Late Night Queer Shorts: Seeing the Light

A late-night collection of queer-themed shorts that mix the funny with the dark, the playful with the provocative. 

Louisiana Narrative Shorts: Gumbo

This showcase of narrative shorts spotlights the bold voices and boundless creativity of Louisiana filmmakers. From fresh new talents to seasoned storytellers, these films reflect the vitality of our state’s film community and celebrate the stories being made right here at home.

Louisiana Shorts: Looking Back, Moving Forward - Katrina Shorts

In commemoration of Hurricane Katrina and the communities still working to rebuild 20 years later, we offer a block of short films that explore New Orleans then and collectively imagine a way forward for our beloved home. 

Narrative Shorts: Headlong

These films explore the courage it takes to step into uncertainty, capturing the beauty of forward motion - even when the landing is unsure.

Narrative Shorts: Muddy Waters

A compelling selection of narrative shorts exploring the messy, complicated, and often ambiguous terrain of human relationships. These stories dive into the gray areas—where love, conflict, and connection intersect in unexpected ways.

Narrative Shorts: Supersonic

From the intimacy of overheard voices through apartment walls, to the rhythms of music that connect us, to the silences and adaptations of those living with hearing impairments—these stories reveal how profoundly sound and its absence can define experience. 

Narrative Shorts: YA

Youth isn’t all sunshine and discovery—it’s also awkwardness, rage, embarrassment, and the kind of angst that makes everything feel life-or-death. This block embraces the messy, funny, and painful sides of growing up, where every moment is a high-stakes drama and every day feels like the end of the world.

Queer-rated Shorts

These shorts trace lives lived beyond the binaries, finding beauty in the unstable, the fluid, and the in-between. Together they form a portrait of queer possibility—tender, unruly, and unapologetically alive.

Southern Narrative Shorts: From the Other Side

A haunting and heartfelt collection of narrative shorts that explore grief, memory, and the ways we connect with the past—or with those who are no longer with us. These films illuminate the delicate, often mysterious threads that link us to “the other side.”

Narrative Short

Ancestral Artistry: The Influence of Africans & Creoles of Color on Louisiana Architecture

Connecting past to the present, this film traces 300 years of building traditions -- including masonry, ironwork, and plastering -- brought by enslaved Africans to French colonial Louisiana and passed down through generations.

Drowned Land

Deep in the Choctaw Nation of rural Oklahoma rages a fight to preserve the Kiamichi River, reckoning with a cycle of land loss for the Indigenous diaspora and the community at large.

Finding Lucinda

In search of their own artistic identity, aspiring singer-songwriter Ismay embarks on a road trip across the southern United States, delving into the people and places that shaped three-time Grammy winner Lucinda Williams' early career.

Flood

A daughter journeys home to seek common ground with her evangelical father years after leaving the faith and falling into estrangement.

In a Good Place Now: The Life & Music of Bobby Charles

Bobby Charles began his career as a teenager writing songs for Fats Domino, going on to a storied career from teen pop star to country-folk singer. While Bobby never learned to write or read music (or play an instrument), his influence on today’s music and musicians is far-reaching.

In Hell with Ivo

Bulgarian queer artist and songwriter Ivo Dimchev transforms personal and social hardship into provocative public and intimate spectacles, boldly exploring sexuality, identity, faith, and activism in a liberating celebration of queer visibility.

The Inquisitor

Known for her oratory brilliance and unwavering principles, Barbara Jordan’s voice helped shape 1970s politics. This film intertwines rich archival footage, stylish interviews and more to tell the inspiring story of an American icon.

Know Me: The Untold Miami Bath Salts Phenomenon

Kenson fights to overturn false narratives promulgated by the national media and local Haitian church leaders to preserve his late brother's memory and clear him of the moniker: The Miami Zombie.

Land With No Rider

The last cowboys of New Mexico eke out a fragile survival in a world of isolation, memories and rugged beauty as an epic drought devastates the American West.

The Last Partera (The Last Midwife)

At 100 years old, Doña Miriam confronts the end of her life cycle, passing on her wisdom as the last living traditional Costa Rican midwife in the region. Inspired by her courage and strength, a new generation pushes for stronger women-centered healthcare at the foot of an active volcano.

