Filmmaker David Mackenzie spoke with our Gadi Elkon about the Scottish Director’s latest film, FUZE.
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The Greatest of These (City of Refuge) – Interview with Filmmaker Nick Nanton and Subject Pastor Bruce Deel
The Greatest of These is now available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Documentary+. The documentary’s Emmy Award-winning Filmmaker Nick Nanton and Subject Pastor Bruce Deel talked with our Gadi Elkon about the film, the City of Refuge and so much more!
“Scared to Death” Available Across North America on TVOD May 5th, 2026
Award-winning music video and feature director Paul Boyd turns up the volume with the irreverent, high-voltage horror-comedy SCARED TO DEATH, starring horror icons Lin Shaye (Insidious) and Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), alongside rock frontman Kurt Deimer (Halloween:2018), in a genre-bending horror-comedy thrill ride packed with supernatural chaos and sharp humor, debuting across North America on TVOD/Digital release MAY 5, 2026. Available on all the major digital platforms, the film blends supernatural scares with dark comedy, tapping into classic haunted-house tradition while embracing a contemporary, irreverent edge—inviting audiences to laugh, jump, and react in equal measure.
In Scared to Death a group of filmmakers attend a séance at an abandoned children’s orphanage to do research for a horror movie. Soon, supernatural events begin to manifest, in both horrific and darkly comical fashion. That’s their first mistake…
Alongside Shaye and Moseley, with Deimer delivering a breakout performance as the scene-stealing “Grog,” Scared to Death unites an eclectic, high-profile ensemble including Victoria Konefal (Days of Our Lives), Rae Dawn Chong (The Color Purple), Olivier Paris (The Wrong Tutor), B.J. Minor (Grey’s Anatomy), Jade Chynoweth (The Last Ship), and Lucinda Jenney (Practical Magic).
Scared to Death’s origins are rooted in Boyd’s own real-life experiences in a reportedly haunted Hollywood home, which inspired the film’s central theme of “believing is seeing.” That concept carries through the production itself, which was shot entirely on location inside the historic Woodbury-Story House in Altadena, California—an 1882 Victorian mansion whose authentic architecture, attic, basement, and séance room provided a fully immersive backdrop for the film’s eerie tone and practical effects-driven set pieces.
Film Synopis
Jasper is an opportunistic young filmmaker eager to climb the Hollywood ladder. While working as a low-level production assistant, he seizes an opportunity to step into the director’s chair by convincing his cantankerous boss to take their cast and crew to a real séance for research on their upcoming horror film. The chosen location is an abandoned children’s orphanage, shuttered decades earlier after the mysterious deaths of five children—each reportedly scared to death.
Once the séance begins, the group finds themselves trapped inside the house as unexplained and increasingly terrifying events unfold. As the line between performance and reality blurs, the filmmakers are forced to confront supernatural forces far beyond anything they imagined—along with their own fears, beliefs, and survival instincts.
KURT DEIMER IS ‘THE GROG’
The film’s digital debut also aligns with rising momentum around Kurt Deimer, whose highly anticipated new album, A Grog Is Born, will be released on May 8, 2026, further spotlighting the multi-hyphenate artist as both a recording performer and emerging genre presence. Deimer not only stars in the film but also helped shape the creation of “The Grog,” a character already generating early audience attention as a potential new horror-comedy mainstay.
Scared to Death was written and directed by Scottish filmmaker Paul Boyd and the filmmaking team also features producers Eric Barrett and Todd Slater of Convoke Media. Executive Producers Kurt Deimer, Peter Tochet, Lin Shaye, and Steven Poster, ASC, casting by Lindsay Chag, CSA, edited by Ed Shiers, cinematography by Steven Poster, ASC, music composer Misha Segal, Production Design by Scott Campbell and featuring original songs by Kurt Deimer. The film comes to theaters in a deal that was negotiated by Todd Slater of Convoke Media on behalf of the filmmakers, with Harmon Kaslow representing Atlas Distribution Company.
Indie Psychological Thriller Film Mantis, Shot in North Texas, to Have World Premiere at 20th Annual Dallas International Film Festival April 23-30
The new psychological thriller film Mantis, from Native Texan Producer and Director Justice Hardy and Executive Producer Lindsey Barnes of 941 Productions and starring Ali Stolar and Matthew Pettigrew, Dallas Veteran Actor and Producer Danielle Wheeler and 2020 International Horror Film Awards Best Actor Daniel Van Thomas will screen at the 20th Annual DIFF | Dallas International Film Festival, the Southwest’s largest global Oscar® Qualifying Festival. Writer/producer/director Justice Hardy, executive producer Lindsey Barnes and Dallas actress Danielle Wheeler, who plays Marilyn in the film, as well as additional cast members will attend the screening. The film is scheduled for its world premiere Saturday, April 25 at 7:00 PM at the Texas Theater 2 and additional showing Wednesday, April 29 at 9:30 PM at Cinéopolis 7.
Written and directed by Hardy, who has created a new model for high-speed producing, in conjunction and the music of Lillianna Fischer, the thriller marks the feature film acting debut of Ali Stolar as well as the first full-length feature for actor and indie filmmaker Matthew Pettigrew (It Calls to Me, Degradation) and award-winning actor Daniel Van Thomas. In Mantis, a workaholic Rana (Ali Stolar) in denial of her husband’s sudden passing is forced to use a controversial technology at her latest job that stimulates the waning electrical activity in the human brain after death.
Writer/director Hardy said, “MANTIS explores the tension between control and identity in a way that feels both intimate and unsettling. We wanted to create something that stays with you—something that challenges what you think you’re watching even after it ends. On behalf of the filmmaking team, I want to thank the programmers at DIFF for including Mantis in this year’s 20th Anniversary edition. We are proud to be a part of the Film in Texas movement and DIFF could not be a better place for our world premiere.”
Executive producer Lindsey Barnes of 941 Productions (Fault Lines-Winner 48 Hour Film Festival Dallas and screened at Cannes Film Festival, It Calls to Me-Short) added, “I’m really looking forward to being with the fans for this screening. There is no audience more enthusiastic or supportive than fans of the horror genre in all its facets. Horror, especially, is where filmmakers get to be bold. For me, I’m most drawn to psychological horror, horror grounded in character, and genre-blending work—whether that leans into thriller, mystery, or even dark comedy. I am delighted to be making great stories with great people from Texas in Texas. We were delighted to film in Fort Worth and have such overwhelming support from Film Fort Worth and the Dallas Film Commission. Many thanks to DIFF.”
ASPIRETV IN PRODUCTION ON SEASON TWO OF “HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS: SECRETS OF THE CITY”
AspireTV, the network that celebrates and reflects Black culture and urban lifestyle, is in production on the second season of Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City from the Emmy-nominated studios of Sunwise Media and Herschend Entertainment Studios. The series was the first to be greenlit under the output deal with Sunwise Media to develop and produce multicultural programming through aspireTV Studios.
“The success of Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City underscored the power of storytelling that is both globally expansive and culturally rooted,” said Angela Cannon, General Manager, aspireTV. “Our viewers connected deeply with the series’ celebration of Black culture, history and discovery, and we’re excited to build on that momentum with a second season in partnership with Sunwise Media as the Globetrotters continue their journey around the world.”
Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City is a travel series that follows the Harlem Globetrotters as they span the globe on their historic 100-year world tour. The show combines adventure and cultural immersion; utilizing a documentary style that transports viewers to the soul of the city and the heart of the people wherever the team travels. The Globetrotters share untapped secrets of culture, cuisine and adventure from the most renowned cities around the globe. The Harlem Globetrotters have been touring the world for 100 years, visiting over 120 countries which has given them unfiltered access and connections to diverse cultures around the world.
The new season of Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City will feature the team in Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Lagos, Athens, Rome, Tahiti and Chile.
“Our partnership with aspireTV helps us to deepen our relationship with our fans, giving them unprecedented access to our team, and players, as they tour countries around the globe,” said Harlem Globetrotters President, Keith Dawkins.
“Season two is an exciting milestone, and we’re proud that Handy Foundation apprentices have contributed to both seasons of Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City,” said Ri-Karlo Handy, Founder and CEO of Sunwise Media and Founder of The Handy Foundation. “With the Harlem Globetrotters’ legacy as global ambassadors of goodwill, this partnership is a natural fit rooted in impact, opportunity and excellence. Serving as showrunner and leading a registered apprenticeship program, I’ve seen firsthand how apprenticeship strengthens the business. This show is better for it, with apprentices delivering real contributions, fresh perspectives, and production-ready talent at every level.”
Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City is produced by Sunwise Media and Herschend Entertainment Studios. Keith Dawkins and Bronwen O’Keefe serve as executive producers as well as Ri-Karlo Handy.
