'Christy,' starring Sydney Sweeney, was the closing night screening for NewFest. Courtesy of Black Bear Pictures Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment In a packed theater at Nitehawk Prospect Park, MG Evangelista - one of four recipients of Netflix and NewFest's 2025 New Voices Filmmakers Grants - took a moment to share a message from the co-writer of their film, Anino: "Long live the outsiders, the misfits and the beautiful monsters." Now in its fourth year, the program offers $25,000 in unrestricted funds, plus mentorships with creatives like Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), Charlotte Wells (Aftersun), Aitch Alberto (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe) and Shatara Michelle Ford (Test Pattern). Related Stories TV LGBTQ Characters on TV are Up From Last Year But Set to Plummet Due to Series Cancellations Person of Interest If You Weren't Aware, Puerto Rican Artist Young Miko Is the Sh** Winners Evangelista, Farah Jabir, Shuli Huang, and Kevin Xian Ming Yu were selected by Academy Award nominee and director Yance Ford, director Isabel Sandoval, and director Roshan Sethi, and their films screened for free. The program is one of the ways NewFest turns Hollywood's queer filmmakers and audience from outsiders into insiders, while still fully embracing the community's proud nonconformist, rebellious spirit. "We invite allies in to be our guests and stand beside us, but I do think that there is something different about how this was made for you - the queer person is who the entire thing was designed to serve - and everyone else is optional," says David Hatkoff, executive director of NewFest. That narrative runs along and through the fest's screening line-up (130 U.S. and international films shown at five venues across two boroughs), including its opener Blue Moon, the biographical comedy-drama about songwriter Lorenz Hart starring Ethan Hawke, and the closing night selection Christy, a sports drama about boxer Christy Martin, led by Sydney Sweeney. "Richard Linklater said this in his remarks that we read before the screening: Blue Moon takes place during a moment of celebration, but for that human being, they are not feeling celebrated. They are feeling apart from and feeling quite self-hating for things having to do with their identity and sexuality, among their artistic accomplishments. For Christy, queer folks are such a fundamental part of the history of sports, but we don't actually have a lot of representation of queer women in sports," says Hatkoff. "What both Christy Martin and Lorenz Heart were doing was fighting for their lives to survive in their chosen fields, and also in the worlds that they occupy." Blue Moon, starring Margaret Qualley and Ethan Hawke, opened NewFest. Courtesy of SPC Beyond the fest's tentpoles, numerous programs and events also carried the thread - Film Feast, Black Filmmakers Initiative, a filmmakers summit, a queer media mixer, YA programming blocks screened for New York high schoolers, the Dyke Night Party and the sold-out All About the Tea shorts program and accompanying Trans 4 Trans mixer. "Our community this year has been under attack, and we've been under attack forever, but it means being an outsider and an insider is especially interesting for trans people right now, even in how we inhabit the queer community. In order for us to exist, we have to create our own existence," says fest programmer Anton Astudillo. "It's a transcendent quality that also manifests in the artist and the filmmaker, and was a huge theme organically, whether it's a drag artist and activist like Peppermint in A Deeper Love: The Story of Miss Peppermint, a lyricist like Blue Moon's lyricist Lorenz Hart, or a poet like Andrea Gibson in Come See Me in a Good Light." "At the last minute, Anton and I put together a shorts program called the Queer Rebellion, showing the past, present and future of what queer rebellion is. Queer folks have always led the charge, not just in activism, but in art. So the vital role of the artist in society and their critical lens is always front and center within queer community," says Nick McCarthy, the fest's director of programming. "And we are seeing a fecundity of queer projects still being made. It's alive, well and even thriving." The festival directly supported that ecosystem that makes that possible during the Industry + Filmmakers Day, with conversations about how queer artists can navigate their careers and creative work in this moment. The day-long gathering featured speakers like Andrew Ahn (Fire Island) and Elegance Bratton (The Inspection), alongside CAA and Untitled agents and entertainment lawyers from Del Shaw. Fellow festival organizers ReelAbilities Film Festival were also on hand to discuss the intersection of disability access and queer storytelling as par