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FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES “THE GRANDMASTER: TONY LEUNG” CELEBRATING THE LEGENDARY HONG KONG ACTOR

Dev Shapiro
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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

Dev Shapiro
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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

Dev Shapiro
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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

Dev Shapiro
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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.

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.

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).”

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

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

Dev Shapiro
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0
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.

The Historic Lancaster Theatre announces Grand Re-Opening with magic, theater, comedy, music, and film

Dev Shapiro
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The Historic Lancaster Theatre announces Grand Re-Opening with magic, theater, comedy, music, and film

The Historic Lancaster Theatre has announced shows and events for the highly anticipated Grand Re-Opening beginning in April. With entertainment ranging from Live Music, Live Theater, Comedy, Film, Storytelling, Dance, Poetry Slams, Magic, Burlesque, Art Exhibits, and Family/Children’s Matinee Shows, original and unique THLT produced shows is set to include Variety Showcases in the style of classic 70’s TV Variety Shows, TikTok Scroll IRL Shows, Themed Repertory Film Series and Filmmaker discovery nights, joined by touring theatrical, music, and comedy entertainment.

The building which houses The Historic Lancaster Theatre began its life in the 1890’s. Over the years the building was a market, a hardware store and even a grocery store.  Lancaster’s Town Square functioned as the social and commercial heart of the city. In 1930 a second floor was added so that it could become a two-story feed store. The Theater was always just a small-town theater where kids hung out and maybe even had their first kiss in the balcony. Nothing grand just small-town good memories. In 1994 a tornado took out half of the buildings on The Historic Town Square. The roof of the theater was blown off, but fortunately the rest of the building did not suffer more catastrophic structural damage. In 2013, while looking for a place to use for film productions, Ken Arkwell and Brad Keller discovered the abandoned theater. They purchased it with the intent of renovation but unbeknownst to them major renovations requiring an unexpected complete “down to the 4 walls” demolition had to be completed.

In 2023, The City of Lancaster approached Ken and said that the city, in their effort to revitalize the Historic Town Square. Lancaster Historian Ellen Clark was brought on as a full partner, and Ellen Clark and Ken Arkwell have transformed The Historic Lancaster Theatre into a Venue Like No Other! A visually stunning, state-of-the-art Diverse Entertainment Venue.

THLT owner/producer Ken Arkwell, said, “We have created a stunning place to come and enjoy an intimate visit. The lobby is a welcoming start to your adventure. The Theatre’s acoustics have been praised by all the talent that has been on our stage. The VIP seating is like no other. These praises make my heart glow. We did it right!”

Saturday, April 11, The Historic Lancaster Theatre will present Texas Comedies – Crash at Crush. The latest musical comedy from the Austin-based Texas Comedies troupe, is based on the incredible true story of a staged train crash near the town of Crush, TX. Spurred by bankruptcy, bizarre railroad employees and the Ringling Brothers circus, William Crush creates an explosive new form of mass entertainment.

Friday, April 24, and Saturday, April 25 will feature the first Texas appearance by award-winning theatrical magician Nelson Lugo. Critically celebrated for his hybrid magic theater shows, Lugo will perform his show, Deconstructing the Magician. Through sleight-of-hand, classic conjuring, and deeply personal stories, Lugo traces the strange path that turned a nine-year-old with a magic kit into a lifelong practitioner of “ethical deception”. Along the way we encounter the hustlers of Coney Island, the wisdom of old magicians, and the quiet truths hidden inside everyday moments. Here, a card trick becomes a battle of wits, a con game becomes a love letter, and a length of thread becomes the measure of an entire life.

On Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2, The Historic Lancaster Theatre will present its first THLT Film Weekend, with Badass 70s Black Cinema. Each night will offer a double-feature presentation of beloved, yet seldom see on the big-screen classics and cult favorites combined with contests, performances, and panels so film lovers can immerse themselves in a full-embrace of that weekend’s films and their themes. Friday will feature Ossie Davis’ Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), and Sam O’Steen’s Sparkle (1976). In addition to the screenings, there will be a “Styin’ Threads” Contest with cash prizes, and girl groups performing live in between the two screenings. Saturday will begin by celebrating Lancaster’s Cleo Hearn Day with the Hearn Family on the Square participating in a special presentation. That presentation will be followed by screenings of Sidney Portier and Joseph Sargent’s Buck and the Preacher (1972), and Michael Campus’ The Mack (1973). Between the two screenings will be a filmmaker’s panel featuring the top DFW African American filmmakers including SRG Entertainment’s Snoop Robinson discussing filmmaking now versus the influential wave of films from the 70s.

Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9 will feature the inaugural presentation of John Wildman’s Sketch This!, an original sketch comedy show produced for The Historic Lancaster Theatre stage that will feature a diverse cast of actors performing comedy that will be both provocative and exceedingly silly. Sketches will include; PILLOW FIGHT, a 1930s “boxing drama” where a down on his luck former pillow fighter is convinced by a bedding factory owner to come out of retirement to fight a Frankenstein-sized pillow that has been putting his factory workers to sleep – permanently; VERTICAL DRAMAS FOR THE OBVIOUS IMPAIRED, where a typical vertical drama about a CEO being mistaken for hotel staff and abused by his unknowing underlings is performed with the characters speaking the quiet subtext part out loud; CROWN OF THORNS, a Tik Tok Marketplace segment about the exciting new Crown of Thorns fashion accessory for women who want to suffer but look great doing it;  HALLMARK ROMANCE KUNG FU THEATER, a classic boy and girl “meet cute” as he goes to honor his deceased Dojo Master, who was killed thanks to the treachery of her father – complete with unfortunate dubbed dialogue and overdone “fight/punch sounds” not entirely synched to the action in the scene; and EMERGENCY ROOM TRYOUTS In which patients’ insurance coverage problems are compounded by the pressure of needing to compete with other patients to prove they have the more severe medical emergency demanding treatment.

On Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16, THLT will present Shirley Carter’s Royal Women of Country. The versatile singer will perform songs by legends Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Tammy Wynette during one dazzling Country Tribute Show. Carter is third generation to a rich heritage of her famous Carter family roots in the Chuck Wagon Gang. She joined her father, Roy Carter, bass & leader in the group for over 45 years. The Gang’s career took them to Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Gator Bowl, Daytona International Speedway & numerous appearances on The Grand Ole Opry.

On Saturday, May 30, THLT will present Showtime at The Historic Lancaster Theatre, bringing the legendary Amateur Night energy of Harlem’s Apollo Theatre to Lancaster. Produced by AD Bonner, the evening will include live music, comedy, and an amateur showdown.

Future shows will include; Janie Fricke (June 20), Confetti Eddie’s 250th Anniversary Star Spangled Magic Show! (June 26, 27), and Michael Arrington’s Paul Lynde Show (September 18, 19).

For tickets and more information on The Historic Lancaster Theater, go to: www.THLTvenue.com.

Florida Film Festival 2026 Announces Film Lineup and Special Events

Dev Shapiro
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Florida Film Festival 2026 Announces Film Lineup and Special Events

The Florida Film Festival announced the film lineup and events schedule for next month’s 35th edition of the popular film festival, taking place April 10-19. The mark-your-calendar film event for the Central Florida-based festival will lead off with an Opening Night presentation of Adam Carter Rehmeier’s renegade road trip movie Caroline, Caroline, feature a gala Centerpiece presentation of Jorma Taccone’s Over Your Dead Body, starring Samara Weaving, then wrap of the film festival with a 75th Anniversary screening of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, Strangers on a Train. The subjects of this year’s celebrated “An Evening With.. events will be Academy Award®-nominee Paul Giamatti and Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Beverly Hills Cop’s Judge Reinhold.

FFF will showcase 161 films (31 narrative features, 18 documentary features, and 112 short films), representing 31 countries, screening at the Enzian Theater (1300 S. Orlando Ave., Maitland, Florida). The ambitious lineup includes 24 world premieres (Ahmed Bouchalga’s The Call, Costa Karalis’ Frogtown, Woodruff Laputka and Tehben Dean’s The Man Whom the Trees Loved,Randy Moore’s Return From Tomorrow, Alejandro Ruax and Saskia d’Altena’s (If You Really Love Me, Outlive Me), Paul Oh’s Correspondence, Justin Whittingham’s Welcome, Ellie Foumbi’s Afufu, Faryl Amadeus’ Man in Motel, Jessica Li’s Peace Corps, Michael Borrelli’s The Last Day of Byron Bray, Timothy Jacob Elledge’s Neuman, Brooke Trantor’s Nut Milk in May, Sterling Hampton IV’s Study Hall, Isabel Pask’s Scout’s Honor, Grant Swanson’s Iron Lake, Syra McCarthy and Kyle Casey Chu’s Betty St. Clair, Austin Cauldwel’s Idyll, Kyle Spleiss’s House Cat, Justice Smith’s Grampa, Stacey Torkelson’s In Lieu of Flowers, Mary Pilon’s Screw Lucy, Modar Kajo’s In God’s Hands, and Noah Engel’s Everything that Fell from the Mourning Dove’s Nest as She Built It ).

Highly anticipated titles from filmmakers like Steven Soderberg (The Christophers), Kirk Jones (I Swear), Gregg Araki (I Want Your Sex), Ben Wheatley (Normal), Curry Barker (Obsession), Maude Apatow (Poetic License), Daniel Roher (Tuner), and Jeremy Workman (School For Defectors) will also be can’t miss films for Central Florida film fans to see for the first time.

Florida Film Festival Executive Director Wade Neal, said, “This Florida Film Festival will be my first as the new Executive Director, and I’m thrilled to be part of a team that has made the festival one of the most exciting, well‑curated, and outrageously fun in the country for 35 years.. We take the view that film is eternal, and is a supreme storytelling framework that creates deeper understanding, togetherness, and insight than other art forms. By coming together to celebrate the work and talent that each film represents, we honor extraordinary filmmakers that carry the power and magic of film forward.”

FFF Programming Director, Matthew Curtis, added, “We couldn’t be more excited about this year’s program, which is certain to be one of the strongest we’ve ever done. Storytellers from all over the world will be showcasing their work during our 10-day celebration of extraordinary voices and creatives in cinema today, with most films making their Florida premiere with us and many having their World, North American, U.S., and East Coast as well. New developments for year 35 include our inaugural ‘Festival Centerpiece’ screening, as well as the first-ever feature to be included in Sunspots: New Visions of the Avant-Garde, our experimental program featuring dazzling work from renegade film artists you’ll rarely see anywhere else on the big screen. The 35th annual Florida Film Festival truly has something for everyone, and film lovers everywhere should get ready to laugh, cry, and have their minds blown.”

Opening Night on Friday, April 10 will feature a happy hour mixer with filmmakers and film fans, and red carpet entrances for the attending filmmakers, followed by a special Florida premiere presentation of Adam Carter Rehmeier’s Carolina, Caroline. The film follows a small-time hustler (Kyle Gallner, Strange Darling, Smile) who becomes entangled with Caroline (Samara Weaving, Over Your Dead Body, Ready or Not)—charismatic, determined, and unwilling to settle for the life in front of her. What begins as a spontaneous romance gradually reveals deeper tensions, as ambition, insecurity, and competing dreams test their bond. As the relationship intensifies, both are forced to confront who they are, what they want, and how far they’re willing to go to escape their pasts. Rehmeier will attend and participate in a post-screening Q&A.

