In May 2015, Rymsza revealed during a panel talk at Indiana University that fellow producer Marshall had been chronicling the completion of The Other Side of the Wind for a potential documentary.

[3] A Final Cut for Orson had its premiere at the 46th Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2018, where it was shown alongside The Other Side of the Wind and Morgan Neville’s companion documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.

[4][5] A Final Cut for Orson had been scheduled to screen a day earlier at the Venice Film Festival with The Other Side of the Wind, but was pulled without explanation.

The website Wellesnet called Suffern's documentary short a "38-minute hidden gem, which expertly chronicles precisely how behind the scenes artisans combed through 1,083 reels of negative and film elements, carefully piecing together the movie in a painstaking effort to honor Welles’ artistic vision.

"[8] Leonard Maltin wrote, "Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern’s A Final Cut for Orson: 40 Years in the Making is an excellent chronicle of how they and a loyal team of Wellesians overcame one obstacle after another to piece his last feature film together.