The Sarasota Film Festival has announced the full slate of programming for its 2025 film festival, which takes place April 4-13. This year's lineup includes 37 feature films, four world premieres, 10 Florida premieres and 41 short films.

The festival opens April 4 with Marcella, the story of renowned chef Marcella Hazan, who changed the way we cook and experience Italian food, and who spent her last years on Longboat Key. Through her cookbooks and teaching—and an uncompromising commitment to Italian tradition—her impact was felt in millions of American home kitchens. Hazan's husband Victor and son Giuliano Hazan, as well as director Peter Miller, will attend the festival in-person and participate in a post-screening talkback.

On Sunday, April 13, the festival will close with a special presentation of Taylor McFadden’s Lovers, in which two women return to their hometown for the funeral of a friend who has taken his own life. They find themselves reconnecting with their old community at the local dive bar music venue and are reminded of the power of coming together through music. Director Taylor McFadden will be in attendance and will participate in a Q&A session immediately following the film’s screening (its first in Florida). Singer-songwriter and executive producer Nathaniel Rateliff will also perform.

Other notable events include the world premiere of the fourth season of MGM+'s Godfather of Harlem, starring Forest Whitaker fighting against New York's Mafia families for control of Harlem. Godfather of Harlem showrunner and creator Chris Brancato will be presented with the Innovation in Television Award and cast member Rome Flynn will be presented with the Rising Star award on Saturday, April 12.

This year's Spotlight presentations include the Florida premiere of Wendy Lobel's Anxiety Club, a look at mental health and anxiety as told by working comedians, including Sarasota’s own Tiffany Jenkins; Jessica Palud’s Being Maria, a moving portrait of the turbulent life and career of the late Maria Schneider, a promising young French actress who became the star of the now-infamous Last Tango in Paris alongside Marlon Brando (played here by Matt Dillon); and the Florida premiere of Jill Cambell’s Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell's Swimsuit Issue,  a look at how photographer Jule Campbell transformed Sports Illustrated from a struggling magazine into a media empire with its annual swimsuit issue. Campbell's daughter Jill chronicles her mother's 32-year reign at the magazine, where she worked with supermodels like Christie Brinkley, Cheryl Tiegs and Roshumba Williams, who will be in attendance at the festival.

Other notable films: Kevin MacDonald’s One to One: John and Yoko, an exploration of the 18 months that John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent living in New York City in the early 1970s before Lennon was assassinated, and Charlie McDowell’s The Summer Book, starring Glenn Close and based on the novel by Tove Jansson, which tells the story of the relationship between a nine-year-old girl and her grandmother, who is nearing the end of her life.

The festival will also host a showcase of all of the 2025 Oscar-nominated short films, including Nicolas Keppens’ Beautiful Men, Daisuke Nishio’s Magic Candles, Nina Gantz’s Wander to Wonder, Loïc Espuche’s Yuck! and Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani’s In the Shadow of the Cyprus, which won the Academy Award. 

Tickets for the festival will be available for purchase online and at the in-person box office at 332 Cocoanut Avenue, at the corner of Cocoanut and Fourth Street, beginning March 21 until the start of the festival.

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