AFI Fest adds world premiere of Sandra Bullock-Sarah Paulson s ‘Bird Box’ to Gala lineup

Netflix is making sure they’re dominating the festival season ahead of awards season and that now includes the world premiere of Susanne Bier’s dystopian thriller Bird Box starring Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock and Emmy winner Sarah Paulson at next month’s AFI Fest.

That makes three of the five Galas at the fest Netflix films which also includes The Ballad of Buster Scruggs from the Oscar-winning Coen Brothers and The Kominsky Method starring Academy Award winners Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin, a single camera series from Chuck Lorre. AFI Fest will show the first three of eight episodes. 

They join the previously announced Gala for Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer, which will also feature a tribute to star Nicole Kidman. 

A pair of festival hits announced this morning include Toronto world premiere Widows, with its all-star cast led by Oscar and Emmy winner Viola Davis and Green Book, Toronto People’s Choice Award winner starring Oscar winner Mahershala Ali and Oscar nominee Viggo Mortensen.

As previously reported, Focus Features will hold the fests’ Opening and Closing Night films with On the Basis of Sex and Mary Queen of Scots, respectively. 

AFI Fest, which runs November 8-15, will announce its complete lineup of all sections later this month.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2024 North Carolina Film Critics Association (NCFCA) Nominations - December 21, 2024
• 2024 Philadelphia Film Critics Circle (PFCC) Winners: ‘Anora’ Named Best Film Among its Six Awards - December 21, 2024
• 2024 Utah Film Critics Association (UFCA) Nominations - December 21, 2024