Jersey community theater, The Debut, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, with both directors expected to attend. Closing day also brings the festival’s first-ever partnership with Fresh Air for a live conversation between the interview show’s host, Terry Gross, and Eisenberg for the popular NPR program produced in Philadelphia by WHYY.

Tony Gilroy will come to Philly to present his Centerpiece selection Behemoth!, Netflix will showcase its major Oscar hopefuls in La Bola Negra, Possible Love, and Ink, and NEON will share a handful of films from its 2026 slate including Paper Tiger, Once Upon a Time in Harlem, Clarissa, Fjord, and All of a Sudden. 

The “Filmadelphia” section, dedicated to locally made film productions, will feature four World Premieres: Hoag Kepner’s Big Phan, Doree Simon Hatfield’s Gentle By Birth, Andrew Sullivan’s I Don’t Want to Drink Your Blood Anymore, and Max Korman’s Joy Will Prevail. The section is filled out with The Haunting of Pennhurst, directed by Nathan Stenberg, Mike Attie, and Katarina Poljak, and Yale, directed by Jay Silverman. 

Highlights across other sections include the “Masters of Cinema” program, which includes films from international auteurs including Pedro Almodóvar, Radu Jude, Paweł Pawlikowski, Danny Boyle, Andrew Haigh, Hirokazu Koreeda, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Julia Loktev, David Greaves and William Greaves, Lee Chang-dong, and Mike Leigh. 

“This Animated Life” section includes Brad Bird’s lifelong passion project Ray Gunn alongside In Waves, Iron Boy, Tangles, Vertiginous, Viva Carmen!, and We Are Aliens. The “Made in USA” section, dedicated to American independent filmmaking, features Bedford Park, Being Heumann, Brian, Mouse, Test, and Ugly Cry. 

Additional sections include World View, Cinema de France, Non/Fiction, State of the Union, Sight & Soundtrack, After Hours, Spotlights, Community Screenings, Special Events, and Shorts Programs.

The Philadelphia Film Society’s mission as a cultural nonprofit centers on creating opportunities for diverse communities to experience film through stories that inspire, educate, challenge, and entertain. Each October, the festival becomes a platform for these stories. 

With four contributors covering the festival this year, Danny Jarabek, Des Mack, Jake Fittipaldi, and Paul Rai, here are ten of The Rolling Tape’s most anticipated titles in the lineup:

A Long Winter, dir. Andrew Haigh

Masters of Cinema

Being Heumann, dir. Siân Heder

Made in USA

Clarissa, dir. Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri

World View

I Don’t Want to Drink Your Blood Anymore, dir. Andrew Sullivan

Filmadelphia (World Premiere)

La Gradiva, dir. Marine Atlan

Cinema de France

Mouse, dir. Kelly O’Sullivan, Alex Thompson

Made in USA

Possible Love, dir. Lee Chang-dong

Masters of Cinema

Tender Loving Care, dir. Mike Leigh

Masters of Cinema

The Dreamed Adventure, dir. Valeska Grisebach

World View

Victorian Psycho, dir. Zachary Wigon

After Hours

Preview Courtesy of Danny Jarabek

Feature Image Credit to Philadelphia Film Society