The New/Next Film Fest is back for its third iteration, running October 2-5, with more than 30 features and over 40 shorts. Present by Baltimore Public Media, the fest debuted in August 2023 and has already become a staple of the local arts scene. Below are five films I am either excited to see or, in the case of the closing-night films, Natchez, have already seen and can recommend.
The 2023 documentary Jack Has a Plan followed its titular subject as he succumbs to cancer and finally makes the difficult decision to be euthanized, choosing death on his own terms. In André Is an Idiot, director Tony Benna’s debut feature, we are promised a similarly harrowing and intimate experience, following protagonist André as he journeys towards the great beyond as a result of not getting a colonoscopy. With humor and, hopefully, not an ounce of grace, he bows out without losing a shred of his irascible self. Sounds about as life-affirming a film as they come.
Man with a Movie Camera (2025)
The great Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov (aka Denis/David Kaufman) created his seminal experimental documentary Man with a Movie Camera in 1929. Presenting a day in the life of Moscow, with the titular character as the device that walks us through various urban and suburban spaces, the movie was a showcase of his Kino-Glaz (Russian for “Cine-Eye”) technique that took real-life footage and transformed it into revolutionary images. In Man with a Movie Camera (2025), a collective of modern-day directors attempts to use Vertov’s style to tell a 21st-century based in internet material. I’m definitely curious to see what this means.
Natchez [adapted from my Tribeca 2025 review at Hammer to Nail]
Guided “pilgrimage” tours are a big part of the sightseeing industry in Natchez, Mississippi, where America’s antebellum past rubs up uncomfortably against the realities of a pluralistic modern world. In her latest documentary, director Suzannah Herbert (Wrestle) probes the evolution of history and culture in this southern city, as attitudes change and knowledge expands. Not everyone is ready for such adjustments, making for conflict, whether genteel or otherwise.
Baltimore resident Albert Birney (Strawberry Mansion), collaborating with fellow filmmaker Pete Ohs (Jethica)—who co-wrote, co-edited, and shot the film—delivers what looks to be another carefully crafted work of unique creativity, OBEX. The title refers to the computer game played by lead character Conor Marsh (Birney), who must look for his beloved dog Sandy after she goes missing, possibly inside the game itself. Birney’s movie are always at the very least visually fascinating and tributes to a DIY aesthetic often missing in our current age, so I’ll see it at least for that. And the dog.
I love a good archival documentary. In WTO/99, director Ian Bell, also making his feature debut, looks back at the November 1999 protests in Seattle, Washington, when the city was host to a conference held by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Given the state of our backsliding democracy today, it no doubt proves illustrative to examine earlier conflicts over issues of trade and human rights, none of which have improved since then. The past is prologue, indeed.
Interested in any of the above, or want to see what else is on offer? Visit the festival site to see more in-depth descriptions and the schedule.
Christopher Llewellyn Reed
Chris Reed is the editor of Film Festival Today. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.