The Independent Film Festival Boston (IFFBoston) 2025 returns to the Brattle, Somerville, and Coolidge Theaters, kicking off a diverse program of independent cinema beginning April 23rd and running through April 30th!

If your calendar isn’t already cleared for Boston’s annual cinefeast, you have time to get a jump on this year’s most hotly anticipated releases. BUFF is delighted to lend screening support to the following cadre of cinematic splendor:

DESCENDENT

Brattle Theatre
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A troubled LA school guard, haunted by family tragedy, experiences strange visions after a mysterious light appears in the sky. As his wife’s due date approaches, he races to face his demons before his growing obsession consumes him.

THE ARBORIST

Somerville Theatre
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A grief-stricken arborist and her son awaken a haunting when they begin felling trees at the estate of a mysterious recluse.

OBEX

Brattle Theatre
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In pre-internet 1987, Conor and his dog Sandy live a life of seclusion, lost in the slow-rendering graphics of early Macs and televisions aglow with late night horror movie marathons. But when he begins playing OBEX, a new and mysterious, state-of-the-art computer game, he finds himself trapped in a low-tech, but high-stakes analog hellscape as the line between reality and game blurs.

40 ACRES

Somerville Theatre
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In a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce, the last descendants of a Black family of farmers who settled in Canada after the American Civil War must protect their homestead from an organized militia hell-bent on taking their land.

FRIENDSHIP

Somerville Theatre
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Suburban dad Craig (Tim Robinson) falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor (Paul Rudd), but Craig’s attempts to make an adult male friend threaten to ruin both of their lives.