The SOHO International Film Festival (SIFFNYC), presented by SOHO Film Forum, is back live in person and will run from October 6th thru the 13th, 2022 at the Village East Cinema in New York City, with films in competition and exhibition from all over the world.
This year’s festival contains over 100+ diverse selection of Features, Shorts, Documentaries, Series Pilots and Animated Films submitted by filmmakers from across the globe, including 16 World Premieres, 8 US Premieres, 20 Northeast Premieres, 8 East Coast Premieres, 21 New York Premieres & 12 New York City Premieres. Films that made the program came from the US, China, Cuba, Taiwan, France, Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom, Argentina & Australia.
The Opening Night film is the World Premiere of “The Redeemer” (US) written & directed by Myles Clohessy and is a story of a pregnant homesteader and her Native American mother-in-law fighting for survival in the cold winter of 1870’s Montana after being kidnapped by a violent and vengeful group of outlaws. The film stars Irene Bedard, Brandon Routh, Robert Clohessy, Chris Mulkey, Baylee Toney, Timothy V. Murphy and Mo Brings Plenty whom are expected to be in attendance. The program will open with the World Premiere of the dark comedy crime drama short “Tony’s Auto Repair” (US), by Jordan T. Parrott & Johan T. Anderson.
“The challenges of the last 2 years have only proven the resilience of the independent filmmaking community, with their drive to tell more impactful stories as reflected in the films we’ve received…”, says Sibyl Santiago, Executive Director & Head of Programming. “We are very excited that we can bring back these films into the theater for a live screening.”
Some highlights in the US Features program include the New York Premiere of “The Man Behind The Camera” directed by Michael Perrone starring Matthew Lawrence; the Northeast Premiere of “The Ones You Didn’t Burn” written & directed by Elise Finnerty, the New York Premiere of Chris Easterly’s “Devil’s Hollow” and the East Coast Premiere of “Out & About” by award winning director Peter Callahan. World Features include “Grounds Of Hope” (France), “Magdalena” (Poland), “Sweet Disaster” (Germany), “Hideout” (Taiwan) and “Adult Adoption” (Canada). Films In Exhibition include the Northeast Premieres of the coming of age drama Antarctica (US) by Keith Bearden, and “Screwdriver” by Cairo Smith.
This year’s documentaries include a wide array of subject matter that range from a pandemic blossomed friendship between a goose and a woman that went viral in Cheryl Allison’s “Honk”, to hearing Neil deGrasse and Tony Hawk talk about the love of skateboarding in Michael Ien Cohen’s “Humanity Stoked”. You’ll also find Cat Brewer’s “Sign The Show” bringing big names like Kelly Clarkson and Public Enemy’s Chuck D to talk about bringing accessibility to live performances for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. It is also worth noting the World Premiere of the short documentary “Hate Crime In Howard Beach ” by Stephen Woods and Eric Notar about a particular dark time in New York City 37 years ago. Also featured is “ESPN Film Presents: The Captain” with some previously unreleased footage from the documentary series about the Yankees Hall of Famer, Derek Jeter.
There is a great selection of Short Films in the program including the World Premiere of “Brainstorms” by Julie Pacino & Aron Meinhardt, looking into the mind of a veteran who has sustained Traumatic Brain Injury during combat, Miriam Grill’s “Heirloom” featuring Broadway superstar Norm Lewis, “Babs” by director and actor Brette Taylor from the hit show Nashville, the comedy short about race replacement “White Now Please” by Kyle Lau, “The Comfort Zone” by Ran Yatim about a cis-male attorney who’s static existence is crashed by an aspiring black trans rockstar. You can also catch Teen Wolf’s Tyler Posey with “Live Forever” and Wishlab Inc” with The Wire’s Chad Coleman; the World Premiere of Sneaky Pete’s Libe Barer in her film “With The Fishes” and the silent short “Sunscreen”, which features sound cues embedded in its low frequency track to enhance the audience experience especially for the hearing impaired. Some the selected World Shorts include “June” (New Zealand) with Dwayne Cameron from Power Rangers; “All That Glitters” (United Kingdom) with Outlander’s Sophia Myles & Alec Newman, and the US Premiere of “Raining Cats & Dogs”/Temps de Chien (France) by Vanessa Caffin, a comedy about an out of work eulogy writer who at the end of the pandemic ends up finding an interesting new purpose.
The full program can be found at sohofilmfest.com.
Past attendees of the Festival include prominent industry members such as Octavia Spencer, Pierce Brosnan, Bobby Cannavale, Armand Assante, William Sadler, Danny Aiello, Richard Kind, Luis Guzman, Carrie Preston, Sean Young, Alysia Reiner, Kevin Jonas, Adam Brody, Josh Lawson, Coach Tom Coughlin, Jessica Hecht, Zach Grenier, Eric Roberts, Michael Imperiolli, Steve Schirripa, Tony Sirico, and Vinny Pastore, just to name a few.
The SOHO International Film Festival was founded in 2009 by Jorge Ballos. This year’s festival is presented by the SOHO Film Forum. SIFFNYC celebrates the cutting-edge of digital technology while honoring traditional forms of storytelling, and encourages new and seasoned filmmakers from here in New York City and around the world to create and send in their fresh and innovative cinematic pieces.
For more information please visit: www.sohofilmfest.com
