2 weeks ago
The Bentonville Film Festival has announced nan afloat lineup for nan upcoming 12th version of nan cinematic arena successful Northwest Arkansas.
The show founded by Walmart and led by Oscar victor Geena Davis will unfold from June 15-21, showcasing 34 title films including 5 world premieres. BFF opens Tuesday, June 16 pinch Family Movie, pinch director-producers Kevin Bacon and Kyra Segdwick successful attendance. The mates stars successful nan comedy-horror characteristic on pinch their daughter, Sosie Bacon and boy Travis Bacon (who service arsenic producers), arsenic good arsenic Scoot McNairy, Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley and more.
Family Movie “follows a filmmaking family who finds themselves successful a real-life scary movie erstwhile a assemblage turns up connected nan group of their low-budget slasher and chaos ensues to support nan accumulation connected track.” Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick will participate successful a moderated speech aft nan screening.
BFF will adjacent Sunday, June 21 pinch a typical screening of nan first section of Netflix’s Little House connected nan Prairie, a reboot of nan agelong moving NBC bid that premiered successful nan 1970s. Showrunner/executive producer/writer Rebecca Sonnenshine and stars of nan caller series, Crosby Fitzgerald and Alyssa Wapanatâhk, will participate successful a Q&A pursuing nan screening.
Little House connected nan Prairie “is portion hopeful family drama, portion epic endurance tale, and portion root communicative of nan American West. This caller adjustment of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s iconic semi-autobiographical Little House books offers a kaleidoscopic position of nan struggles and triumphs of those who shaped nan frontier.”
Sonnenshine will beryllium honored pinch nan Rising to nan Challenge Award astatine BFF’s yearly Festival Award Ceremony connected Saturday, June 20, an grant that “recognizes visionary artists whose activity expands opportunity, challenges convention, and helps style a much move and inclusive early for storytelling.”
“Rebecca Sonnenshine’s activity reflects nan very tone of nan Rising to nan Challenge Award,” noted Bentonville Film Festival Chair Geena Davis. “She creates stories pinch affectional depth, strength, and imagination while opening doors for broader perspectives to beryllium seen and celebrated connected screen. We’re honored to admit her contributions to storytelling and her committedness to creating activity that resonates crossed generations. As we participate our twelfth year, I’m incredibly proud of really Bentonville continues to turn arsenic a spot wherever artists, audiences, and manufacture leaders travel together to champion bold creativity, meaningful connection, and stories that bespeak nan richness of nan world astir us.”
Scroll for nan afloat Bentonville Film Festival lineup.
“We’re excited to footwear disconnected this year’s show pinch Family Movie, a classical summertime thriller that captures nan excitement, escapism, and communal acquisition that make going to nan movies truthful special,” said Wendy Guerrero, President and CEO of nan Bentonville Film Festival and BFFoundation. “Closing nan show pinch Little House connected nan Prairie; a timeless communicative generations of families person cherished. Together, these projects observe imagination, resilience, and nan powerfulness of storytelling to bring group together, spark caller perspectives, and animate maturation done shared experiences.”
Among different BFF highlights: nan show will big nan world premiere of Street Smart connected Thursday, June 18 arsenic its Centerpiece film. Director Catherine Hardwicke will return portion successful a Q&A pursuing nan film.
“Street Smart follows a lively group of thoroughfare kids successful Venice Beach thief each different pursuit their dreams – pinch humor, street-smarts, and Robin Hood larceny and stars Isabelle Fuhrman, Yara Shahidi, Michael Cimino and [Oscar winner] Marcia Gay Harden.”
Among further BFF world premieres are nan IVF-rights documentary Show Me nan Line and nan roadworthy travel drama Welcome to nan Fishbowl.
“Audiences will beryllium treated to individual narratives from world figures successful The Brittney Griner Story and nan Billie Jean King documentary Give Me nan Ball! produced by Liz Garbus,” notes a release. “Combined pinch nan ‘Coffee Talk’ sessions pinch Bobby Flay, Ree Drummond and Chef JJ Johnson, nan communicative and documentary slates showcase appearances and contributions from Jessica Alba, Danielle Brooks, Hillary Clinton, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Frances Fisher, Gillian Jacobs, Rob Lowe, Isbael Sandoval, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Tony Shalhoub, Lily Tomlin, and galore others.”
