Denver Film Festival Sets 129-Title Lineup for Its 49th Edition

The Denver Film Festival has unveiled a 129-title program for its 49th edition, setting an 11-day run from October 22 through November 1 across several of the Colorado capital’s major cultural venues.

The festival will open at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House with Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, starring Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone. Writer Peter Gamble is expected to attend and take part in a later conversation. James Gray’s Paper Tiger, featuring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, will close the event at MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater.

Major premieres and festival-circuit favorites

The centerpiece selections include Danny Boyle’s Ink, with Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, and Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth!, led by Pedro Pascal as a gifted cellist. The wider program spans features, documentaries and shorts, with screenings also scheduled at the Sie FilmCenter and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Special presentations bring together established filmmakers and newer voices. The lineup includes Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas, Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, Beth de Araújo’s Josephine, Brad Bird’s animated Ray Gunn and Liz Sargent’s Take Me Home. Screenings of Josephine and Take Me Home are being co-presented with the Sundance Film Festival, which is scheduled to move to nearby Boulder in 2027.

Honors spread across acting and craft

Carrie Coon will receive an excellence in acting award for The Liberation, while John Cho is set for the festival’s Outlaw Award for Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. Sargent will be recognized as a breakthrough director, and Fred Hechinger will receive a rising star award following a screening of A Long Winter.

Additional honorees include Benedetta Porcaroli, sound designer David Acord and experimental filmmaker Michael Gitlin. The official festival site also emphasizes conversations, receptions and audience events beyond the screenings, framing the program as both an industry showcase and a community gathering. Sliding-scale admissions are planned for three public screenings at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.