I assume by 32mm you mean 35mm. For $25,000 it is possible to pull off a 16mm feature, but very, very hard. Does he want to shoot a feature? If so, what are his plans? Does he want to attempt a theatrical release? If so, he'd have to go with 35mm or super16 with a blow-up to 35mm after the film is cut. Basically, my advice is to do a budget breakdown. Go to kodak.com and search for the types of films they offer, or do a google search for 16mm indepedent vendors, and find out what film stocks are appealing. He's gonna have to do a lot of research to see how much money he'll need. 16mm cameras are fairly cheap these days because of the new 24p digital cameras, so you can pick up a used arri or bolex for $2000. But the lab fees are more than enough to bog a person down. Also, will he have to pay for crew and actors? Are there a lot of special effects? If the answer is yes to these questions, then $25,000 probably won't be enough.

As for editing, he could have the film transfered to video and edit digitally on an NLE system. There are some people who still cut their film, but most are going the digitizing route.

Super8 can be achieved with a $25,000 budget a little more easily, but it'll still be expensive if you plan on doing a feature because lab costs will be high and finding and transfering to video with color correction is very expensive. You'd have to do this, because no theatres play super8 and it looks horrible when blown up.

So basically he needs to know first off what he plans on doing with his movie, and then he needs to budget everything. $25,000 seems to be a bad number because it's not quite enough to spend to have a professional movie shot on film, yet it's quite a lot of money to us indie filmmakers. I don't want to see your friend waste $25,000 on a film that won't be seen.