Chicago, Illinois, (April 2, 2024) – Today, the Cinema Femme Short Film Festival announced the full lineup of films and programs included in its 6th edition, running April 25 – May 2, 2024. Cinema Femme Magazine, presenter of the Cinema Femme Short Film Festival, emphasizes the importance of supporting emerging female and non-binary filmmakers by connecting them to seasoned industry members through the Breaking Down Walls mentorship program and retreat.
The festival is dedicated to showcasing and educating new and upcoming filmmakers, and will have its 2nd in person screening of 20 short films at the Music Box Theatre (3733 N. Southport Ave). This year’s festival also features a screenwriting workshop with Kat O’Brien, who teaches at DePaul University, Columbia College Chicago, and The Second City Film School, and a panel on post-production. The panelists will be all female and non-binary people working in post-production from notable Chicago companies: Optimus, Periscope Post & Audio, Noisefloor, and Anachrony Post. The post-production panel will be moderated by Joanna Woods, an Executive Producer at Optimus.
The 6th edition of Cinema Femme Short Film Festival opens on April 25, 2024, with the Special Tribute Q&A with established filmmaker, Haroula Rose (All Happy Families/ Once Upon a River), moderated by Rebecca Martin Fagerholm (Festival Director), at 7 PM in the Music Box Lounge. On April 28th a Spotlight Series filmmaker Q&A with Lori Felker (Spontaneous) will be held at 5:00 PM, moderated by Cinema Femme magazine contributor Matt Fagerholm, followed by the Chicago Premiere of SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD, Estonia’s official 2023 Oscar submission and the 2023 Sundance award-winning documentary. Director Anna Hints will virtually give a film introduction before the screening of the film on April 28, and a virtual Q&A will take place on the Cinema Femme YouTube channel on April 29, the day after the Opening Night screening. Closing Night on May 1 includes a VIP party and silent auction with donations made by women and non-binary people led/owned businesses in Chicago.
“This year, for our second in-person festival at the Music Box Theatre, what I am most impressed with is the involvement of the Chicago film community. The talent behind the selected films continues to blow me away,” said Rebecca Martin Fagerholm, Festival Director of Cinema Femme Short Film Festival and Managing Editor of Cinema Femme magazine. “We are so excited to have the Chicago Premiere for the award-winning film, Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, on Opening Night. We cannot wait for our passionate community to come together again at the Music Box Theatre.”
“I’m so excited to be a part of the Cinema Femme Film Festival this year. It has always been a dream of mine to work for a film festival in this role and to get to do it with such a talented team and great mission is amazing. I can’t wait to show everyone this year’s films at the Music Box Theatre and be surrounded by all the talented and passionate filmmakers and film lovers,” said Emily Broderick, Managing Director of Cinema Femme Short Film Fest.
This festival also gives filmmakers a chance to be awarded a mentorship and to attend a retreat with our mentors for this year through the Breaking Down Walls mentorship program. Four of the twenty filmmakers will be awarded a three-month mentorship with a seasoned filmmaker. This year’s mentors are Ellie Foumbi (Our Father, The Devil), Emily Lape (Mercy’s Girl), Glamhag (Holy Trinity) and Emily Robinson (Eighth Grade and The Year Between).
In addition to the mentorship, the festival gives five awards: Chicago Spotlight Award, Halyna Hutchins Award, Critics’ Choice Award, Phenomenal Person in Film Award, and the Audience Award. Details about each award can be found here. Awards will be announced on the festival’s YouTube channel May 2nd at 2pm CST.
Screening schedules and tickets are available now at the Music Box Theatre. A full list of these newly announced films is below and available at the Cinema Femme film festival page.
The programming team includes Emily Jacobson, film critic and contributor to Cinema Femme magazine, Ashley Shelton (The Evening Hour/Good Lord Bird/War Pony), and RogerEbert.com film critic and Cinema Femme contributor Peyton Robinson.
