On October 13th, 1990, nineteen-year-old Luisa commits suicide by jumping from the sixth floor of a hospital building. She had just given birth to her second child, Alberto. The circumstances surrounding her death leave Luisa’s family and loved ones in a state of shock, despair, and confusion. In The Empty Space, directors Stefano P. Testa and Alberto Ceresoli chronicle Alberto’s attempts to reconstruct his family history, crafting an image of a mother he never knew, potentia

Jil Guyon’s award-winning experimental short Threshold will be streaming on Whush as part of the NewCinema/Experiment+ showcase. Made in the United States in 2025, the 6-minute, 18-second black-and-white film centres on an unnamed woman confined to the rooftop of a castle in southern Portugal. Moving between performance, experimental film and visual art, Thresholdexplores themes of survival, vulnerability, seduction and psychological confrontation. The protagonist is conceive

Sometimes the smallest encounters are the ones that stay with us. In To Us, a new Australian short from Korean-Australian filmmaker Jeno Kim, a disappointing date night leaves a woman searching for a little comfort. She finds it, unexpectedly, in her neighbour. Running just seven and a half minutes, To Us is a compact, intimate story about disappointment, loneliness and those fleeting moments of human connection that can make an otherwise terrible night feel a little less ter

Artist and experimental filmmaker Nancy E. Andrews, whose singular body of work moved freely between cinema, drawing, performance, music and publication, passed away on July 11. In tribute to her life and work, her latest short film, She Had Some Work Done, will be streamed on Whush as part of the Auteur Cinema Archive. Nancy E. Andrews spent her career working at the fertile edges between disciplines. A filmmaker, artist, performer and musician, she created hybrid works enco

A distant train whistle. A gifted child awake at night. A parallel world waiting somewhere beyond the suburbs of 1960s Quebec. Marie Brassard’s The Train (Le Train) arrives on Whush as part of the NewCinema/Features+ showcase, bringing with it a dreamlike collision of memory, art, counterculture and science fiction. Written and directed by acclaimed Canadian theatre-maker and filmmaker Marie Brassard, The Train begins with Agathe, a gifted child with asthma growing up in subu

What happens when the consequences of our throwaway culture land in someone else’s backyard? In Bachelor Pad, British animator Matilda Ogilvy answers that question through an unlikely environmental hero: a very small frog with a very big rubbish problem. The 2025 animated short, now joining the NewCinema/Shorts+ showcase on Whush, runs for just over two minutes. But within that miniature running time, Ogilvy constructs an entire world around Tadley Padsworth, a solitary frog

Venice Film Week has wrapped its 2026 edition following five days of independent cinema, filmmaker encounters and screenings across Venice. Taking place from August 16 to 20, this year’s program brought together a wide-ranging selection of narrative and documentary films, shorts, animation and experimental work from Italy and around the world. The festival opened on Sunday, August 16, with an open-air screening at Campo San Polo, setting the tone for a week dedicated to conte

Mexican filmmaker Mois Roditi has won the Best Independent Film Award at AAIFF Americas’ – The All Americas’ Independent Film Festival for his feature film Teléfono Público (Public Telephone). The award also marks the beginning of a new collaboration between AAIFF Americas’ and The Tarkovski Grant, with Roditi becoming the festival’s first recipient. AAIFF Americas’ is also the first Mexican film festival to present The Tarkovski Grant. Mois Roditi Produced by Alejandro Hirsc

Best Scottish Short Award winner to receive The Tarkovski Grant from 2026 onwards The Tarkovski Grant is proud to announce a new collaboration with the Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF), one of the United Kingdom's leading celebrations of LGBTQIA+ cinema. Beginning with the festival's 2026 edition, the recipient of the Best Scottish Short Award will also receive The Tarkovski Grant, providing the winning filmmaker with an international submission fee waiver p

Few genres externalize our private fears as effectively as psychological horror. In Kendra Monet's debut narrative short, ATTACHED, the monsters are not supernatural—they are the anxieties of surviving your twenties while chasing impossible dreams. Set in Harlem, ATTACHED follows Draya, a struggling actress whose unresolved past and increasingly precarious present force her to confront her need for control. Rejection, financial instability, fractured relationships, and the qu

