The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival is back and still kicking after 50 years! Having survived pandemics, snowpocalypses, technological upheaval, and brain-melting shifts in the moviegoing landscape, the annual event returns February 12–17 to the Somerville Theatre and other Davis Square locations.

The country’s longest-running genre fest, Boston Sci-Fi will celebrate its milestone anniversary with five days of local and national premieres and visiting filmmakers, followed by It Came from the Orson Welles, a 24-hour marathon of favorite sci-fi features, plus contests and more, which kicks off at noon Sunday, February 16.

Selected primarily from over 300 submissions, the Boston Sci-Fi festival lineup includes 10 feature films – including a world premiere and three U.S. premieres – and seven stellar shorts programs. Several films chosen for the event tap into the biggest tech story of the century, the rise of AI. At the same time, the 2025 selections illuminate an essential aspect of humanity: the need for community and genuine connection.

Special programs and panels focus on the search for life on other planets, the future of film festivals, and screenwriting tips from SF50 filmmakers.

Festival highlights for 2025 include:

Opening Night Selection Small Town Universe, an award-winning documentary about the search for alien life in a small West Virginia community. Boston’s Museum of Science co-presents this screening and a visit from director Katie Dellamaggiore for a Q&A.

The Science of Hunting Aliens, a program featuring Avi Loeb, Harvard University theoretical physicist and author of the book Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars.

U Are the Universe, Pavlo Ostrikov’s debut film about a space trucker in an increasingly radioactive world and the universal human experiences of love and loneliness, written and directed in Ukraine during the Russian invasion.

Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire, an utterly absorbing faux crime film with a timely reminder of how fabricated stories can be convincingly packaged as reality.

Is / Was \ Will, a dazzling feat of found footage editing focused on two near-future strangers drawn to each other during a drug-fueled haze. Featuring voice work by Kumail Nanjiani, Carrie Coon, Sam Rockwell, and Murray Bartlett.

I Hope This Helps!, a doc executive produced by Matthew Modine in which writer-director Daniel Freed tries to train AI to help him destroy AI, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.

I’m Not a Robot, in which filmmaker Victoria Warmerdam questions her humanity following a series of failed CAPTCHA tests. The film has been shortlisted for a 2025 Oscar nomination for Best Live Action Short and will screen as part of the February 15 shorts program ALTAIR.

The February 15 panel The Future of Film Festivals at partner location Comicazi, featuring insight from Boston-area fest programmers and administrators.

More details will be shared in the leadup to the fest on Boston Sci Fi’s:

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