Authors — Natalia Keogan
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The Gotham EDU Announces 2026 EDU Film and Media Career Development Program Cohort
The Gotham, Filmmaker’s publisher, announces today the cohort of the 2026 edition of The Gotham EDU Film and Media Career Development Program. The eight-week virtual program will allow college students from across the country to glean insight from industry professionals via opportunities that include mentorship, curated sessions, and pitch feedback. Each student will pursue one of six distinct tracks offered in their field of interest: the Sidney Poitier Initiative Track for Multi-Hyphenates, the Executive Leadership and Ambassador Track, the Television/Episodic Creator Track, the Documentary Filmmaker Track, the Narrative Filmmaker Track, and the Entrepreneurship in Media Track. Among previous industry speakers […]
by Natalia Keogan on Jun 17, 2026 -
The Popcorn List: Pop Up Series to Launch Theatrical Series of Films Without Distribution
The Popcorn List, an annual survey completed by festival programmers identifying “fresh, hot” films without wide distribution, presents the second edition of The Popcorn List: Pop Up Series. This sneak-preview screening event will be held at a dozen theaters across the country in July before arriving for an encore presentation during Gotham Week in October. This is the second annual iteration of the Pop Up Series, which was created in 2025 to “deliver an additional window of visibility and audience-building for a number of films on the List” amid an uncertain distribution landscape, per a press release. This year, seven […]
by Natalia Keogan on May 6, 2026 -
Perfectly Imperfect: A Missive From LAFM 2026
It’s impossible not to glamorize Los Angeles. Or at least this is how I feel every time I visit. The towering palms, seaside breeze, and temperate weather make everything easy to romanticize. This is an impulse that New Yorkers don’t regularly succumb to, what with incessant mass transit delays, post-blizzard poop pile-ups (we can only hope that these dumps were produced by dogs), and whatever environmental ill has been causing the wind to manifest as a city-wide vortex. After experiencing one of the harshest winters in recent memory, donning a light jacket and mini skirt to attend LAFM’s opening night […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 29, 2026 -
Exclusive Teaser: Isabel Sandoval’s Moonglow Closes First Look 2026
Filmmaker is happy to share an exclusive teaser for Moonglow, the latest from Filipino filmmaker and actress Isabel Sandoval. Her follow-up to the acclaimed Lingua Franca (2019) will have its North American premiere at the Museum of the Moving Image on Sunday, May 3, as the closing night screening of First Look 2026. Sandoval stars as Dahlia, a police officer working in 1970s Manila under the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship. Described in an official synopsis as a “noir melodrama,” Moonglow follows Dahlia as she becomes enmeshed in a clandestine, Robin Hood-adjacent scheme that involves stealing from a corrupt superior officer and […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 29, 2026 -
Short Film Premiere: “Afterimage” Explores Memories of Moviegoing in Ridgewood, Queens
Last week, Filmmaker published my Spring 2026 print issue report on the crop of communal cinema offerings in Ridgewood, Queens. There’s Low Cinema, co-founded by John Wilson and the first theater to open in the neighborhood in nearly 100 years; Music Movie Mondays, curated by Shannon Wiedemeyer at the bar/venue Cassette; Ridgewood Community Cinema, co-created by Ali Jaffery with regular screenings hosted at Stone Circle Theater and Ridgewood Commons; UnionDocs, a non-fiction film center and theater that relocated from Williamsburg to Ridgewood; and the recently-shuttered Seneca Cinema, which allowed attendees to submit ranked-choice ballots to vote on the evening’s movie […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 28, 2026 -
How Ridgewood Became New York City’s Communal Cinema Hub
A white, windowless storefront in Ridgewood, Queens, has the distinction of being the neighborhood’s first new cinema in nearly 100 years. Co-founded last year by filmmaker John Wilson alongside collaborators Davis Fowlkes and Cosmo Bjorkenheim, Low Cinema features 42 seats (sourced second-hand), digital and 16mm projection, and even a papier-mâché E.T. Handmade by Wilson, the cheerful alien hovers beneath the ceiling by the front door. The day I visited the microcinema in late February, I was greeted by a veritable cinematic symphony. Corn was freshly popping, ticket holders poured in for an afternoon showing of Nirvanna the Band the Show […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 21, 2026 -
Genesis House and The Gotham Launch a Fellowship for NYC Short Filmmakers
Genesis House, the Meatpacking District flagship for Korean luxury vehicles and fine dining, and The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Filmmaker’s publisher, announce today the launch of their joint fellowship. This new initiative will support three New York City–based narrative short filmmakers during their films’ final stages of production and/or distribution. The Genesis House x The Gotham Shorts Fellowship will provide a sizable $10,000 grant alongside mentorship sessions, access to exclusive Genesis House programming, and the opportunity to screen for industry professionals during Gotham Week’s 2026 edition. “This fellowship brings together Genesis House’s position as a cultural hub for creative […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 16, 2026 -
Exclusive: Watch a Clip of the LAFM World Premiere Drinking and Driving
Co-directors Avalon Fast and Jillian Frank co-star in Drinking and Driving, a lo-fi hangout film for the fuck-ups. Filmmaker is happy to share an exclusive clip of the film, which will have its world premiere at the Los Angeles Festival of Movies on Saturday, April 11. Fast and Frank add that “Drinking and Driving is the trip you didn’t ask for, to the hometown you didn’t grow up in.” Fast previously helmed the homespun yet audacious features Honeycomb and CAMP, which explore grisly, supernatural aspects of girlhood and on which Frank closely collaborated. Fast has also been working with a […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 10, 2026 -
“Personal Storytelling, Experimentation, and a DIY Spirit”: A Look Inside LAFM 2026
Returning for its third annual edition, the Los Angeles Festival of Movies boasts a lineup of critical darlings from other festivals, newly-restored global cinema, and even the odd world premiere. Co-founded by Sarah Winshall, producer behind indie gems like I Saw the TV Glow and Good One, and Micah Gottlieb, artistic director of the programming non-profit Mezzanine, LAFM was created in part to respond to a dearth of indie film exhibition in the metropolis. From April 9 through 12, L.A.’s east side will serve as a watering hole for filmgoers in a city that, while integral to the filmmaking ecosystem at large, has been […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 9, 2026 -
“What Solidarity Really Looks Like”: Yael Bridge on Who Moves America
When the UPS Teamsters—the largest bargaining unit in the country at 340,000 strong—were negotiating their 2023 contract, it became increasingly clear that management wasn’t looking to ameliorate legitimate workplace woes. Drivers were delivering packages in deadly heat with no air conditioning; part-time employees, the majority of UPS’ workforce, experience massive turnover rates; and, as is true across the country, wages aren’t rising at the same rate as the cost of living. So when director Yael Bridge and a collective of labor-oriented filmmakers got wind that the Teamsters’ newly-elected president, Sean O’Brien, was advocating for a strike if UPS leadership refused […]
by Natalia Keogan on Apr 7, 2026
