Festival of Cinema NYC 2023 announces films, events, and a home-grown honoree for August fest
Festival of Cinema NYC returns to the Regal UA Midway and the Queens Library at Forest Hills for its 7th year, August 3 – August 13.
The festival opens with Christina Kallas’ indie NYC favorite Paris Is In Harlem and closes with Anna Baumgarten’s multiple award-winning drama Disfluency.
Festival of Cinema NYC 2023
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Dito Montiel will be honored with FOC NYC’s inaugural Achievement in Filmmaking Award in conjunction with a special screening of his film, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, and Greg Brownderville and Bart Weiss’ groundbreaking Southern Gothic multi-media project Fire Bones will be presented live in New York City for the first time.
World premieres include Isaac Dell’s Boys At Twenty, and North American premieres include Aly Yeganeh’s Sibel’s Silence, Pelayo De Lario’s Tales of Babylon, and Cindy Drukier’s The Unseen Crisis: Vaccine Stories You Were Never Told.
Festival of Cinema NYC 2023 Pre Launch Party
After a pre-launch party inside Resorts World NYC’s famous 360º Bar and Lounge (110-0 Rockaway Blvd) on Wednesday, August 3, Festival of Cinema NYC will screen over 100 independent films from local filmmakers as well as world cinema representing countries that include Turkey, Spain, Denmark, The Philippines, Germany, and more.
New initiatives and presentations include participating in the Theaters Unsilenced Initiative. A nonprofit organization founded by three sisters in Queens whose mission is to spread awareness and provide educational resources and tools to help improve communication with the deaf and hard of hearing community. As part of the initiative, participating filmmakers have added subtitles and captioning to aid in making the festival accessible to individuals with hearing impairment.
This year, Festival of Cinema NYC has invited organizations that offer further resources to filmmakers. Phil Cappadora, founder of The Astoria Filmmaker Club, will host a seminar discussing how to get involved with the community of filmmakers based in Queens. The film festival will also include a special screening block of selected short films from members of Ghetto Film School – a Bronx-based organization dedicated to educating and developing the next generation of great storytellers. Other seminars include a presentation by entertainment lawyer Patrick Kondas, on the legalities of film making and contracts; cinematographer Ray Preziosi will be holding a Cinematography workshop; and crowdfunding expert Melissa Center will talk about raising funds for indie film production. In addition, this year’s festival welcomes FoHI Improv, giving attendees a chance to participate in an improv 101 demonstration, and an interactive presentation by members of The Station House Reading Series.
Also new this year will be the addition of a script writing competition where 13 un-produced scripts will compete for top honors. Attendees will be given the opportunity to attend a live staged reading of each of the 13 Finalists.
Along with its presentation of more than 100 screenings, and Festival of Cinema NYC’s popular Red Carpet entrances flush with seemingly countless filmmakers, actors, documentary subjects, and below-the-line talent, the festival will also offer filmmaking seminars and workshops, that are completely free and open to the public, at the Queens Library in Forest Hills. The jam-packed week and a half of screenings and events will conclude with an Awards Ceremony on August 13th at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center in Jamaica Queens.
Festival of Cinema NYC 2023 Founder and Executive Director Jayson Simba
Festival of Cinema NYC Founder and Executive Director Jayson Simba, said, “This year’s edition of the film festival embraces the idea of not simply screening our films and celebrating our filmmakers, but underlining the ‘festival’ in “’film festival’, by emphasizing the connection of filmmaker to audience member via our panels, discussions, and Q&As, focusing on our accessibility, and increasing the interactive nature of FOC NYC. It always begins and ends with great films, but it becomes special by highlighting why we love to come to the movie theater and the artistic accomplishments of our filmmakers.”
Christina Kallas’ drama Paris Is In Harlem opens the film festival on Thursday, August 4. The film involves the lives of several strangers intertwining during a shooting a jazz club in Harlem on the eve of New York City’s controversial “No Dancing” Law getting repealed. The screening will be preceded by Miguel Gallardo’s short film, Herizon. Anna Baumgarten’s Disfluency, a winner of several awards on the film festival circuit., closes FOC NYC on Sunday, August 13. The film follows a promising scholar who returns home without graduating as she deals with the PTSD resulting from the incident that sent her spiraling. The screening will be preceded by John Cappello’s short film, Floppies.