On Sunday, April 12, the Florida Film Festival will celebrate the one-of-a-kind career of Paul Giamatti and welcome him as a special guest for FFF’s first An Evening With.. event following a screening of Alexander Payne’s sardonic comedy Sideways (2004) for which he earned Golden Globe® and SAG Award nominations. One of the most versatile actors of his generation,  Giamatti can currently be seen in Season Seven of Netflix’s Black Mirror, which earned him a 2026 Golden Globe® nomination for Best Actor in a Limited Series. He can also be seen in Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and in the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Giamatti can next be seen starring opposite Julianne Moore in Jesse Eisenberg’s feature film No One Cares, as well as in Tom McCarthy’s feature The Statement, opposite Paul Rudd. Additional highlighted films in Giamatti’s legendary career includes the heartwarming period drama The Holdovers, for which he received the Golden Globe® Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture—Comedy or Musical, the Critics Choice Award, the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor, and The Palm Springs International Film Festival “Icon Award.” Giamatti was also nominated for the SAG, BAFTA, and Academy Award® for Best Actor. The Academy Award®-nominated Barney’s Version in 2011 earned him the Golden Globe® for Best Actor in a Motion Picture—Comedy or Musical. In 2006, his performance in Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man earned him his first SAG Award and a Broadcast Film Critics’ Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as Oscar® and Golden Globe® nominations in the same category. Giamatti also starred in the second season of HBO Europe’s hit Spanish-horror series 30 Coins, as well as in the final season of the Showtime hit Billions, for which he has been nominated for a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award and a Critics Choice Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series over the course of the series. Previous television credits include HBO’s Too Big to Fail, which earned Giamatti his third SAG Award as well as an Emmy® and a Golden Globe® nomination in 2011. In 2008, Giamatti won Emmy®, SAG, and Golden Globe® awards for Best Actor in a Miniseries for his portrayal of the title character in HBO’s seven-part, Emmy Award®-winning miniseries John Adams.

Wednesday, April 15 will mark FFF’s first Centerpiece presentation, featuring Jorma Taccone’s delightfully dark Over Your Dead Body. The film stars Jason Segel and Samara Weaving as a slightly deranged and bitterly unhappy Hollywood couple: a director who has never reached his full potential, and an unfulfilled actress trying to get her career back on track. Looking to get away for a weekend retreat at a remote cabin— supposedly to reconnect—each has secret plans to kill the other. But best laid plans go magnificently awry when they run into a trio of fugitives led by Timothy Olyphant and Julliette Lewis.

Friday, April 17, the Florida Film Festival will celebrate the career of Judge Reinhold and welcome him as the special guest of that night’s An Evening With.. following a screening of Amy Heckerling’s beloved generational comedy Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982). Judge Reinhold has been in over seventy-five motion pictures and television roles and enjoys a 35-year relationship with an international audience of all ages. He has left an indelible impression in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, Stripes, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Gremlins, and Disney’s The Santa Clause films. Both Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Beverly Hills Cop were voted by the American Film Institute as two of the “Top 100 American Comedies.” On television, Reinhold received an Emmy nomination for his performance as “The Close Talker” on Seinfeld, and his guest-star appearances in Seinfeld and Arrested Development received two of the highest ratings on both series.

Closing Night on Sunday, April 19, the Florida Film Festival will offer an opportunity to see a true cinema classic on the big screen via a special 75th Anniversary screening of Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. Recognized as one of his masterpieces, the film is a supreme thriller that launched an amazing decade of offbeat, craftily directed suspense classics. When two strangers—amateur tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger), whose wife will not grant him a divorce; and charming but psychotic mama’s boy Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), who wants to be rid of his demanding 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 a murder for the other? Laughing off Bruno as an eccentric, Guy takes the “exchange murders” scheme as a bad joke—until his wife ends up dead and Bruno returns for payback!

World premieres this year include Ahmed Bouchalga’s The Call which follows Central Florida “arts instigator” Terry Olson, as he travels to Rabat to uncover the human stories behind the 1975 Green March—when 350,000 unarmed Moroccan civilians crossed into the Western Sahara, prompting Franco’s Spain to relinquish its colonial claim. Frogtown, directed by Costas Karalis, is a genre-blurring feature that seamlessly merges narrative fiction with documentary realism. Set in the Panhandle town of Marianna, Florida, the film follows an adult woman’s obsessive quest to prove the existence of a magical swamp creature she claims to have encountered as a child. Woodruff Laputka, and Tehben Dean’s The Man Whom the Trees Loved is an adaptation of Algernon Blackwood’s supernatural novella about landscape painter Dave (co-writer/director Woodruff Laputka) who becomes mysteriously and wildly drawn to the Florida flora while on vacation with his wife Sophia (Avise Narey Parsons). One of the films in FFF’s coveted competition category, Randy Moore’s Return From Tomorrow is the filmmaker’s follow-up to the (in)famously filmed-in-secret Disney World fever-dream Escape from Tomorrow. An absurdist paranoid conspiracy thriller in which a middle-aged dad spirals into a Lynchian crisis of masculinity while on family vacation in Miami after the loss of his father (Udo Keir, in his final role).

Additional films in the narrative competition include Richie James Follin’s Crystal Cross about Dotty, an eccentric aspiring Christian singer who hitches a ride with James, a grief-stricken musician quietly driving cross-country with plans to end his life. When Dotty spots him in a store and decides he looks like Jesus, she takes it as a sign from God: it’s her ticket out of town and a chance to change her fate. Evan Metzold, and Jake Rubin’s Damned if You Do follow the efforts of three former best friends—a fading rock star (Kate Siegel, The Haunting of Hill House), a tech mogul (Paulo Costanzo, Royal Pains), and a high-profile activist (Ginger Gonzaga, “Your Day” FFF 2017)—have to rely on the one friend who didn’t sign the contract (Beth Dover, Orange Is the New Black) to find a loophole to escape Hell’s grasp. If I Go They Will Miss Me, directed by Walter Thompson-Hernández, looks at the relationship between twelve-year-old Lil Ant (Bodhi Jordan Dell), a sensitive artist, enamored with the legends of Greek mythology and yearning to impress his emotionally distant father, Big Ant (J. Alphonse Nicholson), who is embarrassed by the pictures his son draws of him looking heroic. William Means’ Junkie is the gritty debut feature from writer-director William Means. The film follows a haphazard 72 hours in the life of Stevie Chapman (played by real-life recovering addict Rocky Shay) setting out to make amends and reconcile with her estranged gay son, Liam, before she skips town for good.

Jessica Barr’s The Plan is set in a modest Los Angeles apartment over the course of a single unbroken take, where a group of disillusioned young revolutionaries prepare for a radical act they believe will change the world. Josalynn Smith’s Ride or Die follows what happens when introverted film school graduate Paula (Briana Middleton) runs into her high school crush and the sparks instantly fly. Despite a slew of red flags, Sloane (in an electric performance by Stella Everett) seduces Paula into leaving her Christian conservative family and embarking on a doomed road trip to Hollywood. Russell Goldman’s Sender focuses on a recently fired and newly sober woman (Britt Lower, Severance) who attempts a fresh start in a suburban rental owned by her sister (Anna Baryshnikov, Love Lies Bleeding). The film is produced by and co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, as well as David Dastmalchian, Late Night with the Devil), and Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul, Pluribus). Kyle Smith’s Sylvania features a marriage on the brink which becomes the backdrop for a sharply observed and deeply human road trip where Stewart (Morgan Beck) and Gracie (Kerry Bishé, Argo) load their four-month-old baby and 17-year-old, basketball-obsessed son into the car and head to St. Louis to convince Gracie’s estranged father, Frank (Paul Dillon), who is in the early stages of dementia, to accept help. Tatti Ribeiro’s unique documentary-comedy hybrid Valentina traces a 48-hour period at the U.S. and Mexico’s busiest border crossing, where resolving an ordinary parking ticket is derailed by family, friends, Valentina’s own apathy, and the maddening bureaucracy of the system. The film is executive produced by Jessica Alba and stars Keyla Monterroso Mejia (The Studio, Curb Your Enthusiasm).

Florida Film festival’s documentary features competition shapes up with Tasha Van Zandt’s A Life Illuminated taking viewers on a dive with Dr. Edie Widder, trailblazing marine biologist, on a descent 3,300 feet into the ocean’s darkest depths. This stunningly beautiful scientific film features footage of the elusive giant squid in its natural habitat, and the earliest images of deep-sea bioluminescence. Luchina Fisher’s The Dads highlights a group of politically, generationally, and geographically diverse fathers of transgender children as they navigate an ever-changing socio-political landscape and grapple with an impossible choice: stay and fight or flee the country. The film is Executive Produced by former NBA superstar Dwayne Wade. FFF award-winning alum Patrick Xavier Bresnan’s First They Came for My College examines the accelerating battle over academic freedom in the United States with the right-wing, conservative Republican takeover of New College of Florida, the state’s designated honors college, in Sarasota. Tyler Measom, and Craig A. Williams’ If These Walls Could Rock check audiences into the legendary Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood where iconic musicians have checked in, coked up, wrote music, broke the rules, and bonded for decades. David Anthony Ngo, and Stephen Mccallum’s Never Get Busted! recounts the so unbelievable it’s hard to trust it’s true story of Barry Cooper, a charismatic and controversial former narcotics officer, infamous for his “Never Get Busted” DVD series that taught drug users how to hide their stash.

The doc features competition also includes Audrey Olsen’s Punkie, an intimate and unflinching portrait of the first out Black SNL star Punkie Johnson. Seth Porges’ Santacon! looks at the event that lures tens of thousands of drunken revelers to dress like Santa Claus and invade countless cities around the world. Jeremy Workman’s School for Defectors sees the celebrated FFF alum take his camera to Busan, South Korea, where he follows 20 students from the tiny Jangdaehyun Boarding School—all North Korea defectors. Sharon Liese’s Seized looks at the international spotlight resulting from a police raid on the Marion County Record and the death of its 98-year-old co-owner. Khoa Ha, and Victor Velle’s Y Vân: The Lost Sounds of Saigon is a portrait of the legendary Vietnamese composer described as “the Quincy Jones of Saigon.

The Florida Film Festival will also, once again, present a robust, yet intensely curated number of short film programs that will span the gamut from narrative, documentary, animated, experimental, and midnight selections.

To purchase passes and tickets and to find more information on the Florida Film Festival, please go to: https://floridafilmfestival.com/.

 

Florida Film Festival 2026 Official Selections

 

GALA PRESENTATIONS

 

OPENING NIGHT PRESENTATION

Carolina Caroline

Director: Adam Carter Rehmeier

Country: USA; Running Time: 105 min

A small-time hustler (Kyle Gallner) and a small-town girl (Samara Weaving) embark on a sexy, kinetic road trip in search of an American dream to call their own. But what begins with a few stolen twenties soon spirals beyond their control.

 

CENTERPIECE PRESENTATION

Over Your Dead Body

Director: Jorma Taccone

Country: USA; Running Time: 105 min

A dysfunctional couple (Jason Segel and Samara Weaving) head to a remote cabin to supposedly reconnect, but each has secret plans to kill the other in this riotously violent comedy from SNL alumnus Jorma Taccone (Popstar, MacGruber) that co-stars Timothy Olyphant and Juliette Lewis.

 

CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION

Strangers on a Train (1951)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Country: USA ; Running Time: 101 min

Nominated for an Oscar® for Best Cinematography and co-scripted by legendary mystery writer Raymond Chandler from the novel by Patricia Highsmith, this timeless suspense classic is one of Hitchcock’s masterpieces. When an amateur tennis star whose wife won’t grant him a divorce, and a charming but psychotic mama’s boy who hates his father, meet on a commuter train, the conversation turns to a possibly perfect crime: what if each committed a murder for the other? Special 75th Anniversary showing!

 

 

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

 

The Call                                                           World Premiere

Director: Ahmed Bouchalga

Countries: USA/Morocco; Running Time: 70 min

Orlando “arts instigator” Terry Olson takes an extraordinary journey across Morocco, retracing the footsteps of the historic Green March—a peaceful call of unity that still echoes 50 years later.