This is nan afloat lineup for nan 12th Bentonville Film Festival:
OPENING FILM
Family Movie
(Directors/Producers: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick; Writer: Dan Beers, Producers: Sosie Bacon, Travis Bacon, Vince Jolivette, Casey Durant, Greg Lauritano, Russell Wayne Groves)
A filmmaking family’s low-budget scary movie turns into a real-life slasher erstwhile a dormant assemblage shows up connected set. Chaos ensues arsenic nan Smiths conflict to support nan accumulation connected track. After each – nan show must spell on!
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Sosie Bacon, Travis Bacon, Liza Koshy, John Carroll Lynch, Jackie Earle Haley, Andrea Savage, Austin Amelio, Scoot McNairy
CLOSING EVENT
Little House connected nan Prairie
(Showrunner/Executive Producer/Writer: Rebecca Sonnenshine; Executive Producers: Joy Gorman Wettels for Joy Coalition, Trip Friendly for Friendly Family Productions, Dana Fox; Director: Sarah Adina Smith (101)
Part hopeful family drama, portion epic endurance tale, and portion root communicative of nan American West, this caller adjustment of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s iconic semi-autobiographical Little House books offers a kaleidoscopic position of nan struggles and triumphs of those who shaped nan frontier.
Cast: Luke Bracey, Crosby Fitzgerald, Alice Halsey, Skywalker Hughes, Warren Christie, Jocko Sims, Meegwun Fairbrother, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, Wren Zahewenim Gotts
Studio: Produced by CBS Studios and Anonymous Content
CENTERPIECE FILM
Street Smart – WORLD PREMIERE
(Director/Writer/Producer: Catherine Hardwicke; Writer: Nic Sheff; Producers: Natalie Marciano, Jamie R Thompson)
A lively group of thoroughfare kids successful Venice Beach thief each different pursuit their dreams – pinch humor, street-smarts, and Robin Hood larceny. When our unit finds retired their campy will unopen down and a caller woman pressures them into bending (or breaking) their civilized code, it threatens to tear isolated this makeshift family. The group forges unbreakable bonds and redefines what it intends to beryllium a family.
Cast: Isabelle Fuhrman, Yara Shahidi, Michael Cimino, Daniel Zovatto, Kaitlyn Kemp, Miles McKenna, Isaiah Hilt, Skeet Ulrich, Marcia Gay Harden, Sally Struthers, Tyson Ritter, Skylar Astin, Paris Jackson, Harvey Guillen
COFFEE TALKS
The Best Stories are Homemade
A speech pinch Ree Drummond exploring really storytelling lives astatine nan intersection of food, family, and community. From building The Pioneer Woman into a beloved marque to sharing mundane moments that resonate acold beyond nan ranch, Ree reflects connected creating relationship done authenticity, humor, and bosom — and why nan simplest stories are often nan ones that enactment pinch us.
Curiosity Is nan Secret Ingredient
Bobby Flay has ne'er been satisfied pinch a azygous lane. From Iron Chef to entrepreneur, restaurateur to marque builder, he has spent 3 decades pursuing his curiosity wherever it leads — astir precocious to nan pet nutrient aisle pinch his beloved feline nutrient marque Nacho. This speech explores really a committedness to imaginative small heart has driven Bobby’s improvement arsenic a storyteller and manner entrepreneur.
The Story is successful nan Rice
Chef JJ Johnson explores really cuisine becomes a surviving narrative, connecting communities crossed continents and generations. From his activity championing atom arsenic a world practice atom to building spaces that observe civilization done food, JJ shares really storytelling tin beryllium acold beyond nan surface — connected nan plate, successful nan kitchen, and wrong nan community. Drawing from his acclaimed cookbook The Simple Art of Rice and his travel done kitchens from New York to Ghana and beyond, JJ reflects connected nan powerfulness of nutrient to sphere culture, animate creativity, and bring group together.
BOOK EVENT
Read Along pinch The Cat successful nan Hat
Dr. Seuss’s The Cat successful nan Hat will beryllium successful attendance, celebrating nan motorboat of a recently discovered book by Dr. Seuss, SING THE 50 UNITED STATES! Come singing and publication on pinch america and get a typical image pinch nan Cat successful nan Hat!
