Four festivals in six weeks!

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Subject: Four festivals in six weeks!

October 8, 2025

Tickets are on sale now in four cities—New York, LA, Vancouver, and Toronto. Opening each festival this fall is the travel/design film Identity: A Czech Graphic Design Love Story. It's a joyful film, especially welcome in these troubling times. After the US premiere at ADFF:NY, insightful designer and podcast host of Design Matters, Debbie Millman, will have a conversation with the film's protagonist Nicholas Lowry of Antiques Road Show.

🎟️ Tickets for Identity at ADFF:NY - October 14 & 18

🎟️ Tickets for Identity at ADFF:LA - October 22

🎟️ Tickets for Identity at ADFF:Vancouver - November 5 & 9

🎟️ Tickets for Identity at ADFF:Toronto - November 12 & 15

Enjoy a few more highlights from our 2025/26 lineup:

Prickly Mountain and My Design Build Life

2025 / 90 min / US

Director: Allie Rood

Trailer

Our New York festival marks the world premiere of this film about a creative community in Vermont's Mad River Valley. Warren, VT claims to have more architects per capita than at any town in the US. Director Allie Rood tells an insider's story—about what it was like growing up in this creative community, surrounded by people who take a design/build approach to their art, architecture, and lives.

Singer-songwriter Grace Potter also grew up in the valley. She is the film's musical supervisor and wrote original music for it.

ADFF:NY (World Premiere)

Tickets for Prickly Mountain - October 17 & 18

ADFF:LA (LA Premiere)

Tickets for Prickly Mountain - October 26

ADFF:Vancouver (Canada Premiere)

Tickets for Prickly Mountain - November 8 & 9

ADFF:Toronto (Toronto Premiere)

Tickets for Prickly Mountain - November 13

Kensington Market: Heart of the City

2024 / 104 min / Canada

Director: Stuart Clarfield

Trailer

Kensington Market: Heart of the City is a richly textured portrait of one of Toronto’s most storied neighborhoods. It is an ever-evolving enclave shaped by more than 160 years of immigration, artistry, and individuality. Change is part of its DNA, but today the jarring acceleration of rapid gentrification threatens Kensington Market’s fragile balance.

Through the eyes of the neighborhood’s vibrant personalities, the film reveals a community fighting not just for affordable rents, but for the soul of a place they have helped define. It is a timely meditation on the cost of so-called progress and a reminder that when a place loses its character, it is rarely just the buildings that disappear.

ADFF:NY (US Premiere)

Tickets for Kensington Market - October 16 & 18

ADFF:LA (LA Premiere)

Tickets for Kensington Market - October 26

ADFF:Vancouver (Vancouver Premiere)

Tickets for Kensington Market - November 6 & 8

ADFF:Toronto

Tickets for Kensington Market - November 13

ADFF does more than show films. We also host conversations with remarkable speakers in every city. These post-screening Q&As add depth, insight, and connection, making it even more rewarding to experience the films in the theatre. Here are some of the speakers joining us across the different cities:

Deborah Berke, FAIA, Dean of Yale School of Architecture | Michael Kimmelman, Architecture Critic at The New York Times | Julie Lasky, Journalist, Editor and Critic | Hilary Lewis, Media Entrepreneur and Author | Bruce Mau , CEO of Massive Change Network | Debbie Millman, Host of Design Matters | Janette Sadik-Khan, Principal at Bloomberg Associates | Bisi Williams, Chief Insights and Analytics Officer of Massive Change Network

Frances Anderton, Writer and Critic | Hernan Diaz-Alonso, Architect | Silvia Perea, Architect and Curator of the Architecture and Design Collection at the AD&A Museum | Winka Dubbelda, Architect and Dean of SCI- Arc.

Filmakers: Bruce Borowsky | Beck Carpenter | Stuart Clarfield | Allie Rood | Ben Wolf

Arancha Gonzalez Bernardo, Architect and Co-founder of Odami | Maria Denegri, Principal at Denegri Bessai | Elizabeth Pagliacolo, Editor in Chief at Azure | Ranee Lee, Industrial Designer | Ute Maya-Giambattista, Principal at O2 Planning and Design | Eric Mutrie, Senior Editor at Azure | Jacquelyn Hayward, Director of Transportation Planning, Design & Management for the City of Toronto | Gil Penalosa, President of Gil Penalosa & Assoc. | John Lorinc, Journalist and Editor