4-day indie film festival begins at the Charles Theatre on Thursday
As usual for Eric Hatch, there was no glossing over any entries in this year’s New/Next Film Festival. Between January and August, the Baltimore cinephile watched every eligible feature and short film — more than 1,000 of them.
“All the way to the finish, I will add, which is not the norm for a festival,” said Hatch, the indie film festival’s sole programmer.
His meticulous attention to detail is a hallmark of New/Next, which returns to the Charles Theatre from Thursday to Sunday.
Hatch founded New/Next in 2023 with producer Sam Sessa to fill the void left by a then-on-hiatus Maryland Film Festival, which Hatch had previously programmed for more than a decade.
But now, entering its fourth year, New/Next has quickly emerged as its own must-see celebration of independent cinema — a platform for rising filmmakers that’s making Hollywood pay closer attention to Baltimore.
“If anybody asked me, ‘What festival should I look at?’ to see what’s going on in the low-budget American indie film scene,” veteran director Joe Swanberg said, “New/Next would just immediately be my answer.”
Read full article: New/Next Film Festival: Don’t miss these movies in Baltimore – The Banner