Luv Ya Bum!

In the ’70s, Houston was booming... except for the city’s woeful pro football team. The Oilers gambled on hiring Bum Phillips, an unconventional East Texas coach known for cowboy hats, ostrich boots, and folksy one-liners.

Michalopoulos - The Art Of Celebration

Renowned artist James Michalopoulos transforms the soul of New Orleans into vibrant works of art while fighting to protect the city’s culture, architecture, and bohemian spirit from fading away.

The Patel Motel Story

The Patel Motel Story reveals how South Asian immigrants, led by one undocumented man’s journey from Gujarat, built a hotel empire—transforming American hospitality through resilience, identity, and belonging.

Piano Players

In 1980 filmmaker Stevenson Palfi proposed a concert performance by three generations of New Orleans musical legends: Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint and Isidore “Tuts” Washington. Each musician, a mentor to the next, had never performed together. The tortuous rehearsal process was documented with surprising, entertaining and tragic results.

A Portrait of a Postman

For decades, Kermit Oliver worked the graveyard shift while creating scarf designs treasured worldwide. But just as his art reaches its zenith, an unfathomable murder pushes Kermit into the darkness. Would he ever paint again?

Shelby

In the depths of the Louisiana swamps, a solitary man lives an extraordinary life of adventure and survival. This documentary unveils his mysterious world, filled with underwater logging, treasure hunting, and daring encounters with the wild.

Take it Away

This dynamic documentary charts the rise of Tejano and Regional Mexican music through the groundbreaking legacy of Johnny Canales — the charismatic host who launched icons like Selena — revealing the cultural impact, triumphs, and untold story behind a genre that now dominates global airwaves.

Turnaround

This film is a portrait of a city rebuilding itself, and the resilience of educators and community leaders who are determined to improve the future for our children.

We Are Pat

We Are Pat is a tale of obsession, transness and how art ages over time told through the thick spectacles of the 1990s cult character Pat from “Saturday Night Live."

What We Can Know about Edmond and Basile

Barès and Dédé were Creoles of Color – Dédé a free man, Barès born into enslavement. Both wrote and performed operas and concert pieces popular with black and white audiences. Now, New Orleans musicians are resurrecting their works.

Documentary Feature

Birdsong

An old New Orleans apartment pulls the strings for its captive muses... and love is just its game.

Cowboy

A troubled war veteran risks everything on a high-stakes heist, setting off a chain of events that forces him to confront the past he’s tried to outrun.

The Grand Strand

During a coming-of-age summer on the shores of Myrtle Beach, a young boy must choose between going into foster care or living with his cousin’s dysfunctional family while they spend the summer at an ocean front campground.

Magic Hour

This is the story of Erin and Charlie, and what happens to their big, beautiful love after its unexpected loss. Love goes nowhere even if someone else does. It stays, present and pervasive, pressing even harder into every dark corner of your world until you nearly break into a thousand pieces. How long can you hold onto someone? Can you hold on too tight? Will staying with that person drive you to madness? Or will letting them go?

Manas

In the depths of the Amazon rainforest, 13-year-old Tielle grows up with dreams inspired by her older sister’s escape. As she matures, the illusions she clings to begin to crumble, revealing a world of deep-rooted exploitation and abuse.

Nobody Wants to Be Here, Nobody Wants to Leave

A cynical motel owner who helps the suicidal die with dignity must protect a desperate stripper and her dementia-afflicted grandmother after they kill the son of a ruthless small-town crime boss.

Tropical Park

During a driving lesson, two Cuban siblings: a newly arrived trans woman (Lola Bosch) and her estranged conservative brother (Ariel Texidó), face each other for the first time in years, with Miami passing silently outside the windows.

West of Greatness: The Story of the Westwego Muscle Boys

Journey to the heart of Louisiana where Jerome, a dreamer chasing Hollywood glory, and Terry, a young man burdened by his home life, forge an unlikely alliance amidst the iron and sweat of a regional bodybuilding competition.

