Jamilah has her whole life figured out. She’s the president of her black sorority, captain of their champion step dance crew, is student liaison to the college dean, and her next move is on to Harvard Law School. She’s got it all, right? But when the hard-partying white girls from Sigma Beta Beta embarrass the school, Jamilah is ordered to come to the rescue. Her mission is to not only teach the rhythmically-challenged girls how to step dance, but to win the Steptacular, the most competitive of dance competitions. With the SBBs reputations and charter on the line, and Jamilah’s dream of attending Harvard in jeopardy, these outcast screw-ups and their unlikely teacher stumble through one hilarious misstep after another. Cultures clash, romance blossoms, and sisterhood prevails as everyone steps out of their comfort zones.

On Australia’s most controversial national holiday, the lives of three Australians from diverse cultural backgrounds will collide, illuminating contemporary issues of racial tension and national identity that simmer beneath the surface of modern Australia.

“The Rocket” is a small town story inspired by true events, about a high school football star who suffers a severe head injury and loses his entire life plan. The heaviness of a broken relationship with his father, and losing the identity of “football star” push him to seek a new way to prove himself. Restricted from playing any sports and despite being an unlikely runner, the cross country coach brings the young man aboard his high school team out of necessity, and through much struggle, doubt, and determination, he finds a new way to push towards greatness. With colorful characters, youthful insights, and nostalgic storytelling, “The Rocket” brings together the elements of family, loss, failure, and redemption. The entire story is based on real characters and events that took place in the mid-west in 1999.

Simon Cordier, a French magistrate and amateur sculptor comes into contact with a malevolent entity. The invisible – yet corporeal – being, called a “horla” is capable of limited psychokinesis and complete mind control.

A young autistic woman runs away from her caregiver in order to boldly go and deliver her 500-page Star Trek script to a writing competition in Hollywood. On an adventure full of laughter and tears, Wendy follows the guiding spirit of Mr. Spock on her journey into the unknown.

A coming-of-age film about two sixty-year-old best buddies who should have come-of-age a long time ago. When Marriage and Family Therapists, Dave and Joel, set off for a San Francisco Therapy Conference, with the intention of hiring Escorts as an escape from their own failing marriages, they wind up in the pathway of a scheming prostitute named Roxie. This encounter with Roxie will prove to be the biggest test of Dave and Joel’s friendship.

An aspiring artist struggles to find his voice, his sexual identity, and the meaning of creativity.

Wilson of the War Crimes Commission is seeking Franz Kindler, mastermind of the Holocaust, who has effectively erased his identity. Wilson releases Kindler’s former comrade Meinike and follows him to Harper, Connecticut, where he is killed before he can identify Kindler. Now Wilson’s only clue is Kindler’s fascination with antique clocks; but, though Kindler seems secure in his new identity, he feels his past closing in.

Cassidy Red is a western romance set against the backdrop of the 19th century American southwest. The film follows the headstrong daughter of a prostitute who returns to her hometown, seeking vengeance against the corrupt lawman she believes murdered her lover.

Adapted from prolific western novelist Dusty Richard’s “Mustanger and the Lady,” ‘Painted Woman’ is the story of Julie Richards Julie is a woman of her time, passed from hand to hand in a web of abuse and prostitution, landing her at the feet of Kyle Allison. Allison, a wealthy powerbroker of the old west town of Goldfield, took young Julie into his home and made her his trophy. This life came with the gift of being taken care of and the cost of more abuse. As Julie’s time with Allison is coming to a dangerous close, Julie is given two chances of escape, with two very different men… The story of PAINTED WOMAN is two distinct chapters in Julie’s life, with each chapter mirroring the other. Chapter one follows Julie meeting Frank. It is told mostly at night in the town of Goldfield. Chapter two follows the Mustanger. It takes place in the wilderness and is told mostly during the day.

A man and his 9-year-old daughter disappear into the swampy Virginia backwoods. Haunted by tragedy and destitution, they must both face the painful past if they are to ever have a future.

In Philadelphia, the psychologist Dr. Liz Manners is the host of the WLOR Talk Radio Show giving advices about relationships to her audience. When she suggests to her listener Sara Jane to leave her abusive and obsessive husband Kyle Lundstrom, Sara runs away home chased by Kyle and is hit by a car, immediately dying. The psychopath Kyle decides to use his money to destroy Dr. Manners’ life, and assuming the fake identity of the investor James, he meets her husband Rob and poisons her marriage

Ricardo is a transvestite. After a failed attempt of suicide, he has to come back to his roots and to relearn how to live with the inspiring help of his sister and, mostly, of his nephew Vasco, who has Down syndrome.

