A big independent mix serving fans of movie musicals, manga, British period comedy, documentary and drama hits theaters this weekend as 2025 heads into its home stretch with big change afoot.
The entirely of the entertainment industry, including indie producers, filmmakers, theater owners and distributors, is digesting news that Netflix is set to acquire Warner Bros. and there’s deep apprehension at the giant streamer’s aversion to a substantial theatrical window many believe is needed to rebuild moviegoing and keep it viable. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said today that he’s not averse to theatrical but takes issues with windows he says don’t serve consumers and must evolve. Meanwhile, he promised, Netflix will honor Warner’s theatrical commitments.
Warner had a mega box office year and indie distributors and exhibitors believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. The merger is expected to close in 12 to 18 months.
Opening in moderate-wide release: Sony Pictures Classics and Fathom Entertainment present Merrily We Roll Along, director Maria Friedman‘s film of the hit Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim‘s 1981 musical, on 1,084 screens. The 2024 revival won four Tony Awards including for musical revival and for two of its stars, Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe. Deadline’s review calls the film “exquisite.” Spanning three decades, Merrily We Roll Along charts the turbulent relationship between composer Franklin Shepard and his two lifelong friends, writer Mary and lyricist and playwright Charley Kringas. The revival shattered the Hudson Theatre’s house record on Broadway.
Bleecker Street opens British period spoof Fackham Hall by Jim O’Hanlon on 1,112 screens. Billed as Downton Abbey meets Airplane!, the trailer released in late October was the most viewed ever for Bleecker Street’s history in 24 hours with 7.3 million hits. The spoof follows orphan pickpocket Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) who lands a job at the eponymous English manor house, quickly rises through the ranks and into a forbidden romance with lady-of-the-house Rose Davenport (Thomasin McKenzie) – until there’s an unexpected murder, Eric is framed and the family’s future becomes uncertain. Damian Lewis, Katherine Waterston, Emma Laird, Tom Felton also star. Jimmy Carr, Patrick Carr and the Dawson Brothers wrote the screenplay. See Deadline review.
Independent Film Company debuts Venice-premiering 100 Nights of Hero by Julia Jackman on 828 screens. When a charming house guest (Nicholas Galitzine) arrives at a remote castle, the delicate dynamic between a neglectful husband, his innocent bride Cherry (Maika Monroe), and their devoted maid Hero (Emma Corrin), is thrown into chaos. With Amir El-Masry, Charli XCX, Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones. Based on Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel. See Deadline’s review from the London Film Festival.
GKids will release Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution on 1,833 screens in the U.S. and Canada. From MAPPA and based on the Shonen Jump manga by Gege Akutami, the film combines the best of the Shibuya Incident arc with the exclusive debut of the first two episodes from the highly anticipated Culling Game arc. Available in both subtitled and dubbed versions.
Limited openings: Mubi is out with Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia at the Angelika in NYC. Stars Toni Servillo, Best Actor winner at Venice where the film was the opening night selection, as a fictional outgoing president of Italy, Mariano De Santis, navigating moral and personal crossroads with the help of his confidante and daughter, Dorotea (Anna Ferzetti). See Deadline review. North American premiere at the Telluride.
Oscar-nominated actor Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut, biopic The Chronology of Water from The Forge, opens at Village East by Angelika in NYC and LA’s Laemmle Royal. Premiered at Cannes, Deadline review here. Imogen Poots stars as Lidia, a young woman who finds escape from an abusive home through competitive swimming in the 1980s. After her athletic dreams are derailed, she navigates love, loss, addiction, sexuality, and her own self-destructive impulses while discovering her voice, and healing through the transformative act of writing. Stewart adapted the screenplay from the memoir of the same name by Lidia Yuknavitch. With Thora Birch, Jim Belushi and Tom Sturridge.
Rosemead from Vertical, the dramatic thriller starring Lucy Liu, opens at AMC Lincoln Square in New York. The feature directing debut of veteran cinematographer Eric Lin premiered at the Tribeca Festival (see Deadline review). It won Best Narrative Feature at the Bentonville Film Festival, and the Prix du Public UBS audience award at the Locarno Film Festival, where Liu also accepted its Career Achievement Award. In her first ever lead role, Liu plays an ailing suburban mother who uncovers a terrifying secret: her teenage son (Lawrence Shou) is consumed by violent impulses. As her health rapidly declines, she’s forced into a desperate struggle as she wrestles with how far she will go and what she is willing to sacrifice to protect him. Set within the quiet tensions of a Chinese American household, the film explores the unraveling of a family pushed to the brink.
