Starring: Kate Micucci, Sam Huntington, Dan Harmon, Taika Waititi, Mark McKinney, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford, Rhea Seehorn

An offbeat comedy centered around a very sweet relationship between Claire (Kate Micucci) and Paul (Sam Huntington) and the absurd cult that surrounds them. The cast represents some of the best comedic talent in Hollywood, including Kate Micucci, Sam Huntington, Dan Harmon, Mark McKinney, Rhea Seehorn, Dana Gould, Maria Bamford, Brian Posehn, Lilan Bowden, John Dore, Josh Brener, Mindy Sterling, J. Lee, Brian Girard, Michael St. Michaels, Matt Jones and Academy Award winner, Taika Waititi.

Starring: Ike Barinholtz, Betty Gilpin, Emma Roberts, Hilary Swank

Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don’t know where they are, or how they got there. They don’t know they’ve been chosen… for a very specific purpose… The Hunt. In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, a group of globalist elites gathers for the very first time at a remote manor house to hunt humans for sport. But the elites’ master plan is about to be derailed because one of the hunted, Crystal (Betty Gilpin), knows the hunters’ game better than they do. She turns the tables on the killers, picking them off, one by one, as she makes her way toward the mysterious woman (Hilary Swank) at the center of it all.

Join The FOFIF and Hey Kids Comics! for a FAMILY FRIENDLY brunch screening of THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED along with director Lotte Reiniger’s short film, CINDERELLA. Audience will receive an exclusive special limited zine from HKC! To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.

Did you know that the first animated feature was directed by a woman? Lotte Reiniger’s astonishing 1926 adaptation of tales from “One Thousand and One Nights”, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, uses striking silhouette cutouts and gorgeous color tinting to bring to life the story of an Arabian prince who is whisked away on a flying horse to an enchanted land where he tangles with an evil sorcerer, rescues a princess, and joins forces with none other than Aladdin. Painstakingly composed frame by frame by Reiniger over the course of three years, this landmark work is both an enchanting storybook saga and a retina-delighting triumph of visual imagination.

Screening before the film will be Cinderella (13 min) as pioneering animator Lotte Reiniger takes on one of the world’s most famous fairytales and makes it her own.

Starring: Royalty Hightower, Alexis Neblett, Da’Sean Minor

Psychological portrait of 11-year-old Toni, a tomboy assimilating to a tight-knit dance team in Cincinnati’s West End. Enamoured by the power and confidence of this strong community of girls, Toni eagerly absorbs routines, masters drills and even pierces her own ears to fit in. When a mysterious outbreak of fainting spells plagues the team, Toni’s desire for acceptance is twisted.

Saela Davis (Editor) and Anna Rose Holmer (Director & Writer) are part of a filmmaking team based in New York.

Saela Davis is an editor based in New York. She edited, and assisted with the story, for the critically acclaimed film, The Fits (2015) in addition to other films like Hala (2019), Americana (2016), and Ballet 422 (2014).

Anna Rose Holmer is the 2017 Independent Spirit Award Someone to Watch winner and one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2015. Her critically acclaimed narrative directorial debut, The Fits was nominated for Breakthrough Director at the 2016 Gotham Awards as well Best First Feature at the 2017 Independent Spirit Awards. She produced Jody Lee Lipes’s Ballet 422  (2014) and Mike Plunkett’s Salero (2015). Holmer recently directed episodes of the television series, The OA.

Madeline (Helena Howard) has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop’s ambitious director (Molly Parker) pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother (Miranda July) into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women’s lives.

Screening with the short Ada, also shot by cinematographer Ashley Connor.

ADA
Directed by Eleanore Pienta (10 min)
Ada is an unlikeable competitive walker who makes a dress out of toilet paper and has an unfortunate run-in with a hose.

