Ivy Vale’s coming of age musical Out of My Comfort Zone will open this year’s 8th edition of Festival of Cinema NYC, the Queens-based film festival, running from August 2-11, 2024. The festival returns to the Regal UA Midway in Forest Hills with additional venues this year including the Queens Public Library at Forest Hills, Yant Tattoo Studios – the Official Filmmaker Lounge and special presentations at the Queens Center Mall in Rego Park. The festival closes with the world premiere of Delfine Paolini’s A Wonderful Way with Dragons.

Festival of Cinema NYC Founder and Executive Director Jayson Simba, said, “This year’s edition of the film festival continues the growth of our event. Our mission to establish a bridge between community and the arts, by exhibiting the work of talented filmmakers, gets stronger every year. It always begins and ends with great films, but it becomes special by highlighting why we love to come to the movie theater and celebrating the artistic accomplishments of our filmmakers who foster that connection between us.”

Ivy Vale’s musical Out of My Comfort Zone opens the film festival on Friday, August 2. The film involves the tangled relationship triangle between two lifelong friends and a cyber bully who inadvertently sends their relationship to a very different place after outing one of them publicly. The screening will be preceded by Raymond-Kym Suttle’s short film, Groomed & Bridled. Delfine Paolini’s A Wonderful Way with Dragons screens on Saturday, August 10 as the Closing Night presentation. The film focuses on a group of children struggling to survive in a post-pandemic world and stars Violet McGraw (M3GAN).

Additional world premieres among the feature film lineup include Laura Angiulli’s Italian drama I Know You (Io Ti Conosco), Harrison Dillingham’s Mortimer, and Charles Caracciolo’s The Old Ballgame: The QBH Story. North American premieres include Andrey Getov’s Bo Nan Za, Francois Manceaux’s Encontro, Penny Zhou’s Hollywood Takeover: China’s Control in the Film Industry, Roman Balmakov’s No Farmers No Food: Will You Eat the Bugs?, Holger Borggrefe’s Once And For Real, and Jordi Torrent’s Third Week. The short films lineup adds an additional 12 world premieres and 2 North American premieres, as well.

Additional film highlights include Caroline Keene and Dan Kennedy’s Merry Good Enough. Starring 2024 FOC NYC Festival Juror Raye Levine Spielberg, the holiday-themed drama follows a young woman with a complicated relationship with her dysfunctional family, who must oversome those feelings to bring her family back together again when her mother disappears on Christmas Eve. Julien Hayet-Kerknawi’s World War I set acton drama The Last Front stars Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) as a grieving father tasked with leading villagers to safety while evading a relentless enemy driven by vengeance. Oscar nominated director Matthew Heineman’s documentary The First Wave gives a “you are there” experience as it following nurses, doctors, and administrators in a New York City hospital as they respond to the victims from the COVID-19 pandemic.

2024 FESTIVAL OF CINEMA NYC OFFICIAL SELECTIONS

OPENING NIGHT PRESENTATION

Out of My Comfort Zone
Director: Ivy Vale
Country: USA; Running Time: 105 minutes
Lifelong teenage friends, Josh & Rachel, are hiding things from each other. Everyone thinks they’re the It Couple. Rachel is in love with Josh, while Josh is struggling with his sexuality. Rachel impulsively texts Josh her secret, but Josh doesn’t receive it. Instead, Josh finds an anonymous love note taped to his locker. The Viper, a cyberbully whose gossipy website of public shaming has the entire school living in fear, secretly films Josh and Rachel revealing their truths to each other. When The Viper’s website outs Josh as gay, Josh agrees to date Rachel to prove he’s straight.
Preceded by
Groomed & Bridled
Director: Raymond-Kym Suttle
Country: USA; Running Time: 6 minutes
Everyone has a secret; some men share their secrets with their wives, and some wives don’t mind what they find out.

CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION

A Wonderful Way with Dragons World Premiere
Director: Delfine Paolini
Country: USA; Running Time: 110 minutes
After a pandemic sweeps the world, six children remain abandoned on an enigmatic island. Their struggle to survive becomes paled by individual desires for each other and for power.