 

Everywhere Man: The Lives and Times of Peter Asher

Directors: Dan Deller, Dayna Goldfine

Country: USA/UK; Running Time: 118 min

What if the most important person in rock and roll history is someone you’ve never heard of?  Meet Peter Asher—Sixties pop star, Apple Records pioneer and behind-the-scenes genius who shaped California’s singer/songwriter era. Even better, he’s the visual inspiration for Austin Powers! This joyous, cabaret-fueled romp through six decades of Asher’s musical history is a time-machine treat that’s impossible to resist. Yeah, baby!

 

Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)

(Screening with An Evening With Judge Reinhold)

Director: Amy Heckerling

Country: USA; Running Time: 120 min

Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a pretty, but inexperienced, teen interested in dating. Given advice by her uninhibited friend, Linda Barrett (Phoebe Cates), Stacy gets trapped in a love triangle with nice guy Mark Ratner (Brian Backer) and his more assured buddy Mike Damone (Robert Romanus). Meanwhile, Stacy’s classmate Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn), who lives for surfing and being stoned, faces off against Mr. Hand (Ray Walston), a strict teacher who has no time for the slacker’s antics.

 

Frogtown                                                         World Premiere

Director: Costa Karalis

Country: USA; Running Time: 86 min

Set in a small Florida town and told from the POV of a documentary film crew, Frogtown is a unique genre-bending film blurring fiction and documentary realism, which explores an adult woman’s quest to prove the existence of a magical swamp creature she befriended as a child.

 

The Man Whom the Trees Loved                     World Premiere

Directors: Woodruff Laputka, Tehben Dean

Country: USA; Running Time: 73 min

As her husband begins to mysteriously slip away into the trees surrounding their vacation cabin, Sophia descends into grief and fear of losing him forever. Adapted from Algernon Blackwood’s supernatural novella, The Man Whom the Trees Loved is a ghostly tale of the inexplicable horrors of nature.

 

Occupational Hazard: The First Coral Reefers

Director: John H. Cunnigham

Country: USA; Running Time: 92 min

Sun, salt, and afterparty chaos power this document of Jimmy Buffett and his scruffy first band. Mixing wild tour stories, reefer-soaked “heavy artillery” years, and Jeff Bridges Dude-style narration, even the dark moments feel fun in a buoyant, flip-flop fantasy that fans will want to toast.

 

Sideways

(Screening with An Evening With Paul Giamatti)

Director Alexander Payne

Country: USA; Running Time: 124 min

A wine-soaked road trip through California’s Santa Ynez Valley provides a pair of affable but mismatched friends—disillusioned writer Miles (Paul Giamatti) and carefree soon-to-be-married actor Jack (Thomas Hayden Church)—with an unexpected opportunity to confront where they are in life and what they truly want before time, and opportunity, pass them by.

 

Summer Tour

Director: Mischa Richter

Country: USA; Running Time: 82 min

This dreamy love letter follows young Jerry and Annie as they chase Dead & Company’s final 2023 tour in a questionable camper van. Neither was alive when Jerry Garcia walked the earth—yet here they are, barefoot and gloriously unbothered, organizing their lives around the music with an intensity that demands respect rather than mockery. Looking for a miracle? Get on the bus.

 

 

SPOTLIGHT FEATURES

 

The Christophers

Director: Steven Soderberg

Countries: UK/USA; Running Time: 100 min

The estranged children of famous artist Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) approach struggling artist Lori Butler (I May Destroy You’s Michaela Coel) with a brilliant plan: Lori is to pose as Julian’s new assistant while using her art-forging skills to secretly complete his series of long-abandoned paintings known as “The Christophers.” As the two form a tentative connection, the grift is soon threatened in this sharply witty and entertaining new comedy from Oscar®-winner Steven Soderbergh.

 

Cookie Queens

Director: Alysa Nahmias

Country: USA; Running Time: 91 min

A joyous and funny celebration of girlhood and the complexities that come with it, Cookie Queens is a heartwarming coming-of-age story that follows four tenacious fledgling entrepreneurs—ages five to twelve—and their families as they navigate the annual whirlwind of selling, striving, and succeeding during Girl Scout Cookie season.

 

I Swear

Director: Kirk Jones

Country: UK; Running Time: 120 min

Funny, frank, and deeply human, I Swear tells the inspirational true story of John Davidson, a trailblazer whose honesty and humor helped the world better understand what it means to live with Tourette syndrome. Winner of the BAFTA for Best Actor (Robert Aramayo) and the latest classic British crowd-pleaser from Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine).

 

I Want Your Sex

Director: Gregg Araki

Country: USA; Running Time: 90 min

Gregg Araki’s (The Doom Generation) latest film, I Want Your Sex, is a bold erotic comedy-thriller starring Olivia Wilde as a transgressive artist whose new assistant (Cooper Hoffman) becomes her muse. Premiering at Sundance, this provocative, darkly funny tale of art, obsession, and power marks a vibrant comeback for the iconic indie auteur.

 

Normal

Director: Ben Wheatley

Countries: USA/Canada; Running Time: 90 min

In this darkly comedic action thriller from director Ben Wheatley (High-Rise, FFF 2016) and the writer of John Wick, Bob Odenkirk stars as a new sheriff whose simple assignment unravels after a botched robbery proves that everything in the quiet town of Normal, Minnesota, is anything but!

 

Obsession

Director: Curry Barker

Country: USA; Running Time: 108 min

From YouTuber Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) comes Obsession, the twisted tale of Bear (Michael Johnston) who uses a seemingly innocuous “One Wish Willow” trinket to win the love of his crush (Inde Navarrette). But be careful what you wish for…

 

Poetic License

Director: Maude Apatow

Country: USA; Running Time: 117 min

Two inseparable best friends (Cooper Hoffman and Andrew Barth Feldman) see their lives start to unravel when they compete for the affection of the middle-aged married mom (Leslie Mann) auditing their college poetry class. Deeply affectionate and laugh-out-loud funny, this delightful comedy is the directorial debut of Maude Apatow.

 

Tuner

Director: Daniel Roher

Countries: Canada/USA; Running Time: 109 min

Oscar®-winning documentarian Daniel Roher’s (Navalny) first narrative feature, Tuner, dazzles with its whip-smart script and delightful mix of genre elements—odd-couple friendship, tense high-concept thriller, and charming romance.  Leo Woodall (Nuremberg) stars as Niki, a gifted young piano tuner with a unique auditory condition, who draws the attention of criminals who see his talents as useful for opening safes. Dustin Hoffman, Tovah Feldshuh, and Jean Reno co-star in this quick-witted heist flick.

 

You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community That Changed the World (in a Canadian Kind of Way)

Director: Nick Davis

Countries: Canada/USA; Running Time: 98 min

This fascinating and hilarious documentary takes us back to the legendary 1972 Toronto production of Godspell, the “hippie musical” about the life of Jesus, that ignited a comedy revolution since the cast included Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, and musical director Paul Shaffer.

 

 

COMPETITION NARRATIVE FEATURES

 

Crystal Cross

Director: Richie James Follin

Country: USA; Running Time: 88 min

In Richie James Follin’s Crystal Cross, an adorable Christian singer and a suicidal dad drive cross-country, forging an oddball bond through bad decisions, bizarre roadside attractions, and a terrific all-original soundtrack. A bittersweet tale of two lost souls finding comfort, but not salvation, in each other’s messes.

 

Damned if you Do

Directors: Evan Metzold, Jake Rubin

Country: USA; Running Time: 107 min

Years after selling their souls to the devil, a fractured group of friends reunite for their 25th high school reunion to exploit a loophole and escape Hell’s grasp before the contract’s deadline expires. An all-star cast makes this hilarious horror-comedy a bloody good time!

 

If I Go Will They Miss Me

Director: Walter Thompson-Hernández

Country: USA; Running Time: 92 min

Twelve-year-old Lil Ant is a sensitive artist, enamored with the legends of Greek mythology and yearning to impress his emotionally distant father, Big Ant. Writer-director Walter Thompson-Hernández sets this mesmerizing, lyrical portrait of masculinity and tenderness against the backdrop of a busy LAX flight path.

 

Junkie

Director: William Means

Country: USA; Running Time: 105 min

Junkie tracks a haphazard 72 hours in the life of Stevie, a loveable, charismatic, but meth-addicted mom, extraordinarily played by Rocky Shay, who escapes court-ordered rehab to embark on an odyssey through the underbelly of the South to redeem her son’s love.

 

The Plan

Director: Jessica Barr

Country: USA; Running Time: 75 min

Inside a modest Los Angeles apartment over the course of a single unbroken take, a group of disillusioned young adults prepares for a radical act they believe will change the world. But as paranoia builds, one question lingers: is everyone truly committed?

 

Return From Tomorrow                                   World Premiere

Director: Randy Moore

Country: USA; Running Time: 117 min

After the loss of his father, a middle-aged dad has a crisis of masculinity while on family vacation in Miami in this audacious and subversive follow-up to Randy Moore’s Escape from Tomorrow (2013).

 

Ride or Die

Director: Josalynn Smith

Country: USA; Running Time: 85 min

Paula reconnects with her high school crush and, as the sparks fly, is pulled into her chaotic orbit, embarking on a doomed road trip. Award-winning director Josalynn Smith’s feature directorial debut explores the attraction of fixing “broken” people, despite the cost to oneself.

 

Sender

Director: Russell Goldman

Country: USA; Running Time: 94 min

Newly sober and attempting a fresh start, a woman (Britt Lower, Severance) begins receiving packages she never ordered—each more unnervingly personal than the last—in this stylish paranoid thriller about addiction, recovery, and the crushing expectations for normalcy in a consumer-driven world. Rhea Seehorn, David Dastmalchian and Jamie Lee Curtis co-star.

 

Sylvania

Director: Kyle Smith

Country: USA; Running Time: 85 min

In Kyle Smith’s tender and funny Sylvania, Gracie and Stewart, on the brink of divorce, embark on a family road trip to visit Gracie’s estranged father Frank who is in the early stages of dementia. Once there, Gracie mines her father for stories of the long-dead mother she never really knew.

 

Valentina

Director: Tatti Ribeiro

Country: USA; Running Time: 85 min

During a 48-hour period at the U.S. and Mexico’s busiest border crossing, resolving an ordinary parking ticket is derailed by family, friends, Valentina’s own apathy, and the maddening bureaucracy of the system. This unique documentary-comedy hybrid is executive produced by Jessica Alba and stars Keyla Monterroso Mejia (The Studio, Curb Your Enthusiasm).

 

 

COMPETITION DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

 

A Life Illuminated

Director: Tasha Van Zandt

Countries: USA/Australia; Running Time: 89 min

Join Dr. Edie Widder, trailblazing marine biologist, on a descent 3,300 feet into the ocean’s darkest depths. This stunningly beautiful scientific film features footage of the elusive giant squid in its natural habitat, and the earliest images of deep-sea bioluminescence.

 

The Dads

Director: Luchina Fisher

Country: USA; Running Time: 72 min

Executive produced by NBA legend Dwyane Wade, Luchina Fisher’s inspiring documentary highlights a group of politically, generationally, and geographically diverse fathers of transgender children as they navigate an ever-changing socio-political landscape and grapple with an impossible choice: stay and fight or flee the country.

 

First They Came for My College

Director: Patrick Xavier Bresnan

Country: USA; Running Time: 105 min

Patrick Xavier Bresnan (Grand Jury Award: Documentary Short “The Rabbit Hunt,” FFF 2017; Naked Gardens, FFF 2023) examines the accelerating battle over academic freedom in the United States with the right-wing, conservative Republican takeover of New College of Florida, the state’s designated honors college, in Sarasota.

 

If These Walls Could Rock

Directors: Tyler Measom, Craig A. Williams

Country: USA; Running Time: 93 min

What do Slash, Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Sheryl Crow, Dave Grohl, Ozzy Osbourne, Gene Simmons, Cyndi Lauper, and Morrissey, among other famous rockers have in common? The Sunset Marquis Hotel in West Hollywood! This is the place where iconic musicians have checked in, coked up, wrote music, broke the rules, and bonded for decades.

