6 film festivals and series to check out this summer

While poking around Martha’s Vineyard one summer in the mid-2000s, I happened upon an outdoor screening of “Jaws.” I looked out at the chop where apex predator Bruce once stalked human prey and thought, “Yup, I gotta see this movie here, where it all began.”

As you may have heard, Steven Spielberg’s first major film and the first-ever Hollywood blockbuster turns 50 on June 20, 2025. Since most of the production took place on the Vineyard and many islanders participated, commemorations there are already underway.

WBUR’s own Andrea Shea reported on the exhibition “Jaws at 50: A Deeper Dive” on view at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum now through Sept. 7. Other festivities — from custom tours to behind-the-scenes talks — flesh out “Amity Week” on June 22-29. But there are screenings and deep dive events happening throughout the region this summer, including at the Nantucket Film Festival and New England Aquarium in Boston.

Back on the mainland, I caught up with RoxFilm Artistic and Executive Director Lisa Simmons ahead of the 27th Roxbury International Film Festival. “Each year, there’s some reason we should continue,” she says of the events planned for June 19-27. “Especially this year, with the erasure of Black and brown culture.” She expresses the concern that “we’re repeating history because it has been erased or people don’t understand it.”

But that’s why RoxFilm opens with a documentary like “Paint Me a Road Out of Here” which restores the whitewashed history of a painting artist Faith Ringgold created in collaboration with incarcerated women. The film deepens the understanding of Ringgold’s reach — she’s an activist as well as artist — and more. This is the case for other historic figures whose stories come up in the festival, such as Frank Silvera, who Simmons says “was like the Harry Belafonte from Boston.” In addition to advocating for civil rights, Silvera worked as an actor and director in film, TV and on stage. In 1965, he founded the Theatre of Being in Los Angeles to train and empower young Black actors and posthumously served as inspiration for the Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop. An in-depth conversation about Silvera’s influence, including clips of his work, will take place during the festival at MassArt on June 26 at 1:30 p.m.

Simmons points out that this year, RoxFilm features the largest number of local films ever. About 40% of the more than 100 films have local ties, most of those are shorts. “To me, that says a lot,” she says. “People have been inspired or are telling stories of Boston or themselves.” Last summer, I spoke with one such filmmaker, Crosby Tatum, about his intense chronicle of the Black and Blue Lives Matter protests that erupted after George Floyd’s 2020 murder. Much of it was filmed around Boston. “The People, United! A Cinematic Diary” had its world premiere at RoxFilm last year and traveled to other fests across the U.S. in ensuing months. In an effort to broaden his audience, Tatum just released it on Amazon Prime.

Here are several other ways to see movies in Boston and nearby locations this summer.

When: June 11-15

Where: Provincetown’s Waters Edge Cinema, Town Hall, The Art House, Fishermen Hall, Crown & Anchor

Highlights: For me, summer indie moviegoing officially starts with PIFF, one of the best destination festivals in the region. The fest opens with “Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror,” a documentary that sheds light on the midnight classic’s cultural impact, and also screens the 50-year-old “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Another late-night attraction, Provincetown’s own Spiritus Pizza, gets a big-screen send-up on closing night with “Spiritus: No Business Like Dough Business.” The documentary traces the family-run Commercial Street pie joint from the 1970s to present day. In between, this fest has plenty of features and eight shorts programs, two focused on Provincetown and New England locations and talent. Plus there are parties and conversations with awardees Ari Aster (“Midsommar,” “Beau is Afraid”), Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby,” screening June 12 &14), Murray Bartlett (“The White Lotus,” “The Last of Us”) and River Gallo (“Ponyboi,” screening June 13).

Good to know: For a guaranteed sighting of P-town’s reigning Pope of Trash, John Waters (a long-time supporter of this fest), check out his conversation with writer-director Ari Aster, who just debuted his pandemic showdown drama “Eddington” at Cannes. Various “Eddington” controversies set the press abuzz there, prompting Aster to tell CNN he was “deliberately avoiding discourse about the film.” My guess is that Waters will get him to talk.

Load YouTube video

When: June 19-27

Where: Hibernian Hall, MFA Boston, MassArt, Haley House Bakery, JustBook-ish and online

Highlights: Of the many signature events created by RoxFilm to nurture independent artists over its 27 years, I especially like the concept of the live script reading, where local actors read scenes written by festival alumni. Coordinated by SAG-AFTRA New England president Andrea Lyman, these events take place daily at noon. This fest has similarly nurtured its audience, too. For decades, it has hosted “Dinner & a Movie” events at Haley House (“Teddy” and “The Ebony Canal: A Story of Black Infant Mortality” will be featured), and last year it launched a “senior lunch,” where older persons gather for a film, meal and conversation. An expansive take on Harriet Tubman, “Harriet Tubman | From the Railroad to a Spy,” screens free to seniors on June 24 at 2 p.m. at Hibernian Hall. There are many other films to consider as well, including the free Juneteenth screening of “Paint Me a Road Out of Here” mentioned in the intro and myriad shorts programs on themes like navigating relationships, internal conflict and culture and community. Films by next generation filmmakers from Boston Arts Academy and Lynn’s after-school Raw Art Works also have a dedicated program.

Good to know: The festival closes with the documentary “May the Lord Watch,” about how the North Carolina rap group Little Brother (Phonte and Big Pooh) rose to fame in the 2000s, broke up, and reunited to make a 2019 album. A co-presentation with BAMS Fest, a party immediately follows.