Festival of Cinema NYC 2023 Multi Media Creation
On Wednesday, August 9, Greg Brownderville and Bart Weiss will introduce NYC audiences to their one-of-a-kind multi-media creation, FIre Bones. A whimsical Southern Gothic shaggy dog story told in ten chapters via multiple mediums including podcasts, short films, music videos, poems, and still images. Fire Bones follows a poet and filmmaker who meet one crazy character after another as they investigate the mystery of a missing pilot and Pentecostal preacher who vanished on a transatlantic flight. Created with smartphones in mind, the project includes podcasts, short films, music videos, poems, and still images.
Dito Montiel, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
On Sunday, August 13, Dito Montiel will be honored with Festival of Cinema NYC’s inaugural Achievement in Filmmaking Award in conjunction with a special screening of his film, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006).The coming-of-age drama about a boy growing up in Astoria, New York during the 1980s, earned Montiel awards at Sundance and Venice, and launched his indie filmmaking career, including Fighting (2009) and The Son of No One (2011), both of which starred Channing Tatum, Empire State (2013) with Dwayne Johnson, Boulevard (2014) with Robin Williams, Man Down (2015) with Shia LaBeouf, and The Clapper (2017) with Ed Helms and Amanda Seyfried. The prolific filmmaker’s currently in production on the film Riff Raff, which will star Brian Cox, Jennifer Coolidge, and Gabrielle Union.
Festival of Cinema NYC 2023 World Premieres
World premieres include Isaac Dell’s Boys at Twenty which followsthe experiences of two post-teen boys sorting through their fraying friendship. Among the films making their North American premieres are Aly Yeganeh’s Sibel’s Silence about a young Iraqi woman forced into sexual slavery by ISIS until she is pulled out of her situation by a French woman
who tries to provide her with a normal life. Pelayo De Lario’s Tales of Babylon finds two siblings at the center of its story, who join forces with a pair of hitmen with a knack for the theatrical in their search for a new life. Cindy Drukier’s documentary The Unseen Crisis: Vaccine Stories You Were Never Told looks at the lives of those who live with the debilitating after-effects they claim were caused by COVID-19 vaccines.
Additional highlights include Alethea Root’s Good Side of Bad about a brother and sister who struggle to care for their sister dealing with mental illness, The film was recently the Opening Night selection at L.A’s Dances With Films. Linh Tran’s Waiting for the Light to Change follows the relationship machinations of high school friends reunited a year later during a week-long beachside getaway, with jealousies, unrequited crushes and more coming to light. The film, recently picked up by Byron Allen’s Freestyle Digital Media, won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance earlier this year. Quark Henares’ Trans catfishing drama Where Is The Lie? focuses on a hopeless romantic girl who is randomly targeted by a sociopathic mastermind. Matthew Taylor’s documentary Gotham: The Fall and Rise of New Yorklooks at the largely untold story of New York City’s revival and revitalization of its infrastructure and neighborhoods with an eye toward how it could be duplicated in other major cities across the country.
Tickets for Festival of Cinema NYC 2023
Tickets for the 2023 Festival of Cinema NYC can be purchased beginning July 5th by visiting FestivalofCinemaNYC.com. General admission tickets begin at $18 per screening block ($35 for opening and closing night films which include entry to the afterparty), with discounts offered to seniors and individuals with disabilities. Tickets can also be purchased to the Closing Awards Dinner for $75. All programming at the Queens Library at Forest Hills is free and open to the public.
The 2023 festival is supported by The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York Department of Cultural Affairs, and The New York State Council on the Arts. Support from all three major foundations is a testament to the organizer’s passion for community, education, and advocacy through film exhibition. Sponsors for this year’s festival include Resort World Gives, NYC & Company Foundation, Ponce Bank, the Queens Library, and Regal Cinemas. Prizes are being offered by Soundview Media Partners, Stage 32, Inktip, Videomaker Magazine, and Silver Sound Studios.
2023 FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
OPENING NIGHT SELECTION
Paris is in Harlem
Director: Christina Kallas
Country: USA; Running Time: 110 min
On the eve of New York City’s controversial “No Dancing” Law getting repealed, the lives of several strangers are forever changed by a shooting at a historic jazz bar in Harlem.