2026 Competition Statistics
BFF’s 2026 title programming reflects its ongoing committedness to inclusion and authentic practice crossed each communities. Of this year’s selected title films:
● More than 80% from creators identifying arsenic female aliases gender non-conforming
● 53% place arsenic BIPOC, Asian, aliases Pacific Islander
● 40% place arsenic LGBTQIA+
● 21% are filmmakers complete nan property of 50
● 15% place arsenic a personification pinch a disability
On-screen practice is arsenic strong:
● 73% characteristic leads who place arsenic women aliases gender non-conforming
● 44% are BIPOC
● 14% correspond group pinch disabilities
Behind nan camera, 75% of films see female aliases gender non-conforming inheritance formed and crews, and 48% correspond BIPOC, AAPI, aliases Indigenous identities.
SPOTLIGHT FILMS
ARIA: Opera connected nan Edge – in business pinch Opera successful nan Ozarks
(Director/Writer/Producer: Karen Day)
A caller rotation connected nan ancient and mysterious creation of opera, pursuing 4 young, divers singers striving to find their spot connected nan world’s top stages contempt racism and prejudice successful nan manufacture created by dead, achromatic European males successful nan 17th century. Loss, sacrifice, discrimination, and nonaccomplishment trial their individual commitment. Despite challenges, each vocalist finds solace and spot by virtually lifting their voice.
Cast: Cecilia Violletta Lopez, Ben Gulley, Brain Major, Tahanee Aluwihare, David Miller IL DIVO, Will Liverman, King Rico
The Brittney Griner Story
(Director/Producer: Alexandria Stapleton; Producers: Stacy Scripter, Funmi Akinyode, Megan Goedewaagen, Carolyn Hepburn)
This individual and profound odyssey follows hoops prima Brittney Griner from her playing profession and harrowing imprisonment successful Russia done nan bonzer geopolitical conflict to unafraid her freedom.
Cast: Brittney Griner, Cherelle Griner, Former U.S. President Joe Biden
The Ebony Canal
(Director: Emmai Alaquiva; Producer: Ya Momz House, Inc.)
A cinematic poem examining nan HERstoric portal betwixt nan disparities of babe mortality and nan existent authorities of maternal wellness orbiting Black and Brown women. With collaborative penetration of Former VP, Kamala Harris, Lamman Rucker, Kimberly Seal Allers, Charles Johnson and immoderate of nan apical experts, we uncover nan hurt, treatment and dream of this voyage. Despite nan undercurrents, nan ngo intends to foster a caller activity of solution-driven practices.
Cast: Viola Davis (Narrator), Larissa Lane, Mariah Peoples, Alana Yzola-Daly, Rachel Strader
Give Me nan Ball!
(Directors/Producers: Liz Garbus, Elizabeth Wolff; Producers: Dominic Crossley-Holland, Dan Cogan, Chris James, Gentry Kirby)
This uniquely friendly portrayal of tennis fable and trailblazer Billie Jean King reveals nan soul turmoil down nan immense sacrifices she made to toggle shape her athletics and nan world.
Left Behind
(Director/Producer: Anna Toomey; Writer: Karen K.H. Sim; Producers: David Beal, Sian Edwards-Beal, Chris Farrell, Larry Mullen Jr., Mari Keiko Gonzalez)
The powerful communicative of a group of passionate mothers who merge to create nan first nationalist dyslexic schoolhouse successful New York City, nan largest schoolhouse territory successful nan country.
Maddie’s Secret
(Director/Writer/Producer: John Early; Producers: Harris Mayersohn, Luca Intili)
Comedian, writer, and character John Early’s directorial debut starring himself arsenic Maddie, a plucky dishwasher who leaps to viral superstardom astatine a trendy nutrient contented creation company. While her life seems picturesque — complete pinch an adoring husband, ride-or-die champion friend and a cupboard afloat of woman-owned ethically-sourced chili crisp to footwear — mounting master pressures frighten to reawaken a hidden concealed from her troubled past.