AspireTV Studios, a purpose-driven business development strategy, is committed to supporting a more diverse and equitable creative supply chain. Together with Sunwise Media, a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), aspireTV Studios will source and connect advertisers with diverse owned media, content creation, full-service production and distribution across cable, satellite and streaming platforms.
FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES “THE GRANDMASTER: TONY LEUNG” CELEBRATING THE LEGENDARY HONG KONG ACTOR
Film at Lincoln Center announces “The Grandmaster: Tony Leung,” a 13-film retrospective running April 29 through May 7 celebrating one of cinema’s most iconic actors. Presented ahead of the theatrical release of Silent Friend, the program will feature Tony Leung in person for a number of special appearances—his first return to Film at Lincoln Center in more than 25 years—including post-screening Q&As with Leung and director Ildikó Enyedi and a career-spanning “An Evening with Tony Leung” conversation.
The defining face of the Hong Kong New Wave, an international icon of romantic longing and existential searching, Tony Leung Chiu-wai has made restraint his signature. Across five decades of genre-spanning, globally celebrated work, he embodies the radical idea that the most resonant performances are often the most controlled; that minimalism can be magnetic, hypnotically complex, and aching with emotional depth. After winning fans as a fresh-faced television heartthrob in 1980s Hong Kong, one of TVB’s celebrated “Five Tiger” young idols, Leung established his early command of both interior drama and high-stakes action with Hou Hsiao-hsien and in John Woo’s Bullet in the Head (1990). He then went on to forge one of contemporary cinema’s most enduring actor-director partnerships with Wong Kar Wai, spanning seven films in which his quiet volatility, emotional reserve, and uncanny fluency in the language of longing found their purest expression. Their project reached perhaps its sublime apex with In the Mood for Love (2000), which earned him the Best Actor prize at Cannes—the first Hong Kong actor to receive the honor. Since then, his filmography has expanded into something both vast and remarkably cohesive, with indelible performances in the landmark cops-and-triads thriller Infernal Affairs (2002), later remade in the U.S. as The Departed, Ang Lee’s lush wartime melodrama Lust, Caution (2007), Woo’s two-part historical epic Red Cliff (2008-2009), and even a rare, scene-stealing turn in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This career-spanning retrospective gives audiences the chance to rediscover, on the big screen, why the world continues to fall for Tony Leung time and time again.
Organized by Florence Almozini, Vice President of Programming, Film at Lincoln Center and Tyler Wilson, Senior Programmer, Film at Lincoln Center.
Travel support for this series is in part generously provided by Mike Audet.
The Grandmaster: Tony Leung is sponsored by Criterion, your trusted home for the best in classic and contemporary films, on the Criterion Channel and in the Criterion Collection’s definitive physical editions.
Acknowledgments:
1-2 Special; Academy Film Archive; Janus Films; University of Colorado Boulder Libraries and Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts
Tickets will go on sale on Monday, April 6 at noon, with an early access period for FLC Members beginning on Friday, April 3 at noon. Retrospective tickets are $18; $15 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $13 for FLC Members. See more and save with a 3+ Film Package ($16 for GP; $13 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $11 for FLC Members). Tickets for “An Evening with Tony Leung” are $40; $35 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $30 for FLC Members.
Tickets for Silent Friend are $19; $16 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $15 for FLC Members. Tickets for Silent Friend screenings with Q&As are $25; $22 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $20 for FLC Members. 3+ Package excludes “An Evening with Tony Leung” and Silent Friend screenings. Learn more here.
FILM DESCRIPTIONS
All films screen at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th Street)
Opens May 8
Silent Friend
Ildikó Enyedi, 2025, Germany/France/Hungary, 147m
German, English, and Cantonese with English subtitles
Ildikó Enyedi, whose On Body and Soul won the Golden Bear at the 2017 Berlinale and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature Film, returns with a century-spanning triptych that moves from 1908 to the early months of the pandemic, unfolding around an ancient ginkgo in the botanical garden of Marburg University, the fixed witness to a century’s worth of passing faces. From a young woman forcing her way into the male-dominated scientific establishment at the dawn of the 20th century (played by Luna Wedler, winner of the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actress at the 2025 Venice Film Festival), to idealistic lovers in the politically turbulent 1970s, Enyedi considers how consciousness itself is historically situated, mapping the incremental rewiring of how people think and connect over time. Tony Leung anchors the 2020 chapter with a characteristically subtle, deeply felt performance as a visiting neuroscientist stranded on campus during lockdown, whose attempt to measure the tree’s electromagnetic signals—guided remotely by a French plant biologist, played by Léa Seydoux—gradually opens into a meditation on perception itself. Shifting between silvered monochrome 35mm, warm 16mm, and digital macro-photography, Silent Friend attends to the rhythms of time in all its forms, where the tremor of a leaf in late afternoon carries the same gravity as a held glance across a room. A 1-2 Special release.
Wednesday, May 6 at 1:30pm – Q&A with Ildikó Enyedi and Tony Leung
Thursday, May 7 at 5:30pm – Q&A with Ildikó Enyedi and Tony Leung
Friday, May 8 at 6:00pm – Q&A with Ildikó Enyedi and Tony Leung
New 4K Restoration
Bullet in the Head
John Woo, 1990, Hong Kong, 136m
Cantonese with English subtitles
John Woo’s Vietnam War-cum-gangster saga begins amid the unrest of 1967 Hong Kong, where three friends—Ben (Tony Leung), Frank (Jacky Cheung), and Paul (Waise Lee)—skip town after a wedding-night gang fight turns deadly. Their escape plan lands them in Saigon, but its lawless war zones teeming with opportunists and profiteers pull them into an escalating spiral of greed and betrayal. Something like The Deer Hunter by way of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Bullet in the Head showcases Woo at his most ferocious and somber, whiplashing from street fights to one punishing, large-scale set piece after another while Leung’s tremulous, man-under-fire performance cuts against the surrounding pyrotechnics with an unusual magnetism, and transforms Ben’s frenzied arc into something tragically relatable.
Thursday, April 30 at 6:00pm
New 4K Restoration
Hard Boiled
John Woo, 1992, Hong Kong, 128m
Cantonese with English subtitles
Two years after Bullet in the Head, Tony Leung reunited with John Woo as a dapper, ice-cool hit man whose divided loyalties anticipated the stoic, enigmatic screen presence that would define him by the new millennium and, in particular, the conflicted soul he would immortalize in Infernal Affairs. When jazz-loving detective “Tequila” Yuen (Chow Yun-fat, already an icon from A Better Tomorrow and The Killer) tears through Hong Kong’s gun-smuggling underworld after his partner is killed, the impeccably dressed killer in his sights (Leung) inevitably proves to be another cop in disguise, giving Woo the perfect excuse to pair Chow’s swaggering cowboy with the subtly mesmerizing Leung. Swooping camera moves, slow-motion doves, and tequila glasses giving way to frantic close-ups of muzzle flashes and bodies hurled through the air, this is Woo at the height of his formal powers—an action landmark whose perversely poetic expressions of destruction set the stage for Woo’s run in Hollywood.
Thursday, April 30 at 8:50pm
Friday, May 1 at 12:45pm
New 4K Restoration
Chungking Express
John Woo, 1992, Hong Kong, 128m
Cantonese with English subtitles
Wong Kar Wai, 1994, Hong Kong, 102m
Cantonese, Mandarin, and English with English subtitles
For American audiences who first encountered Tony Leung during Chungking Express’s U.S. theatrical release (his first major stateside breakthrough), it was a revelation, marking his emergence from Hong Kong stardom into an international arthouse icon and Wong Kar Wai’s defining muse, paving the way for masterpieces like In the Mood for Love and 2046. In it, two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro), both jilted by ex-lovers, cross paths at the Midnight Express takeout restaurant stand, where the ethereal pixie waitress Faye (Faye Wong) works, but it is Leung’s Cop 663, drifting through the film’s dreamy second half in a state of quiet heartbreak, who gives this pop-infused city symphony its soulful center. This gloriously shot (by Christopher Doyle), utterly unexpected charmer cemented the sex appeal of its gorgeous stars and forever turned canned pineapple and The Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” into tokens of longing—one of the defining works of ’90s cinema. An NYFF32 selection.
Wednesday, April 29 at 6:30pm
Thursday, May 7 at 12:15pm
Cyclo
Trân Anh Hùng, 1995, Vietnam/France/Hong Kong, 35mm, 123m
Vietnamese with English subtitles
Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Trân Anh Hùng’s feverish follow-up to The Scent of Green Papaya plunges into post–Đổi Mới Saigon and marked a radical, darker departure for Tony Leung, here conjuring a haunting blend of tortured interiority and taciturn charisma. He plays the Poet, a near-silent gangster orbiting the city’s underworld, who ensnares an orphaned cyclo driver after his bicycle taxi is stolen, coercing the boy into running drugs while the boy’s sister is groomed for prostitution. Shot in 35mm with a gritty immediacy that slips into an increasingly hallucinatory grammar, Cyclo is a ’90s gem that transfigures neon, sweat, and pop music into a punishingly sad fever dream, with Leung’s tight-lipped performance—all eyes and pensive cigarette drags—at its center. 35mm film print generously provided by the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries and Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts.
