The untold true story of America’s most-beloved actor and the iconic role that saved him, focuses on the most transformative season in Jimmy Stewart’s life—from winning the Academy Award® for Best Actor in The Philadelphia Story to enlisting and becoming a combat pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the beginning of World War II. He flew twenty missions over Europe, rising to the rank of colonel by the end of the war, only to return home broken and disheartened. Then George Bailey and It’s a Wonderful Life came calling.

Reception on the Bay 6:00–7:30 PM

This year, we're doing something we've never done before. CIFF's beloved closing night reception moves to the stunning waterfront setting of the Marriott Coronado Island Resort & Marina — where the bay stretches out before you, the city skyline glitters across the water, and the open air makes every moment feel just a little more cinematic.

Join us for a gorgeous waterfront reception as the sun sets over San Diego Bay. Sip, mingle, and soak in the views — the kind of golden-hour moment that reminds you why we love gathering around great films and great company. With the downtown skyline reflecting off the water and the warm November air around you, it's the perfect prelude to one final night of cinema

Closing Night FILM 7:30

Callie and Minnie’s relationship is suddenly upended at the start of the summer before their senior year of high school. Left rudderless without her charismatic best friend, Minnie starts to form a complicated friendship with Callie’s mother.

A female lawyer returns to her hometown of Brisbane after a decade away and is forced to work alongside her ex, who is now married with a child.

Join us for a Filmmaker Q&A following the screening.

Set in 1986 Queens and Brooklyn, an engineer aspiring to middle-class comforts is pulled into a shady deal with Russian criminals by his brother, a former NYPD cop — endangering his family with life-altering consequences.

A psychological thriller about 3 land men traveling to North Dakota to obtain mineral rights to land owned by a Native American man who hates the oil industry.

Set in a provincial Russian town in 2022, against the backdrop of the Russo-Ukrainian war, successful company director Gleb faces mounting corporate pressure — including a quota of workers to send to war — while discovering his wife's infidelity, sending his carefully ordered life spiraling toward violence. A remake of Claude Chabrol's The Unfaithful Wife.

A shy, unassuming housewife (Mona) is unexpectedly cast in a bit part in a small community theater's original musical. As she transforms into a zealous method actor determined to protect the artistic integrity of her marginal role, she falls under the spell of the show's brilliant but domineering director.

Set against one of the most volatile flashpoints of the Cold War, KILLING CASTRO unfolds in 1960 New York where a convergence of forces — including the CIA, FBI and the Mafia — begins to close in on Fidel Castro (Diego Boneta) to stop him from making a pivotal speech at the United Nations after rising to power in Cuba. But when Castro unexpectedly relocates to Harlem’s Hotel Theresa at the invitation of Malcolm X (Kendrick Sampson), a CIA operative (Al Pacino), a young translator (Xolo Maridueña), and a hotel worker (KiKi Layne) all become embroiled in a covert plot against Castro to turn this tightening web of political tension and surveillance into a defining moment in history.

Moscow, 1996. Andrey Rubanov, a young and enterprising banker, has a wife named Irma and a small child. He also has over a million dollars — split with his friend Misha. Seeing themselves as the future elite of the new Russia, destined to become oligarchs, they get involved in a major deal. But it turns out that the friends have been drawn into a large-scale scheme to embezzle billions from the state treasury. After his arrest, Andrey ends up in an overcrowded communal cell...

Moscow, 1996. Andrey Rubanov, a young and enterprising banker, has a wife named Irma and a small child. He also has over a million dollars — split with his friend Misha. Seeing themselves as the future elite of the new Russia, destined to become oligarchs, they get involved in a major deal. But it turns out that the friends have been drawn into a large-scale scheme to embezzle billions from the state treasury. After his arrest, Andrey ends up in an overcrowded communal cell...