 

Never Get Busted!

Directors: David Anthony Ngo, Stephen Mccallum

Countries: USA/Australia/UK; Running Time: 109 min

Barry Cooper is a charismatic and controversial former narcotics officer, infamous for his “Never Get Busted” DVD series that taught drug users how to hide their stash.  After exposing police corruption in a series of online videos, he becomes a folk hero on the run—his whereabouts unknown, even by the filmmakers today.

 

Punkie

Director: Audrey Olson

Country: USA; Running Time: 72 min

Raw and real, director Audrey Olson’s intimate and unflinching portrait of the first out Black SNL star Punkie Johnson gives audiences a chance to follow the powerhouse comic on the road as she preps for a stand-up special and contends with mounting pressures in her personal and professional life.

 

Santacon

Director: Seth Porges

Country: USA; Running Time: 87 min

From the founders of Burning Man and the inspiration for Fight Club comes SantaCon! Sometimes referred to as Santarchy, Santapalooza, Santa Rampage, and the Red Menace, it’s the event that lures tens of thousands of drunken revelers to dress like Santa Claus and invade countless cities around the world.

 

School for Defectors

Director: Jeremy Workman

Country: USA; Running Time: 97 min

Celebrated documentarian Jeremy Workman (Secret Mall Apartment, FFF 2024; Lily Topples the World, FFF 2021) takes his camera to Busan, South Korea, where he follows 20 students from the tiny Jangdaehyun Boarding School—all North Korea defectors.

 

Seized

Director: Sharon Liese

Country: USA; Running Time: 94 min

Marion, Kansas, erupts after a police raid on its local newspaper and the death of its 98-year-old owner, exposing abuses of power, First Amendment violations, and deep town divisions in an infuriating, entertaining documentary about journalism, retribution, and small-town secrets.

 

Y Vân: The Lost Sounds of Saigon

Directors: Khoa Ha, Victor Velle

Countries: USA/Vietnam; Running Time: 91 min

Legendary Vietnamese composer Y Vân is rediscovered by his granddaughter in this story that spans three generations and two continents. Described as “the Quincy Jones of Saigon,” he composed some of Vietnam’s most popular and treasured tunes. Part history lesson, part travelogue, this vibrant film is more than just a legacy project.

 

 

INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASE

 

Chopin, Chopin!

Director: Michał Kwieciński

Countries: Poland/France/Spain; Running Time: 113 min

Nominated for five Eagles Polish Film Awards, Michal Kwieciński’s period biographical drama opens with the energized world of 1835 Parisian high society at a play-off event featuring Fryderyk Chopin and his friend Franz Liszt, rising action for this aurally and visually rich telling of Chopin’s life story.

 

Kikuyu Land

Directors: Andrew H. Brown, Bea Wangondu

Countries: Kenya/USA; Running Time: 93 min

For Kenya’s Kikuyu people, a fight to protect their land, culture, and future is inexorably intertwined with Western corporate interests in the country’s tea plantations and complex post-colonial African politics, all probed by Nairobi-based journalist and co-director Bea Wangondu and Andrew H. Brown (Kifaru, FFF 2019 and Path of the Panther, FFF 2022).

 

The Last Viking

Director: Anders Thomas Jensen

Countries: Denmark/Sweden; Running Time: 116 min

Anker, recently released from prison, entrusted stolen money to his autistic brother, Manfred (the one-and-only Mads Mikkelsen), who, having changed personalities and name, no longer knows where the money is. Cleverly balancing humor, darkness, and heartfelt moments that delve into the scars of childhood and how they shape us and our relationships for life, this outrageous black comedy is the latest bit of mayhem from FFF award-winner Anders Thomas Jensen (Riders of Justice, FFF 2021).

 

The Marching Band

Director: Emmanuel Courcol

Country: France; Running Time: 103 min

Conductor Thibaut, needing a bone marrow transplant, discovers he is adopted and has a previously unknown brother, Jimmy. Through their love of music, the brothers overcome feelings of disbelief, resentment, and privilege to come to terms with their past and present. With delicate humor and heartfelt moments, this bittersweet class-comedy entertains while provoking thought about our ability to live together and create meaningful connections. Nominated for seven César Awards (“French Oscars”).

 

 

MIDNIGHT FEATURES

 

Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt

Director: Tom Stern

Country: USA; Running Time: 105 min

Never sacred, always profane, this wild doc hurls you into Butthole Surfers’ chaotic psych-punk circus—puppets, drugs, fire, and all—as Richard Linklater calls their live shows “a changing point in your life,” and Gibby’s unhinged mayhem somehow lands on something tender, transformative, and unforgettable.

 

Frogman Returns

Director: Anthony Cousins

Country: USA; Running Time: 75 min

Frogman . . . RETURNS!!! Plunging back into cryptid legend and camcorder paranoia, a disgraced filmmaker hunts proof of the viral amphibious monster, spiraling into flooded woods and conspiracy-soaked lore. Blending found-footage chaos with practical creature effects and a streak of absurdist humor, escalating the mythology while skewering our obsession with internet fame and manufactured myth.

 

Hokum

Director: Damian McCarthy

Countries: Ireland/USA; Running Time: 101 min

When novelist Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott, Severance) retreats to a remote inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, he is consumed by tales of a witch haunting the honeymoon suite. Disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance force him to confront dark corners of his past. From Damian McCarthy, director of Oddity.

 

Mermaid

Director: Tyler Cornack

Country: USA; Running Time: 105 min

Tyler Cornack’s Mermaid plunges into swamp-soaked surrealism when a financially strapped and drug addicted dockworker (Johnny Pemberton, Fallout) believes a wounded mermaid hides in the drainage canal behind his apartment. Equal parts creature feature and Florida noir, Mermaid is sticky, sunburned, and defiantly strange.

 

 

NARRATIVE SHORTS

 

Afufu

Director: Ellie Foumbi

Country: USA; Running Time: 18 min

 

All at Once

Director: Maggie Brill

Country: USA; Running Time: 15 min

 

All the Real Boys

Director: Ohad Ira Amram

Country: USA; Running Time: 11 min

 

American Cheese

Director: Kate Thulin

Country: USA; Running Time: 10 min

 

Are You Fucking Kidding Me?!

Director: Zen Pace

Country: USA; Running Time: 12 min

 

Betty St. Clair

Directors: Syra McCarthy, Kyle Casey Chu

Country: USA; Running Time: 12 min

 

Cake

Director: Caro Ribeiro

Country: USA; Running Time: 6 min

 

Candy Bar

Director: Nash Edgerton

Country: Australia; Running Time: 6 min

 

The Catcher

Director: Luka Galle

Country: Belgium; Running Time: 30 min

 

CHÄIR

Director: Chris McInroy

Country: USA; Running Time: 6 min

 

The Daughter

Director: Mary Ann Anane

Country: USA; Running Time: 7 min

 

Dear Shop Girl

Director: Nira Burstein

Country: USA; Running Time: 15 min

 

DISC

Director: Blake Winston Rice

Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min

 

Doctor Death Grip

Director: Amber Schaefer

Country: USA; Running Time: 21 min

 

Esther

Director: Joey Hunt

Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min

 

Fantasma

Director: Ulbrecht Tomas

Country: USA; Running Time: 11 min

 

Fruithead

Director: Mike Diva

Country: USA; Running Time: 9 min

 

Gloria

Director: Kim Blanck

Country: USA; Running Time: 10 min

 

Grampa

Director: Justice Smith

Country: USA; Running Time: 19 min

 

House Cat

Director: Kyle Spleiss

Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min

 

I Gaze at the Sky

Director: Alexandra Strunin

Country: Poland; Running Time: 24 min

 

I Walked Through the Wall

Director: Pablo Larcuen

Countries: USA/Spain; Running Time: 8 min

 

Idyll

Director: Austin Cauldwell

Country: USA; Running Time: 18 min

 

Imago

Director: Ariel Zengotita

Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min

 

In Lieu of Flowers

Director: Stacey Torkelson

Country: USA; Running Time: 18 min

 

Iron Lake

Director: Grant Swanson

Country: USA; Running Time: 20 min

 

It Means Hope

Director: Shadi Karamroudi

Country: Iran; Running Time: 15 min

 

It’s Easy to Forget (Es Fácil Olvidar)

Director: Yamile Abuid

Country: USA; Running Time: 9 min

 

Jit

Director: Samuel Correa

Country: USA; Running Time: 6 min

 

The Last Day of Byron Bray

Director: Michael Borrelli

Country: USA; Running Time: 20 min

 

The Last Ride

Directors: Vijesh Rajan, Yashoda Parthasarthy

Country: India; Running Time: 24 min

 

Man in Motel

Director: Faryl Amadeus

Country: USA; Running Time: 12 min

 

Neuman

Director: Timothy Jacob Elledge

Country: USA; Running Time: 16 min

 

Norheimsund

Director: Ana A. Alpizar

Countries: Cuba/USA; Running Time: 12 min

 

Nut Milk in May

Director: Brooke Trantor

Country: USA; Running Time: 17 min

 

Peace Corps

Director: Jessica Li

Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min

 

Photo Play XX

Director: Zolomon Zelko

Country: USA; Running Time: 16 min

 

Scissors

Director: Hannah Alline

Country: USA; Running Time: 12 min

 

Scout’s Honor

Director: Isabel Pask

Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min

 

The Seeing Eye Dog Who Saw Too Much

Director: Eric Jackowtz

Country: USA; Running Time: 17 min

 

September, All Over.

Director: Kali Kahn

Country: USA; Running Time: 21 min

 

Skin on Skin

Director: Simon Schneckenburger

Country: Germany; Running Time: 30 min

 

Somewhere to Be

Director: Christy Chan

Country: USA; Running Time: 9 min

 

The Spectacle

Director: Bálint Kenyeres

Countries: Hungary/France; Running Time: 17 min

 

Squall Mouth

Director: Eva Chaitman

Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min

 

Stairs

Director: Riley Donigan

Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min

 

Study Hall

Director: Sterling Hampton IV

Country: USA; Running Time: 9 min

 

TEOTWAWKI

Director: Cristin Stephens

Country: USA; Running Time: 7 min

 

This Blows

Director: Talia Smith

Countries: USA/South Africa; Running Time: 13 min

 

To-Go

Director: Bryan Poyser

Country: USA; Running Time: 6 min

 

Tub

Director: Kathreen Khavari

Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min

 

Ultra Juice

Director: Carl Conway Maguire

Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min

 

Vultures

Director: Dian Weys

Countries: South Africa/France; Running Time: 15 min

 

Wall Udder

Director: Alexandra Hayden

Country: USA; Running Time: 9 min

 

Xolo

Director: Matthew Serrano

Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min

 

 

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

 

A Man Who Takes Pictures of Flowers

Director: Yoo Lee

Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min

 

The Baddest Speechwriter of All

Directors: Ben Proudfoot, Stephen Curry

Country: USA; Running Time: 29 min

 

The Baker’s Hotline

Directors: Dave Schuman, Emily Schuman

Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min

 

Being Bublé

Director: Dan Perlman

Country: USA; Running Time: 21 min

 

The Book of George

Director: Danny Schmidt

Country: USA; Running Time: 15 min

 

Chasing the Passage of Time

Directors: Dennis Scholl, Ed Talabera

Country: USA; Running Time: 7 min

 

The Chimney Sweeper

Director: Jack Raese

Country: USA; Running Time: 9 min

 

Correspondence

Director: Paul Oh

Country: USA; Running Time: 5 min

 

Drag Me to Church

Director: Isabella Sullivan

Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min

 

Free Fish

Directors: Bisan Owda, Carolina Pereira

Countries: Palestine/Portugal; Running Time: 22 min

 