ADDITIONAL NARRATIVE FEATURE FILMS

A/way
Director: Derek Shane Garcia
Country: USA; Running Time: 62 minutes
After suffering a profound loss, a travel journalist is sent on assignment to Martinique, which sparks a candid reflection on her unsettled life. Blending the lines between documentary and narrative, A/way focuses on the stories of the people Anna profiles in Martinique (played by non-actors), which pushes her to examine her path forward coming to terms with her grief.

Bo Nan Za North American Premiere
Director: Andrey Getov
Country: Bulgaria; Running Time: 61 minutes
What happens when a dignified urban drifter explores and remaps the common roads of a sleeping city?

Encontro North American Premiere
Director: Francois Manceaux
Country: France; Running Time: 116 minutes
Alain, a Belgian director in his fifties, receives a mysterious photograph on his phone.
He recognizes Luisa, a Portuguese actress he fell madly in love with 7 years prior while shooting his film, that remains unfinished. Obsessed by that image, which he sees as a divine invitation, Alain leaves his home in Belgium and returns to Lisbon to see the actress again. When he arrives, he discovers she is missing, and meets a woman who offers to help with his investigation. For him, a hypnotic journey begins driven by a dream that spans his past, his present in Lisbon and his imagined future in Cape Verde, where the duality between the two women is revealed.

House Of Waltz
Director: Rodney Ferrer
Country: USA; Running Time: 104 minutes
Waltz spends his time painting in an urban garden while living in a small shed, buried in his collection of books , music, canned foods and bottles of wine. Waltz shares the space with old Man who is in a vegetative state on a wheel chair whom he cares for. Meanwhile Waltz falls in love with a dancer who lives alone trying to survive a global plague that has ravished the world. Has Waltz created a garden of eden or is he an artist on the brink madness?

I Know You (Io Ti Conosco) World Premiere
Director: Laura Angiulli
Country: Italy; Running Time: 77 minutes
Two parallel stories, one related to events of Nina’s life, the other focussed on her professional activity as film editor. It is in this role that she becomes deeply involved in a film she is editing whose dramatic implications seem to recall events of her own life. The starting point is a dream of a family tragedy that reveals the background of her story and that triggers a mechanism of obsession which is represented through a dense symbolic apparatus: an irreparable malaise becomes then the focus of the story till its natural conclusion.

I Want to Live on Mars
Director: Mariya Somova
Country: USA; Running Time: 80 minutes
Two young women (Pickles, very rural, and Breezy, very urban) are brought together by the mistakes or the circumstances of their guardians beyond their control. After months of prickly, unlikely friendship, and a series of poetically unexpected events, the two strike out on their own, leaving behind whatever scraps they had in exurban Pennsylvania in search of “Life on Mars.”
The Imposters
Director: Nicholas Winter
Country: UK; Running Time: 87 minutes
Maya meets the enigmatic Hattie. They fall for each other, but soon, things begin to unravel as Maya realises that Hattie has ulterior motives and everything is not as it seems.

The Last Front
Director: Julien Hayet-Kerknawi
Country: Belgium; Running Time: 98 minutes
Amidst World War I’s chaos, a grieving father turns hero, leading villagers to safety while evading a relentless enemy driven by vengeance.

Merry Good Enough
Directors: Caroline Keene, Dan Kennedy
Country: USA; Running Time: 94 minutes
Lucy has a complicated relationship with her dysfunctional family, but when her mother disappears on Christmas Eve, she must bring her family back together again, whether she knows it or not.

Mortimer World Premiere
Director: Harrison Dillingham
Country: USA; Running Time: 40 minutes

1948. It’s raining again, and Charles Mortimer has a long night ahead. With unresolved conflicts and a passionate affair to tend to, our hero treads through the night…as deceit waits in the shadows.

Once and For Real (Einmal richtig) North American Premiere
Director: Holger Borggrefe
Country: Deutschland; Running Time: 98 minutes
Anton promises to fall in love, once and for real, at the funeral of his best mate at the age of 19. The story of his most important dates evolves to Anton’s life story.

