New York. What can we say? It’s the greatest city in the world, and these filmmakers remind us why. From a rich stranger’s party in Midtown, to the chessboards of Washington Square Park, from high school days in the Bronx, or a late drunken night in Bushwick, the Big Apple unravels in these shorts that celebrate our city.  

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.

After the film, the Village East Cinema transforms into our Opening Night Party. Ticket includes film + party with open bar from our sponsors, Live DJ, special guests, and party favors.

Cast and crew in attendance for Q&A to follow.
Doors open 30 minutes before scheduled screening time.
Afterparty to follow inside Village East Cinema.

2026 LESFF filmmakers! Join us for the annual Filmmaker Reception - where you can meet & mingle for an afternoon at The International Center of Photography Museum in the Lower East Side, featuring three floors of exhibition space showcasing leading photography and visual culture. Our filmmaker reception will begin at 2pm on the first floor, and after you've mingled for a bit, starting at 3pm all guests are invited to explore the exhibitions. The Filmmaker Reception is sponsored by The Lo-Down Culture Cast. All LESFF 2026 Filmmakers will get a private link to RSVP, but limited tickets are available to the public. 

We’re all just trying to make it. The hustle; the grind; putting pedal to the metal (literally, in some cases), trying our damnedest to make our dreams come true. These shorts remind us to shoot for the stars, but maybe don’t quit your day job…. 

In this feature documentary Lloyd Kaufman, creator of The Toxic Avenger, leads the Troma Team’s battles for independent art at the Cannes Film Festival, as the industry increasingly marginalizes independent voices. Occupy Cannes dives into the underbelly of this glamorous event, revealing a vibrant subculture exploring the intersection of artistic expression, grassroots activism, and the mainstream film industry.

From a secret obsession with death metal to a very public obsession with hookah, from exploring a crush, a new friendship, or a new enemy, these short films invite us to examine our own identities - and the people around us who shape who we are.

Making its New York premiere, Danny Is My Boyfriend introduces the chaotic comedic minds of Mechi Lakatos and Lucy Sandler. In this joyful, lo-fi revenge romp through Los Angeles, they play two delightfully delulu women who make a shocking discovery: they’ve both been dating the same man.

Join us after hours for a special exhibition of  ‘Line Describing a Cone’  - the avant-garde film produced in 1973 by artist Anthony McCall, in which the barriers between light and dark, between cinema and experiment, between audience and participant are shed. And of course, it all takes place inside our favorite cannabis shop - SOFACLUB. RSVP for Free ;) space is limited.

A sensorial, immersive film where minimalist visuals are elevated by a lush, enveloping soundtrack, drawing us into the rich inner world of a hip-hop musician as he becomes increasingly isolated from the outside world. Writer, director, composer and star, Mtume Gant emerges as a singular filmmaking voice, alongside standout performances from Tony Award winner Kara Young and Chinaza Uche.

 A quietly funny, offbeat look at friendship, Can’t Go Over It, follows two queer friends on their annual Adirondacks backpacking trip as small cracks in their bond begin to surface. Shot entirely on the trail, writer/director Ethan Fuirst blends natural performances with a stripped-down, immersive style to capture the humor and tenderness of growing up and growing apart.

The Ark, 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, ducks, even and alligator - all finding refuge at Green Grove Farm. The film is Executive Produced and Narrated by Kyra Sedgwick.

Directed by Jeremy Chilnick and Viacheslav Rakovskyi
Narrated and Executive Produced by Kyra Sedgwick

Filmmakers in attendance.
Doors open 30 minutes before scheduled screening time.

Making its World Premiere, Homunculus, adapted from the play by Santiago Mallan, collapses the boundary between theater and cinema in a darkly-comedic, surreal exploration of love, ego, and artistic obsession. In his directorial debut, Owen Kirby skillfully drops us into the volatile orbit of Mimi and Clay’s toxic romance, where Mimi has commissioned her devoted assistant, Bootbutt, for a sculpture of her ex, sparking a spiral of romantic misfires, mistaken identity, occult detours, and a wry meditation on the act of creation.

Shot in a single, breathless take, The Plan is a tense, darkly funny pressure cooker about a group of young adults whose shared purpose to change the world slowly unravels into paranoia, desire, and doubt. The debut feature from writer/director Jessica Barr, anchored by sharp performances and formal precision, becomes less about the plan itself than the fragile bonds holding them together.

Buckle-up for our late night feral fave dedicated to taking you on a wild ride - equal parts funny, squirmy, creepy, trippy, and just generally mind-f*cky!

Buckle-up for our late night feral fave dedicated to taking you on a wild ride - equal parts funny, squirmy, creepy, trippy, and just generally mind-f*cky!

These short docs provide intimate portraits of aspiration; taking you on a journey that is surprising, inspiring, sometimes heart-breaking, and in one case just oddly true yet hard to believe.

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 in attendance.
Doors open 30 minutes before scheduled screening time.

LESFF 2026 will close with the New York Premiere of Public Access, the feature documentary from director David Shadrack Smith, produced by Sara Crow and Anne-Marcelle Ngabiran, and executive produced by 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 for Q&A to follow.
Doors open 30 minutes before scheduled screening time.

Come celebrate closing night of LESFF 2026 at the legendary East Village haunt, KGB Bar. Cheers at our open bar and party in the historic space that once housed a Prohibition-era speakeasy, and has kept that rebellious New York spirit alive ever since. Plus, winning films will be announced.