BIFF Offscreen: Building Worlds

A case study in compositing and worldbuilding for cinema.

Free Event

Nowhere Man and A Whiskey Girl

The beautiful and tragic love story of Derrick and Amy – and the best band you've never heard of.

BIFF Offscreen: Building Character

A case study in compositing and character-building for cinema.

Free Event

Zero Hour Party

Welcome to B-L0!! Come early b/f Provo – or after spending time w/ Terrible Children/Winter 1984/Meantime or – Lovely Jackson/Mind of Moses!

Free Event

Terrible Children w/ Winter 1984 + Meantime

Lyrical nightmares and archival dreams unravel stories of war, love, and redemption across three continents.

Lovely Jackson w/ Mind of Moses

America's longest wrongfully held exonerated prisoner, Rickey Jackson, on his 39-year journey of survival.

Provo

A self-destructive ex-Mormon finds out her abusive father is on his deathbed and road trips to Utah to reckon with her past.

BIFF Offscreen: Scripting – Passage – Suspension

BIFF Offscreen @ Play/Ground w/ work by Rebekkah Palov(!!) Free inside main RiverWorks venue.

Free Event

Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard

A woman is determined to claim ownership of daguerreotypes of her great-great-great grandfather, an enslaved man named Renty from Harvard.

Straighten Up and Fly Right

Kristen, a physically disabled New York woman, walks dogs for a living but dreams of being a writer.

In Focus + On Location: Bashira

A conversation with Director Nickson Fong, and Stars Liam Aiken, Mitzi Akaha, Kiki Sukezane, Emma Caymares, and Brandon Gill!

Free Event

BIFF Shorts: Racial Justice in View

Nonfiction and narrative shorts that shine a light on race, (de)colonialism, and inequity in the US, Canada + sovereign Indigenous Nations.

Free Event

When the Pomegranates Howl

Hewad, a nine-year-old boy, supports his family by selling goods from a cart on the harsh streets of Kabul after the death of his father.

Bashira

An electronic musician is haunted by strange and mysterious apparitions in this a hallucinogenic nightmare based on a Japanese legend.

Northern Shade

A disenchanted Army vet emerges from isolation when his younger brother is recruited by an extremist militia.

Are You Famous (Demo Party)?!

Party like a film star! (but like, one that survives to a beautiful, old age w/ hilarious stories to tell... ;)

Free Event

BIFF Shorts: Comedies

Satires, dark comedies, lighthearted laughs, (b)romances, Grindr dates gone terribly wrong, and other humorous tales.

BIFF Shorts: Danger Zone

You’ve been warned, things are gonna get weird.

BIFF Shorts: Saturday Morning Cartoons

Animated fun for the whole family!

The Rules of Lacrosse

The fastest game on two feet.

Boblo Boats: A Detroit Ferry Tale

This family-friendly film tells the story of sister steamships SS St. Claire and SS Columbia.

Peter Case: A Million Miles Away

A film about Peter Case, an under-appreciated treasure whose complicated story is at once tragic and uplifting, heartbreaking and hopeful.

SWEET BIFFTEEN

If you thought Biffceañera was wild, just wait for our Sweet Biffteen!

Free Event

The Lost King

The true story of an amateur historian battling skepticism and bureaucracy in a quest to locate the final resting place of King Richard III.

Symon

A portrait of the artist Symon Provenzano – founder of the "Destruction Movement" that flourished briefly in the early 1970s.

Free Event

BIFF Offscreen: Symon Presents Symon

Performance by world famous artist Symon.

Free Event

Bunker

Trapped in a bunker during World War I, a group of soldiers are faced with an ungodly presence that slowly turns them against each other.

BIFF OFFSCREEN: IT COULD BE ANYONE (NATURAL SELECTIONS)

Free Outdoor Projection on the Silos by It Could Be Anyone (Video Art Collective)!

Free Event

BIFF Offscreen: Cult Mother

Rad art rock among the silos.

Body Parts

The uncomfortable realities behind some of the most iconic scenes in cinema history.

Zupa Nic (Back Then)

Marta is a romantic and victim of fate.

Zubazpalooza

Go Bills! Yay fun!

Free Event

BIFF EPISODIC: SCI-FI & THRILLERS & FANTASIES

Imaginative serial stories.

Memoria

A lyrical drama exploring myth, memory and colonialism.

Hideout

Drug dealer Guo-hao hopes to make enough money so that he and his girlfriend can leave their life of crime behind.