Winner of the Best Short Film Award to receive The Tarkovski Grant during WIFF's landmark 20th edition The Tarkovski Grant is proud to welcome the Waterford International Film Festival (WIFF) as the first film festival in Ireland to present The Tarkovski Grant. Beginning with the festival's 2026 edition, the winner of WIFF's Best Short Film Award will also receive the international submission fee waiver package, helping them continue the festival journey of their work through

Seven films recognized across feature, short, U.S., experimental, extremely short, New England and Connecting Cultures categories BOSTON — Doc.Boston has announced the award winners of its sixth edition, which concluded this past weekend after four screenings of documentary cinema. The 2026 official selection brought together 21 films from around the world, showcasing urgent, intimate and formally adventurous approaches to nonfiction storytelling. “This past weekend reminded

The 11th Boston Short Film Festival concluded last Friday after four days of celebrating outstanding short-form cinema at the Capitol Theatre. From Tuesday through Friday, audiences enjoyed a carefully curated program of 39 short films from around the world, reaffirming the festival's commitment to championing bold voices and the art of short filmmaking. Festival manager and host Maarten Cornelis The winning films reflect the remarkable breadth of contemporary cinema. Togethe

In When the Wind Blows, filmmaker Ziqing “Gigi” Yang transforms grief into a strange and tactile science-fiction landscape. The film follows Birdy, an awkward amateur scientist whose fragile experiment pulls her into a dimension that feels both uncanny and intimately familiar. As she moves deeper into this inner world, she is forced to confront the loss she has kept buried for years. Rather than presenting grief as a problem to be solved, Yang allows it to exist as sensation,

The Lee Strasberg Film Festival (LSFF) has unveiled an impressive jury for its milestone 10th edition, led by Academy Award-winning actor Al Pacino. The festival, taking place 13–15 November 2026 at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in West Hollywood, will once again celebrate outstanding independent filmmaking and authentic screen performances inspired by the Method acting tradition. Pacino's appointment carries special significance. A longtime friend and protégé of

The Somerville International Film Festival returned this past weekend, showcasing an eclectic selection of independent films from the United States and around the world or as Boston Magazine called it “fresh cinematic visions”. Dedicated to inspiring, motivating, and recognizing emerging talent, the festival was held in the vibrant Davis Square neighborhood at The Rockwell. Selected from a multitude of entries, this year's official lineup included 18 local and international f

In Skuzland & Shygirl – FREAK is WILD, director Annika White and co-director Carl Knight transform a small Harlem apartment into a world without stable boundaries. Hyper-sensual performances move through mirrored rooms, tactile interiors, grotesque humor, and layered digital spaces, creating a visual universe where the freakish and the glamorous are not opposites, but part of the same liberated vocabulary. The official music video for Skuzland and Shygirl’s collaboration trac

A new platform aims to give independent films a lasting home beyond the traditional festival experience. The Bigger Screen has officially announced the launch of NEWCINEMA/, a new streaming initiative created to help independent filmmakers connect their work with audiences around the world. Described as "The International Showcase for Independent Film," the platform combines professional streaming with editorial promotion, offering filmmakers an alternative way to present the

This week marked the 12th edition of the Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival. The Official Selection featured 33 outstanding independent films, carefully chosen from submissions received from around the world. The festival's Streaming Selection remains available until 8 August. More information can be found on the festival's website. Kris De Meester, curator of the Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival, reflected on this year's edition: "The Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival continues

The Auteur Cinema Archive proudly welcomes No Longer / Not Yet, the remarkable observational documentary by American-born, Paris-based filmmaker and choreographer Jacquelyn Elder, to its growing collection celebrating singular voices in contemporary independent cinema. Winner of Best Documentary Short at the Liminal Dance Film Festival in Washington D.C. and selected for festivals including Cinedans, Doc.Boston, Dallas Dance Film Festival, Winter Film Festival New York, Montp

Some films explain themselves. Others arrive like a nightmare and ask only that we feel them. They Are Killing Us..., directed by Canadian filmmaker Maurice Cormier, belongs firmly to the second category. Described by Cormier as a non-narrative surrealist and experimental short with elements of science fantasy and body/eco horror, the film emerges from a nightmare vision of a possible near future. It is a work shaped by anxiety: climate change, war, racial violence, attacks o