Mary Neely, fresh off making her Broadway debut in Death of a Salesman, and serving as a juror at the 2026 festival, joins LESFF Fest Director, Roxy Hunt to talk about writing and starring in her feature film Or Something alongside Kareem Rahma, (from the wildly popular Subway Takes), and how the best PR for your film could involve being in a bikini outside Quad Cinema.

NB Mager talks teenage coming-of-age films (top favs and the joy getting to work with Molly Ringwald!), creative rebellion, and what it actually takes to get an indie film made and how a kind of stubborn, childlike optimism can be the engine that gets a movie across the finish line.

Festival alums Kelsea Bauman-Murphy and Audrey Arnold remember meeting during last year’s festival and their upcoming short “TAMPA,” a project fiscally sponsored by LESFF.

An eight-year cinematic journey, "Great Photo, Lovely Life" chronicles a granddaughter’s attempt to disrupt a cycle of intergenerational trauma through the voices of the survivors and her grandfather himself. Filmmakers, Amanda Mustard and Rachel Beth Anderson sit down with Festival Directors, Roxy Hunt and Shannon Walker

Join The Writers Guild of America East and The Lower East Side Film Festival (LESFF) directors in a live panel conversation with the Writers Guild of America's 2023 Audio Documentary Award nominees.

Writers from Slate, Gimlet Media, and Vox will discuss their favorite podcasts and audio docs, their research and writing process, and what they think the future of audio docs might look like.

Hosted by LESFF Festival Directors Roxy Hunt and Shannon Walker.