originally published: 08/26/2025

(CHATHAM, NJ) -- Featuring some of the best soon-to-be-released movies from around the world, Arthouse Film Festival will unspool for ten weeks beginning September 15, 2025 at Chatham Hickory Cinema. The selected films comprise award winners from Sundance, Cannes, Toronto, Telluride, Venice and SXSW film festivals, along with prestige studio films, screened in Chatham before their New York theatrical release dates.

Arthouse Film Festival has hosted 2,078 movie premieres with 1,314 guest appearances over the past 35 years. Oscar winners and nominees Ethan Hawke, Viggo Mortensen, Alan Arkin, Lee Daniels, Frank Darabont, Jesse Eisenberg, Melissa Leo, Chazz Palminteri, John Sayles, Aaron Sorkin, Fisher Stevens and David Strathairn have joined Dylan Baker, Famke Janssen, Danai Gurira, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Derek Luke, Mary Stuart Masterson, David Morse, Connie Nielsen, Joe Pantoliano and Kevin Smith as guest speakers who have come to share their insights with festival participants.

“The program will always be flexible in order to take advantage of opportunities as they arise,” said festival director, host and moderator Chuck Rose. “Wonderful surprises and fantastic celebrities can pop up out of nowhere, so we try to keep the schedule as fluid as possible.

Advance registration is required. Early bird prices till September 8th. For details, visit www.arthousefilmfestival.com

Chuck Rose can also be seen discussing the movies screened in Arthouse Film Festival on the NYC Life TV series, Cinema Q&A With Chuck Rose. The Thursday night series features in-depth discussions with filmmakers and actors from here and abroad. NYC Life is available in 18 million cable homes, and is carried by Comcast, Optimum, Spectrum, Astound, FiOS, DIRECTV and Dish. Cinema Q&A can also be viewed on the NYC Media website or app.

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Highlights from last year’s Arthouse Film Festival included early looks at Oscar nominees Porcelain War followed by Q&A with directors Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev, and Sugarcane plus Q&A with directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat.

At press time, confirmed films and those under consideration for the upcoming festival include:

Love+War - MacArthur Genius and Pulitzer prize-winning photo journalist Lynsey Addario, risks her life to cover the stark realities of war, from the Middle East to Ukraine and Africa, while leaving behind her husband and two young sons, torn between her unwavering commitment to the essential work of journalism and the powerful, competing demands of motherhood, directed by Oscar-winning filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.

Koln 75 with Mala Emde, John Magaro, director Ido Fluk. Based on the true story of teenage concert promoter Vera Brandes, who defied her parents, booked jazz artists, juggled boyfriends, and convinced Keith Jarrett to perform an entirely improvised solo concert at the Cologne Opera House, which became the best-selling solo album in jazz history.

Maserati: The Brothers with Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino, Jessica Alba, Andy Garcia, director Bobby Moresco. A star-studded cast evokes a powerful portrait of ambition, legacy and the relentless pursuit of innovation that defined the Maserati family. Gentlemen, and ladies, start your engines.

Peacock with Albrecht Schuch (All Quiet on the Western Front), Julia Franz Richter, director Bernhard Wenger. A biting and hilarious social satire follows a friend-for-hire in desperate need of a real connection. BAFTA nominated Schuch may be back in the running for honors in the coming awards season.

Natchez directed by Suzannah Herbert. After generations of showcasing its antebellum homes and hoop-skirted docents, Natchez, Mississippi, now reckons with a romanticized past, an uncertain future and the debt it owes to the descendants of slavery. A cinematic portrait of a tourist town at a crossroads, Natchez follows an array of historic homeowners, activists and tour guides as they tell their versions of the past, and clash over who gets to tell America's story.

Mistress Dispeller directed by Elizabeth Lo, winner of two awards at the Venice Film Festival, and recently acquired for theatrical distribution in America, an intimate drama that follows an actual unfolding case of infidelity in China as we witness attempts to bring a couple back from the edge of crisis. The story shifts our sympathies between husband, wife and mistress to explore the ways emotion, pragmatism and cultural norms collide to shape romantic relationships.

Fairyland with Scoot McNairy, Emilia Jones, Geena Davis, Maria Bakalova, director Andrew Durham, producer Sofia Copola. Based on Alysia Abbott’s memoir, a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s vibrant cultural scene in the 70’s and 80’s, a father and daughter relationship that deals with love, heartbreak, prejudice, independence and growing up with a cascade of colorful characters.

Re-Election with Patty Guggenheim, Nathalie Kelley, Tony Danza, director Adam Saunders. Desperate to re-discover the mojo he lost as a teenager, an out of touch middle-aged dropout re-enrolls in high school in order to run for class president one more time.

Bauryna Salu with Yersultan Yerman, director Askhat Kuchinchirekov. Winner of 12 international awards, and soon to be released in America, it is based on the true story of “bauryna salu” an ancient nomadic custom, still practiced today; a baby is given away to be raised by his grandmother. At age 12, he loses his grandmother, and has to go back to live with his birth parents who gave him away, and whom he barely knows. Anchored by an incredible performance by the young actor Yerman, it was selected as Kazakhstan’s Oscar entry.

Trifole directed by Gabrielle Fabbro. Co-writer and star Ydalie Turk is a burned-out, young Londoner, looking for her own path, who reconnects with her ailing, truffle-hunting grandfather and nature. Eventually, they bond, embarking on an adventure to save the farm and a more sustainable way of life.