BEYOND FEST 2025 DROPS INSANE LINEUP: 90 FILMS, 15 DAYS, AND A CITY ON FIRE

Beyond Fest returns with a vengeance—90 films deep, loaded with icons, premieres, and blood-soaked chaos across Los Angeles.

BEYOND FEST 2025 UNLEASHES MONSTER LINEUP: 90 FILMS, 15 DAYS, & MORE ICONS THAN YOU CAN COUNT

Presented by NEON and American Cinematheque, LA’s wildest genre festival returns September 25 – October 9

— There’s nothing “underground” about this lineup.

Beyond Fest 2025 is officially back, and this year’s slate is a genre-lover’s fever dream: 90 feature films, 15 days, 8 World Premieres, and a guest list that reads like the Mount Rushmore of cult cinema.

Presented by NEON and co-programmed by the American Cinematheque, Beyond Fest returns from September 25 through October 9, taking over venues like the Egyptian Theatre and Los Feliz 3 with a blend of fresh premieres, deep-dive restorations, and pure cinematic chaos.

Let’s break it down.

⸻

Opening Night to Closing Night: Auteur Bookends

The fest opens with Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice and closes with Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia—two titanic filmmakers bracketing a two-week cinematic riot.

⸻

World & U.S. Premieres with Star Power

• Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen headline Good Fortune

• Bryan Fuller’s Dust Bunny features Mads Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver

• Scott Derrickson & C. Robert Cargill return with Black Phone 2

• Luca Guadagnino drops the psychological landmine After the Hunt

• Gore Verbinski goes full chaos with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

• Rose Byrne and Conan O’Brien appear for the debut of If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

⸻

International Highlights

• It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi, Palme d’Or winner

• The Secret Agent – Kleber Mendonça Filho

• Sirāt – Oliver Laxe

• Resurrection – Bi Gan, appearing in person

• Exit 8, Dracula, Barrio Triste, Urchin, Reflection in a Dead Diamond, and more

⸻

Horror & Genre Takeover

• V/H/S/Halloween

• Dream Eater – from Eli Roth’s Horror Section

• Shelby Oaks – directed by Chris Stuckmann

• Night Patrol, Primate, Good Boy

• Queens of the Dead – directed by Tina Romero

• The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Titans Season Two – World Premiere

⸻

Action & Mayhem

• The Furious – Kenji Tanigaki’s high-impact martial arts showdown

• Sisu: Road to Revenge

• Deathstalker remake by Steven Kostanski (Psycho Goreman)

⸻

Legendary Screenings & Special Guests

• Meiko Kaji makes her first U.S. appearance

• Lady Snowblood, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, and more

• In conversation with Sean Baker

• John Carpenter attends a 70mm screening of Big Trouble in Little China

• Al Pacino joins for Dick Tracy

• Tim Robbins presents Jacob’s Ladder in 4K

• Rob Reiner double feature: Stand by Me + Misery

• William Petersen returns with To Live and Die in L.A. and Manhunter

• The Butthole Surfers reunite in person for The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt

• Gore Verbinski returns for The Ring

• Rob & Sheri Moon Zombie appear for The Devil’s Rejects 20th anniversary restoration

⸻

Free Screenings at Los Feliz 3 (Thanks, NEON)

This year’s free-to-attend Los Feliz 3 program is overflowing with premieres and wild indie voices:

• Killing Faith – DeWanda Wise, Bill Pullman

• In A Cold Vein, I Live Here Now, The Serpent’s Skin, Hellcat

• Hold the Fort, Man Finds Tape, The Kirlian Frequency, Every Heavy Thing

• 100 Meters (anime), Bulk, Bury Your Dead, The Python Hunt, New Group

• Restorations of Wild Style, Silent Death, Angel’s Egg, Ms. 45, and Cannibal Holocaust in glorious 4K

⸻

Tickets Drop Thursday, September 11 at 10 AM PST

Secure your passes and plan your madness. Tickets for all events go live at americancinematheque.com and beyondfest.com.

⸻

Whether you’re in it for the restorations, the horror premieres, the action throwdowns, or just to scream during FUCK MY SON!—Beyond Fest 2025 is shaping up to be its most explosive year yet.

Stay tuned to HMU for our full coverage, reviews, and interviews on the ground in Los Angeles.