Hollywood’s Mermaid: The Esther Williams Story

Director: Brian Gersten

Country: USA; Running Time: 20 min

 

If You Really Love Me, Outlive Me

Directors: Alejandro Ruax, Saskia d’Altena

Country: USA; Running Time: 20 min

 

In God’s Hands

Director: Modar Kajo

Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min

 

Oh Whale

Director: Winslow Crane-Murdoch

Country: USA; Running Time: 26 min

 

One Last Order

Directors: Lauren DeFilippo, Sam Soko

Country: USA; Running Time: 20 min

 

Panther Pat

Director: Ashley Brandon

Country: USA; Running Time: 12 min

 

Same Water

Director: Martine Granby

Country: USA; Running Time: 21 min

 

Screw Lucy

Director: Mary Pilon

Country: USA; Running Time: 19 min

 

Swim Sistas

Director: Catherine Joy White

Country: UK; Running Time: 11 min

 

Trapped

Directors: Joe Purtell, Mads Engel

Country: USA; Running Time: 11 min

 

Welcome

Director: Justin Whittingham

Country: USA; Running Time: 22 min

 

 

EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS

 

Advice for Immigrants #1

Director: Saif Alsaegh

Country: USA; Running Time: 1 min

 

Allegory of the Cave

Directors: Huang Weipeng, Wang Yajing

Country: China; Running Time: 8 min

 

As Told by a Corpse

Director: Yace Sula

Country: USA; Running Time: 5 min

 

The Call

Director: Kelly Sears

Country: USA; Running Time: 7 min

 

Dance Film

Director: Kelly Gallagher

Country: USA; Running Time: 1 min

 

Everything that Fell from the Mourning Dove’s Nest as She Built It

Director: Noah Engel

Country: USA; Running Time: 1 min

 

explant/implant

Director: Josh Weissbach

Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min

 

My Grandma Still Cleans My Uncle’s Room (Mi Mamita Todavía Mantiene el Cuarto de Mi Tío)

Director: Alex Guerra

Countries: USA/Guatemala; Running Time: 5 min

 

The Stars Watch from Long Ago

Director: Stacey Steers

Country: USA; Running Time: 24 min

 

The Story of the Cricket Queen

Director: Natalie Peracchio

Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min

 

Tourniquet

Director: Marceline Chevako

Country: USA; Running Time: 9 min

 

Tuktuit: Caribou

Director: Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre

Countries: Canada/USA; Running Time: 15 min

 

Wetland Impulse

Director: Jimmy Schaus

Country: USA; Running Time: 2 min

 

 

ANIMATED SHORTS

 

1981

Directors: Carolyn London, Andy London

Country: USA; Running Time: 8 min

 

Ashen Sun

Director: Camille Monnier

Countries: France/Belgium; Running Time: 13 min

 

Beetle Summer

Directors: Jian Yuan, Anyu Chen

Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min

 

Busy Bodies

Director: Kate Renshaw-Lewis

Country: USA; Running Time: 6 min

 

Crab Diane

Director: Ryan McCown

Country: USA; Running Time: 18 min

 

Dreams

Director: Eddie Mauldin

Country: USA; Running Time: 5 min

 

Girls Night Out

Director: Ashley Sengstaken

Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min

 

Hell

Director: Parker Croft

Country: USA; Running Time: 5 min

 

Horde

Director: Janina Księska

Country: Poland; Running Time: 7 min

 

Juicy and Sweet

Director: Sasha Uijeong Shin

Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min

 

Merrimundi

Director: Niles Atallah

Countries: Chile/France; Running Time: 21 min

 

Mother’s Child

Director: Naomi Noir

Countries: Netherlands/France; Running Time: 9 min

 

Once in a Body

Director: María Cristina Pérez González

Countries: Colombia, USA; Running Time: 11 min

 

Paper Trail

Director: Don Hertzfeldt

Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min

 

Perfect City: The Mushroom

Director: Shengwei Zhou

Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min

 

Praying Mantis

Director: Joe Hsieh

Countries: Taiwan/Hong Kong; Running Time: 18 min

 

Sorrow Doesn’t Sleep at Night

Directors: Josefina Montino, Martín André

Country: Chile; Running Time: 9 min

 

Trading Cards

Director: Radheya Jang

Countries: Australia/UK; Running Time: 15 min

 

Tuna Tartare

Director: Lena Greene

Countries: USA/France; Running Time: 11 min

 

Um

Director: Nieto

Country: France; Running Time: 8 min

 

Venezia Diorama

Director: Nicolas Piret

Countries: Belgium/France; Running Time: 6 min

 

Winter in March

Director: Natalia Mirzoyan

Countries: Estonia/Armenia/France/Belgium; Running Time: 16 min

 

Yearn

Director: Ben Smith

Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min

THE 28TH ANNUAL OUTSHINE LGBTQ+ FILM FESTIVAL SPRING EDITION UNVEILS FULL FILM LINEUP WITH MORE THAN 20 INTERNATIONAL, NORTH AMERICAN AND EAST COAST PREMIERES FROM APRIL 23 – MAY 3

Dev Shapiro
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THE 28TH ANNUAL OUTSHINE LGBTQ+ FILM FESTIVAL SPRING EDITION UNVEILS FULL FILM LINEUP WITH MORE THAN 20 INTERNATIONAL, NORTH AMERICAN AND EAST COAST PREMIERES FROM APRIL 23 – MAY 3

The wait is over as the OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival unveils its full film lineup for this year’s Spring Edition running April 23 – May 3, 2026 in South Florida. This year’s festival is proud to feature more than 20 international, North American and East Coast premieres from 20 countries across Miami-Dade and Broward counties! Adding to the excitement of the festival will be a special recognition ceremony for award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, whose Rock Out (USA, 2025) film will be screening on Monday, April 27, at Paradigm Cinemas: Gateway Fort Lauderdale (1820 E Sunrise Blvd). Other special events, filmmaker panels and afterparties will add diversity to South Florida’s cinema scene.

Internationally acclaimed as one of the largest LGBTQ+ cultural festivals in the world, OUTshine will debut its first Opening Night Under the Stars party featuring The Dinner (La Cena) (Spain, 2025), a delicious blend of tension, history, and irreverent humor, on Thursday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m., at Miami Beach Botanical Gardens (2000 Convention Ctr Dr, Miami Beach). This year’s previously announced Centerpiece film, Maspalomas (Spain, 2025), an intimate story that delves into the subject of homosexuality in elder age through the journey of a 76-year-old man confronting fears and dilemmas that cross generations, screens at the Koubek Center Theater (2705 SW 3rd St, Miami) at 7:30 p.m. on April 30. Closing night on Sunday, May 3, at 6 p.m., at Savor Cinema (503 SE 6th St, Fort Lauderdale) will feature the international premiere of We’ll Find Happiness (Canada, 2025), an award-winning drama about how far one will go for love,  followed by another first – a Closing Night Community Block Party featuring food vendors, filmmakers, live performers, entertainment and more.

“This spring will be one of OUTshine’s most extraordinary editions, yet — a magical Opening Night Under the Stars at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens, a Closing Night at Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale followed by a community street party, and more screening days in Fort Lauderdale than ever before,” said Mark Gilbert, interim executive director, OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival. “Filmmakers from all over the world are telling our queer stories for you to see – showing up, standing proud together and celebrating who we are.”

This season’s OUTshine line-up hits Miami-Dade and Broward counties with vibrant thought-provoking, entertaining and educational star-studded features, documentaries and shorts.

Festival highlights this season include the international premieres of An Island Away From You (A Una Isla Deti) (Spain, 2025); The Children of Silverstreet Take a Stand (Børnene Fra Sølvgade Tager Kampen Op) (Denmark, 2025); and Unicorns (Italy/Spain, 2025). This edition’s North American premieres include the star-studded documentary Armani And The Birth of Italian Fashion (Italy, 2026) that traces the rise of Italian fashion through the story of the families that have been ruling it for decades – from Armani, Versace, Gucci and Valentino to Missoni, Zegna, Ferragamo, Dolce & Gabbana and Prada and featuring legendary insiders, rivalries, personal stories and the enduring love affair between Hollywood and Italian designers; Baracoa (Cuba/Italy, 2025); Free At Heart (Germany, 2025) *Not seeing At Heart as part of title; In A Whisper (À voix basse) (France/Tunisia, 2025); Jone, Sometimes (Jone, batzuetan) (Spain, 2025), OUTshine’s Ladies Latin Spotlight Film; La Carn (Spain, 2025); Lone Star Bull (USA, 2025) starring Luke Macfarlane, Sebastian Roché, and D.J. “Shangela” Pierce; Patty Is Such A Girly Name (Greece, 2025); and Madfabulous (UK, 2026), a riotous, uncompromising celebration of otherness inspired by the unlikely British aristocrat who bankrupted his estate, lived fast and died young starring Rupert Everett, Greta Jones, and Ruby Stokes.

Additional films of note include the U.S. premiere of Lunar Sway (Canada, 2026), a dark mother-son adventure comedy; the East Coast premiere of A Man Walks Down The Street (Israel, 2025), the dramatic story of Raanan, a middle-aged man who, for the first time faces his internalized homophobia, and tries to make amends with his past; Blue Boy Trial (Japan, 2025), OUTshine’s Trans Spotlight Film, inspired by true events and directed by an out trans filmmaker, Blue Boy Trial tells the story of a 1960s doctor facing trial for performing sex-change surgeries on male prostitutes that ignited a debate over identity, desire, and the true meaning of happiness; and Uncle Roy (USA, 2026), a documentary about Roy Blakey, a trailblazing figure skater, ice show archivist, and gay photographer whose male nudes etched their way into history.

“We are thrilled to present a well-rounded selection of creative, heartwarming, and thought-provoking features, documentaries, and shorts from some of the most prolific LGBTQ+ storytellers in the arts today,” said Joe Bilancio, director of programming, OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival. “Our team has curated a multicultural roster of films that reflect the shared roots of our community in South Florida with a strong focus on Latin America, international and foreign language films in Miami-Dade while Fort Lauderdale features many American independent films. We hope cinemagoers will join us, bring family and friends, and celebrate the triumphs of the human spirit – what makes us all special, unique, and worthy of belonging.”

Adding to the excitement will be a special recognition ceremony for Dustin Lance Black, director of Rock Out (USA, 2025), an excavation of the queer roots of rock, punk and metal featuring Roger Daltrey, Dolly Parton, John Reid, Danny Fields and more, at the Monday, April 27 Paradigm Cinemas: Gateway Fort Lauderdale Cocktails & Cinema™ screening. An American screenwriter, director, producer, and LGBTQ+ rights activist, Black won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2009 for Milk, a biographical drama film based on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He also wrote the screenplay for the film J. Edgar and the 2022 crime miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven.

“While others might retreat, OUTshine forges forward with an even more robust schedule proving that strength, courage, and solidarity can turn even the fiercest storms into a path toward hope and pride. We will continue to showcase the bold storytelling, diverse voices, and unforgettable cinematic moments that define our community,” added Gilbert.

The festival continues with select films available for OUTshine At-Home viewing from May 4 – 10.

This year’s OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film Festival spring edition is presented by CAN Community Health and The Warten Foundation. Premiere sponsors are Gilead and Comcast; Presenting Media are HotSpots! Media and It’s Happening Out; Grand sponsors are Google, Wilton River Suites, Silverspot Cinemas, Paradigm Cinemas: Gateway Fort Lauderdale, Major Prevention 305, Fast Printz, Tito’s and Commissioner Damian Pardo; Supporting sponsors are Latino Salud J. Mark’s, Miami Beach Botanical Gardens and Media partners include Cultural Owl, The Bulletin, I Love Gay Movies, Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, MOCHEE, TampaBayGay.com, OUTFRONT MEDIA, OUT SFL, OutClique, queerguru.com, Wire magazine, Skirt South Florida and GPR| Goodman Public Relations.