Chloé, a fragile young woman, falls in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul. A few months later she moves in with him, but soon discovers that her lover is concealing a part of his identity.

Still/Born follows Mary, a new mother who lost one of her twins in childbirth. As she struggles with the loss of one of her children, she starts to suspect something sinister is after her surviving child – a supernatural entity that has chosen her child and will stop at nothing to take it from her.

A group of young people awake, locked inside a warehouse with cameras screwed into their heads. It becomes apparent that they are unwilling competitors in a deadly game, and they will need to murder each other if they hope to survive.

Allan is a married father of three whose sex life takes another hit when his wife can no longer take the pill. He soon finds himself with an appointment for a vasectomy and a nagging identity crisis. Although he is by all reasonable accounts a good, responsible man, the thought of getting “fixed” drives him to lose himself to an action-packed midlife crisis along with his best friends. Allan will refuse to grow up anymore.

A small town gorilla joins a local TV program and a series of on-air mishaps threaten to shatter his identity, sending him on an adventure of self-discovery where reality and fantasy start to blend.

Raised suckling poison arrows among the sparring Iga ninja factions, Mumon (Satoshi Ohno, of idol group Arashi) is a carefree 16th-century mercenary. When the ninja council makes a power play to defeat the young Nobukatsu Oda struggling to step into his father’s warlord shoes as they expand rule across the country, Mumon jumps into the fray to satisfy his new bride Okuni’s (Satomi Ishihara of Shin Godzilla, Attack on Titan) demand that he make good on his promises of wealth. Yet Mumon soon finds what is worth fighting for beyond money or nation. A longtime JAPAN CUTS favorite known for his offbeat dramas, Yoshihiro Nakamura (Fish Story, Golden Slumber) takes on the jidaigeki epic with his signature sense of play featuring a jazzy soundtrack and fantastical ninja tricks. -JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film

Yan Jian, a young Chinese IT engineer who volunteers to go to North Africa and help the company he works for to win a competition. The winner can own the right to control the communication between south and north. French spy Michael works for the West. His boss ordered him to go to the North Africa and win the competition, and they can control the great mineral resources of Africa. He hired the best mercenary in Africa whose name is Lauder and a former general Kabbah to help him. Yan has discovered their conspiracy, he is the only one who can stop them.

Yuan Shuai, a debt-ridden animal-breeder, tries to get out of his financial predicament by finding a wealthy girlfriend through matchmaking dates. He unexpectedly meets and fall in love with the fox demon, Bai Xianchu, who has arrived to the mortal realm to repay her gratitude. However, the head of the Demon tribe Yun Zhonghe forbids a love relationship between a demon and a human; and takes Bai Xianchu away. To seek his lover, Yuan Shuai bravely crashes the demonic world.

A routine run for a truck driver turns into a nightmare he can’t escape in this psychological drama from filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa. Georgy (Viktor Nemets) is driving a load of freight into Russia when, after an unpleasant encounter with the police at a border crossing, he finds himself giving a lift to a strange old man (Vladimir Golovin) with disturbing stories about his younger days in the Army. After next picking up a young woman (Olga Shuvalova) who works as a prostitute and is wary of the territory, Georgy finds himself lost, and despite asking some homeless men for help, he’s less sure than he was before of how to make his way back where he belongs. As brutal images of violence and alienation cross the screen, Georgy’s odyssey becomes darker and more desperate until it reaches an unexpected conclusion.

The Independent is a mockumentary comedy film made in 2000, directed by Stephen Kessler, starring Jerry Stiller as an independent film maker, who makes little-known B movies with titles like Twelve Angry Men and a Baby. The film spoofs independent directors and independent film. The film features Janeane Garofalo, Max Perlich, and cameos by Anne Meara, Ron Howard, Roger Corman, Peter Bogdanovich, John Lydon, Ben Stiller, Andy Dick, Fred Dryer, Jonathan Katz, Fred Williamson, Karen Black, Nick Cassavetes, Julie Strain and adult film actress Ginger Lynn. The fictional career of Morty Fineman (Stiller) is said to have made 427 films. It is not specified as to whether he directed them all, or if it refers to films produced or written by the Fineman character.

Kelly, a hopeless romantic in Montana eager to finish her dissertation, and her father, Hank, a rancher, receive news that he has inherited an estate from a faraway land. When they travel there, they discover that Hank has not only inherited the estate, but the title that goes along with it – KING!

Like Air is a feature length documentary that follows three high school competitive dancers on their journey to a nationals championship competition. With every step towards the trophy, they discover their personal identity through dance and the life it breathes into their soul.

