Big Bad Film Fest 2025: GLADIATOR UNDERGROUND, PRISONER OF WAR, Koichi Sakamoto & More Round Out The Action Festival’s Third Edition!

The Big Bad Film Fest is returning to Los Angeles in a big way for its third consecutive event next month. The festival launched in 2023 and gradually began garnering the attention of action fans, catering audiences with contemporary and classic thrillers from around the world and special guests, namely last year with the attendance of director Chaya Supannarat (Bangkok Dog).

This year will feature a line-up that will bode just as impressive – if not more – with Supannarat hailing the World Premiere of her latest martial arts barnburner, Gladiator Underground, with cast members D.Y. Sao, and brothers Brian Le and Andy Le in toe. Closing out the fest’s opening night will be Prisoner Of War, director Louis Mandylor’s upcoming Well Go USA release starring Scott Adkins (Undisputed 3: Redemption, Ninja: Shadow Of A Tear) in his third featured screen appearance at the festival.

The 2025 slate also lists Brandon Sagle’s long-awaited new sci-fi thriller, Affinity, starring international action fan favorite Marko Zaror who resurfaces once again for Big Bad since last year’s screening of Fist Of The Condor. Other titles include a West Coast Premiere of Yu Irie’s explosive period jidaigeki, Samurai Fury, hot off its World Premiere at NYAFF and starring Yo Oizumi; Steven C. Miller’s pending buddy action comedy from Vertical Entertainment, Under Fire, with actors Dylan Sprouse and Mason Gooding, and stunt coordinator Simon Rhee in attendance; and an in-person presentation of Mark L. Lester’s 1991 cult classic Showdown in Little Tokyo with Dolph Lundgren and the late Brandon Lee.

The schedule outlines further with the North American Premiere of Hiroyuki Tsuji’s Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi starrer, Tamura Yuto: Isolated, the next entry in the Japan Unified Garden franchise and follow-up to 2024’s Renji Himuro with actor Yasukaze Motomiya; The screening will mark one of the only times any of the films in the franchise have screened in theaters outside of Japan. Joining in the premiere will be the hosts of the Action For Everyone Podcast to steer a Q&A with the film’s fight director, venerated choreographer and filmmaker, Koichi Sakamoto (Mob Psycho 100, Ninja vs Shark, Broken Path).

Fans attending the festival will also get to partake in the event’s first with a Big Bad Film Fest After Dark screening of the “Albert Pyun Cut” of Captain America (1991). Billed as the “more tragic and impactful” version of the late Nemesis and Cyborg director’s own comic adaptation, the film will have its world premiere at AAIFF on August 1, shepherded exclusively by Pyun’s wife, Cynthia Curnan, in an effort to get Pyun’s version of the much maligned and tampered-with film seen by a wide audience.

“It’s a genuine honor to be trusted by the Pyun estate to show this version of the film. It’s easy to forget the emotional impact and variety that can be contained within the superhero genre and even easier to forget that Albert Pyun was showing us the way 35 years ago,” said Big Bad co-founder Patrick Young.

Most of the features will be tied to a shortfilm presentation while the festival will host to an additional block of a dozen shorts that weekend, partly including Ángel G. Brophy’s Angie which I got an absolute thrill out of during TACFEST earlier this year.

Big Bad 2025 will close with a decenniary showing of Soi Cheang’s SPL 2 (aka Kill Zone 2) starring Tony Jaa, Wu Jing, Max Zhang, Louis Koo, and Babyjohn Choi. The film, a sequel to Wilson Yip’s heralded 2005 Donnie Yen/Sammo Hung gangbuster, S.P.L., titularly inspired by Chinese astrology, is currently streaming on Big Bad Film Fest partner and Well Go USA’s exclusive streaming service, Hi-YAH.

“Between our exciting premieres, killer shorts block, and deep-cut fan favorite repertory screenings, we can’t wait to share another weekend with our audience of action fanatics,” said Big Bad co-founder Powell Robinson.

The Big Bad Film Fest will once again be held at the LOOK DINE-IN Cinemas Glendale, beginning its three-day run on Friday, August 22. Check out the current schedule below and head over to festival’s official webpage to get your tickets and passes before they run out!

FRIDAY

7:00 PM – WORLD PREMIERE of Gladiator Underground – Q+A w/ Chaya Supannarat, DY, Brian, and Andy Le + Dangerous Delivery (short directed by Etienne Laurendeau)

10:00 PM – Prisoner Of War

SATURDAY

12:00 PM – WEST COAST PREMIERE Samurai Fury + Trapo Sucio (short dir. Jordan Santacana)

3:00 PM – SPECIAL SCREENING – Under Fire Q+A w/ Steven C Miller, Simon Rhee, and Mason Gooding

6:00 PM – Showdown in Little Tokyo – Q+A w/ Mark L. Lester + Dragon Jacket Kung-Fu (short dir. Atsuhiro Yamada)

9:00 PM – WEST COAST PREMIERE of Captain America: The Albert Pyun Cut

SUNDAY

12:00 PM – SHORTS BLOCK
•Angie – dir. Ángel G. Brophy
•Shaolin Office – dir. Alexis Bouillé
•Prevail – dir. Ryan Dalan
•In Your Dreams – dir. Nathaniel Gary Henry
•Nameless – dir. Brian Otting
•Brawler – dir. Bulent Ozlarusso
•NYX – dir. Bulent Ozlarusso
•Kingdom Come – dir. Emil Křižka
•Work it Out – dir. Spencer Schwendiman

2:00 PM – WORLD PREMIERE of Affinity

4:10 PM – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE – Isolated Q+A w/ Koichi Sakamoto Q+A Moderated by Action 4 Everyone Podcast

6:30 PM – 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of SPL 2 (Kill Zone 2)