Preceded by
Herizon
Director: Miguel Gallardo
Country: USA; Running Time: 7 min
A woman’s escape to the beach becomes a desperate quest for self-liberation when she’s confronted with an enigmatic force of nature. As the sun sets, the boundaries between reality and metaphor quickly begin to disappear.
Festival of Cinema NYC 2023
CLOSING NIGHT SELECTION
Disfluency
Director: Anna Baumgarten
Country: USA; Running Time: 96 min
After unexpectedly failing her final college class, Jane, an aspiring speech pathologist, retreats home to her parent’s lake house in the hometown she grew up in. Her sister and friends soften the burden of failure, inspiring her to embrace the carefree summer as she tries to sort out what to do next. She also rekindles an old friendship with her neighbor Amber, a single mother with a difficult toddler, utilizing her skills and knowledge to help her connect with her son. Jane, however, fights through PTSD and imposter syndrome as she attempts to piece together what exactly happened in order to unravel the emotional and psychological tangle that has been haunting her as she finds a path forward toward the never-ending process of healing.
Preceded by
Floppies
Director: John Cappello
Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min
Floppies is an intimate glimpse into the complicated relationship between an artist son and his dementia-addled father as they attempt to communicate by collaborating on a one page comic. As they bring this comic to life, they recall flashbacks to key moments in each of their lives.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS AND PRESENTATIONS
A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints (2006)
Director: Dito Montiel
Country: USA, Running Time: 100 min
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, filmed in Queens, NY, is a coming-of-age drama about a boy growing up in Astoria, New York during the 1980s. As his friends end up dead, on drugs or in prison, he comes to believe he has been saved from their fates by various so-called saints. The film features performances by Robert Downey Jr., Shia LaBeouf, Chazz Palminteri, Dianne West, Channing Tatum, and Rosario Dawson.
Fire Bones
Directors: Greg Brownderville, Bart Weiss
Country: USA; Running Time: 90 min
Told in ten chapters via multiple mediums including podcasts, videos, poems, and songs, Fire Bones follows the journey of a poet and filmmaker as they explore the mystery of a drop-duster pilot and Pentecostal preacher who vanished on a transatlantic flight. The two men encounter one eccentric character after another as their trip brings them closer to the truth of her story and ultimate destination.
ADDITIONAL NARRATIVE FEATURES
Boys at Twenty World Premiere
Director: Isaac Dell
Country: USA; Running Time: 76 min
Over a summer weekend at his country home, a 20-year-old boy and his increasingly distant best friend relive their childhoods, while silently navigating a changing friendship.
Crash the System
Director: Kamal Ahmed
Country: USA; Running Time: 75 min
An ex-conman unwillingly becomes a pawn to the industrial weapons industry and tries to overthrow them when he meets up with an underground group of saboteurs who are iconoclastic.
D.O.A.
Director: Kurt St.Thomas
Country: USA; Running Time: 82 min
Private detective Frank Bigelow accepts a routine assignment from a wealthy socialite only to discover that he’s been fatally poisoned; with just days to live, he must unwind a tangle of conspiracies to figure out who “killed” him and why. He also confronts the toxic effects of his own isolation. Can he solve the mystery, exact revenge, and save his soul before time runs out? D.O.A. stars John Doe, founding member of legendary punk band X.
Ghosts of the Void
Director: Jason Miller
Country: USA; Running Time: 91 min
Jen Wilson has hit hard times; after years struggling to support her husband Tyler in following his dream, their debt has caught up with them, and they’ve been evicted from their home. With forty dollars to their name, Jen and Tyler decide to spend the night in their car, finding a secluded park in what they believe to be a safe neighborhood. But as they settle in, Jen, fighting exhaustion and overwhelmed by anxiety, cannot shake the feeling that they are being watched. Eventually, that paranoia seems to be validated when they discover that someone has snuck a tire boot onto their car during their fleeting moments of sleep. Now, stuck in this parking lot, harassed by people lurking in the shadows, Jen and Tyler’s facade of loving support begins to slip. Soon, the lines between reality and paranoia will blur as Jen must confront their masked tormentors…and the path that led her and Tyler to this void of hopelessness.
