“My tween kids asked me to please make a documentary they’d actually want to watch with their friends,” Nahmias recalls about the origins of her latest project. “Mom-challenge accepted.”
The post Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Alysa Nahmias, the Director of “Cookie Queens” first appeared on sundance.org.
We recently held our 18th edition of the Austin Asian American Film Festival from June 24-28, 2026, and it was a whirlwind of nostalgia as we pulled our photo gallery together. In those five days, we squeezed in watching 34 films, a 2-day VR activation, film industry gatherings, daily parties, and even 3 days of icy treats (Wed-Fri) that the staff repeatedly told me I need to budget for again...
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Andrew DeBennett explains how courage, outreach, and film festival relationships helped him move from short films to his first feature, Obsession’s Rising.
Making movies can feel isolating. Film festivals put you in the room with people who understand the work, the challenges, and the excitement. Sometimes the next step is simply finding your tribe.
A film festival is more than a screening. Q&As, panels, table reads, parties, awards, and filmmaker connections turn movies into a shared creative experience.
Check out 10 plot recipes that work well at film festivals—and learn how to make each story original, personal and memorable.
Umair Bilal spent months in Sehwan, Pakistan, trying to direct a documentary. Then he gave up. “Every time I tried to impose that logic onto Sehwan, it felt like I was working against the place rather than with it,” the Pakistani filmmaker tells Variety of his debut feature, “As Light as Air,” which premieres in […]
The family living in the house that “Rehmat” uses as Rashid Ali’s ancestral home lost a son to a drug overdose shortly after Indian filmmaker Gurvinder Singh and his crew first met them. Singh tells Variety, “The actual family that lives there lost their 19-year-old son after we met them for the first time. When […]