Kino Lorber is out with Little Trouble Girls, the debut feature of Urška Djukić and Slovenia’s Oscar selection, at IFC Center in New York. Adds Laemmle’s Monica in LA next week with national rollout to follow. At her mother’s urging, introverted 16-year-old Lucia joins her Catholic school’s all-girls choir, where she befriends Ana-Maria, a popular older student. When the choir travels to a countryside convent for a weekend retreat of intensive rehearsals, Lucia navigates the unfamiliar surroundings, complex teenage social structures, and her own awakening sexuality. Winner of the Fipresci Award at the Berlin Film Festival and Best Cinematography at the Tribeca Festival.
Come Closer from Greenwich Entertainment, the directorial debut of Tom Nesher and Israel’s Oscar submission, opens at the Quad Cinema in New York. Took the prize for Best Film at the country’s Ophir awards. Stars Lia Elalouf as a young woman struggling with the sudden death of her brother in a tragic accident, whose grief takes an obsessive turn when she discovers he had a secret girlfriend. Nesher, the daughter of renowned Israeli director Avi Nesher, took inspiration for the storyline from the death of her own brother Ari Nesher, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident at the age of 17 in 2018. World premiered at Tribeca, winning the Viewpoint Award.
Animated Endless Cookie from Obscured Releasing, just off a Spirit Award nomination for Best Documentary, opens in NY at the Quad and in LA at the Laemmle Glendale. Directors Seth Scriver and Peter Scriver recount a series of vignettes — some tragic, some funny, all a little bizarre – that explore the complex bond between two half-brothers, one Indigenous, one white, spanning bustling 1980s Toronto to the present day isolated First Nations community of Shamattawa. Took the Contrechamp Jury Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival with other nods at Hot Docs and Sitges.
Film Movement opens drama Happy Holidays at the Film Forum in NYC. The latest feature from Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti won top prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and the Étoile d’Or for Best Film at the Marrakech Film Festival. In the Israeli city of Haifa, four stories intertwine as members of a close-knit Arab family perform their dutiful roles while each harboring a secret that exposes both their true desires and worst fears.
Jonah Feingold’s romantic comedy 31 Candles from Level 33 adds LA (Lumiere, Laemmle Royal, Laemmle Town Center) as it follows a slow limited rollout from three New York theaters and Delray, Florida. Will be in select AMC theaters Jan. 9. The Jewish romcom follows Leo Kadner (Feingold), a hopelessly romantic New Yorker who reconnects with his childhood crush Eva Shapiro (Sarah Coffey) while preparing for his 31-year-old Bar Mitzvah. With Jackie Sandler, Caroline Aaron, Joey Dardano and Judy Gold. Feingold (Exmas, Dating & New York, upcoming Busboys), who wrote and produced, has been hosting screenings often with guests since the debuted, including at every evening showing at the Quad for a week.
Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing opens supernatural thriller Man Finds Tape at Alamo Drafthouse theaters in NYC, LA and Austin, and on digital. The feature debut of Peter Hall and Paul Gandersman stars William Magnuson as Lucas Page, whose viral YouTube channel Man Finds Tape features a series of creepy home videos. When he reaches out to his sister, Lynn (Kelsey Pribilski) with surveillance footage of a murder in their hometown, she reluctantly returns to help him investigate the homicide, uncovering a disturbing secret tied to a decades-old supernatural phenomena that casts doubt on whether anyone in town can be trusted. With Brian Villalobos Peter S. Hall, John Gholson, Brian Villalobos, Nell Kessler.
WTO/99 by Ian Bell, with Foghorn Features producer and distributor, opens DCTV’s Firehouse in NYC. This immersive archival documentary reanimates the clash between the then-emerging World Trade Organization (WTO) and the more than 40,000 people who took to the streets of Seattle in 1999 to protest the organization’s impact on the environment, human rights, and labor. The protesters, seen as a rabble-rousing nuisance at the time but appearing prophetic today, were met with extreme violence by a militarized police force. Footage includes clips of Michael Moore, Ralph Nader, Bill Clinton, Bernie Sanders, journalist Amy Goodman, Howard Schultz and more.
