11 Greater Boston film festivals and series to check out this fall

How do you define fall? For me, it’s packed with arty films. Convoluted adult dilemmas, rich in character or scene, the more talking the better. It's my kind of moviegoing, the very currency of film festivals — especially as we approach awards season.

While not everything screening in Greater Boston’s fall festivals fits that bill, thank goodness odds tilt toward my favor. (So do warm cider donuts washed down with an icy cup of fresh-pressed cider. But that’s a different list that starts and ends with Smolak Farms in North Andover.)

In film news, one of Boston’s guiding lights of free film gatherings — the Bright Lights Film Series at Emerson College, open to the public and always with a post-film discussion — has gone dark. In August, the college announced “the difficult decision” to end the series, citing “necessary budget reductions and our commitment to support core academic programs.”

Anna Feder created the Bright Lights series and ran it for more than 12 years. Over that time, she instituted a rating system that helped audiences navigate content (such as F for feminist) and developed collaborations with dozens of Boston film festivals.

“I wish the press wasn’t just uncritically repeating the college’s narrative,” she wrote by text. She added she plans to file a union grievance because she believes the college laid her off for “political reasons,” which she will publicly enumerate through the grievance process. Emerson spokespeople declined to comment further.

(In full disclosure, this writer previously is a fellow at Emerson College's Engagement Lab, a separate initiative that, like the Bright Lights series, the school also recently announced would soon shut down.)

Meanwhile, over the summer, the nonprofit board mobilizing on behalf of the West Newton Cinema announced it had raised enough funds to save the theater from demolition. Next up? Fundraising an additional $14 million for renovations and an endowment.

To help the cause, Newton residents Anne Marie Stein and Jerry Reilly have organized a fundraiser: “Spotlight Newton Filmmakers.” The showcase of films by filmmakers with Newton roots, like Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher (“So Much So Fast”), Maria Agui Carter (“Rebel”) and James Rutenbeck (“A Reckoning in Boston”), runs Sept. 26-29.

Some programs lean experimental in form, like the five short films by Ellie Lee, Linda Goetz and Steven Ascher on Sept. 26. Other programs dig into American music history, like Bestor Cram’s documentary “Bonnie Blue: James Cotton’s Life in the Blues.” Others tap into the human urge to move, like Michal Goldman’s “Why We Dance,” offered as a sneak preview. “The range of subjects is testimony to the importance of [these filmmakers’] contributions to our lives and civic discourse,” said Stein. Filmmakers will attend their respective screenings and all proceeds benefit the West Newton Cinema’s next phase.

As for your next phase of autumn, this guide can help you choose what to see when.

When: Through Nov. 7

Where: Harvard Film Archive

Highlights: Now that we’re surrounded by legal marijuana, mainstream fascination has turned toward other agents of medicinal and recreational “change,” namely hallucinogens. Focusing especially on the 1960s, this HFA series examines the intersection of cinema and mind-benders like LSD with trippy cult pictures or “head films” (“2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1968) and documentaries (“One Step Away,” 1968). For context, the program notes mention Timothy Leary’s questionable psilocybin research while on faculty at Harvard.  After Harvard fired Leary, wealthy benefactors subsidized a new “lab” in the Hudson Valley. The party eventually fell apart. But what a nugget of Harvard backstory to take into consideration along with this series.

Good to know: An unexpected summer closure of the HFA bumped part of its “Melville et Cie” series over to the Brattle. The series highlights mid-century French director Jean-Pierre Melville and returns to the now spruced-up HFA through Oct. 27. As a courtesy, Brattle members receive $2 off admission to “Melville” series screenings.

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When: New ongoing series

Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Highlights: The MFA launched the Global Cinema Now series earlier this year to give Boston audience members a chance to see “great stuff coming out of Cannes, Venice, Sundance and Berlin that never makes it to U.S. screens.” That’s according to Katherine Irving, who began as senior programmer of film in April 2024.  Until that point, the film program went several years without full-time staff due to layoffs during the pandemic. As a result, MFA has resumed partnerships with many Boston-area film festivals as well as its in-house festivals and series. Irving says this particular series also gives her a chance to program films that aren't timed right for the MFA’s annual festivals. She gives the example of “The Boy and the Heron” (Oct. 5), released too late to include in the Japanese Film Fest.