Second Chance City
Director: Chris Cardillo Jr
Country: USA; Running Time: 86 minutes
A young man endeavors to rebuild his life after his release from prison, navigating the challenges of rehabilitation. The inspiration behind telling this story stems from witnessing the experience of a younger sibling who was arrested for marijuana possession nearly a decade ago. Despite the eventual dismissal of charges, the realization dawned that individuals could be exploited as political pawns for nonviolent offenses, facing unwarranted stigma.

Sorry, We’re Dead
Director: Alex Zajicek
Country: USA; Running Time: 86 minutes
Cinema and reality blur with comic deconstruction when Lana’s movie falls through the ceiling into her life.

Third Week North American Premiere
Director: Jordi Torrent
Countries: USA/Spain; Running Time: 90 minutes
A social drama about second chances in life and the challenges they bring. The heart of the narrative is Alvin’s struggle in finding himself after having spent two years in prison. A second chance presents itself as he gets a job at a tool and die machine shop in Staten Island.

Threads of Blue
Director: Kenichi Sono
Country: Japan; Running Time: 93 minutes
EN has a prophetic dream that her family will be involved in an accident. As she struggles to prevent it, she begins to doubt her own memory and even the appearance of her family in front of her.

Wolfpack
Director: Cédric Peyster
Country: France; Running Time: 52 minutes
In a not too distant future, the youth has decided to get back at the older generations and start hunting them at night. Matthieu, 50-years-old, will have to survive the pack that is chasing him.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILMS

Hollywood Takeover: China’s Control in the Film Industry North American
Director: Penny Zhou Premiere
Country: USA; Running Time: 64 minutes
Have you noticed anything different about our movies lately? Perhaps you noticed how Iron Man 3 inserted a Chinese doctor into the movie who saves the life of Tony Stark. Is it artistic license or something more sinister? Who really controls the film industry? Why does the CCP want to control Hollywood so badly? These are the issues explored.

No Farmers No Food: Will You Eat the Bugs? North American Premiere
Director: Roman Balmakov
Country: USA; Running Time: 65 minutes
An Epoch Original documentary discussing the matters behind global “Green Policies” the untold stories of farmers forced out of business, the disruption this will have on our food supply, and why edible bugs are suddenly being pushed to the fore as a “Global Green Solution.”

The First Wave
Director: Matthew Heineman
Country: USA; Running Time: 93 minutes
A documentary following nurses, doctors, and administrators in a New York City hospital as they respond to the victims from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Old Ballgame: The QBH Story World Premiere
Director: Charles Caracciolo
Country: USA; Running Time: 54 minutes
For 40+ years, the local little league in Flushing, NY was run by an organization called the Queensboro Hill Athletic Association, or QBH, for short. My memories of that time in my life are many and magical. This is the story of QBH.

SHORT FILMS

A Different Place North American Premiere
Director: Sophie Black
Country: UK; Running Time: 14 minutes

Alpha/Beta
Director: Misha Calvert
Country: USA; Running Time: 10 minutes

Ambrosia
Director: Amy Northup
Country: USA; Running Time: 12 minutes

Ballerina
Director: Bill Klages & Ben Drumm
Country: USA; Running Time: 4 minutes

Barbette + Fontaine
Director: John-Carlos Estrada & Zak Zeh
Country: USA; Running Time: 14 minutes

Because I Love You
Director: Bob Celli
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 minutes

Before You Go
Director: Joe Thayer
Country: USA; Running Time: 10 minutes

Big Momma Earth
Directors: Santiago Calogero, Jordan Rockower
Country: USA; Running Time: 8 minutes

The BiodiverCity World Premiere
Director: Masataka Ishizaki
Country: USA; Running Time: 12 minutes

The Body of Levi
Director: Freddy Cheung
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 minutes

Bonding
Director: Luke Rex
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 minutes

Breakdown
Director: Gabriel Tibi
Country: France; Running Time: 14 minutes

The Capitalist
Director: Gian Francisco Smith
Country: USA; Running Time: 17 minutes

