Always a festival favorite, the Midnite program returns, once again at a reasonable hour! A midnite film can be gut-wrenching, gasp inducing, gruesome, goofy and gross, and all of that is represented here. In another year of a majority female directed line-up, these projects continue to push the boundaries in the best ways possible. Do you dare to enter?

Q&A moderated by Desmond Thorne, Nitehawk Cinema

Don’t Come Home Before Midnight
Allison Torem / U.S. / 2024 / 13 min. / English
An actor goes method while investigating a corrupt tennis camp owner, but the lines begin to blur between the case and the mysteries that consume him in his own home.

The Thaw
Sarah Wisner, Sean Temple / U.S. / 2023 / 17 min. / English
In 19th-century Vermont, a young woman’s parents drink sleeping tea to survive the harsh winter, but an early thaw leads to horrifying results.

Poppa
Peter Ahern / U.S. / 2024 / 1 min. / English
I’m sorry, what just happened?

Cruelty
Sam Das / U.S. / 2024 / 9 min. / English
A young trans woman is chased into a junkyard while being followed home late at night. She must outwit her predator and summon the strength of a goddess.

Is That a Mime?
Phil Cheney / U.S. / 2024 / 5 min. / English
A couple’s picnic is disrupted by what may or may not be a mime.

DESTROYER
Judd Myers / U.S. / 2023 / 20 min. / English
An insecure man’s compulsion to know his partner’s secrets leads him on an underworld descent where he makes contact with something non-human.

Spicy Latina
Michelle Cepeda Cruz / U.S. / 2023 / 11 min. / English
Leti, an anxious & lonely woman, struggles with an increasingly aggressive case of acid reflux all while diving headfirst into the stress inducing world of modern dating.

Dummy!
Francesca Pazniokas / U.S. / 2024 / 13 min. / English
An aspiring cabaret singer struggles to break free from her controlling mother — a ventriloquist dummy who was once a star herself.

The Flacalta Effect
Rochée Jeffrey / U.S. / 2023 / 8 min. / English
After a drug with anti-aging properties has apocalyptic consequences, two Black sisters fight for their lives—and looks—in this satirical take on toxic white beauty culture.