NoBudge is excited to be a part of the Nitehawk Shorts Festival and co-present a program of new work from a group of emerging indie filmmakers. These nine short films are an inventive mix of narrative and experimental filmmaking, lightly funny at times, occasionally challenging, and always intriguing.

Post-Screening Q&A moderated by Kentucker Audley, NoBudge

SINKING SUN
Kayo Gorden / U.S. / 2022 / 12 min. / English
Tamiko goes home to the family farm to deal with the death of her mother and the ghosts of the past.

“I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD”
Theodore Schaefer / U.S. / 2022 / 13 min. / English
A series of surreal vignettes at an American Diner.

CONGRATULATIONS
Emma Hall-Martin / U.S. / 2021 / 10 min. / English
On the day of her mother’s wedding, 15-year-old Delia grapples with a strange moment that happened the night before with her soon-to-be stepfather.

WITH THE FISHES
Libe Barer / U.S. / 2021 / 13 min. / English
Amidst global collapse, a struggling comedian is locked away in her apartment and becomes consumed with paranoid delusions that the mob is trying to kill her.

THE PROMOTION
A.K. Espada, Phil Cheney / U.S. / 2021 / 4 min. / English
Two office drones work late into the night, competing for a truly killer promotion.

URIAH PLAYS THE ALIEN
Stephen Wardell / U.S. / 2018 / 9 min. / English
An alien comes to Earth landing in an ordinary American backyard. Or so goes the game of imagination that a group of siblings think up and play out.

SHARLENE’S PROBLEM:
YuHan Tsai / Taiwan, U.S. / 2022 / 13 min. / English
Sharlene hopes that moving into an apartment with her boyfriend might restart their exhausting and sexually unsatisfying relationship.

BOWLING 4 EVA
Aelfie Oudghiri / U.S. / 2022 / 14 min. / English
A troubled teen girl spends her time trolling men online and bowling with her grandfather while becoming increasingly medicated by her psychiatrist.

MOULDED
Ahmad Bakrin / U.S. / 2022 / 12 min. / English
Growing disconnected from friends, family, and the world around her, a young artist finds inspiration in strangers as she slips from reality.

Starring: Eden Dambrine, Gustav De Waele, Émilie Dequenne, Léa Drucker, Kevin Janssens

Leo and Remi are two thirteen-year-old best friends, whose seemingly unbreakable bond is suddenly, tragically torn apart. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Lukas Dhont’s second film is an emotionally transformative and unforgettable portrait of the intersection of friendship and love, identity and independence, and heartbreak and healing.

Starring: Michael Boland, Helena Richards, Tony Spinelli, Bryan Wade

Direct from the tranquil suburbs of late 1980s New Jersey comes an obscure Shot-On-Video love story of teased hair, acid washed jeans and brutal slaughter. Stoic serial killer ‘Big Al’ has been racking up quite a resume lately, until he stumbles upon the gum-cracking Bunny, an equally cold-blooded copycat killer. It’s bloodlust at first sight as these two twisted monsters team up to embark on a perverse spree of slayings – but they will both learn the price of sadistic love on the seedy streets of the Garden State.

Hosted by Matt Desiderio of Horror Boobs with free giveaways of Blu-rays, DVDs and collectibles. Followed by an after party in Lo-Res where Desiderio will DJ an all-vinyl set.

Starring: Tang Wei, Park Hae-il, Go Kyung-Pyo

Park Chan-wook’s critically acclaimed Decision to Leave will return to cinemas for one night only, accompanied by a new pre-recorded conversation between Park Chan-wook and Academy Award-winner Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), exclusive to cinemas.

What happens when an object of suspicion becomes a case of obsession?

Winner of Cannes Best Director in 2022, Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) returns with a seductive romantic thriller that takes his renowned stylistic flair to dizzying new heights. When detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) arrives at a murder scene, he begins to suspect the dead man’s wife Seo-rae (Tang Wei) may know more than she initially lets on. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, Hae-joon finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire, proving that the darkest mysteries lurk inside the human heart.

