It was an incredible 4th day: Sunday of The 2025 Dances With Films festival that will feature 254 films, including 36 world premieres, and on Sunday they had an amazing 38 films, with their World Premieres, National Premieres, West Coast Premieres, and LA Premieres!
The 28th Annual Dances With Films (DWF) is one of the largest annual independent film festivals, and is located in Los Angeles, California and New York, and will take place from June 19-29 at the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
On this 45 minute long TV show episode our Entertainment Today TV Producer: Steve Taylor will bring you many interviews with the Actors, Producers, Directors, and Writers from these 38 films, including a few of our favorites:
Patakha
NORTH AMERICAN Premiere | USA, 2024, 15 min.
COMP SHORTS BLK 5 – SUN JUN 22 @ 2PM
WRITER: Umit lpek
DIRECTOR: Rohit Relan
PRODUCER: Tiffany Wu
CAST: Ashi Sharma, Winston Vengapally, Amanh Nathen, Deepika Jariyal, Jay Patel, Misha Molani, and Neil Khurania.
Radha, an 11-year-old girl in rural India, begins her first day of work at a firecracker factory. In this unfamiliar setting, she loses her beloved school bag—something she would fight for with all her might. The film follows her journey to retrieve the backpack, a symbol of more than just a bag: it represents her future and the education that has been taken away from her.
On the Opening Night On the Orange Carpet Arrivals Our Entertainment Today TV Show Host: Margie Rey interviewed the WRITERS/PRODS: Robert Ham & Adam Zaslow, and Director: Robert Ham. You can see them both in the below photo being interviewed by Margie: 
FEATURING: Juan Colon Estrada, Adam Zaslow, John Starks, John Feal, Mike Breen, from a great movie: Zzaslow K-427, that honors the remarkable service of the longest tenured bomb-sniffing dog to ever serve in the U.S. Army, and how this unassuming black Labrador retriever saved lives, both on and off the battlefield, healing humans in extraordinary ways that are completely unexpected.
On Sunday I had the opportunity to watch this movie, and it was a moving and emotional film about this amazing dog, and all the people around him. It shows how this dog saved so many human lives, and helped those around him to have happier lives!
The Orange Carpet celebrity arrivals was busy with press doing interviews from people from so many movies:
The WORLD PREMIERE of “Tether” USA, 2024, 85 min.
WRITER: Anghus Houvouras
DIRICTOR: Hariharasudhen Nagarajan
PRODUCERS: Hariharasudhen Nagarajan, Nicole Wu
CAST: Nick Giedris, Ben Burton, Laura Faye Smith, Joanna Cretella, Sophia Dawson, and Arielle James.
Racked with grief after losing his daughter Paula in a high school shooting, Leonard struggles to hold together the remnants of his old life. He clings to a fading hope of reuniting with his estranged wife, Amanda — a hope his therapist insists requires confronting his grief. Publicly vilified for freezing during the massacre, Gerald, an ex-school resource officer, lives under a shroud of shame, questioning his will to survive. When Leonard and Gerald’s paths collide, and their downward spirals converge, what darkness will their encounter unleash?
World Premiere of Nate Hilgartner‘s indie film directorial debut, “NO CHOICE” on Monday, June 23rd, 2025 @9:30 PM.
Bokshi follows Anahita, a young woman struggling with the trauma of her mother’s brutal disappearance. Finding solace in Shalini, her compassionate history teacher, Anahita joins an unconventional school excursion to a mysterious prehistoric site. There, she encounters ancient forces rooted in the region’s mythology that force her to confront her terrifying destiny. Bokshi is a chilling coming-of-age story that blends supernatural folklore with themes of ecology and female empowerment.
Nate Hilgartner is a writer and director, born in New York City and raised in Ithaca, NY where he filmed his debut feature, NO CHOICE. A 2014 graduate of Harvard University with a degree in Comparative Literature, Nate spent five years in Hollywood working in script development and writing screenplays. He later moved to Brooklyn, and earned a Master’s degree in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from NYU. Hilgartner is currently touring the festival circuit with NO CHOICE while developing the screenplay of his second feature, a period drama based on the true story of a group of artists struggling under an oppressive regime.
Nate Hilgartner (director), Hannah Deale (lead actress), Jennifer Herzog (actress), Robert Denzel Edwards (actor), Hayden Frank (actor), Maria Prudente (actor), Adam Ratcliffe (actor), Jim Hilgartner (actor), Claudia Fuchs (actress), Meg Hilgartner (actress), Patrick Joyce (actor), Fariha Khan (actress), Lorenzo McClellan (actor), Brenda O’Connor (actress), Tom Semler (actor), Vanessa Valdez (actress), Shannon Semler (producer), Kathleen O’Neil (producer), Steve Hilgartner (executive Producer), Alex Podolyanchùk (director of photography), Benjamin Greennagel (wardrobe supervisor), Joe Barron (set construction), Rosemary Semler (medical consultant).