The Goldsmith
Director: Vincenzo Ricchiuto
Country: Italy; Running Time: 89 min
A home invasion thriller with a bloody twist, The Goldsmith offers plenty of violent fun as three burglars learn that crime can be a deadly career. Childhood friends and now adult criminals, Stefano, Roberto and Arianna concoct a simple plan: break into an elderly couple’s home and find the valuables in the old man’s hidden jewelry workshop. But not this night and not this house, as the doddering couple (Giuseppe Fregni and Stefania (Suspiria) Casini) prove not as helpless as they may seem for underneath those wrinkles are two totally fucked up killers. The thieves soon become victims as they are locked in a soundproof room and become the experimental guinea pigs for this deranged couple. What begins as a seemingly normal crime thriller soon morphs into a blood and eye sockets horror romp in Vincenzo Ricchiuto debut feature.
Good Side of Bad
Director: Alethea Root
Country: USA; Running Time: 96 min
Three adult siblings are brought back together after a shocking diagnosis forces them to confront harsh future realities regarding the mental state of one of their own. A raw and intimate look into what it means to be a family navigating the waters of mental illness, Good Side of Bad film dives into humanity’s dark places while illuminating the love, laughter, and light discovered when you reconnect with those closest to you. Based on the bestselling book The Good Side of Bad, this raw family drama touches on our shared human experience of disconnectedness, and how connecting to each other is ultimately the best way to help one another.
Guy Friends
Director: Jonathan Smith
Country: USA; Running Time: 84 min
Jaime Sharma is a self-described “guy’s girl” who lives in an upscale Manhattan apartment with her lawyer boyfriend and who works as an assistant to a famous architect. All her life, she’s only been friends with men. After Jaime and her boyfriend temporarily split, all of her guy friends profess their secret, undying love for her. Jaime turns to Ted, her best friend from college who just moved to the city, for his typical, gentle advice. Instead, she’s challenged by advice from Ted’s brash girlfriend Sandy, who, for the first time in Jaime’s life, tests Jaime’s views about male friendship and about herself.
Miss Viborg
Director: Marianne Blicher
Country: Denmark; Running Time: 100 min
Former beauty queen and senior citizen Solvej lives alone with her dog in a social housing area on the outskirts of Danish provincial town Viborg. Each day, she performs the same old routines roaming around on her scooter dealing her prescription drugs, dreaming of a world outside Viborg and reminiscing over old love letters from her past. When unforeseen circumstances bring her neighbour’s daughter, rebellious 17-year-old Kate into her life, an unlikely friendship forms and new hope for the future emerges.
Sibel’s Silence North American Premiere
Director: Aly Yeganeh
Country: France; Running Time: 95 min
In August 2014, ISIS militants attacked and captured the town of Sinjar, a Yazidi enclave in northwest Iraq. After her entire family was murdered, 13-year-old Sibel was taken prisoner and forced into sexual slavery. Hana is an ophthalmologist living in a small town in central France. She cannot bear the atrocities committed against Yazidi women. Hana pays a ransom to Sibel’s captors, then adopts her, and they return to France, where Hana tries to provide her with a normal life filled with nurturing love.
The Sound of Southside
Director: Tyrel Hunt
Country: USA; Running Time: 78 min
In a rapidly gentrifying Queens NYC, Maliki — a young Jazz musician — sets out on a journey to continue his father’s legacy and reopen his famous Jazz club. Along the way he meets Afeni, a passionate, yet homesick actress from Jamaica. When Maliki secretly accepts an ill-advised donation from a local philanthropist, he finds himself in a web of corruption and deceit. As he attempts to navigate his way out, Afeni toils with a secret of her own.
Stars
Director: Mars Roberge
Country: USA, Canada; Running Time: 108 min
A group of homeless women must learn that a glimmer of hope is worth more than all the money in the world. Based on the play by Doron Braunshtein, Bianca is an undercover police officer hiding in a NYC women’s shelter to help clean up the neighborhood crime and protect women, all while trying to deal with the loss of her family who were recently killed by a drunk driver. The women who share a room with Bianca all have the nicknames of the celebrities they hide from their lives by imitating: Madonna, Oprah, Lauren Hutton, Martha Stewart and Juliette ‘Lucifer’ Lewis. This same group of individuals are plagued by drug addiction, prostitution, gambling, depression, incest, racism, schizophrenia and violent tendencies yet they need each other for survival.
Tales of Babylon North American Premiere
Director: Pelayo De Lario
Country: UK; Running Time: 126 min
Escaping from their abusive mobster grandfather, two siblings will join forces with a pair of hitmen with a knack for the theatrical in their search for a new life in this tale of crime, violence, and redemption. Crime, money and violence in London are at the centre of this tale of modern Babylon.
