This year’s hybrid New Orleans Film Festival offers in-person and online screenings. Films will screen November 5-14 at AMC Elmwood Palace 20, the Orpheum Theater, the Broad Theater and Broadside outdoor cinema. Most of the festival’s offerings will be available for online viewing November 5-21. Passes and tickets are available here.

On October 20, the pre-festival premiere of Jason Berry’s years-in-the making jazz funeral documentary, City of a Million Dreams, teased the 32nd New Orleans Film Festival. Berry’s film will screen during the festival on November 12 at AMC Elmwood Palace 20. It’s available online November 5-21 via the festival website.

Film still from the documentary City of A Million Dreams.

Filmmakers from 104 countries submitted more than 3,000 films to this year’s festival. The lineup contains 28 world premieres and 11 U.S. premieres. Overall, films directed by women and gender non-conforming directors account for 64 percent of the lineup, and films helmed by directors of color make up 73 percent of the lineup, with 36 percent of films coming from Black directors. Films made in the American South represent 60 percent and Louisiana-made films represent 22 percent of the lineup and the directors of selected films represent 24 different nationalities. 

“We’re particularly excited to be showing so many films from the American South,” said Clint Bowie, artistic director of the New Orleans Film Society. “This region is full of talented artists and storytellers. We’re happy to be prioritizing space in the festival for Southern filmmakers to share their work.”

The festival’s Spotlight films—typically high-profile fare likely to receive award nominations—include Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical Belfast (November 9, 8:30 p.m., AMC Elmwood). Written and directed by Branagh, Belfast centers on a working-class family in Northern Ireland during the political-religious strife of the 1960s in the British territory.

Other Spotlight films include King Richard, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s biopic about Richard Williams (Will Smith), the father of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams (November 14, 8 p.m., AMC Elmwood); Sean Baker’s Red Rocket, featuring New Orleans actress Judy Hill in a story about a former porn star who returns to his Texas hometown (November 8, 7:30 p.m., AMC Elmwood); and Memoria, a film starring Tilda Swinton that won the Cannes Film Festival’s 2021 jury prize (November 10, 7:15 p.m., AMC Elmwood).

Narrative feature films in competition this year include New Orleans filmmaker Samantha Aldana’s Shapeless, a film about a singer struggling to stay in control of her career and herself (November 11, 8:30 p.m., AMC Elmwood and November 13, 8:30 p.m., Broad Theater).

Other Louisiana films in competition include Accepted, a documentary about high school seniors in rural Louisiana who are pushed to the brink by an unconventional school known for sending graduates to elite universities (November 6, 2:45 p.m., and November 13, 3 p.m., AMC Elmwood); and Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away, a documentary about the blues star from Pointe Coupee Parish (November 6, 8:30 p.m., AMC Elmwood). 

For in-person screenings, festival-goers must show a COVID-19 vaccination card or negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of the screening date. Masks will be required for attendees, festival staff and volunteers at screenings and events.

The festival’s schedule and film guide are available here.