Cast: Kate Berlant, Eric Rahill, John Early, Claudia O’Doherty, Conner O’Malley,Vanessa Bayer, Chris Bauer, Kristen Johnston
Miss Representation: Rise Up
(Director/Writer: Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Writers/Producers: Camille Servan-Schreiber, Gretchen Miller)
A heavy dive into nan taste backlash against women’s intelligence health, agency, and governmental powerfulness pinch exertion exacerbating sexism and misogyny towards women and girls.
Cast: Hillary Clinton, Safiya Noble, Frances Haugen, Reshma Saujani, Jameela Jamil, Jim Steyer, Gretchen Carlson, Nancy Pelosi, Amy Klobuchar
Personal Courage
(Director: Lucian Read; Producer: Samuel Kahn)
The friendly communicative of Army seasoned Jeffrey Derma and his wife, Rebecca Cristina. Beginning successful nan last days of Jeff’s subject work and continuing done nan adjacent 2 and a half years, nan movie captures their narration arsenic they activity to reestablish what it intends to unrecorded life together, arsenic a family.
HOMEGROWN COMPETITION
Films created by filmmakers from Arkansas and/or filmed successful Arkansas.
Baby/Girls
(Directors: Jackie Jesko, Alyse Walsh; Producers: Melissa Leardi, Alex Waterfield, Kelly Rohrbach Walton)
Teen commencement rates successful America’s Heartland are among nan highest successful nan nation. Against this backdrop, a maternity location for teenagers becomes a crossroads successful nan lives of Olivia, Grace, and Ariana. Filmed complete 2 years pinch friendly vérité access, Baby/Girls follows them arsenic they springiness commencement and conflict to break nan generational cycles that marked their ain childhoods.
Cast: Grace Dulaney, Olivia Malott, Ariana Green, Crystal Widger, Audra Dulaney, Brian Rivera
Welcome to nan Fishbowl – WORLD PREMIERE
(Director/Writer/Producer: Cheryl Glubok; Writer: Donald Rae; Producer: Iana Dontcheva)
With 40 receding successful nan rearview mirror, Elizabeth Ford, a Denver mother of 2 and an aspiring writer, gets a abrupt career-making opportunity. All she has to do is chaperone a narcissistic, literate fable by nan sanction of Storm Grandquist crossed nan Rocky Mountains to an awards ceremonial successful Telluride. What could perchance spell wrong?
Cast: Natalie Gold, Jeremy Swift, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Marin Hinkle
HOMEGROWN SHORT FILMS:
Cycling Without Age, USA (Director, Isaac Seigel-Boettner)
Filthy, USA (Director, Lisa Cole) – WORLD PREMIERE
IAKWE: Hello, Goodbye, USA (Director, Nathan Fitch)
Project NEO: Building a New Way to Work (Director, Allyson de la Houssaye)
We Are Cyclists: The All Bodies connected Bikes Story, USA (Director, Robin Sansom)
NARRATIVE COMPETITION
BRB
(Director: Kate Cobb; Writers: Sydney Blackburn, Michael Waller; Producers: Kevin Bigley, Kelly Aisthorpe Waller, Mark Glassgow, Michele Girgis)
Set successful nan era of dial-up and AIM distant messages, a love-sick teenage woman and her older sister embark connected a roadworthy travel to meet her online boyfriend, but what originates arsenic a fun, sisterly quest quickly devolves into chaos arsenic each girls’ ulterior motives are revealed and nan lies heap up faster than nan miles.
Cast: Autumn Best, Zoe Coletti, Beth Lacke, Keith Kupferer, Richard David, Daniel Haller
Dead Deer High
(Director: Jo Rochelle; Writer/Producer: Joshua Roark; Producer: Scott Segal, Jim Bellinson, Randy Weiss, Michelle Segal, Carolyn Bellinson)
A squad of precocious schoolhouse slam poets and their English coach hole for a nationalist poesy title 1 twelvemonth aft a calamity changed their lives forever.
Cast: Zack Kozlow, Holden Goyette, Kyla Brown, Christian Cruz, Ayanna Berkshire, Joseph Bertót
Hot Water
(Director/Writer: Ramzi Bashour; Producers: Jesse Hope, Max Walker-Silverman, Josh Peters)
In this unconventional and comedic roadworthy odyssey, a Lebanese mother and her American boy thrust crossed nan United States, revealing nan fractures and bonds betwixt them.
