“The city’s best independent film showcase”
—The New Yorker
On-sale dates:
Thu, May 9 at 10am for BAM Members & Patrons
Thu, May 16 at 10am for General Public
BAM Members get free popcorn for festival screenings when they show their membership card.
Multi-film discount*
3 or more films: 20% off your purchase
6 or more films: 30% off your purchase
BAM Members save on top of their already discounted member-price tickets.
Launched in 2009 as a showcase for new independent films, the annual festival is an extension of BAM’s year-round film program, collecting the most innovative new work from festivals in the US and around the world and bringing them to New York City audiences. This year’s festival features blazingly personal works by filmmakers who have defied industry odds to realize their singular visions. Overflowing with funny, moving, challenging, and thought-provoking discoveries from the cutting edge of independent film, BAMcinemaFest is a celebration of all that movies can be when bold, uncompromising artists are empowered to tell their own stories.
OFFICIAL AIRLINE
PREFERRED HOTEL
PREFERRED SPIRIT
Leadership support for BAM Film programs provided by The Thompson Family Foundation
Steinberg Screen at the BAM Harvey Theater is made possible by The Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust


A gently humorous and achingly tender reflection on home, heritage, and family bonds.

A wry, freewheeling vision of American society as seen from a medical transport van.

An achingly alive look at cherishing the past while learning to let go.

A disquieting look at teen dreams and disillusionment in the age of social media stardom.

Peter Sarsgaard is a silence-obsessed man confronting the realities of a dissonant world.

A documentary about the famed magician-comedian careens wildly off the rails.

Tales of childhood wonder, black vampires, queer intimacy, and more.

A trancelike fusion of avant-garde aesthetics and classic old-dark-house atmospherics.

A poetic, healing rumination on the words of womanist icon Audre Lorde.

A funny, urgent, and provocative look into our apocalyptic future as seen from the perilous present.

A potent, hyper-stylish immersion into the dark side of the teenage drive to be “perfect.”

Bittersweet reflections on what it means to be a stranger adrift in a strange land.

Nick Kroll stars in this heart-racing tale of human connection shot at the 2018 Olympics.

A vital, warmly human look at prom night in Flint, Michigan.

An inspiring, thought-provoking philosophical journey about what it means to truly see.

Eugene Mirman reflects on the end of an era in New York City comedy.

Jeff Goldblum stars in this eerie, enigmatic odyssey into the dark side of 1950s America.

The incredible story of undocumented activists who infiltrated an ICE detention center.

Eye-opening dispatches from the margins of American society.

Death haunts a close-knit Mexican community in this evocative documentary spellbinder.

Family ties become a trap from which a woman must find a way to escape.

A tender, achingly raw journey through the joys and pains of first love.

A luminous, bracingly intimate snapshot of contemporary queer Brooklyn.

BAMcinemaFest presents a free day of panels featuring industry tools and tips.