There´s No Place Like Home
Director: Puk Grasten
Country: Denmark; Running Time: 106 min
The movie is based on the self-biographical novel “The One Who Lives Quietly” by Leonora Christina Skov. It is an Oedipus the King story: you are born with a predestined fate you cannot escape. Leonora’s fate is her social heritage. When her mother dies her father manipulates Leonora to come back home to fulfill the role of her mother. The father gaslights Leonora to believe that she is sick like her mother, and he must protect her. Leonora gets lost in her father’s reality and must break free.
Waiting for the Light to Change
Director: Linh Tran
Country: USA; Running Time: 89 min
Over the course of a week-long beachside getaway, Amy, having recently undergone dramatic weight loss, finds herself wrestling between loyalty to her best friend Kim and her attraction to Kim’s new boyfriend.
Where Is The Lie?
Director: Quark Henares
Country: Philippines; Running Time: 87 min
Hopeless romantic Janzen Torres finds another chance at love when she matches with the handsome and seemingly perfect Theo Balmaceda on a dating app. Unfortunately, on the day of their meet-up, Theo ghosts her, leading Janzen into an intricate web of deceit, lies, and catfishing led by sociopathic mastermind Beanie Landridos.
DOCUMENTARIES
Aurora’s Sunrise
Director: Inna Sahakyan
Country: Armenia, Germany, Lithuania; Running Time: 96 min
At only 14 years old, Aurora lost everything during the horror of the Armenian genocide. Two years later, through luck and extraordinary courage, she escaped to New York, where her story became a media sensation. Starring as herself in Auction of Souls, an early Hollywood blockbuster, Aurora became the face of one of the largest charity campaigns in American history. With a blend of vivid animation, interviews with Aurora herself, and 18 minutes of surviving footage from her lost silent epic, Aurora’s Sunrise revives a forgotten story of survival.
The Book of Harth
Director: Pierre Guillet
Country: USA; Running Time: 63 min
For 20 years, conceptual artist David Greg Harth carried a Bible with him every single day, seeking signatures from the most culturally significant people in the world. In The Book of Harth, filmmaker Pierre Guillet follows the artist during the final year of his absurd quest, trailing him to scenes of frenetic celebrity worship. As Harth secures signatures behind stage doors, in city streets, and on the fringes of red carpets, Guillet cops spontaneous interviews with previous signees, from Noam Chomsky to Kevin Smith. As the last hours of his magnum opus draw to a close, Harth struggles to reconcile the project’s meaning with its personal cost.
Copyright Infringement
Director: David Sabshon
Country: USA; Running Time: 105 min
Contemporary Artist, CJ Hendry, creates a global scavenger hunt for her artwork in her annual exhibition, Copyright Infringement. The film explores the law of copyright infringement, social media’s effect on the art world, and the value systems of the contemporary art market.
Gotham: The Fall and Rise of New York
Director: Matthew Taylor
Country: USA; Running Time: 124 min
Today, the world sits at a unique moment in urban city history. Our cities are falling apart. Rampant homelessness, increasing crime, mounting drug use, unaffordable housing – once a beacon of innovation and success, today our cities are failing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. New York City faced the worst challenges in its past and managed to overcome them. More than ever, the country needs to know the story of New York’s revival. Politicians need to understand how this happened to have an example to model the future. Community leaders need to recognize the grassroots efforts that turned New York around and the policies that contributed to her rehabilitation. And residents need hope that things will get better and encouragement that it is worth staying and contributing to help their city recover. We need a blueprint on how to revitalize and save our great cities. Nothing could be more important than telling the story of the transformation of New York and its revival in the words and through the stories of those who were there and did the work.
The Unseen Crisis: Vaccine Stories North American Premiere
You Were Never Told
Director: Cindy Drukier
Country: Canada; Running Time: 89 min
The Unseen Crisis: Vaccine Stories You Were Never Told provides an intimate, uncensored look into the lives of those who live with the debilitating after-effects of the COVID-19 vaccines. It examines the issue of COVID-19 vaccine injury claims in a fresh, honest, and comprehensive manner with expert interviews, whistleblowers’ statements, and government health statistics. The film features some patients who suffered severe reactions to the shots and had their health spiral out of control. When they reached out to the public health system and pharmaceutical companies for help and support, instead of being acknowledged, cared for, and studied, they were ignored, censored, and called “anti-vaxxers” despite having gotten the shot.