Load YouTube video

Where: Nantucket Dreamland Film and Cultural Center, Sconset Casino, Nantucket Performing Arts Center, Nantucket High School and Garden on Hulbert Ave.

When: June 25-30

Highlights: At its roots, this 30-year-old festival celebrates writers as much as their films. This year’s screenwriter awards go to Tony Gilroy (“The Bourne Identity” series) and Joanna Calo (co-showrunner of “The Bear”) – both will appear for events that celebrate their achievements. A group of titles screening this year fall under the category “female-centered,” from Julie Delpy’s “Meet the Barbarians” (in which she stars and directs) to “Tow,” with powerhouse Rose Byrne as an unhoused woman who fights the absurdities of bureaucracy. The film slate includes dramas from the U.S. and beyond, documentaries and a handful of shorts programs.

On June 29, Elin Hilderbrand talks adapting novels and fest regular (and board member) Ben Stiller hosts a comedy roundtable. Despite being the neighboring island to the home of “Jaws,” the blockbuster’s 50th anniversary gets its due here, too, with a screening of “Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story” and a deep dive panel discussion. Of the area’s summer fests, NFF may earn “most likely to bump into a celeb” superlatives. But first you have to get to the island, then recognize the writers who often fly under the “famous faces” radar.

Good to know: Upon the success of “Jaws” and the subsequent spike in shark hunting, Wendy Benchley (whose late husband penned the 1974 novel) became an impassioned advocate and “voice for sharks and the ocean.” She will be one of the speakers on the NFF “Jaws” deep dive panel.

Load YouTube video

When: July 26-Aug. 2

Where: Clapp Auditorium, Meigs Room at the Swope Center, Redfield Auditorium and Woods Hole Community Hall in Woods Hole; Falmouth Academy in Falmouth

Highlights: It takes a village to run a film festival. Woods Hole’s approach includes extending fellowships to young people so they can help select films and learn how to become the film programmers of the future. This year, the fest team greenlit 110 films, including the shady thriller “The Arborist,” shot entirely in Massachusetts, and the documentary about MIT researcher, Biogen founder and Nobel Prize winner Phil Sharp, “Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution.” An abundance of comedic shorts and several short docs that touch on regional topics (“Building a Champion,” “Keytar Bear” and “From Sea to Shining Sea: Katharine Lee Bates and the Story of America the Beautiful,” for example) also screen. (Disclosure: my own short documentary “Dukakis: Recipe for Democracy” is among them.) This festival also offers a village feel with venues that ambitious walkers and bikers can amble between (or use public transit).

Good to know: A pre-festival event on July 25 celebrates actor and part-time West Tisbury resident Amy Brenneman with a screening of “Overcome,” a documentary based on the play she wrote and starred in about discovering and accepting her daughter’s rare genetic condition.

When: Aug. 1-9

Where: Martha’s Vineyard Performing Arts Center

Highlights: MVAAFF founders Floyd Rance and Stephanie Tavares-Rance said they are “beyond thrilled to mark 23 years of amplifying the voices and stories of Black filmmakers” this year. But it’s too soon to say exactly what will screen or which A-list celebs will turn up. Past years have seen the Obamas, Spike Lee, Viola Davis, Tyler Perry and Jennifer Hudson take the stage with new projects. But there are so many others: Sheryl Lee Ralph, Uzo Aduba, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Colman Domingo, Cory Booker, the list goes on. One reason the fest attracts so much talent is because it premieres films, series, books and more from all the major platforms, with a promise to showcase “the year's most talked-about African American stories.”

Good to know: Last year, the fest hosted its first celebration of African American cuisine with Pat Neely of the Food Network, food by Juan Martinez (chef of the Vineyard’s Harbor View Hotel), and wines selected by Boston sommelier TJ Douglas, founder of The Urban Grape. No word yet on whether this will become an annual tradition, like the Summer White Party, but fingers crossed.

Load YouTube video

When: Aug. 12-29

Where: Parks throughout Boston

Highlights: Come dusk, you and the little ones can spread out on a blanket under the stars at parks around Boston for an all-ages movie screening. Arrive early for free popcorn. For one of the sweetest, most insightful Armageddons ever put to film, see “Wall-E” (Roslindale, Aug. 12). Its post-apocalyptic companionship story makes an interesting pair with the greening of a metal mother in “The Wild Robot” (East Boston, Aug. 26). But my pick of the litter for this series is “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Roxbury, Aug. 20), not just because I love cats big and small, but because this group of “live” adaptations have finally settled in (animals with moving lips, now less weird?) and won me over with catchy original songs. Except for “Bye Bye.” Four of four family members wanted to say “bye bye” right back to that song. Finally, after all of the “Wicked” fever this fall and winter, it sounds like a breeze to “defy gravity” in open air, a stone’s throw from Frog Pond (Downtown, Aug. 29). Additional family-friendly titles screen through August.

Good to know: Disney released the first “Lion King” movie in 1994. Taking a page from the creation of “Bambi,” the studio brought in real lions and other animals to help animators study and draft their movements. “Mufasa: The Lion King” joins a long line of descendants from the original, which includes a 2019 CGI remake of “The Lion King” with real-ish looking animals and a cute series “The Lion Guard.”

Load YouTube video