This year, the Maryland Film Festival (MdFF) is offering a curated ticket bundle, called “Festival Journeys.”
The 2025 Maryland Film Festival will place at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Parkway Theatre on Nov. 5–9.
“Festival Journeys” offers attendees to purchases packages of festival experiences that spotlight specific identities, genres, and perspectives. These include gender, sexual identity, and stretching of boundaries in all sorts of ways.
“Whether you see yourself reflected in these stories or you’re eager to explore new points of view, these Journeys are designed to deepen your experience of the festival,” said KJ Mohr, director of MdFF and film programming at the SNF Parkway Theater, in a statement. “’Festival Journeys’ are geared toward providing a path for folks who aren’t typically film festival goers and might otherwise not think of attending, or those who might be overwhelmed in finding a starting point with an expansive festival program. We’re excited to welcome new audiences and help them curate an enriching and fun experience.”
Bundle topics can be singular or mixed and matched, so that attendees can have a highly personalized program. At $125, they are significantly less expensive than the $350 all-access pass. The “Festival Journey” pack includes admission to any four screenings, the closing night screening and party, and all nightlife events.
“Choose one, attend them all, or mix and match your Journeys ticket bundle. Every Journey category is an invitation to discover bold storytelling and connect with a wide range of voices,” Mohr said. The categories include:
- MdFF Pride – A celebration of queer stories, creators, and characters, this journey highlights LGBTQ+ perspectives across genres, from tender romances to radical documentaries to boundary-pushing experiments in form and identity.
- Black Voices – From documentaries to thrillers to stories of love, resistance, and joy, this journey through the festival celebrates the brilliance and range of Black filmmakers. Explore stories rooted in culture, legacy, and the future.
- She/They Said – Spotlighting films made by women and nonbinary filmmakers, this journey through the festival centers voices that challenge, affirm, and reimagine the world through every frame.
- WTF – The wild, the weird, the wonderfully experimental, this journey is for the boundary-pushers, the genre-breakers, and the “what did I just watch?” moments that make MdFF unforgettable. If you’re into strange beauty and bold risk-taking, this one’s for you.
“Festival Journeys is our invitation for audiences to really dig into different identities, genres, and perspectives without limiting where the story takes you,” said Nancy Proctor, executive director of the SNF Parkway and Maryland Film Festival, in a statement. “In a time when our society is quick to judge, cancel, or ‘other’ someone, we really hope people will feel called to see something they may not otherwise be drawn to, helping to expand their experiences, hearts, and minds. As Anaïs Nin once said, ‘We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.’”
MdFF also released the names of 15 films premiering at the festival for Maryland audiences. Along with dozens of shorts, features and emerging media works still to be announced next month, MdFF 2025 will premiere the following films:
- FUCKTOYS, directed by Annapurna Sriram
- POWWOW PEOPLE, directed by Sky Hopinka
- IDIOTKA, directed by Nastasya Popov
- I WAS BORN THIS WAY, directed by Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard
- BUTTHOLE SURFERS: THE HOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUTT, directed by Tom Stern
- SUN RA: DO THE IMPOSSIBLE, directed by Christine Turner
- NEXT LIFE, directed by Tenzin Phuntsog
- JUNKIE, directed by William Means
- LISTEN TO ME, directed by Stephanie Etienne and Kanika Harris
- ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU, directed by Cherien Dabis
- JUST KIDS, directed by Gianna Toboni
- RICKY, directed by Rashad Frett
- OUTERLANDS, directed by Elena Oxman
- RIDE OR DIE, directed by Josalynn Smith
- FOLLIES, directed by Eric K. Boulianne
To purchase tickets, passes, and “Festival Journeys” bundles, visit the Maryland Film Fest 2025 website.