SHORT FILMS
A Real Adventure
Director: Ingela Ogard
Country: Sweden; Running Time: 17 min
A Tiger in the Subway
Director: James Abrams
Country: USA; Running Time: 9 min
Aaron With 2 A’s
Director: Michael Goldburg
Country: USA; Running Time: 17 min
Advantages of NOT Being in the Same Room
Director: Geoffrey Alexander Altrocchi
Country: USA; Running Time: 5 min
Adventures of the Fboys
Director: James C. Watson
Country: USA; Running Time: 10 min
The Ankou, the Child and the Bandits World Premiere
Director: Simon Vautier
Country: France; Running Time: 32 min
Another Day On 73rd St
Director: Michael Mendoza
Country: USA; Running Time: 21 min
Art
Director: Alex Martins
Country: USA; Running Time: 9 min
Autumn Leaves Fall Far From Home North American Premiere
Director: Matthew Petti
Country: USA; Running Time: 11 min
Bondage on 14th Street World Premiere
Director: Jeffrey Johnson
Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min
Brenda and Billy (and the Pothos Plant)
Director: Dave Solomon
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 min
Bring it to the People
Director: Luis Palomino
Country: USA; Running Time: 36 min
Brontë
Directors: Mateo Márquez, Allison Strong
Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min
The Ankou, the Child and the Bandits World Premiere
Director: Simon Vautier
Country: France; Running Time: 32 min
The Caddy
Director: Gabriel Beristain
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 min
Can’t Get It Right
Director: Cierra Colier
Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min
Cold Eggs, Hot Coffee World Premiere
Director: Sam Adelman
Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min
Come Find Me
Director: Nela Wagman
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min
The Coolest Club
Director: Sheng Ting Shen
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min
The Coral Reef Chronicles
Director: Zhuoyin He
Country: USA; Running Time: 5 min
Cuando La Rumorosa Calla
Director: Patricia Montoya
Country: Mexico; Running Time: 16 min
Diversion (Politics of)
Director: Simon Heymans
Country: Belgium; Running Time: 17 min
Dogs In The Ocean World Premiere
Director: Gareth Francis Williams
Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min
Duane Bruton World Premiere
Director: Duane Bruton
Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min
Erik
Director: David Kodheli
Country: Albania; Running Time: 23 min
Events at Hemlock Manor
Director: Katie North
Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min
Faith in Blackness: An Exploration of AfroLatine Spirituality
Director: Charles Reynoso
Country: USA; Running Time: 27 min
Fear of Poetry World Premiere
Directors: Marla Cotovsky, Nish Nishimura
Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min
Fever
Director: Angele Cooper
Country: USA; Running Time: 19 min
Finding Something You Lost World Premiere
Director: Eric Kwasnjuk
Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min
Fog of War
Director: Steven Lundgren
Country: USA; Running Time: 20 min
Forensic Psychologist World Premiere
Director: Bizhan Tong
Country: Hong Kong; Running Time: 32 min
Four Walls – Episode 1
Directors: Kgosana Monchusi, Menzi Mzimela, Juvaiś Dunn
Country: South Africa; Running Time: 6 min
From Chile to Canada: Media Herstories
Directors: Sarah Shamash, Sonia Medel
Country: Canada; Running Time: 16 min
Gareth Francis Williams
Director: Kim Hlavac
Country: USA; Running Time: 5 min
Good Grief
Director: Rob Sharp
Country: UK; Running Time: 10 min
Helado
Director: Melissa Rodriguez
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 min
How Did That Happen?!