The Club of Five (Pentaclub)
Director: Roberto Strazzarino
Country: Italy; Running Time: 26 minutes

Christmas, Dumpling and Tortellini World Premiere
Director: Zilong Wang
Country: USA; Running Time: 19 minutes

Crash the System World Premiere
Director: Kamal Ahmed
Country: USA; Running Time: 34 minutes

Culture Talk on the Radio
Director: Errkaa
Country: Germany; Running Time: 27 minutes

CYA
Director: Alice The G00n
Country: USA; Running Time: 6 minutes

Dad’s New Roommate
Director: Patrick Devaney
Country: USA; Running Time: 23 minutes

Diana’s Electric Tongue
Director: Haroula Rose
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 minutes

DOC: Race, Revolution, Relativity &
The Confessions of a Time Traveling Terrorist
Directors: Tarik Rashaan Davis, Laura K. Nicoll
Country: USA; Running Time: 30 minutes

Don’t Bother The Neighbors!
Director: Jeff Gorcyca
Country: USA; Running Time: 7 minutes

Drawn
Director: Ty Clancey
Country: USA; Running Time: 25 minutes

Dunes North American Premiere
Director: Virginie Kahn
Country: France; Running Time: 10 minutes

Ego (Ava Della Pietra – official music video)
Director: Adam Lukowski
Country: USA; Running Time: 3 minutes

The Capitalist
Director: Gian Francisco Smith
Country: USA; Running Time: 17 minutes

The Esteemed Priority
Director: Al Bohl
Country: USA; Running Time: 7 minutes

Everyone Writes Memoir
Directors: Mark Solter; Alexander Campbell
Country: New Zealand; Running Time: 37 minutes

Everything is Fine
Director: Rodrigo Herzog
Country: Brazil; Running Time: 13 minutes

Extraordinarily Ordinary
Director: Mary Brown
Country: USA; Running Time: 2 minutes

First Refusal
Director: Courtney Sanello
Country: USA; Running Time: 8 minutes

Five Flights
Director: Daryl Denner
Country: USA; Running Time: 9 minutes

Francis Bacon
Director: Darcy Cagen
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 minutes

Hafiz
Directors: Gur-Inder Singh, Maheshinder Singh
Country: Canada; Running Time: 13 minutes

Hiding Bodies
Director: Erika Lupo
Country: USA; Running Time: 9 minutes

Home Videos
Director: Matthew Maffei
Country: USA; Running Time: 16 minutes

Hoteling
Director: Ryan Buffa
Country: USA; Running Time: 24 minutes

I Don’t Bite
Director: Andy Hassell & Ben Yannette
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 minutes

The Interview
Director: Mac Brydon
Country: USA; Running Time: 8 minutes

Introvert Club
Director: Vered Rodrigez
Country: USA; Running Time: 12 minutes

L’Hypermnésique
Director: Julien Mouquet
Country: UK; Running Time: 20 minutes

Lia: A Body Building Story/Director’s Cut
Director: Susan Weiss
Country: USA; Running Time: 11 minutes

The Life of Lester Wink
Director: Cassidy C. Harrison
Countries: USA/Ireland; Running Time: 17 minutes

Lighthouse World Premiere
Director: Lola Mei Ellis
Country: USA; Running Time: 14 minutes

Limited Slip
Directors: Clint Calvert, Caleb Johnson
Country: USA; Running Time: 16 minutes

The Lost Jews of Pakistan
Director: Alexander Nilsen
Countries: Pakistan/USA; Running Time: 12 minutes

Low Down Larry Versus the Giant Reptile
Director: Sammy Verni
Country: USA; Running Time: 7 minutes

The Luckiest Man Alive
Director: Kerri Lynn Miller
Country: USA; Running Time: 12 minutes

Means to an End
Director: Tanya M. Wheeler
Country: New Zealand; Running Time: 11 minutes

My ЊУЈОРК [New York]
Director: Alrick A Brown
Country: USA; Running Time: 16 minutes

New Idea
Director: Marko Bosanac
Country: Serbia; Running Time: 12 minutes

New Me
Director: Chico Bennett
Country: USA; Running Time: 5 minutes

Nightfish World Premiere
Director: Sophie Niesenbaum
Country: USA; Running Time: 23 minutes