Wednesday, April 29 at 3:45pm
Friday, May 1 at 8:30pm
New 4K Restoration
Happy Together
Wong Kar Wai, 1997, Hong Kong/Japan/South Korea, 96m
Cantonese and Spanish with English subtitles
One of Tony Leung’s most vulnerable performances anchors Wong Kar Wai’s raw, lushly stylized portrait of a relationship in breakdown. He plays Lai Yiu-fai, a homesick Hong Kong exile in Buenos Aires, locked in an on-again/off-again spiral of passion, jealousy, and “starting over” with the mercurial Ho Po-wing (Leslie Cheung). Lai moves from tango bars to kitchen shifts and, in a heartbreaking stretch, nurses Ho back to health with quiet, wounded steadiness. Capturing the dynamics of a queer relationship with empathy and complexity on the cusp of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong—when the country’s LGBTQ community suddenly faced an uncertain future—Wong portrays the cycle of a love affair that is by turns devastating and delirious. Shot by Christopher Doyle in both luminous monochrome and saturated color, Happy Together is an intoxicating exploration of displacement and desire. An NYFF35 selection.
Wednesday, April 29 at 8:45pm
Monday, May 4 at 9:15pm
New 4K Restoration
Flowers of Shanghai
Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1998, Taiwan/Japan, 113m
Mandarin with English subtitles
In one of his most quietly devastating performances, Tony Leung stars as Master Wang, a wealthy patron drifting through the opium-laden “flower houses” of fin-de-siècle 19th-century Shanghai. Hou Hsiao-hsien’s ravishing chamber drama follows the intertwined intrigues of four courtesans in a hermetically sealed world that seems to float outside of time. Torn between the demanding Crimson (Michiko Hada) and the more eager-to-please Jasmin (Vicky Wei), Wang gradually realizes he is looking for love in all the wrong places. Hou’s first film set outside of Taiwan, Flowers of Shanghai is a transfixing masterwork—an achingly, intoxicatingly sensuous touchstone and a pivotal chapter in Leung’s career that placed his famously modern melancholia inside an exquisite late-Qing tableau. An NYFF36 Main Slate selection and NYFF58 Revivals selection.
Friday, May 1 at 6:00pm
Tuesday, May 5 at 12:30pm
New 4K Restoration
In the Mood for Love + In the Mood for Love 2001
Wong Kar Wai, 2000/2001, Hong Kong/France, 107m
Cantonese and Shanghainese with English subtitles
Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung, in the career-defining performance that earned him Best Actor at Cannes) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic yearning and its fleeting moments, anchored by Leung’s controlled portrayal of desire held just below the surface. With its aching soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-bing, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past quarter-century of cinema, and is a milestone in Wong and Leung’s redoubtable artistic partnership. An NYFF38 Main Slate selection and an NYFF58 Revivals selection.
The feature will be followed by In the Mood for Love 2001, a nine-minute coda—the “dessert” after the main course, as Wong put it. It imagines Leung and Cheung, now as different characters, reuniting in a modern-day Hong Kong convenience store. Brisk, comic, and unconstrained, yet no less beguiling. A Janus Films release.
Saturday, May 2 at 6:00pm
Thursday, May 7 at 9:00pm
Hero
Zhang Yimou, 2002, China/Hong Kong, 35mm, 99m
Mandarin with English subtitles
Zhang Yimou’s lush wuxia unfurls an assassination plot through a Rashomon-like chain of flashbacks. In the Warring States period, Nameless (Jet Li) claims he has killed three rebels—Sky (Donnie Yen), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), and Broken Sword (Tony Leung)—which earns him an audience with the King of Qin. Each retelling shifts motive and allegiance, from a rain-drenched duel scored to a zither, to a crimson-soaked calligraphy school pierced by volleys of arrows. Reuniting the In the Mood for Love pair in a more openly tragic key, Leung and Cheung bring aching romantic force to Yimou’s hyper-stylized parable about the cost of peace under authoritarian rule, as Ching Siu-tung’s wire-fu choreography and Christopher Doyle’s cinematography turn each duel into a precise, operatic set piece. 35mm print from the Academy Film Archive.
Sunday, May 3 at 1:00pm
4K Restoration
Infernal Affairs
Andrew Lau, Alan Mak, 2002, Hong Kong, 101m
Cantonese with English subtitles
A blockbuster in Asia, and later the source for Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, the first part of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s groundbreaking policier saga traded the high-octane ballistics of earlier Hong Kong films for a cooler, crisper style and a head-spinning plot full of twists that forever changed the genre. After being thrown out of the police academy, Yan (Tony Leung) is buried alive in the criminal underworld as a long-term undercover cop, his grip on identity pushed to the breaking point. Recruited by the triads as a teenager, Ming (Andy Lau) is the mirror image: a mole inside the police department’s Criminal Intelligence Bureau. Co-written by Mak with Felix Chong, Infernal Affairs draws symmetrical lines of action between mob and police, capturing with precision the swelling pressures as each man hunts the traitor who is, in fact, himself. A sleek, visually exacting thriller for two great stars, Infernal Affairs is also one of Leung’s defining roles (shot the same year as Hero), channeling the gravitas of his art-house work into one of modern crime cinema’s most quietly devastating performances.
Friday, May 1 at 3:30pm
Sunday, May 3 at 9:15pm
2046
Wong Kar Wai, 2004, Hong Kong/China/France/Italy/Germany, 35mm, 128m
Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese with English subtitles
In Wong Kar Wai’s future-set 2046 (a loose continuation of Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love), the titular number is many things at once: the year when mainland China assumes absolute control of Hong Kong; the number of the hotel room across from that of Mr. Chow (Tony Leung), inhabited by a parade of women he pursues and abandons; and the name of the mysterious place where disappointed lovers escape to in Chow’s erotic science-fiction novel. Wong’s concentration and control—of the Cinemascope frame, light, color, and the most minute gestures—are at their most accomplished in a work enamored of the limitless expanse of memory and imagination, where reality and fiction dissolve into regret and yearning. Leung’s reprisal of the affable, self-mocking Chow, this time with a bitter edge, makes the film’s reality and fantasy feel like one continuous ache. Faye Wong, Carina Lau, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung, and an electrifying Ziyi Zhang are the women in his life, indelible as ghosts from a forgotten past.
Saturday, May 2 at 8:45pm
Tuesday, May 5 at 3:00pm
Lust, Caution
Ang Lee, 2007, U.S./China/Taiwan/Hong Kong, 35mm, 158m
Mandarin, Shanghainese, Cantonese, and Japanese with English subtitles
In 2007, Ang Lee set out to “create a Tony Leung you’ve never seen before,” and his Mr. Yee in Lust, Caution is exactly that: a high-ranking collaborator responsible for torture and executions, whose terrifying aura of power registers in the smallest gestures and an inscrutable gaze. Against the shifting backdrop of Japanese-occupied Hong Kong and Shanghai, a student resistance cell recruits shy actress Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) to infiltrate Yee’s circle as “Mrs. Mak,” using seduction to draw him into a trap she reprises years later when an assassination plot is finally set in motion. Lee turns mahjong games, shopping trips, and tea-room small talk into slow-burn suspense, ignited in scenes of brutal intimacy and sudden bloodshed. Leung’s performance—a master class in control—loads every glance into an expression that might be a test, or a threat, in this exacting, sensuous espionage tragedy that remains as seductive as it is devastating. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Wednesday, April 29 at 12:30pm
Monday, May 4 at 6:00pm
Red Cliff
John Woo, 2008–09, China/Hong Kong/Japan/South Korea/Taiwan, 35mm, 287m
Mandarin with English subtitles
John Woo’s colossal five-hour epic recreates the Battle of Red Cliffs (208–209 A.D.) as a thriller of tactics and temperament, anchored by Tony Leung’s soulful performance as Zhou Yu—a “warrior-poet” general of the southern kingdom of Wu, leading an uneasy alliance against Chancellor Cao Cao’s overwhelming northern invasion. As Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi) drives this campaign to unify China by force, Zhou Yu helps broker an uneasy alliance between southern ruler Sun Quan (Chang Chen) and the exiled warlord Liu Bei, whose forces are guided by master strategist Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), sealed in a candlelit guqin duet that doubles as a test of wills. What follows is Woo at operatic scale: cavalry trapped in the Eight Trigrams formation, plague corpses floated downriver, a “borrowed arrows” gambit at dawn, and a fire-ship assault that sets the Yangtze ablaze. Film at Lincoln Center is pleased to present this exceptionally rare 35mm screening of Red Cliff in its complete two-part version, with a 35-minute intermission on April 30 and 45-minute intermission on May 3.
