Daniel Day-Lewis has returned, making “Anemone” one of the year’s most anticipated films. His first screen role since 2017’s “Phantom Thread” comes not from someone else’s vision but from a project written with and directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis. Focus Features will launch the film after its world premiere at the 2025 New York Film Festival, with a limited release on October 3 and a wider rollout beginning October 10.
Co-written by the father-son duo, “Anemone” unfolds in Northern England. A suburban man (Sean Bean) ventures into the woods to confront his estranged hermit brother (Day-Lewis), tangled by a past of personal and political violence. Their reunion is fraught, occasionally tender—a reckoning decades in the making. An emotional powerhouse, the film balances intimate gestures with broad, sweeping ambition, driven by standout turns from Samantha Morton and Samuel Bottomley and arresting widescreen cinematography by Ben Fordesman.
The weight of Day-Lewis’s return can’t be overstated. He’s the only actor to win three Academy Awards for Best Actor—for “My Left Foot,” “There Will Be Blood,” and “Lincoln”—and has earned six nominations total, also for “In the Name of the Father,” “Gangs of New York,” and “Phantom Thread.” This isn’t a mere comeback—it’s an event.
Behind it, the film is powered by serious prestige: produced by Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, with executive producers Daniel Day-Lewis and Brad Pitt, and presented by Plan B in partnership with Focus Features.
“Anemone” premieres at the 2025 New York Film Festival before opening in select theaters on October 3 and expanding on October 10, courtesy of Focus Features. Watch the first trailer below.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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