Not the Same Clarence
Director: Brian Russell
Country: USA; Running Time: 14 minutes

Ominous Horizon World Premiere
Director: Dane Benko
Country: USA; Running Time: 7 minutes

One Man Show World Premiere
Director: Jacob Riddle
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 minutes

Open Call
Director: Katia Crivellari
Country: France; Running Time: 8 minutes

Pepper Chicken and Tostones Combination World Premiere
Director: Javier Java Santiago
Country: Puerto Rico; Running Time: 11 minutes

Pizza Dreams
Director: Alexander Campo
Country: USA; Running Time: 3 minutes

Prime Real Estate
Director: Burak Tatar
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 minutes

Puerto Rican Jew
Director: Louis Carrasco
Country: USA; Running Time: 12 minutes

River
Directors: Rafal Sokolowski, Kanat Omurbekov
Country: USA; Running Time: 12 minutes

Rubbernecking
Director: E. K. M. Watson
Country: USA; Running Time: 2 minutes

Ryan Buffa
Director: Ryan Buffa
Country: USA; Running Time: 24 minutes

Safe Home World Premiere
Director: John Galligan
Country: USA; Running Time: 7 minutes

Sam & Kiki
Director: Mark Manson
Country: USA; Running Time: 14 minutes

Silence of the Prey
Director: Karyna Kudzina
Country: USA; Running Time: 2 minutes

Superman Doesn’t Steal
Director: Tamika Lamison
Country: USA; Running Time: 20 minutes

Superstar
Directors: Talha Hussaini, Jacob Heimlich
Country: USA; Running Time: 24 minutes

Sweeping Glass
Director: Maximilian Tenzin Sheni Czerski
Country: USA; Running Time: 17 minutes

Technical Support
Director: Kris Lefcoe
Country: USA; Running Time: 8 minutes

The Test
Directors: Claudia Myers, Laura Waters Hinson
Country: USA; Running Time: 16 minutes

Thin Skinned
Director: Joe Imburgio
Country: USA; Running Time: 14 minutes

Today World Premiere
Directors: Jessica Graham, Alexander P. Gutterman,
Jenn Howd, Meghan Luck, Shay Nartker
Country: USA; Running Time: 6 minutes

Today is Now!
Director: Ari Cagan
Country: USA; Running Time: 19 minutes

Trust
Director: Diane Lansing
Country: USA; Running Time: 14 minutes

VIA
Directors: Jiaqi Kang, Yilan Huang
Country: USA; Running Time: 8 minutes

We Hope That You Will Fight For Us Too World Premiere
Director: Jovani Cruz Ledesma
Country: USA; Running Time: 12 minutes

What Do You See
Director: Johnny Hedger
Country: USA; Running Time: 10 minutes

Where did the days of your life lose their color?
Director: Masa Gibson
Country: USA; Running Time: 5 minutes

While I Was Waiting
Director: Omar Yñigo
Country: Mexico; Running Time: 16 minutes

Wrong Move World Premiere
Director: Priscil·la Zanni
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 minutes

Wxlf Pack
Director: Damon “Abwon” Clindinin
Country: USA; Running Time: 9 minutes

Ye Ole Glorya
Directors: Jeffrey R Kazanjian, Zubious McDowell
Country: USA; Running Time: 15 minutes

UNPRODUCED SCRIPT COMPETITION Top 10 Finalists

“At the Mercy of Faith – Terror Version”
Writer: Samuel Taylor

“Ava’s New World”
Writer: Ashish Saxena

“The Blood Machine”
Writer: John McCloskey

“Cuckoo, Cuckoo (feature version)”
Writer: Terry Lynam

“Cueravaca”
Writer: Eliot Galán

“Learning to Land”
Writer: Jodi Levitan

“Magnastic”
Writer: John Cappello

“The Pick Up”
Writer: Karen Wang

“The Prodigal”
Writer: Thomas O’Malley

“Mourning Glory”
Writer: Katie North