Thursday, April 30 at 12:00pm (with 35-minute intermission)
Sunday, May 3 at 3:15pm (with 45-minute intermission)
The Grandmaster (Hong Kong Cut)
Wong Kar Wai, 2013, Hong Kong/China, 130m
Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese with English subtitles
Nearly 10 years in the making and the culmination of Wong Kar Wai’s seven-film partnership with Tony Leung, The Grandmaster is his most ambitious project: a propulsive action epic inspired by the life of legendary kung fu master Ip Man, played by Leung, who trained for four years—enduring injuries along the way—to bring the role’s physical and philosophical rigor to life with effortless precision and cool. The story spans the tumultuous Republican era following the fall of China’s last dynasty, a time of chaos, divided loyalties, and war, but also the golden age of Chinese martial arts. Filmed across snow-swept northern landscapes and the subtropical South, this original 130-minute Hong Kong cut features exquisitely staged action and virtuosic performances by Leung and Ziyi Zhang, who lends a transfixing allure to the fictional Gong Er, Ip’s friend and fellow martial artist.
Tuesday, May 5 at 9:00pm
Thursday, May 7 at 2:30pm
An Evening with Tony Leung
In anticipation of his latest role in Silent Friend, opening at Film at Lincoln Center on May 8, and as part of our career-spanning retrospective, Tony Leung joins us in the Walter Reade Theater for a special onstage conversation tracing one of the most extraordinary screen careers of the past five decades. From his emergence in the Hong Kong New Wave to his enduring collaborations with many of the defining filmmakers of contemporary cinema, Leung will reflect on the roles, working methods, and creative instincts that have shaped his singular screen presence.
Tuesday, May 5 at 6:00pm
DIFF Announces World Premiere as Opening Night Film of 20th Dallas International Film Festival 2026
DIFF has announced the World Premiere of LAST SHOT as its Opening Night Film during the 20th edition of the annual Dallas International Film Festival. The film, directed by Andy Palmer and written by Todd Friedman, features Jamie Pressly who also co-produced. It will open DIFF 2026 on Thursday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m. at the Historic Texas Theatre, while the US Premiere of KENNY LOGGINS: CONVICTION OF THE HEART will be the Closing Night Film on Thursday, April 30.
Additionally, DIFF announced that Michael De Luca, Co-Chair and CEO of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, will be the Keynote Speaker at its first-time DIFF Industry Conference, presented in collaboration with Dallas Film Commission.
The Festival has also added ROUND PEGS SQUARE HOLES, a documentary starring Mark Cuban, Billy Gibbons, and Reverend Horton Heat as the Founders Night Film on April 24 at 5:45 p.m. at The Texas Theatre.
Festival co-founder Michael Cain said, “I’m deeply grateful to the Dallas International Film Festival for embracing this new Founders Evening, generously sponsored by Reeder Capital, and to director Russell Hobbs for allowing us to World Premiere Round Pegs Square Holes, a story I chose because it was born in Deep Ellum, the neighborhood that started it all for us back in 1999 with the Deep Ellum Film Festival. It’s a privilege to honor my dear friend and co-founder, the late Liener Temerlin, and all those who helped bring this vision to life. This evening is both a tribute to the creative spirit that shaped Dallas and a celebration of the future it continues to inspire.”
The Festival is an Oscar® Qualifying Festival, and will feature screenings of more than 120 films, Q&A sessions, and panels with filmmakers and actors, nightly DIFF Red Carpets, and special events. Cinépolis Luxury Cinemas Victory Park, located steps away from American Airlines Center at 2365 Victory Park Lane, returns as the host venue. Additional screenings and events will be held at the historic Texas Theatre and the artful Virgin Hotels Dallas – which returns for the fourth year as the Premier Sponsor of the Festival – among other world-class Dallas destinations to be announced.
New films added to the lineup of feature films for DIFF 2026 include:
AS WE BREATHE (Narrative Feature) (Turkey) – US Premiere
Director: Seyhmus Altun
In a small Anatolian town in the early 2000s, ten-year-old Esma’s world quietly unravels after a factory explosion sets off an unrelenting fire. As smoke poisons the land and her family struggles to survive, Esma clings to what remains of her childhood. The film is a tender portrait of resilience in the face of invisible disasters, a story about growing up too soon, holding on to hope, and refusing to disappear.
FIREFLIES AT EL MOZOTE (Narrative and Latino Feature) (United States)
Director: Ernesto Melara
This compelling action war drama, with strong social relevance, was inspired by true events. It chronicles the well-documented massacre of the village of El Mozote, Morazán Province, El Salvador, considered to be the worst atrocity perpetrated by government forces on civilians in modern Latin American history. This coming-of-age story follows a ten-year-old survivor in his quest to avenge the deaths of his family and the destruction of his village.
LAST SHOT (Narrative Feature) (United States) – World Premiere
Director: Andy Palmer
Caden Issacs, a 12-year-old basketball prodigy, navigates the turbulent waters of grief and adolescence after the sudden death of his father, Darren. Moving to Nashville to live with his estranged mother, Lexi, a driven music executive, Caden struggles to find his place on a new elite basketball team while grappling with the high expectations of those around him. Through intense rivalries, newfound friendships, and the relentless pursuit of excellence, Caden learns to process his pain and rediscover his passion for the game.
LONELY NIGHTS (Latino Feature) (Mexico)
Director: Julián Acosta Vera
Andres, a shy, upper-class young man begins an unexpected relationship with Lorena, a young prostitute controlled by a pimp. A bond forms between them that forces them to question their lives amidst social pressure, violence, and expectations.
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD: THE FIRST CORAL REEFERS (Documentary Feature) (United States)
Director: John H. Cunnigham
Journey through the 1970s and early ’80s with the original members of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band as they recount their contributions to iconic albums, life on tour, and the lasting impact they had in shaping a unique and enduring genre of music.
POWWOW PEOPLE (Documentary Feature) (United States)
Director: Sky Hopinka
Structured around the arc of a single day, this vérité-style documentary is grounded in the rhythms, relationships, and lived experience of a contemporary Native gathering. Rather than entering as outside observers, the filmmakers organized the powwow itself, inviting dancers, singers, vendors, and community members to participate in the making of this film.
ROUND PEGS SQUARE HOLES (Documentary Feature) (United States) – World Premiere
Directors: Michael Dunaway and Russell David Hobbs
This feature documents the art renaissance and rebirth of Deep Ellum in the 1980s-90s, Deep Ellum’s musical history and how art scenes and movements promote and protect individuality. Deep Ellum, now 150 years old, started as a Freedman’s town, grew to be an edgy outsider community home of the blues scene in the 1920s-30s, then sat dormant until 1984. Dallas was an extremely materialistic city, people were hungry to create a scene of free expression, art, music and theater, an open door of opportunity. The flood gates opened and everybody from all over Texas and beyond came and discovered what they were gifted in and a community flourished.
THREE COLORS: PAN-AFRICAN (Narrative Feature) (United States)
Director: Elijah Davis
Winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at Slamdance 2026, this anthology feature film has three chapters that each take their meaning from the themes behind the colors of the Pan-African flag – red, black, and green.
Actor/director Lou Diamond Phillips, who first gained attention with his roles in LA BAMBA, STAND AND DELIVER, and YOUNG GUNS, will accept the DIFF Dallas Star Award as part of the Festival, and will be honored at a luncheon hosted by Virgin Hotels Dallas on Friday, April 24. He will discuss his latest film, KEEP QUIET – which will have its North American Premiere at DIFF before its theatrical release by Lionsgate in April – onstage with NBC 5 Today anchor Deborah Ferguson.
The DIFF Industry Conference, presented in collaboration with Dallas Film Commission, will feature panels focusing on filmmaking, television production, and how to thrive in an ever-changing industry, according to Katie Schuck, the Dallas Film Commissioner, and Austin Flores, who is the Location Specialist for Dallas Film Commission and will serve as Conference Director.
The Dallas International Film Festival is a global adventure featuring more than 120 film screenings, panels, Q&As with filmmakers and actors, nightly Red Carpets, live screenplay table reads, awards, and other events and activations where filmmakers, screenwriters, film industry leaders, celebrities, sponsors, and audiences come together to experience and discuss film. Films are curated from submissions received by filmmakers from 100+ countries worldwide, across Texas, and the United States, and include narrative features, documentaries, and short films of all genres from studios and independent filmmakers. Festival information is available at https://diffdallas.org/diff.