Cast: Lubna Azabal, Daniel Zolghadri, Dale Dickey
If I Go Will They Miss Me
(Director/Writer: Walter Thompson-Hernández; Producers: Josh Peters, Saba Zerehi, Ben Stillman)
Twelve-year-old Lil Ant transforms his working-class vicinity beneath nan LAX formation way into a surviving mythology, wherever family members go gods and nan entity is crowded pinch endless departures. As he searches for relationship pinch his god-like yet conflicted father, he finds support successful his close-knit organization that helps him reconcile story and reality.
Cast: Danielle Brooks, J. Alphonse Nicholson
Jersey Boy
(Director/Writer/Producer: Jaskaran Singh; Producer: Pulkit Datta; Co-Producer: Eman Pathan)
Shattered by a family calamity successful nan aftermath of 9/11, a young Sikh boy struggles to clasp onto love, family, and personality arsenic he grows up successful a state emotion for illustration he doesn’t belong.
Cast: Praneet Akilla, Sara Garcia, Grace Grewal, Surjun Lail, Rayaan Singh Sahni, Amit Aujila
Moonglow
(Director/Writer: Isabel Sandoval; Producer: Alemberg Ang)
Manila, 1979. Dahlia, a disillusioned constabulary aide, breaks into nan mansion of nan corrupt constabulary main Bernal and steals nan money from his safe, unloading nan costs to slum dwellers whose colony Bernal razed down. Commencing an investigation, Bernal unwittingly assigns Dahlia and his nephew Charlie, an ex-cop and Dahlia’s ex-lover, starring to a fraught reunion.
Cast: Isabel Sandoval, Arjo Atayde, Janina Lorelei, Jhoanna San Juan
The Musical
(Director: Gisella Bonilla; Writer: Alexander Heller; Producers: Rob Lowe, Greg Lauritano, Alexander Heller, Findlay Brown, Jordan Backhus)
When a disappointment playwright/middle schoolhouse theatre coach finds retired his ex-girlfriend has started making love his nemesis, nan school’s principal, he decides to ruin nan principal’s chances of winning nan Blue Ribbon of Academic Excellence.
Cast: Will Brill, Gillian Jacobs, Rob Lowe
Our Bodies & Other Shames
(Director: Jenny Lester; Writer/Producer: Malka Wallick; Producers: Monica Arsenault, Alysia Reiner, Tony Castle, Roxy Hunt)
Growing up successful their tight-knit Modern Orthodox community, Sheva, Sarah, and Tali were champion friends successful an inseparable woman pack until Sheva and Sarah stopped talking to each other. Now, a decade later, they’re estranged, surviving lives some wrong and extracurricular of nan community. When a devastating crab test forces them backmost together, each 3 stitchery successful Sheva’s puerility home, wherever they are confronted — rather virtually — by their younger selves.
Cast: Gideon Adlon, Micaela Diamond, Malka Wallick, Pearl Scarlett Gold, Aria Kane, Josephine Bilmes
Out of nan Woods – US PREMIERE
(Director/Writer/Producer: Sal Bardo; Producers: Tommy Anderson, Laura Maccabee)
Max is slow losing her memory. When she reunites pinch an aged friend, Diana, a long-buried portion of herself is reawakened and she’s forced to take betwixt spending nan precious clip she has near pinch nan female she’s ever loved aliases remaining religious to her husband.
Cast: Frances Fisher, Mimi Kennedy, Bruce Davison, Stefanie Estes
Road to L’Etape du Tour
(Director/Writer: Julia Coulter; Producers: Julian Higgins, Luis Augusto Figueroa, Vickie Soulier, Daniel Zambrano, Andrew Koenigsberg)
Facing a turning constituent successful her life, a female pinch a congenital bosom defect embarks connected a travel to train for a shape of nan Tour de France.
Cast: Julia Coulter, Brian Muller, Luis Augusto Figueroa, Reed Diamond, Gab Safa, Nico Greetham
Take Me Home
(Director/Writer/Producer: Liz Sargent; Producers: Apoorva Guru Charan, Minos Papas)
Anna, a 38-year-old Korean adoptee, cares for her aging parents successful a vulnerable equilibrium of gathering each others’ needs. When a Florida power activity shatters their family and Anna’s routine, her early is uncertain until she creates a world wherever she tin thrive.
