OPENING Sept 29 to Oct 5, 2025 – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

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 September 29 – October 5 that are of particular interest. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews:  

Tuesday, September 30

• Satisfied – Aura Entertainment / Fathom Entertainment (Cinemas) – USA – Documentary co-directed by Chris Bolan and Melissa Haizlip. Renée Elise Goldsberry’s journey navigating motherhood and her role in the groundbreaking musical Hamilton.

 

• Tell Me What You Want – Capelight Pictures – Germany / Spain / USA – Erotic thriller co-directed by Lucía Alemany and Lea Thurner. After his father’s death, Eric Zimmerman travels to Spain to oversee his company’s branches. In Madrid, he falls for Judith and engages in an intense, erotic relationship full of exploration. Eric fears his secret may end their affair.

Friday, October 3

• Bone Lake – Bleecker Street Media (Cinemas) – USA – Horror film directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan. A couple’s vacation at a secluded estate is upended when they’re forced to share the mansion with a mysterious couple. A dream getaway spirals into a nightmarish maze of sex, lies, and manipulation, triggering a battle for survival.

 

• Counted Out – (Cinemas) – USA – Documentary co-written and directed by Vicki Abeles. A thought-provoking documentary on the need for reforming math education to address societal issues like inequality, climate change, and political polarization, offering an empowering new approach.

 

• Fairyland – Lionsgate / WILLA (Cinemas) – USA / France – Drama. A young girl recounts growing up in San Francisco in the ’70s and ’80s with her gay dad.

 

• The French Italian – Level 33 Entertainment (Cinemas) – USA – Comedy co-written and directed by Rachel Wolther. Neighbors prank each other and the situation escalates comically amid a NYC apartment complex’s cutthroat politics, exploring the absurdity of conflict between residents.

 

• Grow – Fathom Entertainment – UK / Canada / USA – Family film. An exuberant tale full of giant pumpkins, madcap characters, and a little girl who just might be a pumpkin-growing savant.

 

• The Ice Tower – Goodfellas (Cinemas) – France / Germany / Italy – Drama co-written and directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic. Jeanne, a 15-year-old orphan, witnesses the shoot for a film adaptation of the fairy tale The Snow Queen, and she becomes fascinated by its star, Cristina, an actress who is just as mysterious and alluring as the Queen she is playing.

 

• The Librarians – Independent Lens (Cinemas) – USA – Documentary directed by Kim A. Snyder. Librarians unite to combat book banning, defending intellectual freedom on democracy’s frontlines amid unprecedented censorship in Texas, Florida, and beyond.

 

• Love, Danielle – Freestyle Digital Media (VOD) – USA – Dramedy directed by Marianna Palka. Amid family drama and dysfunction, a woman who carries a BRCA gene mutation must decide whether or not to remove her breasts and ovaries to reduce her cancer risk.

 

• One Big Happy Family – Electric Entertainment (Cinemas) – USA – Comedy. When a DNA test completely upends a woman’s life, she embarks on a journey with her mother to find out who she is.

 

• The Partisan – Brainstorm Media – USA / UK / Poland – Thriller. A Polish spy who works for the British during the Second World War. After a betrayal, she is compromised in Warsaw and finds herself in a murky world of treachery.

 

• Shell – (Cinemas) – USA – Horror-comedy. Desperate to reclaim her career, once-beloved actress Samantha Lake is drawn into the glamorous world of wellness mogul Zoe Shannon -only to uncover a monstrous truth beneath its flawless surface.

 

• Stella: A Life – Film Movement – Germany / Austria / Switzerland / UK – Biographical drama. Stella Goldschlag grows up in Berlin during the Nazi regime. She dreams of a career as a jazz singer, but is forced to go into hiding with her parents in 1944, and her life turns into an hopeless tragedy.

 

• Viva Verdi – Italy / USA – Documentary directed by Yvonne Russo. At Milan’s Casa Verdi retirement home, elderly opera stars and musicians mentor young students while sharing their remarkable lives. Built by Verdi in 1896, this unique residence unites generations through music and passion.

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.