by Alex Lei
in Festivals & Events
on Oct 10, 2025Begun as a scrappy response to the Maryland Film Festival cancelling its edition in 2023, New/Next held its third run in Baltimore from October 2 to 5 and has already announced that the festival will be back next fall. “The word about the festival in the filmmaker community is really strong, especially about the quality of experience we offer them,” festival programmer and co-founder Eric Allen Hatch said during an edition which brought in over 300 filmmakers to The Charles Theater. “I find that most of the works I would want to show are being sent to me.”
“You keep everyone on campus, have them fed, give them water, give them drinks, and people stay to watch another movie and talk between screenings,” festival associate director Emma Hannaway told me. “We want people to go out and explore Baltimore—have a morning or something—but most of your time should be spent here, and that’s what we like.” The entire fest is contained to one city block in the Station North neighborhood, with screenings at The Charles, a filmmaker’s lounge two doors down and opening/closing night parties happening kitty-corner at Metro Gallery. The campus approach seemed to work: the same faces could be seen everywhere on that stretch of Charles Street from noon to well past two am every day.
While a party atmosphere pervades the burgeoning festival, the dance floor at the after-parties has more people huddled talking about the day’s screenings than actually dancing; the energy always wraps back around to the screen. One of the new efforts this year is a student engagement program that brings 40 high school and college students to the fest, showing them the ropes of how to navigate the environment and network with potential colleagues, even giving them a brunch with Albert Birney and Pete Ohs, the director and DP behind the fest’s opening night film OBEX. And the community is active: there were so many Maryland-made shorts at the festival that they constituted four programs on their own. Notably, the only dedicated block for experimental works at the fest was for ones made locally.
Read full article: New/Next Film Festival 2025: On Campus – Filmmaker Magazine
