The 25th annual Dances With Films festival will take place at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood from June 9-19th. The festival was formed in 1998 by a team of filmmakers who wanted to program a festival where “who you know” didn’t matter as much as the quality of the work. It’s an admirable sentiment, but nepotism will likely always be a part of the film industry, if not all industries, to some degree. However, the idea of a genuinely impartial jury is what most filmmakers are hoping for when submitting their films to the overwhelming inventory of festivals that now exist across the globe, and to put such a degree of focus on this particular aspiration is a meaningful gesture to those trying to break into the industry.

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Dances With Films also has a great story involving a fight with Orion Pictures, who sent a cease and desist letter regarding the festival’s name. The studio claimed it infringed on their then eight-year-old title, Dances With Wolves. The letter was publicly humiliated by Film Threat Magazine, another long-standing institute of independent cinema, rightfully pointing out the absurdity of taking issue with the festival’s title and further reinforcing the need to pop Hollywood’s bubble, which can sometimes be completely out of touch with reality.

With that, let us honor Dances With Films by highlighting the festival’s upcoming horror and thriller titles that look particularly interesting and worth checking out.

Dash

     Dances With Films

The film is written and directed by Sean Perry and stars Alexander Molina, Monette Moio, Paige Grimard, Shah Granville, Audra Alexander, and Nick Laughlin. This groundbreaking, one-take film follows an adulterous rideshare driver navigating the nighttime streets of Hollywood who goes to great lengths to take his troubling double-life to the grave… only to dig a grave for himself.

Interesting fact: The film was shot entirely in one take with no edits.

Ashgrove

The film is directed by Jeremy LaLonde and stars The Handmaid’s Tale’s Amanda Brugel, Jonas Chernick, Shawn Doyle, Natalie Brown, Christine Horne, and Sugith Varughese. When a troubled couple escapes to their rural farmhouse for a weekend of reconnection, they realize that their ability to save their marriage will literally determine the fate of humankind itself.

Interesting fact: The film won the Best Ensemble Cast & Indie Spirit Awards at the Canadian Film Festival.

A Little Dead

The film is written and directed by Ben Richardson and stars Jack C. Hays, Eden McGuire, and Ben Richardson. Hailey and her brother Kevin visit their grandpa’s farm for the weekend. They discover that the caretaker has vanished, and Grandpa has a new nightly ritual of sharing a drink with his deceased wife and another unseen entity.

Interesting fact: The film won Best Thriller at the Houston Worldfest International Film Festival.

Night

The film is written and directed by John D’Aquino and stars Chase Vacnin, Jacob M. Wade, Caroline West, Ren Kelly, Kaylee Rawson, Lauren Clark, and Alex Felten. With their parents away on a reunion cruise, a group of friends must survive the new reality of an endless night.

Interesting fact: Even though the pilot takes place entirely at night, all the interior scenes were filmed during the day.

Freelance

The film is written and directed by Mike Gerbino and stars Renee Gagner, Charlie Reid, Scott Schneider, and Zahra Alzubaidi. When a down-on-her-luck video editor receives a mysterious job offer to edit a snuff film, she finds herself being haunted by the victim in the footage.

Interesting fact: The team won their production budget from The Film Fund narrative competition Spring 2021.

Kickstart My Heart

Along For The Ride’s Emma Pasarow, Kickstart My Heart is the story of one woman’s battle through her mind’s multiple levels of hell and the bloody torment she endures to regain control over her consciousness.

Interesting fact: The film is a true story based on the director’s life. She was run over by a car in 2019, and the film depicts the aftermath.

Bury Your Fish

The film is written and directed by Emma Josephson and stars Arkira Chantaratananond and Cassandra Moselle. Bury Your Fish is a dark psychological drama that follows Sonia, an isolated and lost young woman, as she begins taking life directions based on a cryptic Morse code from a mysterious flashing light. When her fish suddenly dies, Sonia must face the ominous phantasm searching for the answers when the only question quickly becomes her own mental stability.

Interesting fact: The film was made by a majority of women and an LGBTQIA+ crew.

Chicks

The film is written and directed by Geena Marie Hernandez and stars Nicole Marquez-Davis, Jena Brooks, Maddie Moore, and Lilliana Simms. A girly slumber party quickly spirals when a shy teen becomes the center of her new friends’ bizarre nighttime ritual.

Interesting fact: Chicks stars a diverse all-women cast, the lead (Nicole Marquez-Davis) being of Filipinx descent. The crew is diverse with BIPOC, women, and LBTQIA+ filmmakers – the writer/director (Geena Hernandez) is a Latinx woman.

Screwdriver

Director Cairo Smith’s Neo-Gothic psychological thriller will have its world premiere as part of the closing night festivities of Dances With Films. Screwdriver is the story of Emily (AnnaClare Hicks) who, blindsided by divorce, leaves her adopted Nebraska behind, returning to California with nothing but a suitcase in hand. She seeks refuge in the home of an old high school friend (Charlie Farrell) and his pharmacologist wife (Milly Sanders). The childless couple welcomes Emily into their lives, but their hospitality soon gives way to a surreal plot of control and manipulation.

Interesting fact: Before the age of eighteen, director Cairo Smith’s works of short fiction had already been published in the magazines Omni, Vice, Horizons, and Motherboard.