The 2025 Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, has once again scheduled an amazing array of documentary, narrative, and animated features and short films, including several horror and horror-adjacent works. I’m covering the fest, scheduled to run June 4–15 in New York City, and although reviews are under embargo until the films screen at the fest, here are three of the titles at which I have had the honor of getting an early peek, and that I can highly recommend.
How Dark My Love (U.S., directed by Scott Gracheff; documentary)
A tale of painter and muse, at the core of which smolders a timeless love story between artist Joe Coleman and Whitney Ward, husband and wife of 25 years. Known for painting serial killers and outlaws, Joe chooses Whitney to be the subject of his next portrait and, at nearly 7 feet tall by 4 feet wide, it will be his largest work to date. Teeming with candid biographical details, every aspect of Whitney’s life is vulnerable to exposure and Joe is taking a leap of faith that Whitney will be able to accept his uncompromising perspective when she is the focus of his gaze. Plunging into darkness in search of the truth, the film intimately explores the relationship between life, love, death and art.
Birthright (Australia; writer/director Zoe Pepper; thriller/comedy)
Evicted and jobless, Cory and his pregnant wife are forced to stay with his parents. As the younger couple’s stay extends the parents’ become worried that their disappointing son will never leave the house. Desperate to prove himself, the edges of Cory’s reality slip away and he finds an unexpected path to success that detonates the family.
Terror Night (Epadunk; Sweden; writer/director Jakob Arevärn; horror/drama/romance; short film)
Josefine installs the world’s fattest bass box in her car before her evening date with Billy. But the loud music turns the date into a battle for life and death.
