Queer rebellion is at the center of this year’s NewFest, the country’s largest queer film festival held annually in New York City.

“It is rebellious to make ourselves seen and visible and heard, when there are factions that are trying to silence us and harass us and demonize us,” NewFest Executive Director David Hatkoff said ahead of festival.

“And sometimes rebellion can mean protesting on the streets, and sometimes it can mean sitting in a dark theater with a lot of other queer folks laughing your asses off.”

The annual fall film festival returns Thursday, October 9, with “Blue Moon,” the latest film from Richard Linklater that transports audiences to Sardi’s for the Broadway opening night of “Oklahoma!” Starring Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale and Andrew Scott, the film traces the night of March 31, 1943, when beaten down lyricist Lorenz Hart watches his former collaborator Richard Rodgers find success on the opening night of his ground-breaking hit play.

The following 12 days will be marked by feature film debuts and can’t miss revivals playing across the city and virtually for audiences everywhere in the United States.

Fresh off a buzzy premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, “Christy” closes this year’s festival with a much-talked about performance from Sydney Sweeney. The “Euphoria” star transforms into West Virginia boxer Christy Martin to tell her remarkable story in and out of the ring.

The documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light” about the late poet Andrea Gibson is “life affirming” and “cathartic,” Hatkoff said. Also debuting at the festival is “A Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint,” a look at the trailblazing life of the fan favorite from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 9.

The festival’s 2025 offerings include over 130 films, documentaries, revivals and shorts, the majority of which are directed by women, non-binary, trans and Two-Spirit filmmakers.

“We have a short program called the Queer Rebellion that really harkens back to a very intergenerational sense of how we have rebelled through the years, how have we shown up for each other,” teased Director of Programming Nick McCarthy.

This year’s edition of the festival includes an initiative for Arizona residents to participate for free after the Desperado LGBTQ+ Film Festival lost its funding as a “direct response” to President Donald Trump’s executive order to pull support from publicly-funded institutions.

The Arizona Queer Film Access Initiative allows anyone watching from Arizona free virtual access to a selection of NewFest’s 2025 line-up.

“Because we so firmly believe that queer film can change lives and even save lives, we saw an opportunity to leverage our profile and our resources to stand in solidarity with the folks who had lost access to those films,” Hatkoff said.

This year’s batch of in-person screenings will be held across Manhattan and Brooklyn at the SVA Theatre, The LGBT Community Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music and Nitehawk Prospect Park. Find the full calendar here.