NEW YORK PREMIERE - RUN AMOK
This year’s festival will open with the New York Premiere of Run Amok. The debut feature from writer/director NB Mager and starring Alyssa Marvin alongside Patrick Wilson, Margaret Cho, Elizabeth Marvel, and Molly Ringwald, the film centers on a teenage girl who channels trauma into art, staging an audacious musical that confronts the unresolved aftermath of a school tragedy.
Cast & Crew in Attendance
NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE - THE ARK
Back for its second year is LESFF’s Stay Indie Project, launched in collaboration with BFD Productions, a development lab that supports films through resources, financing, and hands-on production support. This year, the program adds The Ark.
The Ark, Directed by Jeremy Chilnick and Viacheslav Rakovskyi, drops us into eastern Ukraine at the start of the 2022 invasion, where a family’s quiet rural life is upended overnight. What begins with a single request to care for a soldier’s goats turns into something much bigger, as abandoned animals start arriving from every direction. Cows, dogs, cats, sheep, goats, ducks, even and a crocodile - all finding refuge at Green Grove Farm. Narrated and Executive Produced by Kyra Sedgwick
Cast & Crew in Attendance
RETROSPECTIVE w/ CAST REUNION - GHOST WORLD
LESFF 2026 will host the 25th Anniversary screening of Ghost World, the beloved cult classic from director Terry Zwigoff, starring Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, and Steve Buscemi. Adapted from Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel, the film remains a sharp, funny, and deeply relatable portrait of youth, identity, and not fitting in.
Cast Reunion + Q&A with Steve Buscemi, Thora Birch and other special guests
NEW YORK PREMIERE - PUBLIC ACCESS
LESFF 2026 will close with the New York Premiere of Public Access, the feature documentary from director David Shadrack Smith and executive produced by Wren Arthur, Steve Buscemi and Benny Safdie. The film offers an unprecedented look at New York City’s public access television boom in the 1970s and 80s, where unfiltered creators transformed the airwaves into a free-speech battleground, foreshadowing today’s creator-driven media landscape.
Filmmakers In Attendance
5 DAY ALL ACCESS PASS INCLUDES ENTRY TO:
Opening Night Film + Party (open bar included)
The Filmmaker Reception
All Feature Films and Short Showcases (w/ open bar reception)
GHOST WORLD Anniversary Screening & Reunion
Closing Night Film + Party (open bar included)
FULL SCHEDULE ON SALE APR. 15
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Mamoudou Athie is an Emmy-nominated actor based in Los Angeles, California. Athie was recently seen in Yorgos Lanthimos’s film KINDS OF KINDNESS for Searchlight alongside Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley.
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Filmmaker and actor whose work spans film, television, and digital media. Her short films Crimson Ties and Fish Out of Water premiered at the Tribeca Festival and Cannes Film Festival, establishing her as a rising voice in independent cinema. She has appeared in projects including We Are Who We Are and continues to build a multidisciplinary career across directing, acting, and emerging platforms.
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Christine Vachon is an Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award winner who co-founded powerhouse Killer Films with partner Pamela Koffler in 1995. Over three decades, they have produced more than 100 films, including some of the most celebrated and important American independent features: KIDS, I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, HAPPINESS, BOYS DON’T CRY, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, and DARK WATERS.
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Arian Moayed currently appears in the second season of the hit Netflix show Nobody Wants This as well as in Marvel television’s Wonder Man. He was most recently seen in Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youth, alongside Natalie Portman and John Krasinski.
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Academy-Award nominated actor, known for Sorry, Baby, Manchester By The Sea, Moonrise Kingdom, Lady Bird, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Boy Erased for which he won a Golden Globe Award.
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Tony Award-nominated director (Jaja's African Hair Braiding), and Obie Award winner whose work spans Broadway, international stages, and television.
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