Director: Laurence Shanet
Country: USA; Running Time: 27 min
Human Nature
Director: Michael Cutrone
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 min
The Hunt
Director: Yann Reuzeau
Country: France; Running Time: 23 min
I Could Eat
Director: Rick Bedrosian
Country: USA; Running Time: 28 min
Interviewing Guillaume Bogaert
Director: Fabrice Chan
Country: België; Running Time: 24 min
Kogershin North American Premiere
Director: Malik Zenger
Country: Kazakhstan; Running Time: 5 min
LifeQuest
Director: Richard Lounello
Country: USA; Running Time: 26 min
Look Like You
Director: Snigdha Kapoor
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min
Loved
Director: D.J. Higgins
Country: USA; Running Time: 14 min
Mariposas
Director: Adrian Carey
Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min
Miracle on 74th Street North American Premiere
Director: JT Doran
Country: USA; Running Time: 7 min
My First Car World Premiere
Director: Wendy Wilkins
Country: USA; Running Time: 7 min
My Foot Hurts
Director: Bjørn Johnson
Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min
My Holographic Heart
Director: Kai Brown
Country: USA; Running Time: 12 min
Naked Men in the Woods
Director: Paul Ploberger
Country: Austria; Running Time: 30 min
Nala
Director: Darshan Singh Bhuller
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min
Nothing Happened
Director: Katya Yakubov
Country: USA; Running Time: 16 min
The Ocean Listens to No One World Premiere
Director: Jasiel Louison
Country: Iceland; Running Time: 19 min
Old T-Shirts
Director: Michelle O’Shea
Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min
The Online Shop
Director: Carsten Woike
Country: Germany; Running Time: 12 min
Overdue
Director: Melissa Skirboll
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 min
Pearly Gates
Director: Loring Murtha
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 min
Pillow Talk
Director: David B. Jacobs
Country: USA; Running Time: 5 min
Radiant Ties
Directors: Conner De Mita, Logan Floyd
Country: USA; Running Time: 3 min
Remain
Director: Kit Reilly
Country: New Zealand; Running Time: 3 min
The Right Thing
Director: Fion Sin
Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min
Rings
Director: Thailer Fox
Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min
Roses in the Night
Director: Pencho Kunchev
Country: Bulgaria; Running Time: 11 min
Salvation
Director: Zane
Country: Canada; Running Time: 3 min
The Scenario
Director: Evan Richards
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min
Scrawn
Director: Samuel Crow
Country: USA; Running Time: 8 min
Sedition, Seduction, Militia, Production
Director: Michael Franco
Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min
Short Draft
Director: Spyridon Papaspyrou
Country: Greece; Running Time: 23 min
Snail Mail
Director: Jay Stern
Country: USA; Running Time: 6 min
Soldiers North American Premiere
Director: Zhaoshuai Wu
Country: China; Running Time: 29 min
Static
Director: Jamin Mears
Country: USA; Running Time: 5 min
Sting Ray
Director: Joey Krulock
Country: USA; Running Time: 11 min
Subterranean Love (Olga)
Director: Robert Haufrecht
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 min
Takbir
Director: Jordi Calvet
Country: Spain; Running Time: 14 min
The Third Defector
Director: John Gray
Country: USA; Running Time: 17 min
This City World Premiere at Festival of Cinema NYC 2023
Director: Jeff LeBeau
Country: USA; Running Time: 2 min
The Torture Within
Director: Sean Martinez
Country: USA; Running Time: 38 min
Una Carta a Mis Hijas North American Premiere at Festival of Cinema NYC 2023
Director: JT Doran
Country: USA; Running Time: 6 min
Whiskey Floats
Director: Rob Douthat
Country: USA; Running Time: 18 min
Why My Room Is Never Clean
Director: Sharice Lacson
Country: USA; Running Time: 4 min
Wicked Image
Director: Caitlin Scherer
Country: USA; Running Time: 9 min
Yellow Lines
Director: Megan Magee
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min
Your Silent Face World Premiere at Festival of Cinema NYC 2023
Director: Anna Capunay
Country: USA; Running Time: 19 min
Festival of Cinema NYC 2023
SCREENPLAY COMPETITION
Ann Arbor Pilot Vagina Dialogue
Writer: Richard Redlo
Dimo
Writer: Cory Choy
Godfor
Writer: Pablo Torroella
Lobby Card: Some Fabulous Rhapsody
Writer: Tom Morgan
Pickleball Killer
Writer: Jim Carroll
Real Heroes
Writer: Richard Hohenrath
The Reflections of Appletree Junction
Writer: Harvest Dawn Bellante
Sadist
Writer: Jennifer Anderson
Searching for Shadow
Writer: Marie Smalley
Shepherds Gone Wild
Writer: Joey Maranto
Skybound
Writer: Jordan Orlando
William LiPera
Writer: William LiPera
Witchblood
Writer: Richard Hohenrath
Festival of Cinema NYC returns to the Regal UA Midway and the Queens Library at Forest Hills for its 7th year, August 3 – August 13.