The Dallas International Film Festival is one of only 59 film festivals in the United States and only 181 film festivals worldwide to earn the designation of Oscar® Qualifying Festival by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Oscar® Qualifying short film awards at the Dallas International Film Festival are: Grand Jury Prize – Best Animated Short Film; Grand Jury Prize – Best Documentary Short Film; and Grand Jury Prize – Best Narrative Short Film.
Films that win qualified awards may be qualified to enter the 99th Academy Awards®, provided that the films meet all the requirements set forth in the official rules for that season. See https://www.oscars.org/oscars/rules-eligibility for details.
Season Six of The Global Hit Series The Chosen Premieres Exclusively on Prime Video, November 15, 2026
Today, Prime Video and 5&2 Studios announced Season Six of the global phenomenon The Chosen will premiere on November 15, 2026, in the U.S. and internationally, alongside the debut of a teaser image. Featuring six episodes, The Chosen Season Six will debut three episodes on November 15, followed by the release of a weekly episode through December 6. The season finale will be a stand-alone theatrical release in spring 2027. In addition to the U.S., the new season will be available on Prime Video in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sub-Saharan Africa, the UK, and Latin America. The Chosen Seasons One through Five are now streaming on Prime Video.
The hour has come. Before the sun sets, Jesus of Nazareth will be dead. Season Six captures the historic events of Jesus’ final day through the lives of those who love Him—and those who condemn Him. Pharisees call it justice. Romans call it peace. Followers call it murder. But in the face of loneliness and death, Jesus stands resolute in his plan that has always led to one place: the cross. The Chosen Season Six reveals how Jesus’ final hours changed the world forever.
“Everyone knows the basics of this part of the story, but not everyone knows the ‘why’ of the crucifixion and the extraordinary events of these 24 hours,” said Dallas Jenkins, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of 5&2 Studios and Creator/Executive Producer of The Chosen. “We realized this not only deserved a season of television but a standalone full-length theatrical event as well. We wrote and filmed all of it with this in mind.”
Jonathan Roumie returns as Jesus alongside Shahar Isaac as Peter, Paras Patel as Matthew, Elizabeth Tabish as Mary Magdalene, Noah James as Andrew, George H. Xanthis as John, Abe Bueno-Jallad as Big James, Vanessa Benavente as Mother Mary, Luke Dimyan as Judas, Richard Fancy as Caiaphas, Paul Ben-Victor as King Herod, and Andrew James Allen as Pontius Pilate.
The Chosen is a groundbreaking historical drama based on the life of Jesus, seen through the eyes of those who knew him. Set against the backdrop of Roman oppression in first-century Israel, the seven-season series shares an authentic and intimate look at Jesus’ revolutionary life and teachings. With over 300 million viewers, The Chosen is one of the most-watched series in the world, produced by 5&2 Studios and written, directed, and produced by Dallas Jenkins.
In 2025, Amazon MGM Studios inked a first-look multi-faceted deal with 5&2 Studios. The wide-ranging deal provides streaming rights to the first five seasons of The Chosen, the new unscripted series The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls, The Chosen Adventures, and Joseph of Egypt for Prime Video. The pact also includes theatrical and streaming rights to The Chosen’s upcoming final two seasons, which will follow the crucifixion (Season Six) and the resurrection (Season Seven). Lionsgate handles global distribution for The Chosen and The Chosen In The Wild with Bear Grylls.
USA Film Festival 2026 Announces film lineup with Gene Simmons, Renny Harlin, Katie Cassidy, and Lesley Ann Warren
The Dallas-based USA Film Festival announces this year’s official selections and special guests for the festival’s 56th edition taking place on April 22-26, 2026. Known for its celebration of new and classic films from the U.S. and abroad, the Festival once again brings master artists and emerging talents to Dallas to present their works in a “live cinema” setting designed to bring artists and audiences together.
USAFF opens with a salute to celebrated fashion photographer Arthur Elgort (in attendance) featuring Warren Elgort’s new documentary Arthur Elgort: Models & Muses. The Centerpiece Selection is Renny Harlin’s new disaster thriller Deep Water as part of a salute to the filmmaker’s career, including executive producer – and music legend – Gene Simmons in attendance. The Spotlight Screening will be Guy Jacobson’s madcap legal comedy Out Of Order. Closing Night’s lineup will be led by Matthew Thayer’s No Limbs No Limits, with the film’s inspirational subject, Nick Vujicic, presenting the film.
Highlights also include a salute to Academy Award®nominee Lesley Ann Warren, with a film-clip compilation covering her on-screen career in conjunction with a presentation of Tom Koch’s short film Olive, Jon Keeyes’ Speed Demon, starring Katie Cassidy, with Keeyes and Cassidy on hand, and a special 75th Anniversary screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951) with author and film historian Stephen Rebello in attendance with his new book about the film “Criss-Cross: The Making of Hitchcock’s Dazzling, Subversive Masterpiece Strangers on a Train.”
All screenings and events will be held at the Angelika Film Center Dallas (5321 E. Mockingbird Lane), with the majority of the programming offered as free-admission as part of the Festival’s community outreach programming.
“We are pleased to once again celebrate Dallas Arts Month with our annual Spring Festival,” USAFF Managing Director Ann Alexander said. “This year’s program celebrates some very independent and inspirational artists, and includes programs ranging from important documentary topics and classic films, to pure entertainment fare. We are honored to bring these master artists, midcareer filmmakers and emerging talents to our stage in Dallas to present their works and speak with our audiences. And, with the support of our wonderful Sponsors, we are once again able to present the majority of this year’s programs as free admission.”
Opening Night, Wednesday, April 22, will kick off the festival with “A Salute to Arthur Elgort” featuring a screening of Warren Elgort’s Arthur Elgort: Models & Muses. The intimate and visually rich documentary follows filmmaker Warren Elgort as he turns the camera on his father, legendary fashion photographer Arthur Elgort, whose candid, movement-driven style transformed the pages of Vogue and redefined the look of modern fashion photography. Utilizing archival footage, iconic Vogue shoots, and heartfelt interviews with collaborators including Anna Wintour, André Leon Talley and Linda Evangelista. Director/producer Warren Elgort, film subject Arthur Elgort and producer Emma Elgort will be in attendance to present the film and participate in a post-screening Q&A.
Thursday, April 23 will feature a 75th Anniversary screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful classic Strangers on a Train (1951) with Stephen Rebello, film historian and the author of “Criss-Cross: The Making of Hitchcock’s Dazzling, Subversive Masterpiece Strangers on a Train” in attendance. Mr. Rebello will be hosted on-stage by fellow author and film historian Foster Hirsch. Following the screening, Mr. Rebello will sign copies of his new book.
Also screening on Thursday is Rob Margolies’ The Dummy Detective, a neo-noir homage and whodunit written by, produced, and starring Jonathan Geffner. The film follows detective Van Trillo (Geffner), a ventriloquist who solves investigations with the help of his wooden partner. They find themselves stranded at a remote inn where guests are turning up dead, one by one. The film also stars Sean Young and Deborah Twiss. Jonathan Geffner, a ventriloquist in real-life, will be in attendance to present the film.
On Friday, April 24, the festival will feature its Centerpiece film presentation — Renny Harlin’s new disaster thriller Deep Water. When a flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai goes down in the middle of the Pacific, survivors soon discover they’re not alone and must survive the shark infested waters. Directed by Harlin, written by Pete Bridges and John Kim, the action thriller stars Aaron Eckhart, Sir Ben Kingsley, Molly Belle Wright, Angus Sampson, Kelly Gale, and Li Wenhan. Produced by Gene Simmons, the film will be released in theaters by Magenta Light Studios on May 1st. Renny Harlin and Gene Simmons will be in attendance to present the film and participate in a post-screening Q&A.
Also in attendance on Friday is Oklahoma native Reed Arnold with his award-winning feature debut Do Us Part. A throwback to classic screwball comedies, the film follows the near chaos that occurs when a groom’s unrequited love from college shows up before his wedding to confess her love for him. It’s up to their best friend and the notoriously non-monogamous best man to keep them apart and navigate a minefield of secrets to get his friend to the altar. The film won Best First Feature at the Naples International Film Festival, and Best Feature Comedy at Sedona FF.
Saturday, April 25 will feature a wealth of riches for film fans. The Spotlight Screening of Guy Jacobson’s madcap legal comedy Out Of Order will lead off that evening. The stars Brandon Routh as a young New York lawyer who ends up working for two opposing law firms, inexplicably representing both sides of the same case. The film also stars Brooke Shields, Sam Huntington, Sandra Bernhard, Luis Guzman and Krysta Rodriguez. Writer/director Guy Jacobson will be in attendance to present the film and participate in a post-screening Q&A.