Ticket subscription packages and individual tickets starting at $17 are on sale now. OUTshine passholders and Producer Circle members receive priority advance ticket purchase opportunities. For a full listing of films, parties, special events and more and to purchase tickets, visit outshinefilm.com.

ILM AT LINCOLN CENTER AND AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCE THE LINEUP FOR THE 33RD NEW YORK AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL, MAY 6–12

Dev Shapiro
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ILM AT LINCOLN CENTER AND AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCE THE LINEUP FOR THE 33RD NEW YORK AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL, MAY 6–12

Film at Lincoln Center (FLC) and African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) announce the lineup at FLC for the 33rd edition of the New York African Film Festival (NYAFF), showcasing African and Diaspora filmmakers’ unique storytelling through the moving image since 1993. NYAFF will spotlight 14 contemporary and classic feature films and 25 short films, screening at FLC from May 6 through May 12, with the festival continuing at other esteemed New York City cultural venues throughout the month of May. Many filmmakers will be in attendance for post-screening Q&As.

Through this year’s theme, “As the Stars Sow the Earth,” the festival celebrates cosmic agents that have sown memory, will, and possibility into Africa and its Diasporas, foregrounding Africa’s long-exploited natural resources while tracing a lineage of leaders and artists who imagine alternative relationships to the Earth. This cosmology resonates with the global rise of independent filmmaking, as directors working from historically underrepresented and underfunded regions use the moving image to reckon with the afterlives of colonialism while sustaining transnational and ecological connections. The 33rd New York African Film Festival affirms that Africa and its Diasporas, as a mobile and resilient geography, people, and idea, have been granted the wisdom, memory, and invention necessary to build sovereign futures.

“Across this year’s selection, filmmakers are reimagining the landscapes we inherit—drawing from ancestral wisdom not as something to leave behind, but as a source of renewal and possibility,” said Mahen Bonetti, founder and Executive Director of AFF. “Many of the directors, including a strong group making their first features, open new ways of seeing, rooted in land, spirit, and the worlds we share. In these films, what sustains us becomes a kind of wealth, guiding how we envision and shape futures on our own terms. Together, they offer glimpses of brighter horizons, reminding us that even in difficult times, life takes root in surprising and extraordinary ways.”

The Opening Night selection is the New York premiere of Erige Sehiri’s Promised Sky, a bittersweet drama following an Ivorian pastor living in Tunisia, forming a makeshift family with the young women who find refuge in her home. The film opened the 2025 Cannes Un Certain Regard program and features a stellar cast, including César Award nominee Aïssa Maïga and Laetitia Ky. The Centerpiece film, from executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama and Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot, is The Eyes of Ghana, following 93-year-old photographer Chris Hesse on a quest to rescue an archive of films that could rewrite history. Closing Night will feature Shorts Program 3: The Art of Protection, including Shiloh Tumo Washington’s Bailey’s Blues; Justice Rutikara’s Ibuka, Justice; Catherine E. McKinley, Mamadou Tapily, and Marc Lesser’s Keïta La; Aminata Drynie Bockarie’s Where the Water Meets Us; Nimco Sheikhaden’s Exodus; Klein Ongaki’s The Land Smiles Back; Abdelkrim Boughoud’s Eauquation – Water Distribution at Douiret-Sbâa; and Marwa Eltahir’s 99 Names: My Liberation Is Tied to Yours.

Additional highlights include the world premiere of Gabriel Souleyka’s The Soul of Africa, a captivating documentary exploring the origins, resilience, and contemporary relevance of African spiritual traditions; and the North American premiere of Hamed Mobasser and Yohane Dean Lengol’s Rumba Royale, following a young photographer (Congolese rumba star Fally Ipupa) who becomes entangled in the fragile social world of a legendary rumba nightclub in 1959 Léopoldville. Two classic film restorations will have their U.S. premieres: Caméra arabe, Férid Boughedir’s passionate 1987 documentary linking politically engaged Arab cinema from the 1960s onward to major historical events, restored in 4K and followed by a Q&A with Boughedir himself; and a 4K restoration of Paulin Soumanou Vieyra’s 1981 film En résidence surveillée, a biting political satire set in a fictional African state where corruption, media control, and forced exile reveal the human cost of unchecked power. The festival also features the U.S. premiere of Lace Relations by Anette Baldauf, Chioma Onyenwe, Joana Adesuwa Reiterer, and Katharina Weingartner, a documentary uncovering the history of the textile trade that has intertwined Nigeria and Austria for centuries. Idris Elba’s first short film, Dust to Dreams, about a Lagos nightclub pulsating with aspiring musicians but masking a family drama, is also included in the lineup.

Férid Boughedir will also participate in an extended conversation following the screening of his newly restored 1983 film Caméra d’Afrique, inviting audiences into a thoughtful dialogue with one of the defining voices in the history of African cinema. Special programs also include a digital exhibition in the Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center featuring select moments from NYAFF’s archival collection, including never-before-seen interviews, discussions, and photographs with a host of pioneering figures and friends of the festival such as Ousmane Sembène, Safi Faye, Bill Greaves, Sarah Maldoror, Harry Belafonte, Rita Marley, Danny Glover, Wole Soyinka, Miriam Makeba, and Ossie Davis. Photographs will be displayed alongside the digital exhibition, documenting the communities brought together through NYAFF’s programs, parties, and events over the years.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, April 1, at 2pm ET, with an early access period for FLC Members starting Wednesday, April 1, at noon. Ticket prices are $19 for the general public; $16 for students, seniors, and persons with disabilities; and $14 for FLC Members. See more and save with a 3+ Film Package ($17 for general public; $14 for students, seniors (62+), and persons with disabilities; and $12 for FLC Members), the $89 All-Access Pass, or the $65 Student All-Access Pass. Contact info@africanfilmny.org for information about attending the Opening Night Party.

The festival kicks off on May 1 at 6:30pm at the Africa Center with a Town Hall forum featuring multidisciplinary artists and storytellers who will be exploring and expanding on the festival’s theme. It continues at Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem from May 15 to 17 and at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) under the name FilmAfrica from May 22 to May 28 during DanceAfrica, and culminates with an outdoor screening at St. Nicholas Park on May 30.

The programs of AFF are made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Bradley Family Foundation, Color Congress, NYC & Company, The New York Community Trust, French Cultural Services, Manhattan Portage, Organization de la Francophonie, Essentia Water, Ministre du Tourisme République démocratique du Congo, ZOPMEDIA, South African Consulate General, National Film and Video Foundation, and Motion Picture Enterprises.

 

FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
The Opening Night premiere of Promised Sky on May 6 will take place at
the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th Street).
All other films will screen at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (144 W. 65th Street).

 

Opening Night

Promised Sky
Erige Sehiri, 2025, France/Tunisia/Qatar, 95m
French and Arabic with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Marie, an Ivorian pastor and former journalist, has lived in Tunisia for 10 years. Her home becomes a refuge for Naney, a young mother seeking a better future, and Jolie, a student carrying her family’s expectations. With the arrival of Kenza, a little orphan girl and shipwreck survivor, Marie takes on the role of caregiver. As the four women grow closer, they navigate poverty, displacement, and the fragile bonds of a makeshift family in a tense social climate. Selected as the opening film in the 2025 Cannes Un Certain Regard program, the latest drama from director Erige Sehiri (Under the Fig Trees) features a stellar cast including César Award-nominated Aïssa Maïga (Bamako, Above Water, Toussaint Louverture) and Laetitia Ky.
Wednesday, May 6 at 6:30pm – Q&A with Aïssa Maïga and Laetitia Ky
Thursday, May 7 at 2:00pm


Centerpiece

The Eyes of Ghana
Ben Proudfoot, U.S./Ghana/U.K., 2025, 90m
English, Twi, and Ga with English subtitles
Documentarian Chris Hesse captured the birth of African independence in the 1950s and ’60s on film as personal cinematographer to Kwame Nkrumah, the iconic African leader who helped lead Ghana to independence and served as its first president. Now 93 years old and facing impending blindness, Hesse and passionate young Ghanaian filmmaker Anita Afonu race against time to rescue and repatriate a secret trove of more than 1,000 films that were long thought to be destroyed by Nkrumah. Never seen by the public, these films may not only rewrite Ghanaian and African history, but world history itself. Ben Proudfoot, a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Short Film, crafts their inspirational journey into a stunning feature documentary. The Eyes of Ghana was executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama and won the Audience Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Friday, May 8 at 5:45pm – Q&A with Ben Proudfoot


Closing Night

Shorts Program 3: The Art of Protection
109m
This program includes Shiloh Tumo Washington’s Bailey’s Blues; Justice Rutikara’s Ibuka, Justice; Catherine E. McKinley, Mamadou Tapily, and Marc Lesser’s Keïta La; Aminata Drynie Bockarie’s Where the Water Meets Us; Nimco Sheikhaden’s Exodus; Klein Ongaki’s The Land Smiles Back; Abdelkrim Boughoud’s Eauquation – Water Distribution at Douiret-Sbâa; and Marwa Eltahir’s 99 Names: My Liberation Is Tied to Yours.
Tuesday, May 12 at 8:00pm

Bailey’s Blues
Shiloh Tumo Washington, 2025, U.S., 11m
English and French with English subtitles
New York Premiere
In 1960s France, a Chicago-born jazz bassist is pulled into an impromptu filmed interview during a festival. What begins as a routine exchange quickly shifts into a tense confrontation between subject and camera. Bailey’s Blues unfolds as an unfinished document, where jazz becomes a conduit for deeper truths about resistance and identity.

Ibuka, Justice
Justice Rutikara, 2024, Canada, 23m
French and Kinyarwanda with English subtitles
New York Premiere
During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Valentine and Jean-Claude risk everything to flee with their newborn, a journey captured in this poetic animated odyssey.

Keïta La
Catherine McKinley, Mamadou Tapily, Marc Lesser, 2025, U.S./Mali, 10m
English, French, and Bambara with English subtitles
Named after photographer Seydou Keïta’s family compound established in Bamako-Coura, Mali, in the early 1900s, on the edge of which stood his famous studio, Keïta La offers a glimpse into the world of Keïta’s artistry and his family’s efforts to steward and preserve his legacy.

Where the Water Meets Us
Aminata Drynie Bockarie, 2026, Sierra Leone, 10m
English, Mende, Krio, and Shebro with English subtitles
World Premiere
The film shines a light on the long and rich history of Bonthe, a town on Sherbro Island, and the island’s immense contribution to the formation of Sierra Leone. Beyond celebrating its heritage, the film addresses the ongoing challenges threatening the island’s survival—climate change, mangrove loss, and rising sea levels—while highlighting a new generation rising to find solutions and safeguard its future.

Exodus
Nimco Sheikhaden, 2025, U.S., 35m
English and Spanish with English subtitles
Exodus is a portrait of two women granted release after decades of incarceration, navigating the uncharted terrain of freedom and facing both its promise and its barriers in their efforts to build a dignified life.

The Land Smiles Back
Klein Ongaki, 2025, Kenya, 4m
Samburu with English subtitles
North American Premiere
For generations, the Samburu people and their livestock have had a deep connection with water, depending on the rains for their survival. The Land Smiles Back is the story of the Samburu community in Westgate Conservancy, who made the land “smile” again by returning to ancient hydrotechnology.

Eauquation – Water Distribution at Douiret-Sbâa
Abdelkrim Boughoud, 2023, Morocco, 5m
Darija and Amazigh with English subtitles
This documentary explores the ancient water system of Douiret-Sbâa, Morocco, a remarkable network fed by a local spring that has sustained the community for centuries. Highlighting the ingenuity of traditional hydro-technologies, the film examines how these systems continue to shape life in arid lands today.