Starring: Elijah Wood, Stephen McHattie, Garfield Wilson

Norval Greenwood, a privileged man-child arrives at the beautiful and remote coastal cabin of his estranged father, who he hasn’t seen in 30 years. He quickly discovers that not only is dad a disapproving jerk, he also has a shady past that is rushing to catch up with him. Now, hundreds of miles from his cushy comfort zone, Norval must battle with demons both real and perceived in order to reconnect with a father he barely knows.

Starring: Ryan Eggold, Théodore Pellerin, Talia Rydera, Sidney Flanigan, Sharon Van Etten

To make an additional $10 donation to The Lilith Fund, a reproductive equity organization in Texas, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen. Nitehawk will be matching all donations.

Faced with an unintended pregnancy and a lack of local support, Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) and her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) embark across state lines to New York City on a fraught journey of friendship, bravery and compassion.

Starring: Amy Ryan, Thomasin McKenzie, Lola Kirke, Oona Laurence, Gabriel Byrne, Miriam Shor

When 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert mysteriously disappears one night, her mother Mari (Academy Award nominee Amy Ryan) embarks on a dark journey that finds her face to face with hard truths about her daughter, herself, and police bias. Determined to find her daughter at all costs, Mari Gilbert retraces Shannan’s last known steps, driving her own investigation to an insular gated community near the desolate outer banks of Long Island. Her discoveries force law enforcement and the media to uncover more than a dozen unsolved murders of sex workers, young lives Mari will not let the world forget. Inspired by Robert Kolker’s best-selling nonfiction book of the same name.

NoBudge is happy to present new work from a group of emerging indie filmmakers based in New York. These seven short films are a mix of the dramatic and experimental. Textured societal commentary can be found in films like Rules of the Game and Imaginary Friend. Others like Gas Gets In Your Eyes and Others use surreal imagery to explore dream-like landscapes and occurrences. Night Swim and Dom place New York City as a spontaneous backdrop for adventurous days fraught with complications. Five of the films are NYC or Brooklyn premieres, and five of the directors will be in attendance for a post-film Q&A and Afterparty.

NoBudge is an online platform spotlighting the best in low-budget indie filmmaking. “One of the best places to sample what’s happening in low-budget cinema worldwide,” says Glenn Kenny of The New York Times. Its mission is to provide a supportive home for emerging indie filmmakers working with limited resources and without major industry connections, and to be a trusted discovery platform.

The movies:
Gas Gets in Your Eyes
Brooklyn Premiere
Director Madeline Leshner present.
Henry loses his vision after being exposed to an unknown toxic gas.
(13 minutes)

Others
New York Premiere.
Director Grace Rex present.
A collection of eight surreal vignettes about people in everyday moments connected by an umbilical cord.
(13 minutes)

Rules of the Game
New York Premiere.
Director Francesca Pazniokas present.
An experimental video art piece that explores the ways in which bisexual and queer people are misunderstood, pigeonholed and silenced based on the rules and expectations of others.
(6 minutes)

Imaginary Friend
New York Premiere.
Director Zachary Rubin present.
Helen, a lonely and isolated woman, is given the opportunity to connect with people from her past using a new augmented reality device.
(16 minutes)

Dom
Two old friends reunite on the hottest day of summer in NYC.
(17 minutes)

Night Swim
Director Victoria Rivera present.
Three teenage girls break into a closed-off pool on a hot summer night, but when unwanted guests show up, their friendship is tested and one of them is left behind.
(12 minutes)

Accessibility: Closed Captions, Descriptive Audio

Starring: Zora Howard, Joshua Boone

On a summer night in Harlem during her last months at home before starting college, seventeen-year-old poet Ayanna (Zora Howard) meets Isaiah (Joshua Boone), a charming music producer who has just moved to the city. It’s not long before these two artistic souls are drawn together in a passionate summer romance. But as the highs of young love give way to jealousy, suspicion, and all-too-real consequences, Ayanna must confront the complexities of the adult world—whether she is ready or not. Emotionally raw, intimate, and honest, Premature is at once timeless and bracingly contemporary in its portrait of a young woman navigating the difficult choices that can shape a life.