Philadelphia Film Festival 2024 lineup includes ‘Nickel Boys,’ the Wing Bowl documentary, and other festival favorites
The film fest, in its 33rd year, has sections dedicated to local filmmakers, political films, and international works.
The Philadelphia Film Festival returns for its 33rd year this month, with more than 100 short and feature-length films, running Oct. 17-27. The 10-day festival will host screenings at three venues: the Film Society Center in Center City, the Film Society Bourse, and Film Society East in Old City.
Among the lineup of films that have toured the biggest festivals around the world, including Cannes, Berlinale, and more, two world premieres examine unique Philly culture. The documentary No One Died: The Wing Bowl Story looks back at the racy, messy annual wing-eating competition that ended after decades of notoriously rowdy antics. The Philly Sound … Heard ‘Round the World comes from director-producer Bill Nicoletti, who spent a decade working on a definitive documentary about Philadelphia’s famed Sigma Sound Studios, capturing interviews with legends who walked the halls like Patti LaBelle, Daryl Hall, John Oates, and Jerry Blavat.
This year the festival has eight centerpiece films including Sean Baker’s Anora, which won the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes in May, making its Philadelphia premiere. Other centerpiece titles are Steve McQueen’s Blitz, starring Saoirse Ronan and set in bomb-ridden London during World War II; A Real Pain, featuring Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg as cousins visiting their ancestral Poland; and Nickel Boys, the adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (based on a true story) about two Black teens fighting to survive an abusive reform school in Florida.
Another highlight is The Brutalist, in which Adrien Brody stars as a fictional architect who escapes the Holocaust and lands in Bucks County, where he becomes a sought-after talent to create futuristic buildings for libraries and community centers.
The festival also has various other categories like Filmadelphia, which focuses on local filmmakers; State of the Union, for political stories; and World View, centering on international works. This year, a new Focus on India section spotlights festival-favorite films from India including Girls Will Be Girls, a coming-of-age teen romance set in a conservative boarding school; Santosh, the U.K.’s submission to the Oscars’ international feature category, and the Cannes Grand Prix-winning All We Imagine As Light.
Two classics will also return to the big screen under the category From the Vaults: The iconic 1984 road trip drama Paris, Texas and the 1946 World War II romance A Matter of Life and Death, which combines black-and-white and Technicolor film.
On Oct. 17, the festival will open with September 5 from Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum and producer Sean Penn. It follows the killing of 11 Israeli coaches and athletes who competed at the 1972 Munich Olympics, through the lens of ABC sports journalists who covered the harrowing events.
Tickets for the Philadelphia Film Festival go on sale to Philadelphia Film Society members on Oct. 4 and to the general public on Oct. 7. More information can be found at filmadelphia.org/festival.