After the loss of his dog, a teenager takes out his troubles on the local townspeople. Jordan Alexander’s “Bubblegum and the Texas Belt Buckle,” is a 16mm coming-of-age film, darkly funny yet sincere in its tenderness. The scene sets as a soft piano plays. Garret lives with his aggravated older b...

Playing phone tag with an unspecified customer service representative, a woman waits through interminable holds at her parent’s lake house in Sweden. Kevin Luna directs “The trouble you’re in,” a minimal, oddly poetic slice of life that juxtaposes a modern frustration with the serenity of the nat...

When a random couple asks him to take a photo in the park, a doe-eyed newcomer finds out what it means to be a New Yorker. Adam Kelleher directs “New York Movie,” a comic portrait of a blissfully oblivious Brit as he’s brutally broken by the Big Apple. Willy buys himself a hot dog before taking a...

A young man encounters a party predicament, to freak or nah? R.J. Sanchez directs “Freak,” a hilariously endearing coming-of-age portrait about grind dancing, nostalgic in form and feeling. Angel struts home, carrying the lower half of a mannequin in his arms. He props it up in his bedroom, confi...

On the last night of his life, a struggling, young firecracker takes to the streets to prove his mother wrong. Jacque Rabie directs “Freddie,” an off-kilter, character piece following a young man as he self-destructs on the streets of Los Angeles. Freddie Callahan has plans to go out with his fri...

A young woman confronts the source of her insecurities during a walk in the park. Caroline Falls directs “My Boyfriend Follows You on Instagram,” a cringe comedy exploring a modern relationship dynamic in the age of social media. Sam meets her friend Grace for a walk in a Los Angeles park. Just a...

Two men reunite, struggling to reconcile past trauma. Roy Gentes and Sean Hucknall direct “Scars on his Wall,” an experimental drama desperately trying to make sense of an assault and seeking normality in the aftermath. The two men meet in a decrepit building. One paces around the room anxiously ...

As a technology company uses human spies to generate suggested content, one data analyst struggles with a matter of musical taste. Eli Speigel directs “Tastemaker,” a satire set in an alternate reality dystopia where a man finds it hard to believe that a fan of the musician Tim Buckley would not ...

A woman’s gift transforms into something darker when reality picks up the phone. Josie Charles directs “Blue Violet,” a found-footage snapshot of a volatile ex and the self-mutilating extremes they take. Speaking directly to their camcorder, Blue addresses Violet—a thought-to-be girlfriend. It’s ...

A young man's car breaks down in the woods and he finds himself in the home of a lonely woman. Matthew Francescani directs “Lord’s Valley,” a lo-fi thriller, slowly building on its surrealism over the course of an evening. Off an unknown backroad, the young man sets foot in search of help. It’s a...

Stuck in Zoom meetings all day, a programmer daydreams about the stranger next door. Marissa Goldman directs “Max Distance,” a romantic comedy where questionable attempts to court a crush backfire. Erica spends most of her day sitting in work calls and watching slideshows for her remote job. In h...

This recently discovered footage shows a controversial psychological simulation going awry. Jeff Braun’s “The Bowdoin Library Experiment (1972)” is a playful, liberal arts parody of the infamous “1971 Stanford Prison Experiment.” A muffled narration outlines the study. The undergraduate students ...

A newly-turned, teenage vampire struggles to keep her violent nature a secret from her overbearing mother. Lida Everhart directs “Something’s Wrong With Kit,” a slow burn coming-of-age drenched in gloom and grim, momentarily bursting with blood red. With heavy eyes and pale skin, Kit doesn’t seem...

Isolation echoes through a young woman’s webcam. Directing trio Arryana Jocelyn Walls, Nadia Freitag, and Nel Jesiak present “Keeping Company,” a post-internet horror piece where a 20-something disintegrates into pixel noise. Robbie keeps her webcam going on record almost all of the time. We watc...

To help his struggling sister, a young man sells his belongings retrieved by visiting women he’s wronged in the past. Darius D. Dudley directs “Skid Marks,” an off-kilter afternoon with a meandering, SoCal slacker. Missy just got dumped and kicked out by her boyfriend. She goes to Malcolm, her br...

A young woman tries to reconnect with her half-sister at their uncle’s donut shop. Written by and starring Sam Spoll, “A Reconciliation at the Donut Shop” (directed by Zach Tavel) is a playfully anarchic vignette about healing an estranged relationship. Spoll plays a woman who speaks in sputters,...

A young woman discovers that her late father is actually alive and living in Mexico. Luna Garcia directs “They’ll Know You When You Call,” a coming-of-age drama with a multimedia approach. Unnamed, the “Girl” goes about her daily job at a corner store in the L.A. area. Later that afternoon, she h...

A young woman descends into madness when her girlfriend, a sex worker, becomes entangled with the wealthy patron funding their life. Mia Daniela Alejo directs “Teeth of Fawn,” a relationship drama confined to a grimy motel room exploring a young woman’s fragile psyche. As Laura attends to one of ...

His dad is dying, but a young man has a mouse to catch. Grayson Goga directs “Field Mouse,” a heavy drama where a 20-something wades through impending grief in a cold, upstate New York town. In his dimly-lit basement apartment, Leonard fiddles between his guitar and French horn. He sips liquor, p...

A young man has second thoughts about the nudity in his film. “I'm Going Full Frontal For My NYU Student Short Film,” directed by and starring Elliot Connors, is a comedy about youthful vulnerability and trying to maintain an uncompromising vision, even if questionable. Ahead of the shoot, Elliot...

After being emasculated in front of his wife and friends at a dinner party, a man confronts an unwelcome neighbor about peeing on his fence. Paul Villenave & Dylan Posgate direct “Nice,” a dramedy exploring a backyard predicament with sociopolitical undertones. Anthony and Liz get ready to host f...

A man tries to explain why he likes looking at power lines. In Jack Galvin’s “Power Lines,” men return back to boyhood with a yearning for elementary-era antics. Jack and Elizabeth take a stroll during sunset and something catches Jack’s eyes, putting him into a trance. To Jack, the electrical to...

A twenty-something seasonal worker on Fire Island navigates the tempestuous waters of pleasure and connection. “Subject of Desire,” directed by Benett Holgerson, is a documentary character study oozing with confidence with a naturally vivid aesthetic and bold subject. Flexing vocal-range and smal...

A filmmaker is ready to be old. Carly Lieberman directs “Old Fantasy,” a charismatic essay film appreciating the elderly and the joys of aging. Lieberman narrates over a series of simple animations. She recounts when an old man approached her at a restaurant to compliment her toenails, and a movi...