Bradley Cooper’s ‘Is This Thing On?’ to Receive SFFILM’s 2025 SF Honors Award

Erik Anderson November 18, 2025

Today, SFFILM announced that the 2025 SF Honors Award will go to Is This Thing On?, co-written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Bradley Cooper.

The film stars Emmy-nominated actor Will Arnett who also co-wrote the film—alongside Academy Award-winning actor Laura Dern. Is This Thing On? is a story of a middle-aged couple facing the specter of impending divorce. They are forced to navigate co-parenting, identity, and whether love and commitment can take a new form.

The SF Honors event will culminate in a special public screening of the film on Wednesday, December 17 at 7:30 pm at the Premier Theater at One Letterman. Will Arnett and Laura Dern are expected to attend in person for the pre-screening award presentation and an in-depth post-screening conversation about the film.

Since 2016, SF Honors has been recognizing the year’s most compelling films with a special spotlight. SFFILM Board President Todd Traina said, “Is This Thing On? represents the kind of fresh, distinctive filmmaking that SF Honors celebrates. Bradley Cooper’s unique vision and style, and the stellar acting by the skilled cast, all lend itself to the special magic of this film. I’m excited to bring this type of exceptional cinema to San Francisco audiences.”

“SF Honors is the perfect showcase for Bradley Cooper’s third film, Is This Thing On?,” said Jessie Fairbanks, SFFILM’s Director of Programming. “Both Will Arnett and Laura Dern give career best performances. San Francisco audiences get to enjoy an early screening with the two stars joining us in person, and the film joins an auspicious group of SF Honors recipients, all of whom have gone on to garner Academy Award nominations and wins.

Is This Thing On? co-stars Academy Award nominee Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday, The Deliverance), Academy Award nominee Ciarán Hinds (Belfast) and 2-time Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole (42nd Street, Grey Gardens), along with Cooper. Written by Cooper, Arnett and Mark Chappell (See How They Run), from a story by Arnett, Chappell and John Bishop (The John Bishop Show), the film is produced by Cooper, Arnett, Weston Middleton (Maestro) and Kris Thykier (Operation Mincemeat). Bishop, Caroline Jaczko and Robert S. Wilhelm Jr. are executive producers.

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), 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.