Saturday will also feature USAFF’s Salute to Lesley Ann Warren in conjunction with a screening of Tom Koch’s short film Olive, followed by a film clip compilation program and on-stage conversation with Warren about her life and career, hosted by author and film historian Foster Hirsch. Warren’s distinguished film and television credits include numerous fan favorites such as Cinderella, Victor/Victoria, Clue, Songwriter, Choose Me, Pure Country, The Limey, Life Stinks, 10th and Wolf, “79 Park Avenue,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Family of Spies,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Baja Oklahoma,” “In Plain Sight,” and “Will & Grace,” to name just a few. Director Koch and Lesley Ann Warren will be in attendance to present the film.
Capping Saturday evening’s stunning lineup will be a screening of genre master Jon Keeyes’ Speed Demon, written by Domenico Salvaggio, starring Katie Cassidy and William H. Macy. Aboard a high-speed train, a Nun who lost her faith must perform her first exorcism on a possessed passenger hellbent on crashing the runaway train. Both Keeyesand Cassidy will be in attendance and will participate in a post-screening Q&A.
Also screening on Saturday is Adam Meeks’ debut feature Union County, starring Will Poulter and Noah Centineo. The film follows a man’s tenuous journey toward recovery amid the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio. Writer/director Adam Meeks will be in attendance to present the film. Rounding out Saturday is Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rosanna Xia’s Out of Plain Sight, a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California. This program will be presented in partnership with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) – Dallas Chapter. In attendance for a post-film discussion will be filmmaker Rosanna Xia and WHOI Senior Scientist and researcher in marine robotics, Dana Yoerger.
On Sunday, April 26, the Festival’s Closing Night line-up will include a screening of Matthew Thayer’s No Limbs No Limits starring Nick Vujicic. Born in Melbourne without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic defied every expectation the world placed on him — surviving childhood depression and a suicide attempt at age eight to eventually reaching nearly one billion people with his message of faith and perseverance. Nick Vujicic will be in attendance for this special screening.
Additional documentaries to be featured on Sunday include filmmaker Sandra Luckow’s Vanishing: A Love Story, a documentary about award-winning novelist Cai Emmons, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2021, and her loving, open-hearted journey towards death. Sandra Luckow and Cai Emmons’ husband, Paul Calandrino, will be in attendance for a post-film discussion. Also screening is Sascha Just’s music documentary What We Can Know About Edmond and Basile about 19th century composers Basile Barès and Edmond Dédé. The film uses the performances and rehearsals of New Orleans musicians and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra as they resurrect these composers long lost compositions. Sascha Just will be in attendance to present the film. This program will be presented in partnership with Sammons Jazz and the Sammons Center for the Arts in celebration of Dallas Jazz Appreciation Month (D’JAM).
In addition, the festival will host a screening of The Trip to Bountiful/Remembering Horton Foote. The 1985 film stars Geraldine Page, John Heard and Rebecca De Mornay and was shot in Texas. The Oscar-nominated screenplay is from legendary writer Horton Foote, based on his play. The film will be presented in partnership with the DeGolyer Library, Hamon Arts Library, and the G. William Jones Film & Video Collection at SMU which houses a number of the Horton Foote archives.
More highlights among the film selections include: Jay Duplass’ See You When I See You, written by Adam Cayton-Holland, a truthful and bitingly funny tale of surviving PTSD with a little help from family, loved ones and therapy starring Cooper Raiff, David Duchovny, Kaitlyn Dever, Hope Davis, Lucy Boynton, and Ariela Barer; Zoe Pepper’s Birthright, a darkly twisted tale about a disillusioned generation and their chase for the success of their baby boomer parents; David DuBos’ In a Good Place Now: The Life and Music of Bobby Charles is an engrossing documentary about the life and career of the unconventional Louisiana artist Bobby Charles; and Edwin Mullane & Adam O’Keefe’s Horseshoe, a drama comedy with a twist set in the wild West of Ireland that follows four estranged adults who return to the family home after the passing of their father.
Short film programs include Texas shorts and filmmakers, narrative shorts, student shorts and documentary short films, as well as films from students at Garland High School’s four-year International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP).
The Festival’s 2026 Short Film Jury includes actor Jim Beaver, actress Dale Dickey, actress/producer/documentarian/educator Diane Baker, animator/director Bill Haller, film historian/author/professor Foster Hirsch, manager/writer/producer/director Chris Roe, and artist/director/writer Rosson Crow. Award winners are selected from hundreds of submissions in a variety of categories including Fiction, Nonfiction, Animated and Experimental with additional awards for Student and Texas films also awarded.
This year’s program is dedicated to USAFF alumni guest filmmakers and friends that we lost during the past year including: Rob Reiner, Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Robert Benton, Tom Noonan, Chuck Norris and Frederick Wiseman.
For more details and to view the full schedule of programs, visit https://www.usafilmfestival.com/
Tickets range from Free – $20 (quantities are limited).
ADVANCE TICKETS will be available online beginning April 3rd at https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/56th-annual-usa-film-festival-4827625
DAY-OF-SHOW TICKETS — (Based on availability) Any unsold/unreserved tickets will be made available at the Angelika Film Center upstairs Sales Desk beginning ONE HOUR prior to EACH showtime.
The 2026 USA Film Festival Official Selections
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
OPENING NIGHT PRESENTATION
Arthur Elgort: Models & Muses
Director: Warren Elgort
Country: USA
Running Time: 83min
In this intimate and visually rich documentary, filmmaker Warren Elgort turns the camera on his father, legendary fashion photographer Arthur Elgort, whose candid, movement-driven style transformed the pages of Vogue and redefined the look of modern fashion photography. Told through unprecedented archival footage, iconic Vogue shoots, and heartfelt interviews with collaborators like—Anna Wintour, André Leon Talley and Linda Evangelista— the film captures the spontaneity, humor, and genius behind Arthur’s work. As Warren uncovers the man behind the camera, the film becomes both a celebration of a creative legacy and a tender portrait of a father through the eyes of his son.CENTERPIECE PRESENTATION
Deep Water
Director: Renny Harlin
Country: USA
Running Time: 110min
A flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai goes down in the middle of the Pacific. After surviving the crash, the survivors soon discover they’re not alone and they must survive the shark infested waters. Directed by Renny Harlin, written by Pete Bridges and John Kim, the thrilling film stars Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Molly Belle Wright, Angus Sampson, Kelly Gale, and Li Wenhan. Produced by Gene Simmons, Ying Ye, Neal Kingston, Grant Bradley, Dale Bradley, Adrián Guerra, Xavier Parache, Bob Yari.
Arthur Elgort: Models & Muses
Director: Warren Elgort
Country: USA
Running Time: 83min
In this intimate and visually rich documentary, filmmaker Warren Elgort turns the camera on his father, legendary fashion photographer Arthur Elgort, whose candid, movement-driven style transformed the pages of Vogue and redefined the look of modern fashion photography. Told through unprecedented archival footage, iconic Vogue shoots, and heartfelt interviews with collaborators like—Anna Wintour, André Leon Talley and Linda Evangelista— the film captures the spontaneity, humor, and genius behind Arthur’s work. As Warren uncovers the man behind the camera, the film becomes both a celebration of a creative legacy and a tender portrait of a father through the eyes of his son.CENTERPIECE PRESENTATION
Deep Water
Director: Renny Harlin
Country: USA
Running Time: 110min
A flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai goes down in the middle of the Pacific. After surviving the crash, the survivors soon discover they’re not alone and they must survive the shark infested waters. Directed by Renny Harlin, written by Pete Bridges and John Kim, the thrilling film stars Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Molly Belle Wright, Angus Sampson, Kelly Gale, and Li Wenhan. Produced by Gene Simmons, Ying Ye, Neal Kingston, Grant Bradley, Dale Bradley, Adrián Guerra, Xavier Parache, Bob Yari.
SPOTLIGHT PRESENTATION
Out Of Order
Director: Guy Jacobson
Country: USA
Running Time: 95min
In an attempt to win back his supermodel ex-girlfriend, a young NY lawyer ends up working at two opposing law firms, representing both sides of the same case. Written and directed by Guy Jacobson, the madcap comedy stars Brandon Routh, Brooke Shields, Sam Huntington, Sandra Bernhard, Luis Guzman and Krysta Rodriguez.
SPECIAL 75TH ANNIVERSARY PRESENTATION
Strangers on a Train (1951) 75th Anniversary Screening
Director: Alfred Hitchock
Country: USA
Running Time: 101min
Alfred Hitchcock directed this classic suspense tale – widely considered one of the master’s best works – tapping into the evil that lies hidden just beneath the surface of each of us. When two strangers – tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger), whose wife will not grant him a divorce, and wealthy but deranged young Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), who wants to be rid of his father – happen to meet on a train from Washington to New York, the conversation casually turns to a possibly perfect crime: what if each committed murder for the other? There is nothing to connect the two men. No apparent motive for either killing. When the trip ends, Guy believes the conversation was hypothetical, and that he will never see Bruno again. Then his wife is murdered… and Bruno returns for payback. Hard-boiled crime novelist Raymond Chandler co-wrote the screenplay of this film adaptation of the novel by Patricia Highsmith.