Cast: Anna Sargent, Victor Slezak, Ali Ahn, Marceline Hugot, Shane Harper
Valentina
(Director/Writer: Tatti Ribeiro; Writer/Producer: Noelle Forougi; Producers: Jack Pearkes, Tracey Nyberg, Jessica Alba)
A bid of bureaucratic mishaps plagues Valentina arsenic she tries to tackle a elemental to-do database astatine nan El Paso-Juarez border.
Cast: Keyla Monterroso Mejia
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Acting Like Women
(Director/Writer/Producer: Cheri Gaulke; Writer: Anne Gauldin; Producers: Cheryl Bookout, Anne Gauldin, Meg Linton, Liz Yale Marsh)
Revisiting nan groundbreaking feminist capacity creation activity successful 1970s Los Angeles, 1 creator spotlights nan inspirational, transformational, extremist organization exploding nan communicative and position quo.
Cast: Cheri Gaulke, Lily Tomlin, Barbara T. Smith, Suzanne Lacy, Senga Nengudi, Anne Gauldin, Phranc
American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez
(Director/Producer: David Alvarado; Producers: Lauren DeFilippo, Everett Katigbak, Amanda Pollak)
Against governmental guidance and manufacture skepticism, Luis Valdez pushes Chicano storytelling from nan fields to nan movie surface pinch Zoot Suit and La Bamba, crafting iconic useful that challenge, celebrate, and grow America’s story.
Cast: Luis Valdez, Lupe Trujillo-Valdez, Edward James Olmos, Cheech Marin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Dolores Huerta, Linda Ronstadt, Jorge A. Huerta, Luis C. Garza, Taylor Hackford, Rose Portillo, Sal Lopez, Phil Esparza, Socorro Valdez, Daniel Valdez
Ceremony
(Director/Producer: Banchi Hanuse)
In nan distant colony of Bella Coola, wherever a milky-green stream winds beneath towering mountains, nan ooligan tally has not returned successful 26 years. Through crackling airwaves, watercolour-animated ancestral lore, uncommon archives, and corporate testimony, we are immersed successful nan sparkling world of nan Nuxalk, an Indigenous Nation who believes they must go nan existent that calls nan food home.
Cookie Queens
(Director/Writer/Producer: Alysa Nahmias; Producers: Gregory Kershaw, Michael Dweck, Jennifer Sims)
A coming-of-age communicative astir nan joys, pressures, and symptom points woven into 1 of America’s astir cherished rituals: Girl Scout Cookie season. Captivating, candid, and afloat of heart, nan movie follows 4 girls ages 5 to 12 and their families arsenic they navigate nan yearly whirlwind of selling, striving, and succeeding.
Cast: Nikki B., Olive G., Shannon Elizabeth S., Ara E.
The Dads
(Director/Producer: Luchina Fisher; Producer: Stephen Chukumba)
As anti-trans authorities and hostility escalate successful nan United States, a group of dads, building a nascent activity to support their trans and gender expansive kids, are forced to make an intolerable choice: enactment and conflict aliases fly nan country.
Cast: Stephen Chukumba, Wayne Maines, David Parr, Frank Gonzales, Ed Diaz, Christoph Heinzer
Ghost successful nan Machine
(Director/Producer: Valerie Veatch)
A gripping and urgently applicable investigative documentary that exposes nan buried history of artificial intelligence, not arsenic a neutral strategy of algorithms, but arsenic a exertion shaped by racism, misogyny, eugenics, and entrenched structures of powerfulness agelong earlier it entered mundane life.
Jane Elliott Against nan World
(Director/Producer: Judd Ehrlich; Producers: Max Powers, Elena Gaby)
A agrarian Iowa schoolteacher becomes a nationalist sound against racism aft starring a arguable 1968 instruction successful favoritism pinch her all-white third-grade class. Now astir 90, she refuses to clasp backmost amid today’s fights astir race, history, and powerfulness aft a life of speaking out.
Cast: Jane Elliott, Killer Mike, Ibram X. Kendi
Kids Like Me
(Directors/Producers: Cynthia Lowen, Jon Cohrs)
Meet Oliver, a 12-year-old murder-mystery buff pinch a boundless imagination, who is increasing up pinch a uncommon familial condition. Together pinch his family, they reframe what it intends to unrecorded pinch disabilities and embark connected an breathtaking escapade to create a murder-mystery caper.
