CROSSROADS 2025
August 29–31
presented by San Francisco Cinematheque
at Gray Area
curated by Steve Polta
#xrds25
CROSSROADS 2025 is the sixteenth manifestation of Cinematheque’s annual film festival. CROSSROADS 2025 features 47 works of film, video and performance by 47 artists representing 19 countries and territories presented in 8 curated programs. Weaving through this year’s lineup are alchemical and environmental evocations of utopian and dystopian realities; ruminations on the impermanence inherent in existence; transnational, transgenerational and even trans-species relations and expressions of vulnerability, resilience and political resistance culled from the world’s rotting image bank. CROSSROADS opening night features a sound/image performance by legendary Portland sound artist Daniel Menche and filmmaker Karl Lemieux projectionist for Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Cinematheque is proud to announce that, of these 47 featured artists, 16 are receiving their CROSSROADS debut this year.
CROSSROADS 2025
featured filmmakers
Saif Alsaegh • Lin Htet Aung • Sarah Ballard • Dianna Barrie • Alice Bommer • Stefano Canapa • Heehyun Choi • Karel Doing • Tori DotNet • Sam Drake • Zachary Epcar • Kevin Jerome Everson • Janie Geiser • Pere Ginard • Sidney Gordon • Jerome Hiler • Ken Jacobs • Derek Jenkins • Karl Lemieux • Lucie Leszez • Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu • Jodie Mack • J.M. Martínez • Lindsay McIntyre • Daniel Menche • Tomonari Nishikawa • Antoni Orlof • Kyujae Park • Miranda Pennell • Adam Piron • Nicole Remy • Craig Scheihing • Linda Izcali Scobie • Erica Sheu • Cauleen Smith • Greta Snider • Scott Stark • Malena Szlam • Sofia Theodore-Pierce • Richard Tuohy • Malaz Usta • Guillaume Vallée • Friedl vom Gröller • Sophie Watzlawick • Micah Weber • Karen Yasinsky • Antoinette Zwirchmayr
Festival passes and individual program tickets here.
Download the CROSSROADS 2025 press release here.
CROSSROADS programs 1–8
presented in person August 29-31 at
2665 Mission Street, San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO CINEMATHEQUE
Director: Steve Polta
Festival Manager/Design: India Nemer
Tech Director: Kent Long
Festival Trailer: Domonik Hernandez
Festival Associates: Kornelia Boczkowska, Manasa Karthikeyan, Ida Kusanovich
Archives: Frances Allen, Kevin Barbella, Alice Bommer
Accounting: Vanessa O’Neill
Web Developers
Sophie Rentien Lando, Julie Peeters, Scott Ponik
Cinematheque Board of Directors
Sofia Alicastro, Sage Hirsch, Diana Sánchez Maciel, Marie Martraire, Christine Metropoulos, Amy Reid, Clare Schweitzer, Ellie Vanderlip, Trinity West
Cinematheque Advisory Council
Steve Anker, Gina Basso, Orit Ben-Shitrit, Steven Jenkins, Mark McElhatten, Brent Miller, Oona Mosna, Carissa Potter, Kathleen Quillian, Anne Stone
CROSSROADS 2025 Community Partners
Canyon Cinema Foundation, the Center for Asian American Media, Frameline, Screen Slate, Shapeshifters Cinema
San Francisco Cinematheque and CROSSROADS 2025 are supported by contributions from California Revealed, the Fleishhacker Foundation, the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund/Grants for the Arts and Cinematheque’s Members and Donors.
Special Thanks for support, assistance and inspiration is extended to: Fara Akrami; Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Anthology Film Archives; Artists’ Television Access; AV-arkki; BAMPFA; BAVC Media; Craig Baldwin; Gina Basso; Niki Bodemann; Kara Brodfuehrer; the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre; Canyon Cinema; the Center for Asian American Media; the Center for New Music; Olivia Ciummo; CounterPulse; COUSIN; Desistfilm; Dobra: Festival Internacional de Cinema Experimental; Elena Duque; Ken Eisenstein; Zachary Epcar; Experiments in Cinema; Courtney Fellion; Gerry Fialka; Film Form; Ais Harvey; Jesse Hawthorne Ficks; Jennifer Fieber; Isabel Fondevila; Michael Fox; Frameline; Kathy Geritz; Gray Area; Seabrook Gubbins; Harvard Film Archive; Dennis Harvey; Images Festival; INCITE Journal of Experimental Media; International Film Festival Rotterdam; KADIST; KALX; Brett Kashmere; Liz Keim; Cristina Kolozsváry-Kiss; Bryan Konefsky; The Lab; LaborBerlin; LA Film Forum; Mary Lattimore; Light Cone; Light Field; Light Industry; LIGHTSTRUCK; LUX; Media City Film Festival; Christine Metropoulos; Microscope Gallery; Milwaukee Underground Film Festival; Minnesota Street Project Foundation; Seth Mitter; Madeleine Molyneaux; Mono No Aware; Tara Merenda Nelson; Suki O’Kane; Onion City Film Festival; Other Cinema; Julie Phelps; Rick Prelinger; Megan Shaw Prelinger; Prismatic Ground; the Roxie Theater; Picture Palace Pictures; Stella Price; Anthony Russell; [S8] Mostra de Cinema Periférico; the San Francisco Art Book Fair; Screen Slate; Linda Scobie; Steve Seid; Shapeshifters Cinema; Lex Sloan; Michael Sicinski; sixpackfilm; Andrew Smith; Valerie Soe; Courtney Stephens; Ashley Rose Tacheira; The Temenos; Barry Threw; TIFF/Wavelengths; Tone Shepherd; Mark Toscano; 25 FPS; Kitty Velvet; Video Data Bank; Vidéographe; Visual Studies Workshop; Andy Warhol; Mark Webber; Tanya Zimbardo.
In Memoriam: Dara Birnbaum, Joan Braderman, Carl Bogner, Lawrence Brose, Wilhelm Hein, Kent Howie, Flo Jacobs, Malcolm Le Grice, David Lynch, Paul Morrissey, Gunvor Nelson, Tomonari Nishikawa, Lillian Schwartz, P. Adams Sitney, Marcellle Thirache.
Festival Graphic Image: Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya (2024) by Malena Szlam