Narrative Feature

All Ages: Doc Shorts

All Ages: Family Culture Doc Shorts

All Ages: Narrative Shorts 

All Ages: NOFF x COOL Cooperative Takeover

Doc Shorts: Kinfolk

These documentary shorts spark dialogue between generations, capturing the wisdom, friction, and humor that arise when age and experience meet youth and new perspectives. 

Doc Shorts: Musical Roots

From historically rooted Americana and folk traditions to deeply personal stories of music as passion and purpose, these films explore how sound becomes both a cultural touchstone and a vital thread in human connection.

Doc Shorts: Portals and Pathways

From Cuba to Eastern Europe to the American South, these shorts ask what happens when we step into the in-between.

Doc Shorts: Southern Upbringing

From small-town traditions to family dynamics and cultural rituals, the films capture the rich textures of Southern life—its humor, its heartbreak, and the unforgettable characters who shape it.

Doc Shorts: Vietnamese Voices Across Seas, Across Generations

Through personal testimony and memory, this program acknowledges both the struggles of displacement and the resilience of communities who built new lives far from home.

Doc Shorts: Zest & Zeal

From artists and innovators to everyday trailblazers, each story illuminates the drive, joy, and commitment that comes from following what truly inspires you. Together, these films are a testament to the power of dedication and the exhilaration of living fully in pursuit of one’s calling.

Louisiana Shorts: Empowering Storytellers - Honoring Black Birthers & Birth Workers

Highlighting the lived experiences of Black birthing people and the essential work of midwives, doulas, and advocates, this block sheds light on both the systemic inequities driving disproportionately high maternal mortality rates and the community-driven efforts pushing for better care.

Louisiana Shorts: Portraits

Louisiana’s stories live in its people—in calloused hands hauling shrimp nets, in brushstrokes on canvas, in the struggles and resilience of those navigating life’s hardest margins. These documentary shorts offer intimate portraits of Louisianans whose lives, in their variety and tenacity, reveal the beating heart of this place we call home.

Documentary Short

All Ages: Animated Shorts 

Animated Shorts: Luminescence

From bold hand-drawn work to cutting-edge digital and experimental techniques, these films use animation to tackle complex themes—identity, desire, memory, and the surreal—in ways that live action never could. 

Body Horror Shorts: Picking Scabs

Equal parts hilarious and horrifying, these films remind us that our bodies are weird, leaky, and a little freaky—and that’s exactly what makes them worth watching after dark.

Animated Short

Experimental Shorts: Phantasm 

A daring collection of shorts that push the boundaries of film form and storytelling. These works experiment with visuals, sound, and structure to challenge expectations and expand what cinema can be.

Experimental Short

Midnight

We are so thankful for your gift and to consider you a part of the NOFS Family!&nbsp;Your generosity helps us continue our work for championing Southern storytelling and allowing us to bring our stories to the big screen for 40,000 moviegoers annually. You help us to nurture the careers of diverse Southern filmmakers, present the Oscar-qualifying New Orleans Film Festival, the annual French Film Festival, and produce film series and special events throughout the year. We are deeply grateful for your contribution. For tax purposes, this letter will serve as official acknowledgment of your tax-deductible contribution to the New Orleans Film Society (NOFS). NOFS Tax ID # / EIN: 72-1136068 For more information about your&nbsp;donation&nbsp;or about NOFS, please contact us at (504) 309-6633 or&nbsp;sarah<a href="mailto:megan@neworleansfilmsociety.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">@neworleansfilmsociety.org</a>. If you are not a member of NOFS yet, please click&nbsp;<a href="https://neworleansfilmsociety.org/become-a-member/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">here</a>&nbsp;to join today. Best regards,Sarah Escalante, Executive Director New Orleans Film Society1215 Prytania St. Suite 371New Orleans, LA 70130(504) 309-6633 Orleans Film Festival

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Welcome to the New Orleans Film Festival Virtual Cinema! NOFF is a renowned celebration of independent filmmaking that has been championing groundbreaking storytelling for over 36 years. We are an Academy Award®-qualifying festival in the Doc Short, Narrative Short, and Animated Shorts categories. 

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