2025 Nantucket Film Festival to Open With ‘Twinless,’ Jacinda Ardern Doc ‘Prime Minister’; Tony Gilroy, Alex Gibney Among Honorees (Exclusive)

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For its 30th anniversary, the 2025 Nantucket Film Festival has finalized the selection of main films, award recipients, and special events for their upcoming festival.

The festival will kick off featuring two movies that won Sundance Audience Awards – “Twinless” starring Dylan O’Brien and Lauren Graham, as well as the documentary “Prime Minister” about Jacinda Ardern, directed by Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz. The final film to be screened is a documentary titled “Speak”, focusing on teen orators and directed by Jennifer Tiexiera and Guy Mossman. The highlight of the event is a National Geographic documentary called “Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story“, offering an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the production of Jaws.

2021’s film selection remains dedicated to showcasing courageous and unique perspectives, both near and far. As senior programmer Basil Tsiokos and lead programmer Anita Raswant stated, they encourage viewers to delve into a diverse array of pieces that embody the essence of storytelling and our collective humanity. Over the span of six days, this carefully crafted festival presents an opportunity to experience a rich tapestry of stories.

For this year, the 2025 National Film Festival (NFF) has announced the recipients of its Screenwriter’s Tribute: Tony Gilroy, Alex Gibney, and Joanna Calo.

The screenwriter and director of the series “Andor”, renowned for his work on “Michael Clayton” and the initial “Bourne” movie, is set to be honored with the Visionary Storyteller Award. This accolade acknowledges his remarkable career spanning over three decades.

Renowned documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, who has created critically acclaimed works like ‘Going Clear’ and ‘Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room’, will be awarded the Honor for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Narration.

Calo, who is recognized for co-creating and leading as showrunner on FX’s The Bear, will be granted the Special Achievement in Television Writing Award. This honor acknowledges her exceptional narrative skills and groundbreaking advancements in television storytelling.

At the Screenwriters Tribute event during the festival, Gilroy, Gibney, and Calo will be recognized, with Michael Ian Black as the host. Other events include Late Night Storytelling, Morning Coffee With…, and the All-Star Comedy Roundtable, led by Ben Stiller. This special gathering will feature Iliza Shlesinger, Amber Ruffin, Mae Martin, and Zach Cherry, who works with Stiller on the show “Severance”.

During the celebration of its 30th anniversary, the festival will showcase a special sneak peek of Ken Burns’ upcoming six-part, twelve-hour documentary series titled “The American Revolution“, debuting on PBS on November 16th. Additionally, the event will host a brunch gathering in honor of Elin Hilderbrand’s “Nantucket Stories”, delving into her connections to the island and expanding realm of screen adaptations of her popular novels. The “Flipping the Script: Bestsellers to Screen” event will emphasize “The Perfect Couple“, as well as works in development such as “The Five-Star Weekend” and “Winter Street“. Hilderbrand will engage in a discussion with screenwriter Bekah Brunstetter (“This Is Us”, “Maid”), Universal Cable Productions executive vice president Jen Gwartz (“Ted”, “Suits: LA”), NBCUniversal president of scripted content Lisa Katz (“Poker Face”), former HBO president and founder of Dinner Party Productions, Sue Naegle. The conversation will also involve “The Perfect Couple” season one showrunner Jenna Lamia and Calo, who will oversee the upcoming second season of “The Perfect Couple“.

Mystelle Brabbée, executive director of Nantucket Film Festival, expressed in a statement, “For our 30th anniversary, we aimed to design a program that not only honors the art of screenwriting and storytelling but also mirrors the current era—bold, pressing, and fundamentally human. From Tony Gilroy to Joanna Calo, Jaws to Prime Minister, the fearless comedy of Amber Ruffin and Iliza Shlesinger to the enduring tale-spinning of Elin Hilderbrand, this year’s lineup is a vibrant tribute to storytelling’s ability to captivate, provoke, and unite us all. We can hardly wait to present this year’s program to our audience.”

Further details about the festival can be found here.

The 2025 Nantucket Film Festival is set to run from June 25-30.

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2025-04-23 17:24