“The films of this year’s showcase feel representative of a wide range of human stories, fully displaying the immense amount of diverse talent growing in the film industry, both locally in Chicago and worldwide,” said Emily Jacobson, film critic and contributor to Cinema Femme magazine.
CINEMA FEMME SHORT FILM FESTIVAL – Full Schedule and Film Details
All physical events at Music Box Theater, 3733 N. Southport Ave
Special Tribute | Thursday, April 25
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Tribute Filmmaker Q&A with Haroula Rose (All Happy Families/ Once Upon a River) in the Music Box Lounge. Moderated by Rebecca Martin Fagerholm.
OPENING NIGHT
Sunday, April 28, 2024 | Music Box Theater, 3733 N. Southport Ave
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM Writer’s workshop for filmmakers in the Music Box Lounge, closed event for filmmakers and DePaul students
5:00 PM – 5:30 PM Spotlight Filmmaker Q&A with Lori Felker and screening of Spontaneous on April 28 at 9:30pm. Moderated by Matt Fagerholm.
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Smoke Sauna Sisterhood screening *Chicago Premiere*, Sundance 2023 award-winner, directed by Anna Hints, virtual Q&A following the screening. Variety Magazine calls it “Transcendent” and The Guardian, “Dazzling.” In the darkness of a smoke sauna, women share their innermost secrets and intimate experiences, washing off the shame trapped in their bodies and regaining their strength through a sense of communion.
Sunday, April 28, 2024 | 9:30PM- 11:00PM + Q&A | In Competition
Program Description: We write a love letter to our bodies and ourselves by elevating nine shorts directed by women and non-binary filmmakers. Sharing a universal experience of being in a female body, not identifying by gender – but as a community.
Spontaneous, dir. Lori Felker / Spotlight Filmmaker – Chicago
You never know when someone is miscarrying; it could be happening right next to you.
Bad Jew Good Girl, dir. Annika Chavez – LA
Alone in her apartment on Yom Kippur, Laurel sets out to make it through the day as a “good Jew”.
Diana’s Electric Tongue, dir. Haroula Rose, Tribute Series Filmmaker – Chicago/LA
It is 2080 and Diana gets a robotic companion – a Harbor escort – in a drunken stupor after an unexpected breakup. Her roommate Bernice is a little shocked and uncertain how to react. The world is different in 2080….but maybe not too far off from our present day.
Bodily Renaissance, dir. Claudia Lee – UK
An experimental poem-short exploring one woman’s journey with body image and dysmorphia through the lens of Renaissance women’s forms.
Fat Fish, dir. Jewells Santos – Chicago
A woman crashes with her uptight sister but when her sister’s away, she invites over a man she met online.
The Knowing, dir. Erin Lovett – LA
After several failed rounds of IVF, an artist seeking solitude encounters a nightmarish presence outside her remote cabin, forcing both a confrontation and a choice.
Tight, dir. Jessica Barr – LA
A woman grappling with difficulty finding sexual pleasure after childbirth falls back on an old coping habit.
STASIS, dir. Amaka Lin – UK
On an ordinary dreary day, an ancient force begins to inspire a peculiar transformation.
Sensitivity, dir. Laney Marquette (Spotlight Filmmaker) – Chicago
A 16-year-old girl celebrating her birthday ends up spending her special day in a way she will not forget.
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Virtual Events:
Join all events @ YouTube Channel
Part One LIVE Q&A with selected filmmakers, moderated by Annarosa Mudd | April 29, 2024 | 3:00 PM CDT
Producer and actress Annarosa Mudd (“TAPE”) moderates a Q&A with Cinema Femme Short Film Festival 2024 selected filmmakers Amaka Lin, director of “STASIS”, Krista Kane, director of “Except”, Lucy Grebin, writer and star of “Bad Jew Good Girl,” and Claudia Lee, director of “Bodily Renaissance.”
