Brad Pitt Bookends: ‘The Big Short’ to Close 2015 AFI Fest
Right after debuting the first trailer and announcing a December release yesterday, Paramount Pictures announced that The Big Short will be the closing night gala for the 29th AFI Fest in November. Last year’s closing night film, Foxcatcher, went on to garner five Oscar nominations, including Best Director, Best Actor (Steve Carell) and Best Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo).
Chock full of Academy Award winners (Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Brad Pitt) and nominees (Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling), the film, directed by Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step Brothers) looks to take aim at same crowd that ate up The Wolf of Wall Street except this story is about the other side. Based on the non-fiction novel by Michael Lewis “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,” the film tells the story of the build-up of the housing and credit bubble during the 2000s that led to the discovery of mass subprime fraud and the financial crisis of 2007-2010.
As previously announced, Universal’s By the Sea, written, directed and starring Angelina Jolie-Pitt and also starring Brad Pitt, is the festival’s opening night film. AFI Fest runs from November 5-12, 2015.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2026 Cannes Film Festival Winners: Cristian Mingiu’s ‘Fjord’ Takes the Palme, Seventh Win in a Row for NEON - May 23, 2026
- Cannes 2026: Sandra Wollner’s ‘Everytime’ Wins Un Certain Regard Grand Prize - May 22, 2026
- ‘Coward’ Review: Belgian Soldiers Find Love in Lukas Dhont’s Hidden Romance Masterpiece [A] Cannes - May 21, 2026
AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 345: Recapping the 79th Cannes Film Festival and Looking to the Awards Future 
‘The Beloved’ Review: Javier Bardem Makes a Meal Out of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Movie-Making Buffet [B] 
‘The Dreamed Adventure’ Review: Valeska Grisebach’s Observant Thriller Examines the Grey Zones of Morality [B+] 
‘Minotaur’ Review: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Timeless, Domestic Epic is an Unflinching Look at Putin’s Russia [A] Cannes