99 Names: My Liberation Is Tied to Yours
Marwa Eltahir, 2025, Sudan/U.S., 11m
English and Arabic with English subtitles
New York Premiere
99 Names is an immersive, audio-visual story that combines sonic rituals of oral storytelling, recitation of the Quran, and calling on the 99 names of Allah to venerate the Divine. The film asks audiences to sit with the grief of colonization within the Afro-Arab diaspora and invites them to imagine how we can collectively hold, transmute and release this weight.


Afrotōpia
David Mboussou, 2025, Gabon, 128m
French with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Ezekiel, a 25-year-old aspiring filmmaker, lives in the heart of the Congo Basin under the authority of his father, Maurice, a powerful businessman who opposes his artistic ambitions. When Ezekiel is forced to join the family logging business, he discovers that Maurice plans to exploit a sacred forest, the last refuge of an indigenous community. As he uncovers a buried colonial-era family secret, Ezekiel must choose between loyalty, personal freedom, and the fate of his people. Blending tradition and modernity to portray contemporary, cross-cultural Africa, Franco-Gabonese filmmaker David Mboussou’s “ecological manifesto” embraces the healing of historical wounds and explores the stigmatization of African cultures, the sacred link between people, nature, and spirit, and the resilience that shapes our future.
Saturday, May 9 at 2:45pm – Q&A with David Mboussou

Barni
Mohammed Sheikh, 2024, Somalia/Djibouti/U.S., 90m
Somali with English subtitles
New York Premiere
In a quaint Somali village where herding families coexist, an event disrupts the peace and 9-year-old Barni gets lost after a celebratory wedding, leaving the community in distress. Despite the exhaustive efforts of the village, Barni can’t be found, leaving her older sister Amina and her friends Hirsi and Geedi to set out on a journey to the city to locate her. Mohammed Sheikh’s directorial debut feature looks at the daily life and struggles faced by Somali communities, and its power lies in transforming a tragic disappearance into a celebration of courage, loyalty, and humanity.
Saturday, May 9 at 6:00pm – Q&A with Mohammed Sheikh


4K Restoration

Caméra arabe
Férid Boughedir, 1987, Tunisia/France, 65m
Arabic and French with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere of Restoration
Férid Boughedir’s Caméra arabe is a fast-paced documentary exploring the rise of politically engaged cinema in North Africa and the Middle East from the 1960s onward. Through film clips and filmmaker testimonies, it links this cinematic movement to major historical events like the Six-Day War and the Lebanon War, highlighting how directors grappled with questions of identity and expression. Featuring key voices such as Mohamed Lakhdar-Hamina and Youssef Chahine, the film stands as a passionate tribute to a bold, independent wave of Arab cinema. Writing in Variety upon its 1987 release, Anthony Yung says “Chahine’s intelligent, anguished battle to describe Arabs’ shaken sense of their own identity in a world rocked by dramatic political events rather sums up the film.”
Tuesday, May 12 at 5:45pm – Q&A with Férid Boughedir


2K Restoration

Caméra d’Afrique
Férid Boughedir, 1983, Tunisia/France, 95m
English and French with English subtitles
Seventy years after the invention of cinema—and after several decades of colonial cinema using Africa as an exotic setting, often denying humanity and dignity to its people—newly independent Africans finally took hold of the movie camera. Undeterred by the lack of means and infrastructure, they showed African reality in its variegated forms, seen at last through African eyes. Using extracts from significant films, interviews with filmmakers, and rare vintage footage, Caméra d’Afrique recalls the first 20 years of the new auteur cinema of sub-Saharan Africa, which bears witness to an indefatigable—and still-enduring—drive for self-expression. As a critic, historian, and filmmaker, director Férid Boughedir has played a central role in championing early African cinema, shaping how it has been preserved, studied, and understood across generations. 2K restoration from the original 16mm print done by the Laboratory of the CNC with the support of L’Institut français.

Followed by an extended conversation with Férid Boughedir and an audience-led Q&A, offering a rare opportunity to engage more deeply with Boughedir’s practice and legacy. As a key figure in this year’s festival, and as NYAFF’s honored pioneer, the expanded format creates space for reflection across his body of work. It highlights the enduring connections between sub-Saharan and North African cinemas, and revisits ongoing questions of authorship, memory, and self-representation that continue to resonate today. The conversation invites audiences into a thoughtful and sustained dialogue with one of the defining voices in the history of African cinema.
Saturday, May 9 at 12:00pm – Extended conversation with Férid Boughedir

 

4K Restoration

En résidence surveillée
Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, 1981, Senegal, 102m
French and Wolof with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere of Restoration
The only feature-length fiction film by pioneering Senegalese filmmaker Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, whose seminal work Afrique sur Seine (1955) was the first film made entirely by Africans, En résidence surveillée unfolds in a fictional African state caught in the grip of political and economic turmoil. Through satire and keen observation, the film follows a society grappling with corrupt leadership, media controlled by the authorities, and the forced exile of political figures. A visionary filmmaker and incisive analyst of post-independence Africa, Vieyra captures the complexities and contradictions of governance and public life with striking clarity. Decades after its release, his children championed the restoration of this extraordinary political satire, bringing renewed attention to both the film and their father’s enduring legacy.

 

Preceded by:

N’Dobine
Ahmad Cissé, 2026, U.S., 6m
World Premiere
N’Dobine follows a traveler navigating his heart and past, guided by ritual and spirituality, as an unforeseen obstacle tests his journey of offering.

and

Vieyra, The Innovative Pioneer
Stéphane Soumanou Vieyra, 2025, France, 9m
French with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Vieyra, The Innovative Pioneer imagines a virtual encounter between pioneering Senegalese filmmaker Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and his grandsons during a visit to a museum retracing his life, highlighting his childhood, his encounters, his studies, and his work.
Monday, May 11 at 8:15pm – Q&A with Ahmad Cissé and Stéphane Soumanou Vieyra

 

The Heart Is a Muscle
Imran Hamdulay, 2025, South Africa/Saudi Arabia, 86m
English and Afrikaans with English subtitles
New York Premiere
At his son’s fifth birthday barbecue, Ryan panics when the boy suddenly goes missing. His violent reaction to the scare sets off a chain of events that exposes long-buried secrets from his past. As tensions rise among friends and old wounds resurface, Ryan is forced to confront who he has been and who he wants to become. A redemption story deeply infused with hip-hop culture, Imran Hamdulay’s debut feature won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at 2025 Berlinale Panorama and was South Africa’s official entry for Best International Feature at the 2026 Academy Awards. Hamdulay has been featured on CNN’s Inside Africa as one of “Africa’s directors to watch.”
Monday, May 11 at 5:45pm – Q&A with Imran Hamdulay

 


Lace Relations
Anette Baldauf, Chioma Onyenwe, Joana Adesuwa Reiterer, Katharina Weingartner, 2025, Nigeria/Austria, 88m
German, English, and Yoruba with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Lace Relations uncovers the hidden histories of a global trade that connected Vorarlberg, Austria, to the bustling markets of Lagos, Nigeria. Through the intertwined lives of an Austrian lace exporter and a Nigerian market queen, this colorful, expansive documentary reveals how colonial legacies shaped a multimillion-dollar industry—enriching Europe while contributing to the collapse of West Africa’s indigenous textile economy. Combining on-location encounters and a powerful sociodramatic method, the film shifts the lens: Who tells the story? Who profits? Who remembers? Directed collectively by filmmakers from Austria and Nigeria, Lace Relations is not simply about textiles. It is about colonialism, memory, gendered resistance—and the patterns of power that continue to shape our world.
Sunday, May 10 at 3:30pm – Q&A with Katharina Weingartner and film subject Ireti Bakare-Yusuf


My Father and Qaddafi
Jihan, 2025, U.S./Libya, 88m
Arabic, English, and French with English subtitles
New York Premiere
When director Jihan was 6, her father, the Libyan opposition leader Mansur Rashid Kikhia, disappeared. Her first documentary, My Father and Qaddafi—which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won the Jury Prize at the Marrakech International Film Festival—takes us on a raw and reflective journey as she sets out to piece together the life of a father she barely remembers. She retraces the 19-year journey of her mother, a strong-willed Syrian-American artist, encounters family members and her father’s peers, and revisits historical archive footage, along the way discovering the troubled history and politics of Libya. What begins as a mystery brings her closer to her father and her Libyan identity. “Making this documentary helps me understand the importance of a father figure and the impact of losing a father on a family, a community, and even a country,” Jihan has said.
Thursday, May 7 at 5:30pm – Q&A with Jihan


Rumba Royale
Hamed Mobasser, Yohane Dean Lengol, 2025, Democratic Republic of the Congo/Belgium/France/U.S., 97m
French with English subtitles
North American Premiere
In 1959 Léopoldville, the legendary Rumba Royale nightclub pulses with the rhythms of Congolese rumba in the final days of Belgian colonial rule. Daniel, a young photographer, captures the life of the club through his lens and grows close to Olive, an ambitious waitress with dreams beyond the dance floor. As personal ambitions, colonial hierarchies, and the city’s shifting political climate collide, the fragile world surrounding the nightclub begins to unravel. Congolese star Fally Ipupa, known as the “Prince of Rumba,” makes his big-screen debut in Hamed Mobasser and Yohane Dean Lengol’s captivating historical thriller.
Sunday, May 10 at 6:00pm – Q&A with Hamed Mobasser and Yohane Dean Lengol


So Long a Letter
Angèle Diabang, 2025, Senegal, 105m
French and Wolof with English subtitles
Ramatoulaye,a 50-year-old mother of seven children and headmistress of a primary school in Dakar, is shocked when her husband of 30 years decides to take a second wife—a 20-year-old. In a quest for freedom that leads to rebellion, she must find a balance between the Western ways she values and the traditions she respects. An adaptation of the seminal 1979 novel by Senegalese writer Mariama Bâ, widely regarded as one of the first feminist literary works of modern Africa, Angèle Diabang’s feature debut illustrates very different views of women’s roles in contemporary African society.
Friday, May 8 at 8:30pm – Q&A with Angèle Diabang


The Soul of Africa
Gabriel Souleyka, 2025, France/U.S./Togo, 67m
English and French with English subtitles
World Premiere
The first feature documentary by author and African historian Gabriel Souleyka delves into the heart of African spirituality, exploring its deep roots and its evolution across centuries, exploring a fundamental question: What were the spiritual beliefs and practices of African peoples before the arrival of Christianity and Islam on the Continent? It features captivating images and moving testimonies at the 10th Festival of Black Divinities, held in Togo in 2025, a cultural and spiritual event that celebrates ancestral traditions and African deities—its rituals, dances, songs, and ceremonies serve as a thread to explore the wealth of pre-colonial African spiritualities. Through expert interviews, immersive festival sequences, and philosophical reflections, The Soul of Africa highlights the resilience of spiritual tradition despite outside influences and examines its place in contemporary Africa, offering a vibrant journey into the heart of a continent where the sacred and the profane blend harmoniously. It is both a tribute to ancestral spiritualities and an invitation to discover Africa’s cultural foundations while questioning their future in a rapidly changing world.
Sunday, May 10 at 12:45pm


When Nigeria Happens
Ema Edosio Deelen, 2025, Belgium/Nigeria, 119m
English and Pidgin with English subtitles
New York Premiere
A bold, visually striking contemporary dance drama that had its world premiere at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival, When Nigeria Happens is a gripping story that follows a group of misfit dancers—Fagbo, Pokko, Lighter, Movement, Colos, and Poppy—who live for their art while defying societal expectations. Their tight-knit world is upended when Fagbo’s mother falls critically ill, leaving him in a desperate search for funds. As pressures mount, their bond and dreams are tested like never before. Amid increasing sacrifices, they must confront what it truly means to fight for love, identity, and a future in Nigeria.

