The Atlantic International Film Festival (AIFF) has revealed the full lineup for its 2025 edition, which will take place in Halifax from Sept. 10 to 17.

This year’s edition of the festival features 108 Canadian and international films across the various features and shorts programs, including the world premieres of several Canadian productions.

Kicking off AIFF 2025 on Sept. 10 as the Opening Night Gala presentation is Sk+te’kmujue’katik (At the Place of Ghosts) from Nova Scotia director Bretten Hannam, which arrives in Halifax on the heels of its forthcoming world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The supernatural thriller (pictured) follows two estranged M’ikmaq brothers as they undertake a journey through a forbidding forest to rid themselves of a malevolent spirit from their past.

Screening on Sept. 13 as AIFF’s Atlantic Gala is director Andy Hines’ Little Lorraine (Nova Scotia), a Cape Breton–set crime thriller starring Stephen Amell (Arrow, Suits L.A.), Stephen McHattie (A History of Violence, Orphan Black), Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings, Stranger Things), and superstar Colombian pop artist J Balvin, in his acting debut.

Wrapping up the festival’s 2025 edition on Sept. 17 as the Closing Night Gala is the big-screen adaptation of the stage musical version of Kiss of the Spider Woman, directed by Bill Condon and starring Jennifer Lopez.

As was previously announced, AIFF’s flagship World Cinema section will see the world premieres of four Canadian features: Sherry White’s Blueberry Grunt (Newfoundland), Dancing on the Elephant (Nova Scotia) from directors Julia Neill and Jacob Smith, Hangashore (Newfoundland) from filmmaker Justin Oakey, and Taylor Olson’s What We Dreamed of Then (New Brunswick/Nova Scotia).

Joining that quartet in the section’s world premieres is My Son Came Back to Disappear, from Quebecois writer-director Yan Giroux. Adapted from the novel of the same name by David Clerson, the fiction feature centres on a woman living alone in the forest, who is shaken by the return of her son after an absence of many years. Against her will, she is compelled to accompany him on one last journey.

The film is produced by Louis-Emmanuel Gagné-Brochu through his Montreal-based Déjà Vu Productions shingle. Les Films du 3 Mars is handling distribution.

Other notable Canadian titles screening in AIFF’s World Cinema section include Matt Johnson’s Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie; Lovely Day, the new feature from Quebecois filmmaker Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar); Wrong Husband, by acclaimed Atanarjuat writer-director Zacharias Kunuk; Peak Everything by Anne Émond (Nuit #1); and Clement Virgo’s Canada-Belgium copro Steal Away.

Four Canadian productions are screening as part of AIFF’s emerging-filmmaker spotlight Narrative New Waves, which include a pair of recent world premieres from the Locarno Film Festival: Blue Heron, the feature debut from acclaimed filmmaker Sophy Romvari (Still Processing); and Follies, from Quebecois writer-director Éric K. Boulianne. Another notable international fest selection in the program is the U.S. production Lucky Lu by Ottawa-born Lloyd Lee Choi, which debuted in the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight parallel section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Making its world premiere in the New Waves selection is Vermilion, the feature directorial debut of actor Amy Trefry. Described as a queer road-trip romance, the film is produced by Nova Scotian Katerina Bakolias.

Among the high-profile titles included in AIFF’s Documentary section are the U.S. production The Eyes of Ghana, the new feature documentary from Nova Scotia–born, two-time Academy Award winner Ben Proudfoot (The Last Repair Shop, The Queen of Basketball), which draws on previously unseen archive of film footage from the personal cameraman of Ghanaian revolutionary leader Kwame Nkrumah. The strand will also include the bio-doc John Candy: I Like Me, the tribute to the late Canadian comedy legend produced by Ryan Reynolds.

Canadian-produced titles screening in the docs section include the CBC commission Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, from director Ally Pankiw; Agatha’s Almanac by Amalie Atkins; Ghosts of the Sea by Virginia Tangvald; and the world premiere of Gemini Award winner Michèle Hozer’s The Pitch, a David vs. Goliath story about the creation of Canada’s first women’s professional soccer league.

AIFF’s shorts programs are led by the all-Atlantic Reel East Coast Shorts Gala selection, which includes the world premieres of Wolverine and Little Thunder: An Eel Fishing Story, Mi’kmaw artist Alan Syliboy’s filmic adaptation of his 2019 children’s book of the same name; and the documentary The Muse by Newfoundland filmmaker Wanda Nolan, a National Film Board of Canada production about the unlikely relationship between a young Chinese fine art photographer and a septuagenarian Newfoundlander.

The festival’s five other shorts programs comprise 40 films in total, with 48% representing Atlantic Canada. Among the latter group are the world premieres of Power, a new film from multi-award-winning filmmaker Jordan Canning; and (for once I dreamed of you), an experimental piece from rising Nova Scotian talent Kate Solar.

Image courtesy of VVS Film