BIFF OFFSCREEN: Science Meets Sentience 2.0

Soft, fleshy, resourceful– the oyster is a talented creature of the sea– and has created a special, vintage BIFF brew w/ Aquadisia Water™!

Free Event

BIFF OFFSCREEN: Slap! the Gondola

Music, musicians, muses and fishes!

Free Event

BIFF OFFSCREEN: Girl Space

A neon fever dream in zebra print, wrapped in bubble gum. Girl Space is the place!

Free Event

BIFF OFFSCREEN: Meet MyCelia™ EcoWarrior Barbie

A "Mattel spokesperson" Daryl Hannah made a stunning announcement – all future Barbie dolls will be made from biodegradable mushrooms!

Free Event

BIFF OFFSCREEN: Unity Island

Enjoy 'Unity Island' across the street from Unity Island at Turning Bridge Tavern!

Free Event

BIFF OFFSCREEN: New Solar Monuments from the Heliotechnics/Heliotechniques Institute for the Study of Solar Practices

Energetic entities – performances + installation!

Free Event

BIFF OFFSCREEN: Colored People

Electric palettes! Geometric abstractions!

Free Event

BIFF Party: Zero / Charm

BIFF's Night Zero party is back at House of Charm! Psychic TV + New Wave listening party!

Free Event

New Wave

Reflecting on the Vietnamese new wave music scene, Ai takes a vulnerable, personal look at her community and revisits their unexamined past.

Vulcanizadora

Two friends make a disturbing pact. After they fail, one of them must return home to deal with the legal and emotional repercussions.

BIFF Shorts: Global Episodic

Women's stories – a womb with a view.

BIFF Shorts: Reciprocity

Fiction and nonfiction shorts that share decolonial themes, and focus on reciprocity and gratitude.

BIFF Shorts: Experimental (Program X)

Cinematic poetry in pixels and on celluloid; and works that experiment with the form, function and structure of film and media ecosystems.

BIFF Panel: It Takes an Eco Village

BIFF's Opening Night Gala Film in focus – featuring cast and crew!

Free Event

Demon Mineral

The Navajo Nation struggles to restore vital living space in the radioactive desert of the American Southwest.

BIFF Shorts: Local Portraits

Intimate portraits of Western New Yorkers who have left a lasting impact on our region.

BIFF Party: Pardonnez Mon Français!

TGIF!

Free Event

BIFF Shorts: Crossing Paths

An ode to encounters.

Eco Village

A folk-opera-romance and coming-of-age tale set in a commune, a runaway explores the contradictions and costs of living in utopia.

Children of The Wicker Man

Two brothers discover lost archives, and uncover the secrets behind this infamous film/production and its director (their father).

The Disinvited

Carl decides to crash a wedding he was first invited to but isn't expected to attend, igniting a day of betrayal, violence, and redemption.

BIFF OFFSCREEN: Brace

Intimate choreographies of care and labor.

Free Event

BIFF Shorts: Saturday Morning Cartoons

Fun, family friendly cartoons made by creators across the globe and WNY’s leading animation programs.

BIFF Shorts: Racial Justice in View

Evocative shorts exploring racial and social justice issues.

Free Event

BIFF Shorts: Spaces

Place-based nonfiction from Western New York, Southern Ontario and beyond.

BIFF Shorts: Experimental (Program 0)

Cinematic poetry in pixels and on celluloid; and works that experiment with the form, function and structure of film and media ecosystems.

BIFF Shorts: Next Gen

Thoughtful and fun, teen made shorts.

Free Event

Skeet

Fresh out of prison, Billy Skinner returns to his transformed low-income neighborhood.

BIFF Shorts: Hustles

Movers, shakers, forgers, scrappers + more – films about scams, negotiations and doing the work.

The Lost Legacy of Tony Gaudio

The story of Gaetano Tony Gaudio – the first Italian immigrant to win an Academy Award.

၁၀ နှစ်အကြာ မြန်မာ / Ten Years Myanmar

A collective effort from five Myanmar filmmakers to speculate on the future of the country that has been torn apart since the coup in 2021.

Free Event

Robert Shields: My Life as a Robot

He opened for the Rolling Stones, was a top attraction in San Francisco, performed for 2 Presidents and 1 Queen – all without saying a word!

