The 48th annual Denver Film Festival (DFF48) is almost upon us, taking place from Oct. 31 – Nov. 9, showcasing 136 feature-length films, documentaries, and shorts from around the world.
This year’s lineup has a great combination of high-profile films, including Netflix’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Paramount’s Primate, Searchlight’s Is This Thing On? and the World Premiere of Elway, a Netflix and Omaha Productions produced documentary on legendary Broncos quarterback John Elway.
DFF48 will present an opportunity for attendees to see some of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2025 including Sentimental Value, winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and starring Stellan Skarsgard, Jay Kelly, a Noah Baumbach-directed dramedy starring George Clooney as a movie star reflecting on his life choices and Adam Sandler as his manager; Christy, starring Sydney Sweeney as hall of fame boxer Christy Martin.
As artificial intelligence continues to weave itself into nearly every aspect of daily life, the 48th Denver Film Festival (DFF48) takes pride in showcasing films that reflect a wide range of perspectives and experiences of the human condition. In an interview with Rooster Magazine, Matthew Campbell, the festival’s artistic director, said the event is about exploring human connection that inspires entertainment, creativity, and empathy.
“We really want to have people to experience a wealth of the human experience,” said Campbell. “And that’s what’s so great about having an international film festival is that you’re able to bring global cinema to our local audience and they can experience all these different cultures and ideas and places and people that they might not be able to physically go to, but we can bring it to them.”
The festival curation also features filmmaker conversations, events, panels, parties, industry guests, awards, and tributes, including honoring Lucy Liu, Delroy Lindo, Gus Van Sant, and Niecy Nash-Betts.
So we’re honoring folks for their collective body of work. So, for example, Delroy Lindo, he’s receiving his career achievement award, Lucy Liu’s receiving our John Cassavetes award, which is also a career-spanning recognition. And then we have awards specific to the projects that the awardees are bringing with them to the festival.
He continues, “So, for example, Gus Van Sant is receiving the Excellence in Directing Award for Dead Man’s Wire, and Imogen Poots is receiving the Excellence in Acting for The Chronology of Water. So a lot of times, you know, when we’re seeing these films that we really love and have in the festival, then after we confirm the film, the next step would be then to like, hey, like, we would love to honor Gus Van Sant and reaching out to him and his team to offer that award. And then on the flip side of that, too, for something like Delroy Lindo, we really love Sinners, we really love his body of work.”
Screenings and panel discussions will take place at the Sie FilmCenter, Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Botanic Gardens, and the Holiday Theater. When speaking with Rooster Magazine, Denver Film CEO Kevin Smith discussed how this year’s focus of the festival is to bring the event to the heart of Denver.
“And so, really trying to figure out how can we put more programming into those community partner spaces and additionally put a spotlight on the Sie FilmCenter, which is our home theater all year round,” said Smith. “And so this year we’ve really focused on those four venues and just maximize them in terms of the number of screenings and all the different things that we have going on. So every year there’s a little bit of a shift, and we’re always trying to pay attention to what the community is looking for and how we can deliver the best festival. And we think this year is one of the best yet.”
Filmmakers from all over the world submit films, including those from Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The selection process begins in January as DFF organizers attend different film festivals and receive submissions from the site FilmFreeway. Campbell breaks down how they receive close to 1200 unsolicited global submissions, in which they have a team of volunteer screeners to review the films, and based on their opinions, he and their programming manager will continue to make the final selections. Campbell says just because a film doesn’t make the final cut doesn’t mean the movie is of bad quality.
“So what we’re looking for, there’s not one defining characteristic, but it’s a confluence of a lot of different things,” said Campbell. “And even if a film is amazing and I might really love it, sometimes it just doesn’t work out because we just don’t have the space for it. Or I just know this isn’t necessarily going to work for our audience. We also want to always maintain a healthy section for our local filmmakers and stories about Colorado. So having that showcase in the spotlight on [the] Colorado section to make sure that those stories are elevated as well. So it’s really trying to balance all these things together and making sure that we have a good representation throughout.”
For those attending their first Denver Film Festival, Kevin Smith explains how every film selected is its own unique experience to share with other moviegoers. He also says it’s best to enter each screening with little or no knowledge of the film.
“So there’s no bad films in the festival, but to me, I think it’s those films where you kind of walk in, don’t have any preconceived notion of what it’s going to be, and see what you walk out with,” says Smith. “And to be able to do that in a group of either friends, family, strangers, and come out and have those conversations that come out of the films, I think those are the real highlights of what we’re trying to do. Additionally, I would say, come and hang out in one of the hospitality lounges or come to one of the festival parties. I mean, those are great times to get together with other people who’ve been seeing all sorts of films, and you might get some good recommendations of things that you haven’t seen or worn on your radar. So that kind of gives you a nice full gamut of some of the things you can do at the festival.”
Some events at the festival have sold out, but tickets are still available for several films and parties. The festival opens Oct. 31 with the red carpet premiere of Netflix’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.
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