Peter Berg's WWII Football Drama The Mosquito Bowl Premieres at AFI Fest

Peter Berg's The Mosquito Bowl has its world premiere at AFI Fest in Los Angeles on Oct. 22. The Hollywood Reporter describes the film as the story of college athletes who enlist during World War II and stage a friendly football game on Guadalcanal, a Pacific island that was a major battleground of the war.

Berg directed the film and also wrote and produced it. The cast is led by Tom Francis, Ray Nicholson, Bill Skarsgård and Nicholas Galitzine, who play real-life football stars of the period. Francis plays Dave Schreiner, a University of Wisconsin star, and he had never acted in a movie before he was cast.

The film includes a 32-minute immersive combat sequence, according to the same report. Brent Comer, who joined the cast in 2025, makes his on-screen debut in the film, as Variety reported at the time.

Netflix is releasing the film. It published a trailer on Oct. 12 and describes The Mosquito Bowl as an adaptation of Buzz Bissinger's book about a Marine football game in World War II. The film is set in the Pacific Theater of the war.

The release has two stages. Variety reports the film opens in theaters on Oct. 30, and it premieres on Netflix on Nov. 25. The gap between a cinema run and a streaming debut is known in the trade as the theatrical window, and it gives audiences a chance to see a film on a big screen before it arrives at home.

Before the premiere, Galitzine, Skarsgård, Berg, Nicholson and Francis attended a special screening of the film, as photos from The Hollywood Reporter show. The film's festival debut now puts its cast and crew in front of an audience ahead of the October cinema date.