Here is the list of my 20 favorite feature films of 2025 that I submitted to Cinefile Chicago (my 10 favorites in preferential order plus 10 runners-up in alphabetical order). Great year for movies if you ask me. Happy holidays, everyone!

A festival cocktail with @whitecitycinema.bsky.social at Victor Bar. Naturally, Malort-based.

The 2025 Split Tooth Holiday Special is now available! Check out the online premiere of Jordan Lisi’s 12 AND MORE OMISSIONS with an intro by @whitecitycinema.bsky.social and post-film conversation between Lisi and Shaun Seneviratne! www.splittoothmedia.com/12-and-more-...

Phenomenal Cameron Winter show in Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel last night. Fitting venue for a religious musical experience

Ending 2025 with some reflections on my trip to Dublin to see Bob Dylan with 2 SoE all-stars, @inthephishbowl.bsky.social & @whitecitycinema.bsky.social! youtu.be/OmFKcsFD9_k?...

Your Bob Dylan Field Report from DUBLIN! With special guests @whitecitycinema.bsky.social @inthephishbowl.bsky.social

JULIE DASH INTERVIEWS, edited by Kameelah Martin and published by University of Mississippi Press, features an interview I conducted with Julie for my now-defunct blog in 2016 on the occasion of the re-release of her masterpiece DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST. This whole book is great:

@robkellycreative.bsky.social @whitecitycinema.bsky.social That you? 😉💽

Here’s all of the advance praise that will be appearing in BOB DYLAN AS FILMMAKER: NO TIME TO THINK. Due March 2, 2026 from @mcnidderandgrace.bsky.social. You can pre-order it NOW on my website: www.michaelgloversmith.com/books

Photo I took of Aurora Borealis in Highland Park, IL last night:

Excited to announce that experimental filmmaker Ben Creech and I are making a video-essay companion to my Bob Dylan as Filmmaker book. We hope to screen this next year in NYC, Chicago and Minneapolis to coincide with book signings

Here it is: the back cover of BOB DYLAN AS FILMMAKER: NO TIME TO THINK, featuring a beautiful illustration of Dylan on the set of MASKED AND ANONYMOUS by the venerable @elizabethyoo.bsky.social and a critical blurb from the great Eric Lott. Pre-order now at www.michaelgloversmith.com/books

To say it means a lot that Eric Lott has endorsed my book is an understatement. His LOVE AND THEFT: BLACKFACE MINSTRELSY AND THE AMERICAN WORKING CLASS (from which Bob Dylan cribbed his album title) is IMO one of the great American non-fiction books of recent decades. Check it:

Still a lot I need to catch up with but:

HEKLA Director’s Statement now up at my website. Check it: www.michaelgloversmith.com/contact

It’s in my possession and the first page is glorious:

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER is Now Playing at the Music Box, presented in 70MM! Showtimes & Tickets: musicboxtheatre.com/films-and-ev...

Translation of Eric Rohmer's first and only book out in July 2026: www.mcnallyeditions.com/books/p/elis...

Loved attending my former student Ieva Riddle’s art show at Picnic Wine and Provisions in Rogers Park - and buying one of her beautiful pieces. Chicagoans can check it out through December 28!

Hell yeah about to lock in with da homie @whitecitycinema.bsky.social

I have a new personal website! All of the links to where you can watch my films and buy my books, all in one convenient place. Check it out: www.michaelgloversmith.com

New profile pic taken by the great BTS photographer Kyle Bice on the set of HEKLA

Your Post-show Bob Dylan field report from Alpine Valley WI with @adamchicago.bsky.social @whitecitycinema.bsky.social SHOW #50!

I reviewed Chicago Underground Film Fest’s superb Shorts 6 program for @cinefilechicago.bsky.social. It features new work by Laura Kraning, Kevin Contento, Michael Curtis Johnson, Shayna Connelly and Jeremy Drummond. Tix still left for tonight and tomorrow! www.cinefile.info/cine-list/20...

Here’s the first poster for HEKLA, designed by the great Tyler Rubenfeld, featuring your first official look at Elizabeth Stam as the title character. Picture is locked and sound mixing/color grading are now underway. We anticipate a festival premiere in the first quarter of 2026:

Congratulations to Bill Pagel for 30 years (!) of his boblinks.com Bob Dylan setlist site. I cannot recall a single concert date when he was not on duty! Incredible.

