Showcasing and advocating for personal, ambitious regional cinema.
A Sense of Place …
“As smaller festivals feel the squeeze from clout-chasing funders and boards, the decline of local journalism, and the numbing allure of algorithmically surfaced streaming content, the question becomes whether there’s still much will, domestically, to maintain the kind of infrastructure from which the next The Damned or Eephus, or the next Wanda or Northern Lights, might emerge—or through which it might connect with an audience eager to see their own quirks and concerns reflected on screen. Film Fest Knox is one attempt to answer in the affirmative; let’s hope there are more where that came from.” — Film Comment
2025 American Regional Cinema Competition
Bird in Hand
Dir. by Melody C. Roscher
A biracial bride-to-be seeks a connection with her charismatic hippie mother, while using her wedding plans to manipulate everyone in her orbit.
Charliebird
Dir. by Libby Ewing
When a music therapist begins working with a unique young patient, she is confronted with her past and what it means to live. Set in a small, rural town in Texas.
Mouse
Dir. by Kenny Riches
A petty thief living with his mother, signs up for a penpal service in hopes of finding a friend, or maybe more. Unfortunately, his penpal has other plans.
Other Houses
Dir. by S. Cagney Gentry and Thomas Southerland
Immigrant Radka Winslow must choose between the American Dream or living a creative life back in Bulgaria.
Tropical Park
Dir. by Hansel Porras Garcia
During a driving lesson, two Cuban siblings -- a newly arrived trans woman and her estranged conservative brother -- face each other for the first time in years.American Regional Cinema Competition Jury
Bedatri D. Choudhury is The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Arts and Entertainment Editor. Before this, she worked extensively with documentary films, particularly in the areas of program management and commissioning. She was most recently the Managing Editor of Documentary magazine, and is a programmer with DOCNYC, True False, and SFFILM. An alumna of the NYFF Critics Academy, Sundance and SXSW Press Inclusion Initiatives, the National Critics’ Institute, and Berlinale Talents, she can often be heard on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour.
James M. Johnston produced and directed Second Unit for the films The Green Knight, The Old Man and The Gun, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, and the upcoming Mother Mary from A24. He also directed Second Unit for Disney’s Peter Pan & Wendy and Netflix’s Last Letter From Your Lover. He has directed multiple short films that have played to acclaim at festivals around the world, including the award-winning Melville, which IndieWire called one of the best American short films of 2015. Up next is his feature debut, Strawweight.
A veteran of the independent film scene, Ryan Krivoshey founded the award-winning distribution company Grasshopper Film in 2015, hailed as “one of the most artistically daring of distributors” (The New Yorker). With its adventurous slate, Grasshopper has built a reputation for introducing audiences to provocative documentaries and bold works from both emerging and celebrated filmmakers. In 2025, Ryan co-founded Correspondent, where he serves as President, a production company committed to developing artistic, cinematic, and boundary-pushing films.