BIFF Shorts: Experimental

Art and language, poetry and prose.

BIFF Shorts: Turning Points

Pivotal moments and tipping points.

BIFF Shorts: Students

The next generation of filmmaking, today.

BIFF Shorts: WNY Stories

Stories from around the region, and around the block.

American Murderer

A charismatic conman gets in way over his head and finds himself on the FBI’s most wanted list.

The Unknown Country w/ Meet the Sky

A grieving woman travels from the Midwest to the Texas-Mexico border to reconnect with her estranged Oglala-Lakota family.

Place-Based Nonfiction

A conversation w/ filmmakers Lesya Kalynska, TJ Collins, Bhawin Suchak, Joanne Storkan, Brant Davis! Co-moderated by Kathryn Larsen!

Free Event

Outta The Muck

Family, football and history come to life in an intimate portrait of the Dean family, longtime residents of the historic town of Pahokee FA.

What Happened to the Wolf?

An odd pair – two women from very different walks of life – are drawn to each other to ease the fear of death.

Budmo! Hey! Budmo! Hey! Budmo! Hey! Hey! Hey!

((Be together))

Free Event

BIFF Offscreen: Restoration in Process

Live tour of the restoration work and artwork at Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center w/ painter and restoration artist Dianna Derhak.

Free Event

A Stage Of Twilight

A tender and haunting love story set in the final chapter of a couple's life together.

Anonymous Sister

One family's first-hand journey through the opioid epidemic.

Awards Ceremony

BIFF's Annual Awards Ceremony for Official Selections in Competition. Jury Awards, Audience Award, and The Tilke Hill W.i.P. Award.

Free Event

Tilke Hill W.i.P. Award Announcement

Join us during our Awards Ceremony when we will announce our inaugural Tilke Hill W.i.P. Award Winner!

Free Event

A Rising Fury

A true story of love and war in contemporary Ukraine.

One Pint at a Time

Despite beer’s Egyptian and African heritage, Black-owned breweries make up less than 1% of the nearly 9,000 breweries in operation.

Slash/Back

In a remote Arctic community, a group of Inuit girls fight off an alien invasion, all while trying to make it to the coolest party in town.

On Location + On Water: The Erie Situation(s)

A conversation w/ filmmaker David Ruck + Margaret Wooster about *The Erie Situation* + Lake Erie's Situations!

Free Event

BIFF Shorts: Next Gen

A family friendly lineup of thoughtful and fun, youth made shorts.

Free Event

The Sun Rises in the East

The birth, rise, and legacy of The East, a pan-African cultural organization (est. 1969) in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn by the community.

Relative

A comedy/drama about three days in the life of a modern American family.

BIFF Shorts: Letters to the Future

Memories seared into the mind. Postcards to a future self.

Sweet Disaster

When the soon-to-be father of Frida's child breaks up with her, she tries absurd, exaggerated, and often hilarious methods to win him back.

Song of Salt

An isolated but tight-knit mining-town community on the outskirts of Death Valley, is suspended between the past, present and future.

Vertigo (眩暈)

A love letter and requiem for Jonas Mekas, composed and traveled by renowned Japanese poet, Gōzō Yoshimasu.

BIFF Shorts: Twisted

Dark comedies, allegorical films, dramas, and more!

Chicken Strips

A film about the trials and tribulations of becoming a garage band.

Aya

As the waves threaten her house, Aya makes a decision – the sea-level may rise, she won’t leave her island (Lahou).

BIFF Shorts: Redemption Tales

Seeking redemption? You’ve come to the right shorts block.

Comala

An unprecedented look into the personal ramifications of Mexico’s failed War on Drugs.

Pou (Peacock)

A modern gothic fairytale set in South Africa.

All of Our Heartbeats are Connected Through Exploding Stars

An essay on grief, and how humans and nature rebuild after trauma.

The Erie Situation

As climate, politics, and agricultural interests collide, the health of Lake Erie - and that of humans - hang in the balance.

Ostrov – Lost Island

The inhabitants of an Island in the Caspian Sea, all but abandoned by Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, survive through poaching

BIFF Shorts: Earth + Water Works

Life in the Anthropocene.

Musher

An intimate look at the bond between four women and their dogs, and the world of sled-dog racing.

BIFF Shorts: Warrior Women

Women fighting ethical, cultural, and literal wars. Films with strong female leads.

BIFF Shorts: Correspondences

Exchanges and communications.

BIFF Shorts: WNY Stories (Virtual)

Stories from around the region, and around the block.