Olive (Salute to Lesley Ann Warren)
Director: Tom Koch
Country: USA
Running Time: 13min
While caring for his grandmother, Sam begins to question the nature of their relationship.
FEATURED CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION
No Limbs No Limits
Director: Matthew Thayer
Country: USA
Running Time: 91min
When an Australian family is handed a newborn son with no arms and no legs, they face a choice that will either limit them forever — or change the world. No Limbs No Limits is the story of how they chose the world. Born in Melbourne without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic defied every expectation the world placed on him — surviving childhood depression and a suicide attempt at age eight to eventually reach nearly one billion people with a message of radical hope. But the deeper story belongs to his family, who fought Australia’s education system into rethinking disability integration nationwide and chose, daily and imperfectly, to believe their son’s life was limitless. Drawing on extraordinary personal access and rare archival home footage, No Limbs No Limits is the story of what becomes possible when love refuses to accept the verdict.
ADDITIONAL NARRATIVE FEATURES
Birthright
Director: Zoe Pepper
Country: Australia
Running Time: 93min
Evicted and jobless, Cory and his pregnant wife are forced to stay with his parents. As the younger couple’s stay extends the parents’ become worried that their disappointing son will never leave the house. Desperate to prove himself, the edges of Cory’s reality slip away and he finds an unexpected path to success that detonates the family in Zoe Pepper’s darkly twisted tale about a disillusioned generation and their chase for the success of their baby boomer parents.Do Us Part
Director: Reed Arnold
Country: USA
Running Time: 93min
Rose, Ryan, and Mark were best friends in college, though Rose and Ryan were always almost something more and Mark was always something of a cad. Now, years later, Rose shows up in the hours before Ryan’s wedding to rectify what she considers a mistake of her youth forcing the best man, Mark, still happily non-monogamous himself, to navigate a minefield of secrets both old and new to get his friend to ‘I Do’ before the past blows up the future and the bonds of the trio’s once unshakeable friendship are fully severed.
Director: Zoe Pepper
Country: Australia
Running Time: 93min
Evicted and jobless, Cory and his pregnant wife are forced to stay with his parents. As the younger couple’s stay extends the parents’ become worried that their disappointing son will never leave the house. Desperate to prove himself, the edges of Cory’s reality slip away and he finds an unexpected path to success that detonates the family in Zoe Pepper’s darkly twisted tale about a disillusioned generation and their chase for the success of their baby boomer parents.Do Us Part
Director: Reed Arnold
Country: USA
Running Time: 93min
Rose, Ryan, and Mark were best friends in college, though Rose and Ryan were always almost something more and Mark was always something of a cad. Now, years later, Rose shows up in the hours before Ryan’s wedding to rectify what she considers a mistake of her youth forcing the best man, Mark, still happily non-monogamous himself, to navigate a minefield of secrets both old and new to get his friend to ‘I Do’ before the past blows up the future and the bonds of the trio’s once unshakeable friendship are fully severed.
The Dummy Detective
Director: Rob Margolies
Country: USA
Running Time: 90min
A ventriloquist/detective and his wooden partner are trapped in a creepy inn with eccentric guests, one of whom is a serial killer. An alluring actress, Chloe Lake (Deborah Twiss), is being stalked by a serial killer. She escapes to a creepy, remote inn in upstate New York where the innkeeper is an eccentric British part-time mystery writer (Sean Young). Chloe is joined by detective Van Trillo (Jonathan Geffner), who uses his ventriloquist skills to aid in his investigations. Together with his wooden partner, Sam Suede, Trillo soon finds himself stranded with Chloe in the inn as a torrential storm rages outside and all communication with the outside world is cut off. And one of the odd guests at the inn is apparently the serial killer. As the night progresses, guests at the inn are murdered one by one as Trillo struggles to identify and apprehend the suspect. Will Trillo & Suede catch the elusive culprit before all is lost?
Horseshoe
Directors: Edwin Mullane and Adam O’Keefe
Country: Ireland
Running Time: 88min
All families are mad… not least the Canavans. When Colm, the head of the family, dies there are few who mourn his passing — not even his four estranged adult children. But the legalities of his will must be observed, and more than one Canavan sibling is harboring secrets. As the Canavans return to the family home, the fate of the family unit, their sanity and the Canavan estate all hang in the balance. Blending razor-sharp dialogue with raw emotional depth, the cast delivers powerful performances from Carolyn Bracken, Lalor Roddy, John Connors, Mary Murray, Jed Murray, Neill Fleming, Eric O’Brien and Caroline Harvey.
Speed Demon
Director: Jon Keeyes
Country: USA
Running Time: 93min
When Father Novak (William H. Macy) and Sister Lu (Katie Cassidy) board a train from Montreal to New York City, they aren’t prepared for the danger and evil that would pursue them. After the train is taken over by the demon Asmodeus, Father Novak and Sister Lu must battle possessed passengers on a runaway train with Sister Lu forced to overcome her faltering faith and perform the first exorcism done by a nun.
See You When I See You
Director: Jay Duplass
Country: USA
Running Time: 102min
A truthful and bitingly funny tale of surviving PTSD with a little help from family, loved ones and therapy. Through a compassionate and inventive journey into the human psyche, director Jay Duplass and first-time feature writer Adam Cayton-Holland portray a sense of lived-in authenticity with wisdom, heightened by fantastical renderings of a collection of memories in their intricate adaptation of Cayton-Holland’s 2018 memoir, Tragedy Plus Time. Fiercely original and astutely universal, See You When I See You charts the uneven path of emotional healing from grief and trauma with refreshing honesty, through turns that are dark, humorous, and unexpected.
The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
Directors: Peter Masterson
Country: USA
Running Time: 108min
A richly textured and triumphant tale of an elderly woman’s journey home, The Trip to Bountiful stars Geraldine Page in the performance of a lifetime and a role that won her an Academy Award® for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Funny, adventurous and suspenseful, the film is perfect on just about every level and is a demonstration of the human spirit. Carrie Watts (Page) is an elderly woman with a weak heart, but of strong determination. Trapped in a tiny apartment under the care of her cowardly son and his shrewish wife, Carrie is determined to escape and return to her girlhood home. Seizing her chance and her meager Social Security check, Carrie sets out on an unforgettable quest to make peace with her past — and the secrets of her heart that draw her ever homeward. Peter Masterson directed this endearing and uplifting drama co-starring John Heard and Rebecca De Mornay. Legendary writer Horton Foote wrote the Oscar®-nominated screenplay based on his own play.
Union County
Director: Adam Meeks
Country: USA
Running Time: 97min
Assigned to a county-mandated drug court program, Cody Parsons (Will Poulter) embarks on the tenuous journey toward recovery amid the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio. Also starring Noah Centineo, Emily Meade and Elise Kibler.
ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
Out of Plain Sight
Director: Rosanna Xia
Country: USA
Running Time: 94min
From the Los Angeles Times and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rosanna Xia, the film is a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California. Not far from Catalina Island, aboard one of the most-advanced research ships in the world, David Valentine discovered a corroded barrel on the seafloor that gave him chills. The full environmental horror sharpens into greater clarity once he calls Xia, who pieces together a shocking revelation: In the years after World War II, as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean – and the consequences continue to haunt the world today.In a Good Place Now: The Life and Music of Bobby Charles
Director: David DuBos
Country: USA
Running Time: 74min
Feature-length documentary about the life and career of Robert Charles Guidry, better known to the. music world as Bobby Charles. Bobby was an enigma in the music world, a brilliant singer/songwriter who never learned to play an instrument and could not read or write music. He went from being a teen pop sensation in the 1950’s to a hippie-on-the-run in Woodstock in the early 70’s, to a performer in the legendary Last Waltz concert to a recluse living out his life in his. hometown of Abbeville, Lousiana. Along the way, he met and befriended legendary music icons such as Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Ray Charles and many, many others as well as writing a long list of now-classic tunes such as “See You Later, Alligator,” “Walking to New Orleans,” “The Jealous Kind,” and “I Don’t Know Why I Love You (But I Do).”