Charlie Kirk was a student at Harper College a few years before I started teaching here. I wish he had taken my Intro to Film class. Perhaps it’s the optimist in me but I like to think I could’ve laid something on him that would’ve altered his destiny and caused him to turn away from fascism.

NEW WORK! I painted the cover for Michael Glover Smith's amazing new book on Bob Dylan! #BobDylan

My book has a beautiful cover! This original painting of Bob Dylan filming EAT THE DOCUMENT in 1966 was created by one of my favorite artists, Elizabeth Yoo. It really captures the essence of the text, which is to focus on the films about which it can be said Dylan is the primary author.

January brings us a new Bob Dylan book from Robert Polito, which will surely be brilliant, and then February follows on with another new Bob book, from @whitecitycinema.bsky.social, which I can confirm is a real delight. What a great couple of releases to kick off the year with!

Here we gooooo…

My new book, BOB DYLAN AS FILMMAKER: NO TIME TO THINK, due in February, is now available for pre-order via Amazon UK (US release date dropping soon). Here’s a link and the description from my publisher, @mcnidderandgrace.bsky.social: www.amazon.co.uk/Bob-Dylan-Fi...

Achieved picture lock on HEKLA over the weekend. 88 minutes and 55 seconds. Now on to sound mixing and color correction!

Nice story in SCREEN Magazine about my fifth feature film, HEKLA, which wrapped shooting last week and which should have its world premiere in the first half of 2026: screenmag.com/thats-a-wrap...

You'll just have to wait a little bit longer before you can see Elizabeth's great painting of Bob Dylan on the front cover of Michael's @whitecitycinema.bsky.social forthcoming new book Bob Dylan as Filmmaker

So excited that Elizabeth Yoo is designing the cover of my “Bob Dylan as Filmmaker book,” due in Feb from @mcnidderandgrace.bsky.social. Elizabeth has designed a lot of my favorite movie posters and the rough sketches she’s done for the book have blown me away. Sample her work here: elizabethyoo.com

Just wrapped day 3 of the 10-day shoot for HEKLA, my fifth feature film. I sold my condo so I could self-finance this movie, which everyone tells me was a stupid thing to do. If anyone wants to contribute to lunch for the cast/crew, my Zelle is [email protected]

W 4th St and Jones St (Freewheelin’ album cover) / 161 W 4th St (site of Bob Dylan’s first NYC apartment)

Your Bob Dylan Field Report from Jones Beach in NY 2025-8-1 with @whitecitycinema.bsky.social

We go see Bob Dylan. It's what we do. @whitecitycinema.bsky.social

Overjoyed to announce the soundtrack to HEKLA will feature an original song by the great Australian singer/songwriter @emmaswiftsings.bsky.social who I met over the weekend in Tulsa. Please pre-save Emma’s new LP, The Resurrection Game, across whatever streaming platforms you use. It’s incredible!

Hanging with Bob Dylan’s first manager, Terri Thal, and @henrybernstein.bsky.social at The World of Bob Dylan conference in Tulsa. What a strong and beautiful woman! @mcnidderandgrace.bsky.social

Excited to announce my new book, BOB DYLAN AS FILMMAKER: NO TIME TO THINK, will be published by @mcnidderandgrace.bsky.social in February! It’s an honor to be “label mates” with Dylan’s first manager Terri Thal and friends KG Miles, @mattstike.bsky.social & Marc Percansky. More info coming soon!

7th row for Dublin. Huzzah! @henrybernstein.bsky.social and I will represent the Chicago Bob Dylan Mafia at the last RARW show. We were there when it began and we’ll be there when it ends:

Natalie Bergman performing “Gunslinger,” the best song Dusty Springfield never sang, at a WXRT in-studio performance in Chicago today:

Loved being interviewed w/ my HEKLA co-creator Elizabeth Stam about our new movie by critic Pat McDonald. There are brief audio/video interviews at Hollywood Chicago in which we discuss some of what we hope to accomplish when production begins next month: www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/39261/p...

The great Natalie Bergman blowing the roof off the joint at The Hideout in Chicago tonight

Plotting w/ @henrybernstein.bsky.social to see Bob Dylan in Dublin in November for the last Rough and Rowdy Ways show. We were there when it started, we’ll be there when it ends: