New York’s ALZA Festival is loading up its first-ever microdrama celebration with nine new world premieres ahead of its October 16-18 debut.

The additions include Lifetime’s Reunion Island, a thriller about reality show contestants trapped in a deadly game at a Maui mansion. The cast features Felix Merback and Eric Guilmette, with direction by Gary and Edmund Entin.

Also joining the slate is vertTV’s supernatural horror Bite Club, which reunites horror legends Barbara Crampton and Russell Todd on the 40th anniversary of Chopping Mall. The series follows a student investigating her friend’s murder at a university hiding vampire bloodlines. Sam Irvin directs.

Other premieres include South African dramedy Confessions of a Gold Digger, workplace comedy Bandana Besties, and a trio of thrillers from Reelarc: Fatal Match, Splitlight, and Zero Point.

Beyond screenings, the festival is packing in conversations with industry experts Richard Lawson, Jeffrey Schenck, Jay Blumenfield, Todd Spicer, Jen Cooper, Phil Viardo, Rob McGillivray and Manny Ruiz about how vertical storytelling is reshaping entertainment. A special panel features the leading men of GammaTime microdramas sharing behind-the-scenes stories and debuting an exclusive teaser for The Summer I Turned My Sexiest 2.

“There is no better place than ALZA to hear directly from the people who are helping shape the way we consume entertainment,” says Pete Torres, founder and CEO of ALZA Festival.

Festival passes and tickets are available now at ALZAFestival.com/ticketing.

Independent Film Company

Nicolas Cage is back in full eccentric mode. IFC just picked up Best Pancakes in the County, a shoot-’em-up thriller that traps a diner full of dangerous people in one explosive night.

Cage plays The S.O.B., a cunning criminal caught in a deadly standoff between rogue federal agents, a fast-talking con man (Justin Long), and a waitress with secrets (Shelley Hennig). As tensions boil over, survival comes down to who can outthink and outgun everyone else.

Writer-director Ken Sanzel reunites with Cage after their 2019 action thriller Kill Chain. He wanted a character who could be funny, dangerous, and unpredictable all at once. “And then he took it to wilder and more unexpected places than I could have imagined,” Sanzel says.

The film was shot in Arkansas with backing from Beno Films and CaliWood Pictures. The ensemble also includes Lauren German, Ravi Patel, and Brandon Mychal Smith.

IFC’s Mark Ward is clearly excited. “BEST PANCAKES IN THE COUNTY is exactly the kind of eccentric and wildly entertaining ride that Nicolas Cage does better than anyone else.”

The film hits select theaters and VOD on November 20.

Sean Ono Lennon is making his directorial debut with a documentary about fashion outsiders who refuse to play by the rules.

threeASFOUR: FULL CIRCLE follows the avant-garde fashion collective threeASFOUR, made up of designers Gabi Asfour (Lebanese-Palestinian), Angela Donhauser (German-Tajikistani), and Adi Gil (Israeli). For over 25 years, they’ve pushed fashion into uncharted territory, drawing from natural forms and pioneering techniques that landed them museum exhibitions and fans like Björk and Chloë Sevigny.

But the film isn’t just about their creative wins. It’s about survival. About what happens when you center artistry and cross-cultural collaboration in an industry obsessed with profit margins.

Lennon co-directs with Brian C. González, who also handles cinematography. Jenny Golden wrote and edited. Beth Levison produces alongside Lauren Evangelista, González, and Daniel Sheppard.

The documentary opens exclusively at New York’s Film Forum on November 13, then rolls out nationwide this fall.

It’s a timely portrait of artists choosing creativity over commerce, and a reminder that the most interesting work often comes from the people willing to struggle for it.

SFFILM just handed its Sloan Science in Cinema Prize to Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Project Hail Mary, and they’re backing it up with a $20,000 check and a splashy event.

The prize celebrates films that make science central to the story, not just window dressing. Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling as a lone science teacher on a spaceship racing to save Earth’s dying sun, fits the bill. The adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel leans hard into physics, astronomy, and microbiology to solve its interstellar crisis.

“This deeply entertaining and emotional film never skirts the scientific process, but instead fully embraces it at every turn,” says Anne Lai, SFFILM’s Executive Director.

The celebration happens October 28 at San Francisco’s Premier Theater at One Letterman. Lord, Miller, and screenwriter Drew Goddard will join VFX Supervisor Paul Lambert, Sound Designers Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn, and Dr. Ron Radeztsky, the astrophysical scientist who worked on the film’s astrometric modeling. Expect a deep dive into how they balanced spectacle with actual science.

Past winners include Oppenheimer, Twisters, Don’t Look Up, Hidden Figures, and The Martian. The Sloan Foundation has backed over 900 science and film projects, trying to close the gap between hard science and Hollywood storytelling.

For indie filmmakers chasing authenticity, this prize proves there’s an appetite for smart science on screen, not just CGI explosions.