Director: Rosanna Xia
Country: USA
Running Time: 94min
From the Los Angeles Times and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rosanna Xia, the film is a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California. Not far from Catalina Island, aboard one of the most-advanced research ships in the world, David Valentine discovered a corroded barrel on the seafloor that gave him chills. The full environmental horror sharpens into greater clarity once he calls Xia, who pieces together a shocking revelation: In the years after World War II, as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean – and the consequences continue to haunt the world today.In a Good Place Now: The Life and Music of Bobby Charles
Director: David DuBos
Country: USA
Running Time: 74min
Feature-length documentary about the life and career of Robert Charles Guidry, better known to the. music world as Bobby Charles. Bobby was an enigma in the music world, a brilliant singer/songwriter who never learned to play an instrument and could not read or write music. He went from being a teen pop sensation in the 1950’s to a hippie-on-the-run in Woodstock in the early 70’s, to a performer in the legendary Last Waltz concert to a recluse living out his life in his. hometown of Abbeville, Lousiana. Along the way, he met and befriended legendary music icons such as Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Ray Charles and many, many others as well as writing a long list of now-classic tunes such as “See You Later, Alligator,” “Walking to New Orleans,” “The Jealous Kind,” and “I Don’t Know Why I Love You (But I Do).”
Vanishing: A Love Story
Director: Sandra Luckow
Country: USA
Running Time: 107min
Vanishing: A Love Story is a documentary about award-winning novelist Cai Emmons and her loving, open-hearted journey towards death. In 2021, at the age of 70, Cai was diagnosed with ALS. Taking place in 2022, during the last six-months Cai’s life, the film is, first and foremost, a story about the agency of expression — having a voice to create a legacy in the world.
What We Can Know About Edmond and Basile
Director: Sascha Just
Country: USA
Running Time: 85min
The stars of this documentary are 19th century New Orleans composers Basile Barès and Edmond Dédé. Basile Barès and Edmond Dédé were Creoles of Color in 19th century New Orleans — Dédé a free man, Barès born into enslavement. From the tail end of slavery to racial segregation Barès and Dédé wrote and performed operas and concert popular with black and white audiences. Yet, since their lifetime their compositions have not been performed, and some have never been presented to the public. New Orleans musicians and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra are now resurrecting their long lost compositions — and exploring their connections to jazz. From rehearsals to costume fittings Edmond and Basile documents the path to these premieres and uses the performances as a springboard to a journey into a hidden history.
SHORT FILMS
Narrative Short Films – The Darker Side
TRT: 98minJasmine. Home. Mother
Director: Ugnė Skonsmanaitė
Countries: Lithuania/UK/USA
Running Time: 15min
TRT: 98minJasmine. Home. Mother
Director: Ugnė Skonsmanaitė
Countries: Lithuania/UK/USA
Running Time: 15min
Query
Director: Stewart Hendler
Country: USA
Running Time: 12min
Starring: Anthony Hill
The Pearl Comb
Director: Ali Cook
Country: UK
Running Time: 21min
The Ride
Director: Slava Denisov
Countries: USA
Running Time: 15min
Starring: Ron Perlman
The Seventh Turn
Director: Eric D. Howell
Country: USA
Running Time: 20min
The Spectacle
Director: Bálint Kenyeres
Country: Hungary
Running Time: 17min
Narrative Short Films – The Lighter Side
TRT: 80min
Drop Off
Director: Ric Serena
Country: USA
Running Time: 3min
Fireflies in the Dusk
Director: Jonathan Hammond
Country: USA
Running Time 17min
Rent-a-Fr13nd
Director: Avery Daman
Country: USA
Running Time: 12min
Something Pointless
Director: Asa Bailey
Countries: UK
Running Time: 14min
Starring: Owen Teale, Sophie Thompson and Sule Rimi
The Application
Director: Joey Brooks
Countries: USA
Running Time: 11min
The Carnal Soul
Director: Alexandra Essoe
Country: USA
Running Time: 12min
Starring: Bob Gunton
The Lingering
Director: Gabe Reiss
Country: USA
Running Time: 11min
Texas Short Films (In Competition)
TRT: 99min
A Very Crowded Room
Director: Nate Wilburn
City: San Marcos
Running Time: 5min
El Lloron
Director: Rodrigo Moreno-Fernandez
City: Brownsville
Running Time: 17min
Should We Do It?
Director: Yuqi Sun
City: Austin
Running Time: 11min
Ten West
Director: Shannon Chance
City: Dallas
Running Time: 11min
Tito Ritmo
Director: Ulises Córdova
City: El Paso
Running Time: 15min
Dawn at Dominion
Director: Carl Bailey
City: Celina
Running Time: 40min
Student Short Films (In Competition)
TRT: 111min
91 Times Smash
Director: Yuxin Yang
Country: USA
Running Time: 14min
Ankara 1979
Director: Can Karayalçın
Country: Turkey
Running Time: 20min
Betrayal
Director: Carolyn (Xiange) Liu
Country: China
Running Time: 16min
Old Man’s Child
Director: Gery Riba
Country: Hungary
Running Time: 28min
Nothing but the End
Director: Tanguy Pichon
Countries: Switzerland
Running Time: 15min
VITA 2.0
Director: Vita Stoikova
Country: Ukraine
Running Time: 18min
Reel Owl Cinema Shorts Program
TRT: 60min
(Film Lineup TBA)
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR LAUNCHES MUSICAL MONDAYS AT ANGELIKA FILM CENTER DALLAS
WHAT: Favorite classic musicals
WHEN: Beginning April 6, the first Monday of every month at 4 and 7 p.m.
WHERE: Angelika Film Center – Dallas
Mockingbird Station
5321 E. Mockingbird Lane
Dallas, TX 75206
ABOUT THE FILM: Adapted from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Broadway rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar recounts the last days of Jesus Christ (Ted Neeley) from the perspective of Judas Iscariot (Carl Anderson), his betrayer. As Jesus’ following increases, Judas begins to worry that Jesus is falling for his own hype, forgetting the principles of his teachings and growing too close to the prostitute Mary Magdalene (Yvonne Elliman). After Jesus has an outburst in a temple, Judas turns on him. Also starring Josh Mostel as King Herod. Directed by Norman Jewson (Moonstruck, Fiddler on the Roof).
For additional information, please visit angelikafilmcenter.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and TikTok.
2026 MUSICAL MONDAYS SCHEDULE
The first Monday of every month at 4 and 7 p.m.
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (1973) – April 6
Adapted from Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice’s Broadway rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar recounts the last days of Jesus Christ (Ted Neeley) from the perspective of Judas Iscariot (Carl Anderson), his betrayer.
LA LA LAND (2016) – May 4
Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) are drawn together by their common desire to do what they love. But as success mounts, they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
HAIRSPRAY (2007) – June 1
In the 1960s Baltimore, dance-loving teen Tracy Turnblad auditions for a spot on “The Corny Collins Show” and wins. She becomes an overnight celebrity, a trendsetter in dance, fun and fashion. Stellar cast includes John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Zac Efron, Allison Janney, Nikki Blonsky, James Marsden, and Queen Latifah.
MAMMA MIA! (2008) – July 6
Longing to discover the identity of her true father before she exchanges her wedding vows, the daughter of a once-rebellious single mother secretly invites a trio of paternal candidates to her upcoming wedding in this feature adaptation of the beloved stage musical. Starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, and Amanda Seyfried.
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) – August 3
This magical cinematic event finds Kansas farm girl Judy Garland caught in a tornado and magically transported to the Land of Oz. Based on the classic book by Frank L. Baum, THE WIZARD OF OZ is a dazzling motion picture achievement, featuring unforgettable songs including Oscar-winner “Over the Rainbow”.
SINGIN’IN THE RAIN (1952) – September 7
Regarded as one of the best musicals in film, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN proves to be a timeless classic to this day. The film explores the struggles of a Hollywood production studio in the late 1920s as they are forced to transition to “talkies.” With classic songs like “Make ‘em Laugh” and “Good Morning” this wonderful musical comedy is a staple in cinematic history. Starring Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004) – October 5
From his hideout beneath a 19th century Paris opera house, the brooding Phantom schemes to get closer to vocalist Christine Daae. The Phantom, wearing a mask to hide a congenital disfigurement, strong-arms management into giving the budding starlet key roles, but Christine instead falls for arts benefactor Raoul. Terrified at the notion of her absence, the Phantom enacts a plan to keep Christine by his side, while Raoul tries to foil the scheme. Starring Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, and Miranda Richardson.
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944) – November 2
Judy Garland stars in this classic musical that takes place at the turn of the 20th century right before the World’s Fair in St. Louis. With unforgettable numbers like “The Boy Next Door,” “The Trolley Song” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” this family drama musical is a wonderful holiday treat. Directed by Vincente Minnelli.
WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954) – December 7
After two WWII army veterans form a dance troupe, they fall in love with two other dancers and follow them to a performance in a high-end lodge. They soon find out however, that the lodge is run by their former commanding officer. The two must now balance wooing their love interests and helping their former commander. Starring Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, and Vera-Ellen.