Starring: Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle, Lily Frazer, Lily Knight, Marcus Hutton, Turlough Convery

The debut film from writer-director Rose Glass, Saint Maud is a chilling and boldly original vision of faith, madness, and salvation in a fallen world. Maud, a newly devout hospice nurse, becomes obsessed with saving her dying patient’s soul — but sinister forces, and her own sinful past, threaten to put an end to her holy calling.

Starring: Dylan Smith, John Magaro, Orion Lee, Patrick D. Green, Rene Auberjonois

Kelly Reichardt once again trains her perceptive and patient eye on the Pacific Northwest, this time evoking an authentically hardscrabble early nineteenth century way of life. A taciturn loner and skilled cook (John Magaro) has traveled west and joined a group of fur trappers in Oregon Territory, though he only finds true connection with a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee) also seeking his fortune; soon the two collaborate on a successful business, although its longevity is reliant upon the clandestine participation of a nearby wealthy landowner’s prized milking cow. From this simple premise Reichardt constructs an interrogation of foundational Americana that recalls her earlier triumph Old Joy in its sensitive depiction of male friendship, yet is driven by a mounting suspense all its own. Reichardt again shows her distinct talent for depicting the peculiar rhythms of daily living and ability to capture the immense, unsettling quietude of rural America.

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.