Festivals & Events
Festivals & Events
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“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 […]
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Eight Feature Recommendations from ND/NF 2026, From an IFFR Winner to Charli XCX’s Indie Debut
New Directors/New Films, the annual showcase for emerging filmmakers co-presented by Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, runs from April 8 to 19. Now in its 55th edition, ND/NF can boast of having screened the early films of generations of globally renowned directors, from Wim Wenders, Theo Angelopoulos, Steven Spielberg, James Benning, and Chantal Akerman in its first several years, to Yorgos Lanthimos, Laura Poitras, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, and RaMell Ross more recently. Most of the festival’s selections arrive by way of fests such as Berlin, Busan, Cannes, Sundance, Locarno and Venice, and as […]
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Exclusive Clip: Rosanne Pel on Her New Directors/New Films Closing Night Title Donkey Days
The 55th edition of New Directors/New Films, the annual showcase of rising cinematic talent co-presented by Film at Lincoln Center and MoMA, will run April 8-19. Opening the festival is Adrian Chiarella’s queer horror film Leviticus, and other standouts include John Early’s brilliant bulimia comedy Maddie’s Secret, Kevin Walker and Jack Auen’s hypnotic hybrid Chronovisor, and Giulio Bertelli’s Agon, winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Venice Critics’ Week. Ahead of this year’s festival, Filmmaker is happy to debut a short clip courtesy of filmmaker Rosanne Pel, whose feature Donkey Days has been selected as this year’s closing night film. “I […]
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They Will Kill You Took the Blood, Sweat and Tears of Kirill Sokolov, Zazie Beetz, and Myha’la
It’s the closing night of the 2026 SXSW Film Festival and They Will Kill You director Kirill Sokolov is taking to the stage of the Paramount Theatre in Austin. He has multiple pages in hand listing out all of his collaborators he wants to thank. Where most filmmakers give a few brief remarks, possibly crack a joke or two, and then make a quick exit stage left, Sokolov, who previously made the films Why Don’t You Just Die! and No Looking Back in Russia, is running down as many people as he can possibly get through. This is all taking […]
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Watch Six Short Films from Filmfort 2026
Filmmaker is happy to continue its annual partnership with the Filmfort Film Festival by exclusively hosting six short films from the 2026 edition, which kicks off today. Occurring simultaneously during the Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho, Filmfort highlights emerging indie fare. On the feature film front, this includes The Scout, directed by Paula González-Nasser—who appeared on our 25 New Faces of Film last year— and Joybubbles, Rachel J. Morrison’s Sundance-premiering doc. The following shorts will be available to watch on the site through midnight on March 29, when the festival wraps. Find the embedded films and their synopses below. […]
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UFO Short Film Lab Announces 2026 Fellows
UFO announces the fellows that will join the latest cycle of the UFO Short Film Lab. The 18-month program supports early-career filmmakers to develop and direct two original shorts, awarding $20,000 ($10,000 per project) to each participant. Additional resources include complimentary rentals of ZEISS’s newest lenses, seminar-style workshop sessions hosted at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and one-on-one creative mentorship from the UFO team and invited guests. UFO received a record 287 applications for three available fellowship slots. The filmmakers selected for Cycle IV, which kicks off next month, are Hana Elias, Katherine Clary, and Edward Nguyen. The latter […]
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From Fables to Forensics: Five Documentaries from CPH:DOX 2026
CPH:DOX’s 2025 edition opened with Facing War, a documentary presenting the Russo-Ukrainian war through the final year of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s tenure. Though some critics found the film overly cautious in its presentation of political lobbying, its premiere proved unexpectedly well-timed amid Trump’s return to power and anxieties surrounding European alliances. For CPH:DOX today, as one of the world’s leading documentary festivals, the familiar impulse to pair aesthetic ambition with political mediation feels ever more crucial as wars expand and multiply. Continuing the festival’s Ukraine-focused opening-film tradition, Pieter-Jan De Pue’s Mariinka is exactly the kind of work that […]
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“You Have to Adjust the Sails to the Winds”: Graham Parkes on Wishful Thinking
Love is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. It’s been the subject of some of the best films ever made for good reason, as it’s something that can grab hold of not just your desires, but your very soul as you search for meaning in a life where it can otherwise be lacking. In American filmmaker Graham Parkes’ feature debut, Wishful Thinking, this is made literal as it paints a portrait of a couple, Lewis Pullman’s Charlie and Maya Hawke’s Julie, whose life in the beautifully-shot Portland, Oregon is about to be upended by the discovery that […]
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“Questions of the Soul”: Director Brian Tetsuro Ivie and Star Sydney Chandler on Anima
A lo-fi sci-fi road trip film that reaffirms the magic of discordant personalities finding harmony, director Brian Tetsuro Ivie’s Anima is at once earthy and spiritual. It focuses on Beck (Sydney Chandler), who, on the first day of a new job, is assigned to accompany Paul (Takehiro Hira) to a facility for an end-of-life procedure. Paul has decided to upload his consciousness into a cloud system, which means that anyone who wishes can visit a digitized version of himself. What is thought to be a straightforward journey becomes an existential winding road, as Paul frequently diverts Beck from their course […]
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“We’re Becoming More and More Disconnected as a Society”: Alex Prager on DreamQuil
These are overwhelming times, and disappointment is everywhere. Wouldn’t it be nice to just get away from it all with a nifty procedure and an automated assistant to take care of things? Tempting as the fantasy sounds, Alex Prager’s sci-fi drama DreamQuil offers a counterpoint: how much humanity will we stand to lose in the pursuit of happiness? The more we give up our responsibilities and human messiness to A.I., the more we risk losing the very connections that mean the most to us. In Alex Prager’s feature debut, Carol (Elizabeth Banks) is stuck indoors with her doting husband (John […]
