OPENING August 11 to 17, 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 August 11 to 17 that are of particular interest. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews:  

Tuesday, August 12

• An Open Door: Temple Grandin – Good Deed Entertainment – USA – Acclaimed documentary celebrating Dr. Temple Grandin’s pioneering work in animal welfare, autism advocacy, and neurodiversity through her unique perspective as a visual thinker on the autism spectrum.

Wednesday, August 13

• Songs from the Hole – Netflix – USA – Documentary co-written and directed by Contessa Gayles. At 15, he took a life. Three days later, his brother’s life was taken. An incarcerated musician struggles for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary visual album composed behind bars.

Thursday, August 14

• Day of a Lion – Gravitas Ventures (VOD) – Canada – Drama co-written and directed by Bianca and Dilara Foscht. After their father’s death two sisters reunite at their childhood home to uncover forgotten secrets and rip open old wounds.

Friday, August 15

• Anxiety Club – Jolt Film (VOD) – USA – Documentary directed by Wendy Lobel. Funny, deep and hopeful, Anxiety Club captures the experience of anxiety through the eyes of comedians and explores their efforts to overcome their angst.

 

• East of Wall – Sony Pictures Classics (Cinemas) – USA – Drama written and directed by Kate Beecroft. After the death of her husband, Tabatha- a young, tattooed, rebellious horse trainer- wrestles with financial insecurity and unresolved grief while providing refuge for a group of wayward teenagers on her broken-down ranch in the Badlands.

 

• My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow – (Cinemas) – USA / Russia – Julia Loktev documents independent journalists in Moscow facing government crackdown as Russia invades Ukraine, capturing their fight for speech amid risks of being branded “foreign agents” and the country’s drift towards authoritarianism.

 

• Night Always Comes – Netflix – USA / UK – Thriller. Risking everything to secure a future for herself and her brother, Lynette sets out on a dangerous odyssey, confronting her own dark past over the course of one propulsive night.

 

• Red Sonja – Samuel Goldwyn Films (Cinemas) – USA – Action film directed by M.J. Bassett. An adaptation of the comic book, Red Sonja, a vengeful warrior known as a “She-Devil with a sword”.

 

• Went Up the Hill – Greenwich Entertainment – Australia / New Zealand – Drama. Jack ventures to remote New Zealand for the funeral of his estranged mother and meets her widow Jill. But his mother’s spirit returns to inhabit each of their bodies, instigating a life-threatening three-way nocturnal dance.

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.