OPENING Feb 25 to Mar 2, 2025 – Margaret Barton-Fumo

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists highlights movies made by and about women. With a vigilant eye toward current releases, we maintain an interactive record of films that are pertinent to our interests. Be they female-made or female-centric productions, they are films that represent a wide range of women’s stories and present complex female characters. As such, they are movies that will most likely be reviewed on AWFJ.org and will qualify for consideration for our annual EDA Awards, celebrating exceptional women working in film behind and in front of the camera. Our members are feature writers, columnists and regular contributors to a variety of media outlets and many of us publish regularly on the festival circuit. Our critical voices are widespread and diverse. We invite you to join us in tracking weekly releases of particular interest. And we welcome information about new films that will help us to keep our records updated and our critics alert. Below is a concise list of new releases set for the week of February 24 – March 2 that are of particular interest. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews:  

Tuesday, February 25

• The Klezmer Project – Greenwich Entertainment – Argentina / Austria – Documentary co-written and directed by Leandro Koch and Paloma Schachmann. A journey through Eastern Europe in search of lost klezmer melodies and the remnants of Yiddish culture.

 

• Stockade – Freestyle Digital Media (VOD) – USA – Drama. Ahlam, a Lebanese painter in financial straits, strives to get her artist visa extended so she can stay in New York City. Hoping to improve her circumstances, Ahlam takes a job delivering a parcel upstate. But the parcel opens a Pandora’s Box…

Thursday, February 27

• Becoming Katharine Graham – Kunhardt Film Foundation – USA – Documentary. Today, The Washington Post is a household name in journalism, but that wasn’t always the case. It was under the leadership of Katharine Graham that the newspaper reached new heights of success, set the standards for investigative journalism, and underscored the importance of a free press.

Friday, February 28

• Adult Best Friends – Gravitas Ventures (Cinemas) – USA – Comedy directed by Delaney Buffett. Inseparable since childhood, levelheaded Katie takes her codependent best friend Delaney on a girls’ trip to break the news that she is getting married. Things do not go as planned.

 

• Body Odyssey – IndiePix – Italy / Switzerland – Drama co-written and directed by Grazia Tricarico. Mona is a female bodybuilder obsessed with an ideal of perfection and beauty. The body is her inseparable container, her most faithful ally, her partner responding to laments. Together they find themselves on the threshold of their destiny.

 

• No Address – Fathom Entertainment (Cinemas) – USA – Drama co-written and directed by Julia Verdin. It follows a group of homeless people as they struggle to survive on the streets against a harassing gang, an unforgiving community, and the local authorities.

 

• Uppercut – Lionsgate / Grindstone Entertainment Group (Cinemas) – Germany / USA – Drama. Follows Toni’s journey from seeking boxing training from Elliott, a gym owner, to becoming a pioneering female boxing manager guiding Payne to a championship fight, while drawing upon lessons learned from Elliott.

Saturday, March 1

• Murdering the Devil (Restoration) – Metrograph Pictures (Cinemas) – Czechoslovakia – Restoration of the 1970 drama directed by art director and costume designer Ester Krumbachová, her first and only film.

Film descriptions are adapted from press releases. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews. Stay tuned in for next week’s releases! Contact us if we’ve overlooked anything.