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2025 Festival

See the full lineup of films at this year's festival below.

A selection of films will be screened in-person at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (and a few at the Anthology Film Archives) whilst others will be available to watch online on this website until June 8th 2025.

Festival Lineup

Acting

IN-PERSON

Acting

Sophie Fiennes; Cheek by Jowl; Lone Star; Amoeba Film

Grand Theft Hamlet

IN-PERSON

Grand Theft Hamlet

Sam Crane & Pinny Grylls

Peak Hour in the House

ONLINE + IN-PERSON

Peak Hour in the House

Blue Ka Wing

Skywalk Above Prague

ONLINE + IN-PERSON

Skywalk Above Prague

Václav Flegl, Jakub Voves

The Jacket

IN-PERSON

The Jacket

Mathijs Poppe

Benjamim de Oliveira's Open Paths

ONLINE + IN-PERSON

Benjamim de Oliveira's Open Paths

Catappum! Collective

Jesus and the sea

Jesus and the sea

Ricarda Alvarenga

Pidikwe

IN-PERSON

Pidikwe

Caroline Monnet

Somber Tides

ONLINE + IN-PERSON

Somber Tides

Chantal Caron / Fleuve Espace Danse

This is Ballroom

IN-PERSON

This is Ballroom

Juru and Vitã

Bila Burba

IN-PERSON

Bila Burba

Duiren Wagua

Moi-même

IN-PERSON

Moi-même

Mojo Lorwin/Lee Breuer

Radical Move

IN-PERSON

Radical Move

ANIELA GABRYEL

THEATER OF WAR

ONLINE + IN-PERSON

THEATER OF WAR

Oleh Halaidych

Transindigenous Assembly

IN-PERSON

Transindigenous Assembly

Joulia Strauss

FUNAMBULISM, HANGING BY A THREAD

ONLINE + IN-PERSON

FUNAMBULISM, HANGING BY A THREAD

Jean-Baptiste Mathieu

PACI

ONLINE + IN-PERSON

PACI

JULIETTE ROUDET

Resilience

ONLINE + IN-PERSON

Resilience

Juan David Padilla Vega

The Brink of Dreams

IN-PERSON

The Brink of Dreams

Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir

In-Person Screenings

at The Martin E. Segal Center (365 5th Ave, New York)

and Anthology Film Archives (32 2nd Ave, New York)

Thursday May 15

1:00 pm

Resilience by Juan David Padilla Vega (Canada, 2024, 70’)

U.S. PREMIERE

 

2:20 pm

JJ by Pauline L. Boulba and Aminata Labor (France, 2024, 72’)

 

4:00 pm

This is Ballroom by Vita and Juru (Brazil, 2024, 92’)

5:50 pm

Transindigenous Assembly by Joulia Strauss (Greece, 2024, 86’)

7:25 pm

Radical Move by Aniela Gabryel (Poland, 2023, 77’)

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Friday May 16

12:00 pm

Bila Burba by Duiren Wagua (Panama, 2023, 70’)

1:20 pm

Acting by Sophie Fiennes (UK, 2024, 145’) U.S. PREMIERE

3:55 pm

The Jacket by Mathijs Poppe (Belgium, Netherlands, France, Lebanon, 2024, 71’)
U.S. PREMIERE

5:15 pm

Brink of Dreams by Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir (Egypt, France, Denmark, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, 2024, 102’)

Special section

SPOTLIGHT ON BASINGA

7:10 pm

Funambulism, Hanging by a Thread by Jean-Baptiste Mathieu (Germany, 2024, 52’) NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

8:10 pm

Skywalk above Prague by Václav Flegl, Jakub Voves (Czech Republic, 2020, 51’) NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Saturday May 17

11:00 am

SHORT FILMS PROGRAM

Benjamin de Oliveira’s Open Paths by Bruno Esperança (Brazil, 2024, 37’) U.S. PREMIERE

 

Peak Hour in the House by Blue Ka Wing (Honk Kong, 2024, 7’)

 

Paci by Juliette Roudet (France, 2024, 33’) NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

 

Jesus E O Mar by Ricarda Alvarenga (Brazil, 2024, 3’)

 

Somber Tides by Chantal Caron (Canada, 2024, 12’) N.Y. PREMIERE

 

Theater of War by Oleh Halaidych (Ukraine, 2024, 40’) U.S. PREMIERE

 

Pidikwe by Caroline Monnet (Canada, 2024, 10’) U.S. PREMIERE

 

1:25pm

Grand Theft Hamlet by Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane (UK, 2024, 90’)

Sunday May 18

3:00 pm

SPECIAL FESTIVAL PRESENTATION AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES

​(32 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003)

Reas by Lola Arias (Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, 2024, 82’)

Wednesday May 21 to
Wednesday May 28

HIS HEAD WAS A SLEDGEHAMMER: RICHARD FOREMAN IN RETROSPECT AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES

Guest-programmed by Andrew Lampert. The retrospective is co-presented by New York University Special Collections, home to the Richard Foreman and Kate Manheim Papers, and The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance.