Good to know: The MFA has two other ongoing series: Art Docs and Cult Classics. Though it hasn’t quite reached “Hocus Pocus” status, “The Craft” plays the latter on Oct. 4.

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When: Sept. 20-22

Where: Firehouse Center for the Arts & The Screening Room

Highlights: Nearly two decades ago, I sat across from Michelle Fino in a booth at Newburyport’s old soda fountain, Fowle’s, and took notes about her plans for a third annual all-documentary film festival in her seaside town. She raved about a film that put cameras in the hands of U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq (Deborah Scranton’s “The War Tapes”), bragged about a semi-celebrity who would attend with his dictum on American debt (Danny Schechter, “In Debt We Trust”). Fino bubbled with all kinds of “founder” energy and even though she passed the torch in 2011, this festival still runs on some of it. Now, with Joanne Morris and James Sullivan at the helm, Newburyport celebrates its 20th year. No small milestone for an all-volunteer fest that has both expanded its reach and stayed true to its roots, attracting mostly locals to sell-out programs, often with conversations, and giving out an annual Best New England Film award.

Organizers don’t put too much stock in edging out other fests for premiere status and always find unexpected gems that wouldn’t quite fit anywhere else (also known as the David Kleiler effect). This year, I’ve got my eye on “Film is Dead. Long Live Film!,” because it’s about the somewhat accidental preservation of celluloid films by a bunch of oddball collectors. Plus, it’s by Boston filmmaker Peter Flynn. “The Road to Ruane,” because Boston rock-scene iconoclast Ruane sounds like a singular character from a singular time. And “In the Whale,” because it’s a real-life fish story about a Cape guy getting swallowed by a whale, by Boston journalist and filmmaker David Abel and Andy Laub. But as I consider this year’s program, I count on being caught off guard by at least one film — and person — I won’t forget.

Good to know: Described “like a book club, but for documentaries,” Newburyport’s The Watch Club recommends a film then meets monthly online for a live Q&A with the filmmaker.

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When: Sept. 25-29

Where: Coolidge Corner Theatre, Emerson Paramount Theatre & Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Highlights: Boston’s still new-ish festival featuring stories by and about the global Latinx community hits full stride in its second “full” year. A free, kickoff screening in late August sold out the Apollinaire Theatre in Chelsea. But don’t worry — that event was the beginning of a new annual tradition, according to festival founder Sabrina Avilés. Designed to reach “Latino communities who don’t necessarily know about or come to festivals,” she wants the kickoff to expand the audience for the 25-30 main slate titles like “Igualada,” a documentary with increased resonance since the announcement of the Harris-Walz ticket. More than 15 years in the making, it follows Francia Márquez’s rise to a presidential run in Colombia. For those anxiously awaiting the second season of “Severance,” try instead "Itu Ninu," a sci-fi thriller about heavily surveilled climate migrants who strike up a correspondence in their shared Indigenous language, Mixtec.

Boston-based filmmaker Kathryn Ramey will screen her experimental deep-dive into Puerto Rico’s colonized history, “El Signo Vacio.” And in what Avilés calls a “full circle moment” that harkens back to Chelsea’s “essential workers,” the festival closes with the cross-cultural, tense drama “La Cocina.” Actor Raúl Briones, who plays an undocumented cook opposite Rooney Mara’s American server, is expected to attend. With programming that leans into originality over commercial appeal, Avilés says festival titles might challenge audience members. But for her, they’re like the difference between the instant gratification of fast food versus the “nuanced spices and textures of amazing food.” In this analogy, CineFest is the feast you savor long after the last bite.

Good to know: “La Cocina” is based on Arnold Wesker’s first play “The Kitchen” from 1957. He wrote another 41 plays, books, essay collections and more after that. In 2000, Japanese theater director Koichi Kimura released the adapted musical of the same name.

