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Iconic Hollywood filmmaker Martin Scorsese is curating a film festival alongside his daughter, Francesca Scorsese, called the Scorsese Presents: Family Films series. The father-daughter duo intends to premiere this yearlong festival at the Southampton Playhouse in New York’s Long Island.
This upcoming film festival is set to begin on August 14, 2025, and continue throughout the coming year. In a statement, Martin and Francesca had this to say about their endeavor: “We’ve been watching movies together for so long now. It’s been a sacred practice, like passing on the most precious family heirloom and understanding the meaning of it, the place that it holds. It’s been a revelatory experience for both of us, grounded in love.”
According to Deadline, the upcoming film festival will feature a wide selection of Martin and Francesca’s favorite classics playing throughout the year. Read on to learn more about the six films that will be featured in the opening week of the Family Films festival, ranked per their Rotten Tomatoes score.
6. A Dog’s Life (1918)
- Streaming on: YouTube (US & India), The Criterion Channel (US)
- RT Score: NA
- Director: Charlie Chaplin
Plot: A Dog’s Life is one of the classic silent films that Charlie Chaplin was known for during his early career. In it, he adopted the persona of the Tramp. Charlie’s Tramp character stars alongside the titular dog, known as “Scraps,” as well as the actress Edna Purviance and his brother, Sydney Chaplin.
Like many of Chaplin’s early outings, A Dog’s Life is not feature-length, with its runtime being around 33 minutes. The story follows an unemployed man (Charlie) who befriends Scraps and encounters an opera singer (Edna) after sneaking in to watch her performance. The two of them fall in love, only to get entangled in a robbery scheme regarding a stolen wallet.
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5. The Red Balloon (1956)
- Streaming On: Plex Channel, Amazon Prime Video (US), YouTube (India)
- RT Score: 96%
- Director: Albert Lamorisse
Plot: The Red Balloon is another classic of French cinema. The film stars Lamorisse’s own children in leading roles, with his son Pascal as the main character and his daughter Sabine in a supporting role. Like A Dog’s Life, it is not a full-length feature but has a runtime of 34 minutes.
The story follows the adventures of a young boy after he encounters a red helium balloon that seems to be sentient, with a mind of its own. He later encounters a young girl, who is also followed by a sentient blue balloon.
4. Playtime (1967)
- Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video, The Criterion Channel (US)
- RT Score: 98%
- Director: Jacques Tati
Plot: Playtime is a classical work of French cinema directed by and starring Jacques Tati. Jacques plays the lead character, Monsieur Hulot, who finds himself lost inside the city of Paris and crosses paths with an American tourist named Barbara (played by Barbara Dennek) on multiple occasions. The film is structured episodically, as Hulot and Barbara slowly develop a friendship over the course of their repeated encounters with one another.
3. The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
- Streaming On: Amazon Prime Video, YouTube Movies (US & India)
- RT Score: 98%
- Director: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Norman Taurong
Plot: The Wizard of Oz is perhaps the most famous and financially successful of the films featured in Scorsese Presents: Family Films. Based on L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the film follows Dorothy (Judy Garland), an ordinary girl hailing from Kansas, who gets roped into an extraordinary adventure after being swept up in a tornado. She then arrives in the Land of Oz, embarking on an unforgettable quest to find the mysterious wizard who might help her return home.
2. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
- Streaming On: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ (US & India)
- RT Score: 99%
- Director: Vittorio de Sica
Plot: Rounding out the list of films set to screen at the Scorsese film festival is Bicycle Thieves, a classic Italian film adapted from a 1946 novel authored by Luigi Bartolini. The film is a gritty post-World War II drama that focuses on Antonio Ricci (played by Lamberto Maggiorani), a working-class Italian man whose bicycle gets stolen.
With this theft proving to be a major threat to his already meager financial prospects, Antonio and his son embark on a desperate search for his stolen bicycle, as well as the thieves who robbed him.
1. The Thief Of Bagdad (1940)
- Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video (US & India)
- RT Score: 100%
- Director: Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, Tim Whelan
Plot: 1940s The Thief of Bagdad is a remake of the seminal 1924 film of the same name. The story follows Ahmad (John Justin), the rightful king of Bagdad, who’s been deposed by his evil Grand Vizier Jaffar (Conrad Veidt), and partners with the young thief Abu (Sabu Dastagir) to flee from Jaffar’s captivity.
On their journey, Ahmad and Abu cross paths with the Princess (June Duprez), the daughter of the Sultan of Basra (Miles Malleson). While Ahmad falls in love with the Princess and seeks to start a new life with her, she ends up in the crosshairs of Jaffar, who wants to take her for himself.
Francesca & Martin Scorsese Will Promote The Festival In A Podcast
Aside from the aforementioned films being screened live at the Southampton Playhouse, the Scorseses will also be talking about their film festival at the theater’s weekly podcast called Movie People: Interviews & More from the Southampton Playhouse.
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