Several CalArts alums have new work premiering at major fall film festivals, including two world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Film/Video faculty Lee Anne Schmitt and James Benning, and School of Art faculty Sharon Lockhart also have films screening at the New York Film Festival (NYFF) later this month.
Toronto International Film Festival (Wavelengths section)
Sept. 4-14
Multiple venues in Toronto
- Minjung Kim (Film/Video MFA 15): From My Cloud (2025). Kim’s experimental short weaves personal video archives into a meditation on memory, time, and impermanence. This is the film’s world premiere.
- Kaiwen Ren (Film/Video MFA 24): Aftertide (2025), which responds to the more than 2000 whale strandings along the California coast via decaying film stock, also has its world premiere at TIFF.
New York Film Festival (Projections section)
Sept. 26 – Oct. 13
Multiple venues in New York City
- Lee Anne Schmitt (Film/Video faculty): In Evidence (2025), Schmitt explores her father’s career at chemical and munitions manufacturer Olin Corporation while also examining the impact that the conservative John M. Olin Foundation has had on American society and politics.
- James Benning (Film/Video faculty): Little Boy (2025) uses toy models as well as folk and pop songs, and political speeches to trace cycles of domestic decline and global violence disguised as peacekeeping.
- Sharon Lockhart (Film/Video faculty): Windward (2025) is a series of 12 tableaux shot on Fogo Island, Canada, exploring landscape, color, and light.
- Justin Jinsoo Kim (Film/Video MFA 23): A Real Christmas (2025) is an archival collage about Lee Kyung Soo, a 3-year-old Korean War orphan adopted by an American Navy officer in the 1950s. His adoption received considerable press in the US at the time, including an article in Time and the The New York Times