When: Oct. 17-20 in person; Oct. 18-27 online shorts

Where: ArtsEmerson, Brattle Theatre and online

Highlights: How women handle empty nests can be an overlooked and poignant inflection point. (I mean, people only started talking to each other about menopause like a minute ago.) Who better than Margaret Cho to interpret the funny-sad realities of midlife grief? That’s what she does in “All That We Love,” BAAFF’s opener for its 16th annual festival. With about 40 titles, this fest hits all the forms and includes two shorts blocks in person, with “Kowloon!” about the iconic U.S. Route 1 restaurant in the “Bridging Two Worlds” block and a block called “Oh, Queer." These, plus four additional shorts blocks also screen virtually after the in-person festival wraps.

The festival closes with the documentary “And So It Begins.” Ramona Diaz’s examination of the 2022 presidential election in the Philippines unpacks the complicated reign of Rodrigo Duterte. For the folks who love serial drama adaptations as much as the movies, BAAFF offers two chances at a sneak peek of the forthcoming Hulu series “Interior Chinatown,” based on Charles Yu’s novel of the same name (also a National Book Award Winner). Yu is expected to attend two in-person screenings on Oct. 26. (Note that this, and another special event on Oct. 25, fall outside the festival’s publicized in-person dates.) Check the BAAFF website for several other special guests attending both in-person and virtual Q&As.

Good to know: Earlier this year, BAAFF was recognized as one of Boston’s Most Influential Community Organizations by Get Konnected, a venture that promotes equity and inclusion.

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When: Oct. 18-27

Where: Coolidge Corner Theatre, Regent Theater in Arlington, MassArt Design and Media Center & Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Highlights: Typically held in October, last year this festival delayed its in-person events due to the Israel-Hamas war. The festival regrouped and held a program in January 2024. Despite ongoing violence in Gaza and related campus protests, this fall the festival will carry on similar to how it has for the last 18 years. Farah Nabulsi’s “The Teacher” opens the festival with a teacher who struggles to balance his own political action with concern for a student. The quietly moving memoir-documentary by Lina Soualem “Bye Bye Tiberias” tells the story of Palestinian exile and displacement through four generations of women, including the filmmaker’s mother, actress Hiam Abbass (“Succession”).

Mahdi Fleifel’s “To a Land Unknown,” a thriller about Gaza refugees trying to flee Greece, has picked up four festival awards since its Toronto premiere and will close the festival. While the time lapse between making and exhibiting films means that the program does not directly depict the war, program director Michael Maria says, “Every single film we screen is a precursor to the trauma we're seeing today in Gaza and broader Palestine in some way, shape or form, and helps to set the stage toward understanding the current state of Palestine.”

Good to know: In a conversation published by T, The New York Times Style Magazine, Hiam Abbass told her daughters (documentarian Lina Soualem and actor Mouna Soualem) that appearing in “Bye Bye Tiberias” terrified her. “It’s easier for me to play a part than to be shown as myself, but you were patient with me,” she said.

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When: Oct. 22-27

Where: Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brattle Theatre & online

Highlights: As GlobeDocs celebrates its 10th year, Director of Programming Lisa Viola says the “inclusion of lively Q&As after each screening with filmmakers and Globe journalists, as well as the wide range of documentaries in terms of topics, style and format” continue to make this fest stand apart. Remember the Massachusetts couple stalked and harassed by eBay? They received threatening packages of live spiders and even weirder stuff. “Whatever It Takes” recounts the bizarre true crime story, recently resolved by a court settlement.

“Recovery City,” about the recovery journeys of four women from Worcester, picked up an audience award in Provincetown this summer and premieres here to a Boston audience. “Out of the Picture” tackles the shifting ground under the feet of American art critics, including the Globe’s Jeneé Osterheldt. Additional titles will be announced prior to the festival. Disclosure: this writer co-directed a short documentary screening in this year’s festival.

Good to know: According to Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy, “eBay engaged in absolutely horrific, criminal conduct. The company’s employees and contractors…put the victims through pure hell, in a petrifying campaign aimed at silencing their reporting and protecting the eBay brand.”

