EXCLUSIVE: The Palm Springs Film Festival has booked its 2025 “Books to Screen” schedule.
The event will host January Q&As with Conclave director Edward Berger, Nickel Boys helmer RaMell Ross, Queer screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes and Reading Lolita in Tehran director Eran Riklis, author Azar Naifisi and screenwriter Marjorie David.
The 36th annual festival runs January 2-13 in the desert city east of Los Angeles.
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Here are details on the fest’s “Books to Screen” lineup, with Deadline writers moderating the panels:
Conclave with director Edward Berger
10 a.m. Saturday, January 4
Following the death of the Pope, Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with overseeing the election of a new one. As the Catholic Church’s most powerful men gather on his watch, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets that could shake the foundations of the Church.
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Reading Lolita in Tehran with director Eran Riklis, author Azar Naifisi, and screenwriter Marjorie David
4:15 p.m. Saturday, January 4 (film’s North American premiere)
In this gripping adaptation of Azar Nafisi’s memoir, a fearless professor secretly gathers seven of her most dedicated female students to discuss forbidden Western classics after fundamentalists seize control of their country. Their solidarity helps them navigate life-altering choices in a repressive society. Winner of the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize to the cast of women at the 2024 Rome Film Festival.
Queer with screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes
6 p.m. Monday, January 6
Daniel Craig delivers a career-high performance in director Luca Guadagnino’s daring adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ sex- and drug-addled novel, a love story in which the writer falls hard for a young American expat and seeks mind-expanding transcendence in the Mexican jungle.
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Nickel Boys with director RaMell Ross
1:30 p.m. Friday, January 10
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead and inspired by real-life events, Nickel Boys chronicles the powerful friendship between two Black teenagers who become wards of a juvenile reformatory in Florida. Ross received Best Director at the Gotham Awards and New York Film Critics Circle.