The 2025 Tribeca Festival returns to New York City from June 4 to 15, unveiling a bold and eclectic program: 118 feature films, 94 world premieres, and 135 directors representing 36 countries. It’s a kaleidoscope of intimate confessions, pop odysseys, and musical dystopias. Tucked between buzzy entries like Miley Cyrus’s visual album, Something Beautiful, and Dean DeBlois’s live-action take on How to Train Your Dragon, four films with Italian ties carve out their own space, through artistic collaborations and international co-productions.
First up is Cuerpo Celeste, set in Chile and directed by Nayra Ilic, with Italy on board as a co-producing country. Then there’s Little Trouble Girls by Slovenian director Urška Djukić—a coming-of-age tale shot across Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy, following two teenage girls bonding during a choir retreat in a convent.
Also in the mix: Reflection in a Dead Diamond, directed by Hélène Cattet e Bruno Forzani, a genre-blending, dreamlike spin on ’60s spy cinema, co-produced by Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Italy. Rounding things out is Fior di Latte, a bittersweet comedy by Italian-American director Charlotte Ercoli, starring Marta Pozzan—originally from Vicenza, now based in L.A.—as a woman haunted by the scent of a vanished Italian summer. A playwright sniffs perfume bottles obsessively, chasing a memory he can’t quite pin down.
Tribeca opens with an HBO documentary on Billy Joel and wraps with Yanuni, an Amazonian epic with a green heart, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. But the real pulse of the festival thrums in the middle, where the ghosts of now take the stage. There’s the American political transition—both celebrated and critiqued—alongside questions of cultural identity. With Surviving Ohio State, Academy Award-winning director Eva Orner sheds light on the sexual abuse scandal involving sports doctor Richard Strauss at Ohio State University, and the ongoing fight of his survivors to seek justice. Wizkid reimagines postcolonial Africa through Lagos and London; Ty Dolla $ign grapples with his brother’s life sentence; Marc Maron turns grief into raw, on-mic introspection.
The lineup leans into chaos and catharsis. Documentaries dive deep into Culture Club, Depeche Mode, and Metallica, while Queens of the Dead drags horror into glitter-soaked Brooklyn, where a zombified drag parade descends into a gory rave. Tribeca 2025 is also a catalog of transformations: Underland, directed by Robert Petit, is a poetic and visually striking journey into the depths of the Earth—through sacred caves, melting glaciers, and underground laboratories. Marlee Matlin reclaims her legacy in Not Alone Anymore, a portrait of resilience and deaf identity, while Mariska Hargitay digs into the mythology of her mother, Jayne Mansfield, in My Mom Jayne. Elsewhere, a Long Island documentary traces the roots of suburban hip hop, and in The Scout, a location scout prowls strangers’ homes as if mapping the psyche of New York itself.
Between undead catwalks, space brawls, and bureaucratically erased elders, there’s room for something softer. Room to Move offers a tender glimpse into the world of choreographer Jenn Freeman, who learns she’s on the autism spectrum while crafting her first show. And in O Último Azul, an aging Brazilian sisterhood escapes demolition colonies by boat, drifting toward one final freedom, guided by a mysterious blue snail.