When: Monthly, October-December

Where: MIT Museum

Highlights: Woods Hole Film Festival has kept its eye on environmental films for the last several years. In addition to a thread of programming under that theme at its main festival in late July, WHFF has also presented films with Boston partners, such as a past summer series with the Museum of Science. A new collaboration has developed between the festival and the MIT Museum, with monthly titles that broadly encompass “science on screen.” On Oct. 26, the MIT Glass Lab co-presents a documentary about a master Italian glass blower, “Sono Lino.” Erik Demaine, MIT professor of computer science, and Peter Houk, MIT instructor and artistic director of the Glass Lab, will introduce the film. Director Jacob Patrick will attend for a conversation after the screening. Similar events will happen in November and December with titles and guests forthcoming.

Good to know: The public can take a gander at (and financially support) the amazing work happening at the Glass Lab with its annual pumpkin patch and holiday sales. Seriously worth a look at the pics if you can’t attend.

When: Oct. 31-Nov. 3

Where: Brattle Theatre

Highlights: After a rousing “hot summer nights” series, Independent Film Festival Boston — the go-to regional host for indie cinema — dips back into exhibition with its 10th annual four-day peak at awards season contenders. Last year, it played “Perfect Days,” one of my pal Sean Burns’ favorite films of 2023. He admired it for “finding transcendence in the everyday.” The year before that, it opened with one of my year-end stand-outs, "Women Talking." While too soon to reveal its line-up, you can count on this long weekend for quality moviegoing that will rev up your awards season agenda.

Good to know: Sharon Stone, who starred in two of the “hot summer nights” titles, turned 66 in 2024. In celebration, she told the U.K. Times, “I think that people who are embarrassed about being older are just stupid and ungrateful."

When: Nov. 6-17 in person; Nov. 18-20 online

Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, online and other venues around the city

Highlights: Boston Jewish Film Festival marks 36 years of bringing international films by Jewish filmmakers and about Jewish themes to the city. Some filmmakers also hail from the area, like last year’s world premiere of “Resistance: They Fought Back” by Paula S. Apsell of Newton. The impeccably researched film reframes the misinformation that during the Holocaust, Jewish people did not fight back. They did. Apsell’s team interviewed 59 people in 59 different locations to help them piece together the facts. Because the first “Resistance” screening sold out, the fest added a second. While program details for 2024 are not yet public, the festival promises “eight fiction features, six feature documentaries, eight short films, 17 guests, nine films (features + shorts) made by women and seven films (features + shorts) with LGBTQ+ content.”

Good to know: As part of the festival, BJF hosts a short film competition — decided by audience members during the festival — called FreshFlix. Last year, the fiction short “New Lives,” about a Holocaust survivor who starts a new life in 1950s New York, won first place. This year, BJF expects almost all of the FreshFlix filmmakers to attend for Q&A.

When: Nov. 15-18

Where: Brattle Theatre, Musem of Fine Arts, Boston, Institute for Contemporary Arts and online

Highlights: Wicked Queer celebrated 40 years this April. For that spring installment, Executive Director Shawn Cotter said the festival received more than 600 submissions. With such abundance, Cotter explained that designating a weekend only for documentaries allowed the main fest to play more fiction. “There is a ton of narrative stuff that we miss because we're so early in the year, because we're the first in the sort of the cycle of queer festivals.”

Cotter also explained that because the doc fest is “sort of like a new entity,” which began in 2022, organizers are toying a bit with the number of films and number of days. The program for 2024 has not yet been announced but will have a strong music theme. Last year, it opened with Alexandria Bombach’s “It’s Only Life After All,” the Indigo Girls doc appropriately released in “the year of ‘Barbie,’” and closed with Paul B. Preciado’s “Orlando, My Political Biography,” a collective interpretation of Virginia Woolf’s gender-fluid iconic character, Orlando.

Good to know: In an interview with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly about the connection between “Closer to Fine” and “Barbie,” the “All Things Considered” host coaxed the duo to sing along with her. It’s worth a listen.