Max and Annie’s weekly game night gets kicked up a notch when Max’s brother Brooks arranges a murder mystery party — complete with fake thugs and federal agents. So when Brooks gets kidnapped, it’s all supposed to be part of the game. As the competitors set out to solve the case, they start to learn that neither the game nor Brooks are what they seem to be. The friends soon find themselves in over their heads as each twist leads to another unexpected turn over the course of one chaotic night.

Laura Chant. 16, lives with her mother and four-year-old brother Jacko in a poor new suburb on the edge of a partially demolished Christchurch, New Zealand. Laura is drawn into a supernatural battle with an ancient spirit who attacks Jacko and slowly drains the life out of him as the spirit becomes ever younger. Laura discovers her true identity and the supernatural ability within her, and must harness it to save her brother’s life.

A woman is involuntarily committed to a mental institution where she is confronted by her greatest fear.

Everyone deserves a great love story. But for seventeen-year old Simon Spier it’s a little more complicated: he’s yet to tell his family or friends he’s gay and he doesn’t know the identity of the anonymous classmate he’s fallen for online.

Once a rising star of the rodeo circuit, and a gifted horse trainer, young cowboy Brady is warned that his riding days are over, after a horse crushed his skull at a rodeo. Back home on the Pine Ridge Reservation, with little desire or alternatives for a different way of life, Brady’s sense of inadequacy mounts as he is unable to ride or rodeo – the essentials of being a cowboy. In an attempt to regain control of his own fate, Brady undertakes a search for new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of America.

A 14 year old boy, struggling with gender identity and religion, begins to use fantasy to escape his life in the inner city and find his passion in the process.

The plot follows the story of twin brothers, one is a coldhearted violent police officer, the other is a helpless romantic with a mental disability. The two brothers are tragically involved with a prostitute who works in the bordello that gives the film its title. The film was adapted from an eponymous novel written by Juan Marsé.

To the Beat follows 14-year-old twins Mia and Mackie Castillo – dancers since they were toddlers. Beginning at just three years old, that’s been their one true passion. They support each other through competitions and rehearsals, even though they dance different styles. Mia loves tap and Mackie loves jazz. When their favorite pop star launches an online contest to find the most unique dance group for his next music video, the twins each form their own team to compete for the chance to dance in the video – enlisting their friends and family to help gain online votes. Meanwhile, their arch rival and neighbor, Avery, the best dancer of all (who knows it too) uses her charm and resources to get the upper hand in the competition.

Every era gets the drug it deserves. In America today, where competition is ceaseless from school to the workforce and everyone wants a performance edge, Adderall and other prescription stimulants are the defining drugs of this generation.

A psycho with an insatiable appetite for women’s flesh is tracked by a detective.

A husband, wife and their two daughters take a Christmas break at a lodge in the woods. There’s evident tension between the couple. He’s pulled by attention to his corporation and negotiations about a merger. Even on their vacation he’s on the phone. She’s feeling abandoned. He takes her on a light plane flight to a cabin across the lake, but their plane suddenly loses altitude. They crash into the lake before they can notify anyone. The husband is more seriously hurt but with his wife’s assistance they navigate cross-country towards a distant highway.. While they struggle to cross a ridge, the husband’s business partner moves behind the scenes to sell the company to raiders, apparently assuming Frank is dead. Attacked by rogue wolves, the husband and wife are rescued in the nick of time. The FAA begins an investigation of the plane crash while the family begins to heal the emotional and physical wounds.

Ted and Lynn Murphy lead a simple suburban life. They have three wonderful children, their own small business, and good relationships with friends and neighbors. But that life is turned upside down when Ted signs a petition advocating traditional marriage. It is a small act of civic duty in his mind, but to others in their community it seems like an act of heartless bigotry.

Neïla Salah grew up in Créteil, a tower block suburb on the outskirts of Paris, and dreams of becoming a lawyer. She has been accepted into a major university in Paris and on her first day there she is confronted by Pierre Mazard, a professor known for his provocative behavior and blunders.
To make amends for an incident, he accepts to help Neïla prepare for a prestigious competition in courtroom eloquence. Both cynical and demanding, Pierre could become the mentor who she needs… But first both must overcome their prejudices.

Luke Parker, a brilliant young psychiatrist has always relied on analysis and logic. But his amazing mind can’t fathom the call of his destiny. Luke’s patient, William Titus embodies why ‘lunar’ is the root of ‘lunatic.’ He’s a serial killer, but more than that, he believes he’s a werewolf. And Titus has a secret. — James Wolf

A college music student turns to prostitution to make a little cash and look for inspiration, as she has blocked on a major musical composition that she must create in order to graduate.