THE STORIES
BEHIND THE STORIES.
Meet the filmmakers, podcast creators, and screenwriters behind this year’s official selections—and hear about the sparks, risks, setbacks, and persistence that brought their work to life.
Vinny Anand discusses Chili Score, a New York Premiere heist comedy about a green chili shortage that upends Jackson Heights. The writer-director reflects on family, supply chains, spicy food, and making room for ambition alongside life.
Vinny Anand discusses Chili Score, a New York Premiere heist comedy about a green chili shortage that upends Jackson Heights. The writer-director reflects on family, supply chains, spicy food, and making room for ambition alongside life.
Vinny Anand discusses Chili Score, a New York Premiere heist comedy about a green chili shortage that upends Jackson Heights. The writer-director reflects on family, supply chains, spicy food, and making room for ambition alongside life.
Vinny Anand discusses Chili Score, a New York Premiere heist comedy about a green chili shortage that upends Jackson Heights. The writer-director reflects on family, supply chains, spicy food, and making room for ambition alongside life.
Vinny Anand discusses Chili Score, a New York Premiere heist comedy about a green chili shortage that upends Jackson Heights. The writer-director reflects on family, supply chains, spicy food, and making room for ambition alongside life.
Meet Sophia Conger, writer-director of BIG NOSE, a New York Premiere comedy about body image, self-definition, and the unexpected consequences of refusing to conform. Conger discusses personal inspiration, creative risk, and making a film that is unmistakably her own.
Meet Sam French, director of the World Premiere short Fantasy Life, a sweet and searching Brooklyn romantic comedy about a couple navigating intimacy, conflict, and each other. French discusses collaboration, personal storytelling, and why weird is good.
Producer Ruth Solorzano discusses <em>Regulars</em>, a New York Premiere comedy murder mystery set in a Dominican-owned Brooklyn dive bar facing gentrification. She reflects on chosen family, community, representation, and making a feature from a long-held idea.
Writer-director-actor Octavio Pisano discusses Wet Under Blue Sky, his U.S. Premiere drama about a boxer confronting the long-term consequences of life in the ring. He reflects on memory, identity, independent filmmaking, and the personal origins of the film.
Meet Naomi Eidinger, writer-director of MIDDLING, a New York Premiere at the 2026 Bushwick Film Festival. She talks creative risk, messy relationships, production setbacks, and making time for the work that keeps calling you back.
Writer-director Max Jenkins discusses his directorial debut, The Waddles, a comedy/horror/LGBTQ+ short about cosmetic procedures, friendship, and an unexpected reunion. The film makes its Northern Brooklyn premiere at the 2026 Bushwick Film Festival.
In Lief Ramsaran’s Brooklyn Premiere comedy One or Two, a routine eye exam becomes an offbeat reckoning with heartbreak, memory, and the elusive clarity we seek. The Toronto-based writer-director discusses the personal experience behind the film and finding humor in vulnerability.
Kristin Kirkley discusses her New York Premiere From Here, It’s Heaven, a dystopian satire in which citizens are assigned their rapture times. The Brooklyn-based filmmaker reflects on analog memory, collaboration, and finding purpose in the process of finishing her narrative directorial debut.
Meet Karimah Zakia Issa, writer-director of Oh, How She Dances, a World Premiere hybrid narrative-documentary drama created with musician STORRY. Issa reflects on collaboration, lived experience, music, and making space for understanding over pity.
Jeremy Lu discusses his New York Premiere Monkey Drum, a rural Japanese horror drama in which a reclusive man’s act of sheltering a lost family leads to ruin. The writer-director reflects on anxiety, isolation, audience interpretation, and making space for the present.
Ian Goldberg’s BEATsTABLE explores Brooklyn’s instrumental beat scene through the producers who use rhythm as a form of endurance, therapy, and expression. The writer-director discusses making his first film from inside the culture that shaped him.
Frank Sun’s Brooklyn Premiere Fabric enters the glamour and chaos of New York Fashion Week, where a photographer and a model negotiate access, ambition, and a fragile new connection. The writer-director discusses bringing authenticity to the screen and the emotional stakes beneath the image.
Meet James Smith, the writer-director of the stop-motion sci-fi horror short "Cosmic Crash". The filmmaker discusses alien encounters, claymation challenges, and making films in the time he can carve out around his full-time job.
Meet Aaron Cassara, director of The Hardest Working Man, a documentary about Lorenzo Powell, a New York City shoe repairman continuing his father’s craft. Cassara discusses commitment, family, and the enduring value of the city’s makers.
Writer-director Cormac Fingeret discusses See Me, his New York Premiere drama about the enduring effects of online grooming, intimacy, and recognition. In this Meet the Filmmaker conversation, he reflects on restraint, collaboration, and the need to confront harm that can remain unnamed for years.
Grant Davis discusses his New York Premiere comedy Jerry, in which a pet-sitting mix-up turns unexpectedly grave. The writer-director-actor reflects on first-film nerves, Bushwick community, and making time for a creative leap.