For its 2025 iteration, the Nova Frontier Film Festival, presented by Harlem Stage in New York, returns with an enduring theme—Freedom—expanding its exploration of cinematic storytelling as a space for radical imagination and transformation. 

This year’s festival presents a compelling program of films that delve into the myriad choices, both small and monumental, that shape our paths toward liberation.

Through a curated selection of works from filmmakers across the African Diaspora, the Middle East, and Latin America,  Acts of Freedom highlights the personal and collective decisions that define what it means to be free. Whether through stories of resistance, migration, love, or self-determination, each film in this year’s lineup speaks to the agency we hold in crafting our own narratives and forging new frontiers.

A highlight of this year’s festival is the spotlight on films by female filmmakers, featuring youth and women-centered characters who boldly challenge and disrupt the status quo, defining their own freedom and reclaiming agency over their stories while navigating precarious situations and cultural stigmas. Also joining the lineup is Raoul Peck’s powerful new documentary, Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, which revives interest in the groundbreaking South African photographer who chronicled the brutal realities of apartheid. Cole, who died in 1990 in Manhattan, turned his lens on the daily struggles and resilience of Black South Africans, capturing a system that sought to control their movements but could never dictate their meaning. His work also extended beyond South Africa, with New York and Harlem becoming integral to his visual and political consciousness. 

As we navigate an era of social, political, and environmental upheaval, Nova Frontier Film Festival 2025 invites audiences to witness, reflect on, and engage in the continuous pursuit of freedom—one act, one choice at a time.

Thursday, JUNE 5 TH - 7:00 PM

The festival opens with four compelling short films that poignantly capture the essence of the Nova Frontier Film Festival. Each work reflects the spirit of the regions represented and the overarching theme of Freedom, offering intimate portraits of people navigating the maelstrom of their seemingly ordinary lives—through dreams, work, rituals, love, and the in-between. Through deeply personal and often poetic storytelling, these films explore both individual and collective experiences, laying a resonant foundation for the diverse and impactful narratives that will unfold throughout the festival.

8:30 — Conversation/Panel - TBD

SHORT FILM PROGRAM 2 - UNBELONGING

Curated by Nanor Vosgueritchian

This selection of short films follows young women from across the globe as they navigate pivotal moments in their lives. While reflecting on their journeys of displacement and feelings of unbelonging, these characters are also faced with potentially transformative experiences. They must make decisions that will affect not just themselves, but also the people around them. It’s a heavy burden to bear, and one that is either eased or exacerbated by family and friends. Mainly helmed by innovative female filmmakers, these films explore the newfound interests, relationships, and sexual desires of their characters. Through time, they learn that personal choice and freedom often come at a price.

4:00 PM - 6 PM

This experimental and lively section of the program brings together filmmakers, photographers, spoken word artists, and activists to discuss, screen, and perform works that blur the lines between art and activism. It aims to explore and challenge polarized debates around diaspora, exile, transnationalism, borders, and migration. Through multiple global perspectives, these works and artists reflect on the complexities of place and belonging, both personal and collective, while offering nuanced narratives of movement, displacement, and return.

At its core, this program foregrounds the urgency of art that resists. Art as resistance—restice—becomes a vital mode of expression and intervention, confronting systems of exclusion and amplifying silenced voices. These works do not simply represent experience; they engage in acts of refusal, reimagining, and radical care. They remind us that in fractured times, creativity remains essential to survival, solidarity, and transformation.

7 PM

MEET OUR JURIES

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR FILMAKERS, PARTNERS, HARLEM STAGE, AND OUR AUDIENCE!