Cast: Tony Shalhoub, Oliver Odwazny-Beebe, Casey Beebe, Chad Odwazny
Seized
(Director/Producer: Sharon Liese; Producers: Sasha Alpert, Paul Matyasovsky)
A gripping, stranger-than-fiction investigative thriller that plunges audiences wrong nan troubling constabulary ambush connected nan Marion County Record. What originates arsenic a shocking small-town incident quickly spirals into a nationalist story, exposing really corruption, politics, and decades-long tensions turned a quaint Kansas organization into a battleground complete nan First and Fourth Amendments.
Show Me nan Line – WORLD PREMIERE
(Director/Writer/Producer: Kelsey Ianuzzi; Writer/Producer: Stacey Davis; Producer: Abbey Crain)
When an Alabama tribunal jeopardizes entree to IVF and her ain embryos, creator Abbey Crain refuses to surrender her imaginative power. In this triumphant circuit de force, Crain and a group of fertility patients reckon pinch nan threats to their family future, unearthing dream from an unsettled ineligible landscape.
Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story
(Director/Writer/Producer: Ayden Mayeri; Writer/Producer: Barry Rothbart; Producer: Rachael Fung)
In nan summertime of 2000, 4 tween friends formed a set called X-Cetra and burned an medium onto a fewer CDs. Consumed by teen concerns, their labour of emotion was quickly forgotten… Until 20 years later, erstwhile personification uploaded it online. With their dreams of pop-stardom coming true, X-Cetra reunites to spot if they tin rekindle nan unselfconscious girlhood they’d captured successful nan medium those galore years ago.
Cast: Ayden Mayeri, Jessica Hall, Janet Kariuki, Mary Washburn, Robin O’Brien
When a Witness Recants
(Director/Producer: Dawn Porter; Producers: Jennifer Oko, Miriam Weintraub
In 1983, noted writer Ta-Nehisi Coates remembers learning that a 14-year aged boy was murdered successful nan corridor of his Baltimore mediate school. Revisiting nan lawsuit arsenic an adult, he learns nan truth astir nan 3 guiltless teenagers who were convicted and sentenced to life. After 36 years successful prison, it was revealed that mendacious grounds led to their imprisonment.
EPISODICS COMPETITION
Blood Sugar, USA (Director, Marissa Diaz) – World Premiere
Committed, USA, (Director, Monica Raymund)
CVNT, USA – (Director, Nicole Higgins) – World Premiere
The F*ckboy Diaries, USA (Director, Misha Calvert) – World Premiere
Too Romantic, USA (Director, Talia Light Rake)
SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Buried Under Years of Dust, USA (Director, Sophie Sartain)
Cecilia Is Only 8 Years Old, USA (Director, Soojeong Son)
Cindy Sherman: Picture This, USA(Director, Sophie Chahinian)
El Tiguere, USA (Director, Andrew J. Rodriguez)
Find The Boy, France (Director, Paulin.e Goasmat)
For Niko, USA (Director, Alexandra Shipp)
Hatchlings, USA (Director, Jahmil Eady)
Howl, USA (Director, Sara Crow)
I Hate Helen, UK (Director, Katie Lambert)
Into The Chutes, USA (Director, Jenna Avriel Rice)
Irish Farmers: A Love Story, Ireland (Director, Haven Worley)
Julie Takes A Walk, USA (Directors, Frankie Pedersen, Shea Vassar)
Long’s Long Lost & Mini Mart, USA (Director, Julian Doan)
More Than Dust, USA (Director, Julia Weisber-Cortes)
Paper Daughter, USA (Director, Cami Kwan)
Peanut, USA (Director, Sheila Sawhny)
She Chose War, USA (Director, Sarah Moshman)
The Sisters of Scott County, USA (Director, Courtney Hoffman)
Smoked, USA (Director, Alice Gu)
Sorry I Missed Your Call, USA (Hae Ji Cho)
Surprise, USA (Director, Kendall Goldberg)
TAGA, USA (Director, Jill Sachs)Veronica, USA (Director, Brett Dos Santos)
