{"id":8085979,"date":"2026-09-25T11:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T18:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=8085979"},"modified":"2026-09-25T12:23:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:23:47","slug":"i-play-rocky-ray-gunn-afi-fest-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/creative-content\/movies\/i-play-rocky-ray-gunn-afi-fest-lineup\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Play Rocky,’ ‘Ray Gunn’ Close Out AFI Fest’s Red Carpet Lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

The American Film Institute just added a few more films to fill out the Red Carpet Premieres section at AFI Fest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Farrelly\u2019s \u201cI Play Rocky\u201d and Brad Bird\u2019s \u201cRay Gunn\u201d will join the red carpet lineup, AFI announced Friday. Farrelly\u2019s biographical drama about the creation of Best Picture winner \u201cRocky,\u201d starring Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone<\/a>, recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the first runner-up for the People\u2019s Choice Award<\/a>. Bird\u2019s long-gestating animated feature \u201cRay Gunn,\u201d which just got a first trailer<\/a> on Wednesday, will screen at AFI Fest shortly after its BFI London Film Festival world premiere on Oct. 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AFI Fest also announced a number of additions to its Special Screenings section on Friday, including Ava DuVernay’s “14th,” Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth!,” Simon Stone’s “Elsinore,” Beth de Ara\u00fajo’s “Josephine,” Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine” and more.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t
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\n\t\t\tRead Next<\/strong>
\n\t\t\tThe Academy Museum Gathers 396 Pieces From 167 Scary Movies for 'The Horror Show' Exhibition<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

“AFI FEST is where the world tells stories in the beating heart of Hollywood,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO, in a statement. “This year, we are proud to celebrate 40 years of bringing artists and audiences together to be inspired in a powerful sense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These films join a set of movies already announced as part of the AFI Fest slate. Travis Knight\u2019s PG-13 stop-motion epic \u201cWildwood<\/a>\u201d will open the festival, while Sian Heder\u2019s \u201cCODA\u201d follow-up \u201cBeing Heumann<\/a>\u201d will close it. \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller will serve as guest artistic directors for the festival and hold a Q&A after a screening of Stanley Kubrick\u2019s \u201c2001: A Space Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see the full list of Friday’s additions to AFI Fest below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red Carpet Premieres<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“I Play Rocky”
“Ray Gunn”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special Screenings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“14th”
“Ashes”
“Behemoth!”
“Bitter Christmas”
“Bunker”
“Clarissa”
“Elsinore”
“Josephine”
“The Man I Love”
“Mouse”
“Tangles”
“Wild Horse Nine”<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\""Ha-Chan,\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tRead Next<\/strong>
\n\t\t\tWhy a Thriller Filmmaker Made a Cross-Cultural Dancing Dramedy with 'Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!'<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“14th,” Elsinore,” “Wild Horse Nine,” “Behemoth!” and more join the L.A. festival in October<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10238,"featured_media":8077916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"byline":{"profiles":[{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":512278,"post_id":7780473}}]},"_links_to":"","_links_to_type":0,"nb_breaking_email_type":"b8b5eaae-7af7-4a7d-8ff2-8ed7e2f9029d","nb_breaking_template":"single-story.html","nb_breaking_from_name":"TheWrap","nb_breaking_subject":"","nb_breaking_preview":"","nb_breaking_list":[],"nb_breaking_header_img":7555420,"nb_breaking_should_send":false,"nb_breaking_content":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\"WrapPRO<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Discover why entertainment executives and professionals rely on the WrapPRO platform daily for exclusive coverage, analysis, deeper reporting, and access to VIP events & screenings throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","nb_newsletter_sent_breaking_post_id":[8085989],"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-09-25T18:01:45Z","apple_news_api_id":"a530ed68-5ef0-4016-a9ff-e55178619b28","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-09-25T19:23:45Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ApTDtaF7wQBap_-VReGGbKA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"hide_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_full_width_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_featured_video":false,"the_wrap_post_featured_video":"","the_wrap_post_disable_read_more":false,"wp_curate_deduplication":false,"wp_curate_unique_pinned_posts":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,12],"tags":[4804,11110,512824,517231,513034,497206,515445],"tw_data_partners":[],"columns":[],"byline":[512278],"class_list":["post-8085979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards","category-movies","tag-afi","tag-afi_fest","tag-behemoth","tag-elsinore","tag-i-play-rocky","tag-ray-gunn","tag-wild-horse-nine"],"newsletter_builder_byline":"Casey Loving","is_pro_article":false,"apple_news_notices":[],"eyebrow":{"link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/creative-content\/movies\/","text":"Movies"},"tw_schema_org_review":{"name":"","type":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8085979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8085979"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8085979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8086069,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8085979\/revisions\/8086069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8077916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8085979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8085979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8085979"},{"taxonomy":"tw_data_partners","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tw_data_partners?post=8085979"},{"taxonomy":"tw_column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/columns?post=8085979"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=8085979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}