Part Two LIVE Q&A with selected filmmakers, moderated by Gabriela Ortega | April 29, 2024 | 8:00 PM CDT
Cinema Femme Short Film Festival 2020 alum Gabriela Ortega (“Papi”), actor and director, moderates a Q&A with Giovanna Molina (“Hickey”), Laney Marquette (“Sensitivity”), Autumn Thompson (“The Pieces”), T. J. Blanco (“A Land Memory”), Marion Forbes (“Thank you, Neck”), and Kaitlyn Busbee (“Layaway”) for the 2024 Cinema Femme Short Film Festival.
Part Three LIVE Q&A with selected filmmakers, moderated by Zoë Worth | April 30 2024 | 12:00 PM CDT
Zoë Worth, producer of the Sundance 2024 indie gem “Thelma”, starring June Squibb, moderates a Q&A with Cinema Femme Short Film Festival 2024 filmmakers , Katherine Bourne Taylor and Mary Tilden (“Fern”), Bridget Frances Harris (“Places of Worship”), Erin Lovett (“The Knowing”), and Olivia Haller (“[subtext]”) .
Filmmaker Producer Panel | Tuesday, April 30, 2024 | 3:00 PM CDT
Cinema Femme Festival Director Rebecca Martin Fagerholm moderates an all-star dream team producer panel with women and non-binary producers. Panelists are Rhianon Jones (Neon Heart Productions), Oluwaseun Babalola (KOSINIMA Inc), Elizabeth Woodward (WILLA), Flor de oro Tejadda (“Bone Black: Midwives vs. the South”), Natalie Metzger (Vanishing Angle), and Liz Cardenas (Ten to the Six Pictures).
Cinema Femme alum filmmaker Tiffany Tenille (“Albion Rose,” “Jezebel”) moderates a Q&A with Cinema Femme Short Film Fest filmmakers with Allison Torem (“Road Head”), Marissa Chibás (“72”), Lua Borges (“Madonna”) and Jessica Barr (“Tight”).
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Closing Night | Music Box Theater, 3733 N. Southport Ave
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM | VIP Party/Silent Auction (VIP Fest Pass only) in the Music Box Lounge
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM | Post-Production Panel pre-show to Shorts Program 2
A moderated conversation with film veterans specializing in editing, sound design, color correction and finish. This discussion will focus on the inner workings of feature, short form, and TV post-production. Moderated by Joanna Woods, an Executive Producer at Optimus in collaboration with Noisefloor and Periscope Post & Audio. Panelists include Katie Waters (Foley Artist, Noisefloor), Victoria Salazar (Location Audio Lead and Sound Editor, Noisefloor), Thea Ilic (Post-Production Coordinator, Periscope Post & Audio), Emily Kaberlein (Assistant Editor, Periscope Post & Audio), and Ana Christian (Editor, Anachrony Post).
SHORTS PROGRAM 2: Sincerely Yours
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM + Q&A | In – Competition
Program Description: A series of personable films that touch on family, origins, and life choices.
Eat Flowers, dir. River Finlay – D.C.
When photographer and writer Cig Harvey discovers her best friend is diagnosed with Leukemia, she sets out to fill her world with color and light. “Eat Flowers” is film about living.
Video Funeral, dir. Linh Tran – Chicago
Lam, a Vietnamese international student, welcomes her younger sister, Phuong, to her Chicago apartment. Phuong brings a DVD of their father’s funeral, which Lam could not attend.
Thank you, Neck, dir. Marion Forbes – New Orleans
Thank You, Neck is a coming of age drama that follows the journey of a young designer Sophie after she receives a cancer diagnosis.
A Land Memory, dir. T.J. Blanco – Milwaukee
A Land Memory asks after the response-ability of the living to the dead and the land they lay inside. The story revolves around the lives and deaths of farmworkers in Colombia, the state-sanctioned murder of Lenca land defender–Berta Cáceres– and the filmmaker’s own relation to their birth-land of Honduras.