Trash Baby was the CALIFORNIA Premiere, made in the USA, 2024, 100 minutes, on SUN JUN 22 @ 8:45PM WRITER/DIRICTOR: Jacy Mairs PRODUCERS: Jacy Mairs, Karlee Boon, and Cameron Holly Dexter.
PRODUCERS: Jacy Mairs, Karlee Boon, Cameron Holly Dexter
CAST: Esther Harrison, Chloe Kramer, Eddie Lee Wollrabe
Straight Laced
WORLD Premiere made in USA, 2025, 21 minutes,
KIDZ PRO BLOCK 3 – SUNDAY JUNE 22 @ 415PM
WRITER: Jill Johnson Mann
DIRECTOR: Cynthia Gibb
PRODUCERS: Jill Johnson Mann & Cynthia Gibb
CAST: Natalia Mann, Matthew Bukzin, Aini Rockwell, Mario Manna, Penelope Sajda, Callie Sarro, Sophie Jasmin Walther, Isabelle Leeming, Brigg Liberman, Blake Raho, Brian Lombardi, Claire Butler, Phoebe McCance, Chloe Carson, Chloe Debuck, Charlie Watson, Cameron Mann, Vivienne Leeming, Ellie Rockwell, Ella Davis, Lola Rockwell, Jennifer Malaquias Ryan, Markley Rizzi, Deb Katz, Michele Feinberg, Jill Johnson Mann, Cheryl Nadzam, Bella Rizzi, Cotton Bodell, Wynston Browne, Linde Gibb, Mike O’Hara, Marc Hartog, and Rick Baumblatt.
Lucia is an honors student, star rower, and good kid. Her dad didn’t grow up with the privileges she and her sisters enjoy, so there is no excuse for her not following his path to Princeton. Even as an unlikely friendship develops with the school’s drug dealer, Eddy, Lucia is not planning to play her peers’ risky game of experimenting with fake prescription pills as study aids. But when she begins to buckle under the academic pressure in her town of overachievers, she makes a choice that leaves everyone in her life rethinking whether getting into the “right” college matters at all.
Earthworms
WORLD Premiere made in USA, 2024, 16 minutes,
KIDZ PRO BLOCK 3 – SUNDAY JUN 22 @ 415PM
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Caitlin Noah
PRODUCERS: Caitlin Noah & Matt Hoodhood
CAST: Brea Mascorro, Oscar Winter, and Amber Steigelfest.
Earthworms is a short Sci-Fi adventure film about a Martian girl who steals a spaceship and travels through the stars in an attempt to prove to her skeptical neighbor that life on Earth exists. On her journey, she meets a mysterious loner and the two make an exchange that will change their lives.
Witch
WORLD Premiere made in USA, 2024, 8 minutes.
COMP SHORTS BLOCK 6 – SUNDAY JUN 22 @ 415PM
WRITER: Kevin Khamneipur
DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Kevin Khamneipur & Andrew Frescas
CAST: Wyatt Solis, Hattie Smith, John Henry Richardson, Robert Kovalova, Constance Brenner, Brandon Harb, Kevin Carney, and William Sibley.
On a quiet train ride, a curious young boy befriends a seemingly kind stranger — until the man’s chilling tale of murder shatters the illusion of safety, exposing the lurking horrors within ordinary moments.
Shortwave
WORLD Premiere made in USA, 2024, 18.5 minutes.
COMP SHORTS BLK 5 – SUN JUN 22 @ 2PM
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Mike Diaz
PRODUCERS: Ryan Pomeranz, Joshua Rexon
CAST: Shakira Barrera, Bryan Dodds, Kate Morgan Chadwick, and Charles Baker.
A woman stuck in a dead-end life finds excitement in the form of mysterious Russian messages on her shortwave radio.
The World Premiere and after-party of: “Fortunate Sons” was held on Saturday night. The movie was at the Chinese Theatre, and then the invite only guests walked across the street to the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel for the after-party at Teddy’s Speakeasy, with beautiful architecture from that era: 
They had amazing food, drinks, and a delicious, gigantic custom made cake with a frosting copy of the movie poster on top of it:
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Peter Jones
PRODUCERS: Peter Jones, Taylor Vracin-Harrell, and John Bard Manulis.
It was a very heartwarming and emotional feature-length documentary about the 1974 graduating class of the Harvard School for Boys, then a private, military school for the sons of the Los Angeles elite. Born into privilege and groomed to lead, they entered 7th grade of this all-male, military school in the cultural watershed year of 1968. An American journey about friendship, life, loss, and redemption – culminating with the class’ 50th reunion in 2024 – it resonates powerfully with the developing national conversation about the mental health of boys and men, the evolution of masculinity, and the power of connection and vulnerability. Some of the people in the movie were sitting in the audience!