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, John Amos, James Earl Jones, Shari Headley, Madge Sinclair, Eriq La Salle, Louie Anderson

Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) is the prince of a wealthy African country and wants for nothing, except a wife who will love him in spite of his title. To escape an arranged marriage, Akeem flees to America accompanied by his persnickety sidekick, Semmi (Arsenio Hall), to find his queen. Disguised as a foreign student working in fast food, he romances Lisa (Shari Headley), but struggles with revealing his true identity to her and his marital intentions to his king father (James Earl Jones).

Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt

Comedian Chris Gethard hosts a popular podcast called Beautiful/Anonymous where he receives calls from random humans. He tweets out a phone number. One person gets through. They never say their name. He isn’t allowed to hang up for an hour.

Over the podcast’s 200 episodes, multiple callers have scolded Chris because he has never seen the 1997 Jodie Foster feature film Contact. Kicking off his Beautiful/CONonymous Festival, Chris Gethard hosts a screening of the film followed by a 30 minute Q+A between Chris Gethard and the caller from past episode “Whirlpool Galaxy.”

Will Chris like the film? How does the astrophysics presented in the film match up with real life science? We’ll answer all these not so important questions and more! This special event is part of a weekend event celebrating the Beautiful/Anonymous Podcast–aptly titled Beautiful/CONonymous.

For more information about all of the weekend’s events, please visit www.beautifulcononymous.com

Starring: Sandra Drzymalska, Isabelle Huppert, Lorenzo Zurzolo

The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. EO, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life’s path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence.

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss

From writer-producer-director Todd Field comes TÁR, starring Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár, the groundbreaking conductor of a major German Orchestra. We meet Tár at the height of her career, as she’s preparing both a book launch and much-anticipated live performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Over the ensuing weeks her life begins to unravel in a singularly modern way. The result is a searing examination of power, and its impact and durability in today’s society.

Starring: Sophie von Haselberg, Reshma Gajjar, Cricket Arrison, Shelley Long

The FOFIF presents a preview screening of Amanda Kramer’s sensational GIVE ME PITY! Includes a Q&A with star Sophie Von Haselberg. To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.

A Primetime Saturday Night Network Television Spectacular starring Sissy St. Claire! Sissy St. Claire graces the small screen for her first ever television special, an evening full of music and laughter, glamour and entertainment! But Sissy’s live event quickly begins to curdle into a psychedelic nightmare of vanity, insecurity and delusional ambition, provoked by the glowering presence of a mysterious masked man…

A Utopia x Aspect Ratio Release.

Starring: Beverly Washburn, Carol Ohmart, Lon Chaney Jr., Mary Mitchel, Quinn K. Redeker, Sid Haig, Mantan Moreland

Presented as part of The FOFIF double-feature celebrating the release of Robin Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris’ new book, The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar. Recorded introduction by the authors.

“It’s the end of one era and the start of another: the literal death of the old Spook stereotype and the birth of the B.G.D.F. (Black Guy Dies First).”

In the first five minutes of Spider Baby, 1940s comic legend Mantan Moreland stars as the delivery man who quickly falls victim to the degenerated child of “Spider Baby” manor. It’s a memorable moment in a film that descends into the maddest story ever told. The Merrye family have a killer secret – something in their genes make them age backwards and become cannibals. Things are kept under control by their trusty butler until distant, greedy family relatives come to stake their claim on the property. Also starring horror legends Lon Chaney Jr, Carol Ohmart and Sid Haig, Jack Hill’s Spider Baby is the other black-and-white horror film (other: Night of the Living Dead) from 1968 that marks a significant shift with race in horror.

Want the book? Choose the book + ticket option and have it waiting at your seat! Books will also be available at the screening.

Also be sure to see the other film, Attack the Block, at Nitehawk Prospect Park on 2/28!