Except, dir. Krista Kane – Chicago
Except is a love story about loneliness, labor, and sizzling summer sausage, starring “Caroline” star Isabelle Muthiah. Caroline won the Critics Choice Award for the Cinema Femme Short Film Festival last year.
The Pieces, dir. Autumn Thompson – NYC
A young woman is set out on a journey, curious and confused about her identity, when DNA results do not match what she has known her whole life.
Layaway, dir. Kaitlyn T. Busbee – NYC
Left by their mother to fend for themselves, two siblings in Iowa learn to live by their own code, until a choice becomes a secret that tests their trust in each other.
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
9:30 PM – 11:00PM | Q&A | In-Competition
Program Description: Films will make you feel all the feelings, whether it is laughing, crying, or even laugh-crying. All these films will bring together the audience through these emotions.
Road Head dir. Allison Torem – Chicago
Stuck on the side of the road on their way to a social distance party, two contact-starved millennials try not to connect on an intimate level in this Reform Jewish absurd comedy about grief, changing plans, and the lengths we’ll go to avoid direct communication with the people we love.
Hickey, dir. Giovanna Molina
After discovering a hickey on her older sister’s neck, Grace (15) attempts to expose her sister and win her conservative father’s approval.
Places of Worship, dir. Bridget Frances Harris – Chicago
After an incident following Sunday mass, a Catholic altar server starts having visions of The Virgin Mary, forcing her to confront queer feelings for a movie theater coworker.
[subtext], dir. Erin Brown Thomas – LA
Two people on a first date mask and ignore their insecurities until an event forces them to say what they are really thinking.
Madonna, dir. Lua Borges – Chicago
Around the landscapes of rural Illinois, a dying old man relives some of his early memories
through the sublime manifestation of his younger self.
Fern, dir. Katherine Bourne Taylor and Mary Tilden – Chicago
Katherine is moving away. Mary does not want her to. On Katherine’s final day in town, Mary goes to absurd lengths to get her to stay.
72, dir. Marissa Chibás – LA
It is New York City 1972 and Cuban immigrant Gloria Cienfuegos’s life and New Year’s Eve party are upended when her 18-year-old daughter Viv announces that she is being sworn in that week as an American citizen, creating a showdown between the two women.
Good Daughter, dir. Rachel Annette Helson (Spotlight Filmmaker)
A small-time con artist rips off elderly dementia patients by pretending to be their daughter – before the con catches up with her. Starring Samantha Sloyan (Midnight Mass, Grey’s Anatomy.)
Cinema Femme Short Film Fest Festival Director Rebecca Martin Fagerholm talks to Rachel Annette Helson about her short film “Good Daughter.” This Q&A is part of the 2024 Spotlight Series.
Virtual Awards Given with Mentors | Thursday, May 2, 2024 | 2:00PM CDT
2024 Mentors Ellie Foumbi, Kris Rey, Glamhag, and Emily Robinson will announce their mentees | other awards: Critics Choice, Halyna Hutchins Producer award, Chicago Spotlight, Phenomenal Person in Film, and Audience Choice. Learn more about our awards!
VIP tickets are available now; individual tickets are available April 8. To purchase tickets at The Music Box, visit: https://musicboxtheatre.com/series-and-festivals/cinema-femme-short-film-fest
More information can be found on the Cinema Femme film festival page.
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Festival Sponsors
Cinema Femme Short Film Fest is sponsored by Independent Film Alliance Chicago, Noisefloor, Optimus, and Periscope Post and Audio.
About Cinema Femme: Cinema Femme is a platform for emerging underrepresented filmmakers, which includes women and non-binary people. To support these filmmakers, Cinema Femme showcases their short films, provides education through featured interviews, and offers mentorship with seasoned filmmakers. They are vocal about the need for change onscreen and behind the lens. They believe that together, they can change the industry for the better.
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