 

For full schedule of the retrospective go to this LINK.

3:00 pm

SPECIAL FESTIVAL PRESENTATION AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES

(32 Second Avenue New York, NY 10003)

Moi-Même by Mojo Lorwin & Lee Breuer (France, US, 1968/2024, 65 min, 16mm-to-DCP) followed by Q&A with Mojo Lorwin and Kevin Mathewson, moderated by Frank Hentschker

About The Festival

The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP) is an annual event showcasing films drawn from the world of theatre and performance. The 2025 festival is co-curated by Frank Hentschker and Tomek Smolarski, and supported by Gaurav Singh Nijjer on digital design.

The festival presents experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world to audiences and industry professionals. From its inaugural edition in 2015 to its present-day hybrid avatar, The Segal Film Festival for Theatre and Performance (FTP) has served as a platform for recorded works that span the length and breadth of the performing arts.

Festival Founder and Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theater Center, Frank Hentschker shares his inspiration for creating the festival: “Film and digital media are an integral part of theatre and performance. I am surprised that there is not a film festival out there right now focusing on theatre and performance. I thought ‘why not create one’?”

 

In the time before Corona, the Segal Film Festival had evolved into the premier US event for new film and video work focusing on theatre and performance. Its mission was to invite experimental and established theatre makers to present work created for the screen – not filmed archival recordings – to audiences and industry professionals from around the world. Now, after a year and a half of digital and hybrid theatre offerings, the festival must take on a new meaning. The festival has held on to its mission of being a free and open-to-all event accessible to everyone. The 7th edition of the festival was held digitally in March 2022, and featured 80 films from 30 countries. 

For queries, feedback and any more information get in touch with us at segalfilmfestival@gmail.com

Meet The Team

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Tomek Smolarski

Co-Curator

Tomek Smolarski is a cultural manager, producer and curator with over 20 years of experience in production of international cultural events and extensive knowledge in cultural diplomacy. He has produced projects with leading U.S. institutions, including BAM, MoMA, Film at Lincoln Center, Anthology Film Archives, MoMI, Pacific Film Archives, Chicago Cultural Center and many others.

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Gaurav Singh Nijjer

Web and Digital Producer

Gaurav Singh Nijjer is a theatre-maker, creative technologist and designer whose artistic works explore technology and media in live performance. He is one half of the Indian performing arts collective Kaivalya Plays, and also works as a freelance artist and arts manager with collectives in India and abroad, currently as Digital and Web Producer at the Martin E. Segal Theater Center at the Graduate Centre CUNY. He is a former German Chancellor Fellow and a Chevening scholar. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Apart from theatre, Gaurav also works as a freelance marketing, design and creative consultant for diverse organizations.

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Frank Hentschker

Co-Curator

Frank Hentschker, who holds a Ph.D. in theatre from the now legendary Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany, came to the Graduate Center in 2001 as program director for the Graduate Center’s Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and was appointed to the central doctoral faculty in theatre in 2009. Currently executive director and director of programs at the Segal Center, Hentschker has transformed the center into the nation’s leading forum for public programming in international and U.S. theatre and theatre studies; each year, he curates and produces more than forty events—staged readings, lecture-demonstrations, symposia, works-in-progress, and conversations with theatre scholars, theatrical luminaries, and emerging voices in the international, American, and New York theatre scenes. Among the vital events and series he founded at the Segal Center are the World Theatre Performance series; the annual fall PRELUDE festival, which features more than twenty New York–based theatre companies and playwrights; and the PEN World Voices Playwrights Series. Hentschker also led CUNY’s nineteen performing arts centers in founding the CUNY–Performing Arts Consortium (C–PAC), producing the consortium’s first joint festival in 2009. Hentschker edited the MESTC publications Jan Fabre: I Am A Mistake, Seven Works for the Theatre (2009) and New Plays from Spain (2013), and he served as president of the board of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art from 2005 to 2009. Before coming to the Graduate Center, Hentschker founded and directed DISCURS, the largest European student theatre festival existing today; he acted as Hamlet in Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine, directed by the playwright; performed in the Robert Wilson play The Forest (music by David Byrne); and worked as an assistant for Robert Wilson for many years.

Producer, General Operations Manager

Teresa Soraka

Next Generation Fellow

Nurit Chinn

© 2023

Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The CUNY Graduate Center

365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309 | ph: 212-817-1860 | mestc@gc.cuny.edu

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