Preceded by:

Akosua
Christian Saint, Mélissa Rouillé, 2023, Ghana, 7m
Twi with English subtitles
North American Premiere
In Kumasi, five lifelong friends known as “the Aunties” gather for a day of shared rituals shaped by decades of sisterhood. Through moments of dance, laughter, and prayer, their individual stories come together as one. Akosua is an intimate portrait of friendship, tradition, and the strength found in community.
Saturday, May 9 at 8:30pm – Q&A with Ema Edosio Deelen

New York African Film Festival Shorts Programs

Shorts Program 1: Crossings
90m
The program includes Tomisin Sarumi’s Departing, Johanna Makabi’s Happy Meal, Herrana Addisu’s The River, Eseoghene Obrimah’s Heartbreaks and Ocean Waves, Agathe Moubembé’s Faux Lion, Stephanie Adusei-Boateng’s Knotless, Rashida Seriki’s Leaving Ikorodu in 1999, and Chiemeka Offor’s Nwanne M Nwaanyi.
Thursday, May 7 at 8:30pm
Friday, May 8 at 3:00pm

Departing
Tomisin Sarumi, 2025, U.S., 2m
Three individuals enter a temple to summon the Yoruba Orishas through ritual, music, and dance. As colonial influence reshapes spiritual practice, these traditions begin to shift. Over time, the rituals are altered and Westernized, losing their original form. What once connected them to the divine begins to fade.

Happy Meal
Johanna Makabi, 2025, France, 18m
French with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Thirtysomething Dom is undergoing therapy. As the Christmas holidays come to an end, he is granted, for the first time in years, the right to spend a day alone with his daughters. A precious day… that he dreads seeing come to an end.

The River
Herrana Addisu, 2024, Ethiopia/U.S., 18m
Amharic with English subtitles
The River is a film honoring Ethiopian culture and women’s experiences, inspired by the director’s childhood home in Kebena. Through the story of the Kebena River, it explores systemic barriers women face around forced marriage, education, and water access, highlighting the vital role of water in daily life.

Heartbreaks & Ocean Waves
Eseoghene Obrimah, 2025, Nigeria, 4m
New York Premiere
Heartbreaks & Ocean Waves is an experimental short film that follows a young woman in the aftermath of emotional loss as she journeys toward rediscovery. Through the symbolic interplay of hair plaiting, dance, and spiritual reflection, the film explores the tension and harmony between the head, heart, and spirit. With a distinctive three-frame visual style and sound design inspired by ocean tides, the film invites viewers into an intimate, sensory meditation on healing, womanhood, and becoming.

Faux Lion
Agathe Moubembé, 2025, France/Senegal, 9m
Wolof with English subtitles
When he sneaks into a Simb—a festival where men dressed as lions dance to the rhythm of the sabars—Assane, a quiet young boy, sets in motion more than a simple punishment. What he experiences sends him on an initiatory journey through fear, myth, and ancestral transmission.

Knotless
Stephanie Adusei-Boateng, 2025, Ghana/U.S./U.K., 18m
English and Twi with English subtitles
World Premiere
When a Ghanaian-American woman relocates to Ghana in search of community and belonging, a friend’s wedding seems like the perfect opportunity to build connection, until a series of unsettling encounters forces her to confront the country’s unspoken beliefs and practices.

Leaving Ikorodu in 1999
Rashida Seriki, 2024, U.K./Nigeria, 18m
English and Yoruba with English subtitles
New York Premiere
In Ikorodu, young Momo spends her final day at home, playing football and savoring familiar streets with her aunty Fade and Fade’s fiancé, Mahmoud. During the road trip to the airport, Fade questions whether her niece’s departure from Nigeria is truly for the best. Small detours and tender moments reveal the weight of leaving, the pull of home, and the bonds that hold family together.

Nwanne M Nwaanyi
Chiemeka Offor, 2026, Nigeria, 3m
Igbo with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Nwanne M Nwaanyi is a visual journey tracing the intangible roots two sisters share, tethered by something far stronger than blood and deeper than soil. They meet again at the first place they ever called home, the womb, to cry out the songs of their mother’s mother, a tune known only to an Igbo woman.


Shorts Program 2: Go Back and Get It
112m
This program includes Femi Bajulaye and Emmanuel Oluwaseyi Bajulaye’s Ekun Omi, Josh Bridge’s Caleb, Judy Kibinge’s Goat, Karanja Ng’endo’s Of Kimani, Cecilia Zoppelletto’s Clichés, and Idris Elba’s Dust to Dreams.
Sunday, May 10 at 8:45pm
Tuesday, May 12 at 2:00pm

Ekun Omi
Femi Bajulaye, Emmanuel Oluwaseyi Bajulaye, 2024, Nigeria/U.K., 24m
English and Yoruba with English subtitles
New York Premiere
Agboogun confronts sorrow, heartbreak, and existential neurosis, aided by two apparitions, as he and the intertwined lives of Lagbaja and Omotola grapple with migration and the sacrifices that shape identity.

Caleb
Josh Bridge, 2025, U.K., 10m
English and Yoruba with English subtitles
World Premiere
A grandson attempts to connect with his Nigerian grandmother as the woman he once knew quietly begins to fade.

Goat
Judy Kibinge, 2025, Kenya, 29m
English, Swahili, and Kikuyu with English subtitles
New York Premiere
City lovebirds Suki and Benjamin travel to a remote goat farm, only for Suki to realize this isn’t the romantic getaway she imagined. Watched over by a towering Mugumo tree and an unusual cast of farm residents, vegetarian Suki is horrified by the brutal slaughter of a goat, triggering visions of an ancestral debt and a desperate race to escape what her bloodline owes.

Of Kimani
Karanja Ng’endo, 2026, Kenya, 14m
Kikuyu with English subtitles
World Premiere
Now an aging couple, Wanjiru and Kimani navigate the routines of marriage amid Kimani’s early-onset dementia. A wedding outing brings unexpected closeness, reminding them of love, memory, and shared history.

Clichés
Cecilia Zoppelletto, 2025, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 15m
French and Lingala with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
In a Kinshasa house, a visit unfolds between two couples where everything seems in place, yet something is slightly off. At the center, Pamela navigates the expectations of love and the roles imposed on her. Fragments of a recent event begin to surface, unsettling the present.

Dust to Dreams
Idris Elba, 2025, Nigeria, 20m
New York Premiere
Dust to Dreams marks Idris Elba’s first short film, following his award-winning feature directorial debut Yardie in 2018. K.Kay’s, a Lagos nightclub pulsating with aspiring musicians, masks a family drama. Milli, the tough owner facing a terminal illness, entrusts her legacy—the club—to Bisi, her shy but talented daughter. The unexpected return of a long-lost father stirs old emotions and tensions. Could music become their path to healing? Dust to Dreams explores love, legacy, and ambition, showing how music can unite, heal, and mend even the deepest divides.

 

Special Programs

 

36 Years at NYAFF Digital Exhibition
When Mahen Bonetti left her corporate career to establish African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) in 1990, she relied not on formal training but on a deep commitment and instinct for community-building. Soon, a dynamic network of filmmakers, artists, scholars, cultural workers, and industry professionals gathered to breathe life into the first African-centered film festival in the global cultural hub of New York City. Since then, the New York African Film Festival’s (NYAFF) story has been carefully documented and stored. In recent years, AFF has begun cataloguing these materials into an archival collection that includes approximately 3,000 rare film titles from more than 90 countries; an audiovisual archive with 90 magnetic tapes, 51 audiocassettes and microcassettes, and 163 optical media; more than 300 posters and hundreds of photographs; as well as extensive printed materials and festival records.

This digital exhibition presents selected moments from NYAFF’s larger collection, featuring never-before-seen interviews, discussions, and photographs with a host of pioneering figures and friends of the festival such as Ousmane Sembène, Safi Faye, Bill Greaves, Sarah Maldoror, Harry Belafonte, Rita Marley, Danny Glover, Wole Soyinka, Miriam Makeba, and Ossie Davis, amongst others. Presented alongside the exhibition are photographs documenting the communities brought together through NYAFF’s programs, parties, and events over the years. Key Archival Collection Funder: Ford Foundation, JustFilms; Archivist: Kirk Mudle; Exhibition Curator: Taylor Dews.
Select Hours on Thursday, May 7–Tuesday, May 12 – Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Moonshot Pilot Accelerator Opens 2026 Applications After Alum’s Success Story

Dev Shapiro
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Moonshot Pilot Accelerator Opens 2026 Applications After Alum’s Success Story

Applications for the Moonshot Pilot Accelerator open April 1 as the program celebrates its first major success story: the sale of an alum’s project to a production company.

As part of Moonshot Initiative’s push to increase the representation of women and gender-expansive folks in writers’ rooms and on screen, six to eight selected fellows will have the opportunity to pitch their TV pilots to studios, production companies and representation including Netflix, Level Forward, Atlantic Pictures and Yes, Norman. The nonprofit will announce many more participating companies soon; past companies have included HBO, Warner Bros., Showtime, Hulu, Starz, Amazon Studios, Neon, Broadway Video and many more.

Already, one fellow has sold a project to a production company she met through Moonshot.

“Because of a connection made by the program, I was able to pitch to a production company — and sold an audio series,” said 2021 fellow Kate Torgovnick May. “When it came time to staff my mini writers’ room, I turned to the Moonshot Accelerator alumni group and was able to hire another alum into the room. It’s a lab that made me grow and develop as a leader, and that plugged me into a community I’ll continue to draw from throughout my career.”

That’s how the alum she hired, Alex Friedman, ended up with her first paid writing gig — “not to mention the 10 pitches I got to do for my own pilot with huge companies and streamers” as part of the Pilot Accelerator, she said.

Before pitching, fellows will receive three weeks of intensive training, during which they’ll learn directly from industry insiders, including a development executive, showrunner, agent, manager, speech coach and entertainment lawyer. The program will culminate with a week of pitching to studios, production companies, representatives and financiers that are looking for new material and/or new writers.

“Moonshot Initiative is clearly doing something right — they’re curating the best of the best and creating real momentum around these filmmakers, not just spotlighting talent but actively helping take them to the next level,” said Elissa Federoff, Chief Distribution Officer at NEON. “I was honestly blown away by the quality of the work. The projects felt relevant and hip, with a strong point of view and a real understanding of the audience. You could feel how fully thought-through each story was — not just creatively, but from the standpoint of what the marketplace actually wants, while still feeling completely authentic.”

The selected fellows will be vetted by Moonshot’s panel of industry judges — showrunners, series creators and high-level TV writers.

“Everyone involved benefits from this program: Studios and production companies are looking for untapped talent, and our fellows get an incredible opportunity to hone their pitches and meet people who can catapult their careers to the next level,” Moonshot Initiative co-founder and co-executive director Tracy Sayre said. “Ultimately, it’s viewers who benefit the most from more diverse storytelling on screen.”

Past participants have seen great success; in addition to the fellow who sold a show, many fellows have been staffed, gotten representation, become mentees to executive producers, and been hired in support staff positions. One 2023 fellow is now developing a feature with a producer she met during Pitch Week.

“We’re providing our Moonshot Pilot Accelerator fellows with direct access to decision-makers in the industry,” Moonshot co-founder and co-executive director Katrina Medoff said. “Our fellows are talented writers with strong, completed pilot scripts but no way to get pitch meetings. If we want to increase gender equity in television, we need to create real ways for these writers to break in.”

This year’s program also brings the support of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MoME), whose grant guarantees that at least one emerging TV writer selected to the highly competitive program is a New York City resident.

Applications are open April 1 through May 27, and applicants can submit their pilot scripts through Scrybe. For more information, visit Moonshot’s website.

Moonshot Initiative was founded by Sayre and Medoff in 2017 to promote gender equity behind the camera and on screen. The nonprofit organization is best known for its signature film challenge that has produced 41 short films with over 1,000 women and gender-expansive professional filmmakers. Moonshot Initiative also hosts networking events and offers virtual education opportunities.

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