Long-time editor (Never Rarely Sometimes Always) and director (Buffalo Juggalos – short) Scott Cummings and a talent to watch in Haley Elizabeth Anderson (Sundance short Pillars) are two of filmmakers grabbing the half dozen spots allocated in the NEXT section – which used to be in the ten film range. Here are the selections:
Desire Lines/ U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Jules Rosskam, Screenwriter: Nate
Gualtieri, Producers: André Pérez, Amy E. Powell, Brittani Ward) — Past and present collide when an
Iranian American trans man time-travels through an LGBTQ+ archive on a dizzying and erotic quest to
unravel his own sexual desires. Cast: Theo Germaine, Aden Hakimi. World Premiere. Documentary.
Available online for Public.
Kneecap / Ireland, U.K. (Director and Screenwriter: Rich Peppiatt, Producers: Jack Tarling, Trevor
Birney) — There are 80,000 native Irish speakers in Ireland. 6,000 live in the North of Ireland. Three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This anarchic Belfast trio becomes the unlikely figurehead of a civil rights movement to save the mother tongue. Cast: Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, JJ Ó
Dochartaigh, Michael Fassbender, Josie Walker, Simone Kirby). World Premiere. Fiction. Available online
for Public.
Little Death / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Jack Begert, Screenwriter: Dani Goffstein, Producers:
Darren Aronofsky, Andy S. Cohen, Dylan Golden, Brendan Naylor, Sam Canter, Noor Alfallah) — A
middle-aged filmmaker on the verge of a breakthrough. Two kids in search of a lost backpack. A small
dog a long way from home. Cast: David Schwimmer, Gaby Hoffmann, Dominic Fike, Talia Ryder, Jena
Malone, Sante Bentivoglio. World Premiere. Fiction. Available online for Public.
REALM OF SATAN / U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Scott Cummings, Producers: Caitlin Mae Burke,
Pacho Velez, Molly Gandour) — An experiential portrait depicting Satanists in both the everyday and in
the extraordinary as they fight to preserve their lifestyle: magic, mystery, and misanthropy. Cast: Peter Gilmore, Peggy Nadramia, Blanche Barton. World Premiere. Documentary. Available online for Public.
Seeking Mavis Beacon / U.S.A. (Director and Writer: Jazmin Renée Jones, Producer: Guetty Felin) —
Launched in the late ’80s, educational software Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions globally,
but the program’s Haitian-born cover model vanished decades ago. Two DIY investigators search for the
unsung cultural icon, while questioning notions of digital security, AI, and Black representation in the
digital realm. World Premiere. Documentary. Available online for Public.
Tendaberry / U.S.A. (Director, Screenwriter, and Producer: Haley Elizabeth Anderson, Producers: Carlos Zozaya, Matthew Petock, Zachary Shedd, Hannah Dweck, Theodore Schaefer, Daniel Patrick Carbone) — When her boyfriend goes back to Ukraine to be with his ailing father, 23-year-old Dakota anxiously navigates her precarious new reality, surviving on her own in New York City. Cast: Kota Johan, Yuri Pleskun. World Premiere. Fiction. Available online for Public.