BIFF Shorts: Comedies + Dramadies

Episodics and shorts – a blend of lighthearted laughs, satire, (b)romances + more!

S/He Is Still Her/e

Very few artists lived their art, but Genesis died three times for it. An intimate portrait that asks – 'what does magic mean to you?'

BIFF Party: BIG FUN!

Croquet, pâté, surveys, small dairies/big feelings, Big Slurps – BIG FUN!

Free Event

BIFF OFFSCREEN: Cicada: I was a Teenage Horror Movie!

In 1997, tweens with a VHS camera filmed a horror epic. 25 years later, they edited it...

Free Event

BIFF OFFSCREEN: အဝီစိထဲက ခလေးငိုသံများ

War is hell.

Free Event

Lesvia w/ Testudo Hermanni

Tzeli humorously describes herself as "a double lesbian" – a woman who grew up on Lesbos, and a lesbian. Plus a tortoise named Tony!

Hollywood on a Shoestring w/ Hit Girl

The life, films, and crew surrounding infamous independent Low budget filmmaker Mark Pirro.

BIFF OFFSCREEN: The Yes Men Mischief Mixtape

Join Mike and Jeff of media-hacking activist-art group The Yes Men for a live (mis)guided mixtape of recent corporate impersonations!

Free Event

BIFF Shorts: WNY Stories

Unique stories from around the block and around the region.

BIFF OFFSCREEN: CURRENCY

A refusal articulated through gesture.

Free Event

Tallywacker

A buddy comedy about independence and the price of (regional) fame.

BIFF OFFSCREEN: Video Nasty (So Nasty!)

Gimme a beat!

Free Event

Realm of Satan

An experimental nonfiction portrait of the Church of Satan, a global, half-century old religion that celebrates carnality and individualism.

BIFF Shorts: Students (Program 1)

The next generation of great storytellers, now.

License to Die: The Pat Rowe Story

Pat Rowe becomes a mentor to countless people when he starts Silver Wheels, a wheelchair football team in Buffalo, N.Y.

Diary of an Elephant Orphan

Khanyisa - a 3-month-old, orphaned, albino elephant calf is brought to an 'elephant orphanage' to recover and find a new family.

Memoir of a Snail w/ I Want to Be Alone

A bittersweet memoir of a melancholic woman called Grace Pudel - a hoarder of snails, romance novels, and guinea-pigs.

BIFF Shorts: YA

Teen dreams and drama queens. The young and the restless.

Union

The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.

BIFF Shorts: Personal and Political

Fiction and nonfiction stories from around the world about the people trapped between the politics.

Micro Budget

Epic Ambition. Major Delusion. Micro Budget.

The Best of the Best - Jazz From Detroit

The story of Detroit’s innovative and influential jazz musicians, and the meteoric rise and fall of this iconic, Rust Belt Sister City.

BIFF Panel: Buffalo's Brightest

Some of Buffalo's brightest stars discuss their work in this year's fest and more!

Free Event

BIFF Party: Kikioke!

This party will be marvvvelous ... Kiki + Karaoke = heaven!

Free Event

BIFF Shorts: In Retrospect

Sometimes you have to rewind to move forward.

Award Ceremony

BIFF's Annual Awards Ceremony for Official Selections in Competition.

Free Event

All Too Clear

Quadrillions of invasive mussels are re-engineering the ecosystems of the Great Lakes at a scale unseen since the last glacial retreat.

Songs from the Hole

JJ’88 serves a double-life prison sentence – he's committed and experienced violent harm – now he makes Hip-Hop and Soul music to survive.

La Laguna del Soldado / The Soldier's Lagoon w/ Huli

A reflection on oral histories and their relationship to the land via Colombia's famed Páramo region; a living, elusive archive.

BIFF Shorts: Danger Zone

NSFW. WTF. LMFAO. Movies.

A Picture to Remember

Three generations of Ukrainian women – the director, her mother, and her grandmother – experience loss as they live through the war.

Just a Farmer

When her hardworking husband suddenly dies, Alison is left to care for an alcoholic father-in-law, a failing farm, and two young children.

BIFF Shorts: Migrations

Diasporic tales from around the globe.

Jazzy

When her best friend moves away, Jazzy experiences both a sense of loss and her first inkling of independence.

Film is Dead. Long Live Film!

An exploration of the vanishing culture of private film collecting — an obsessive, secretive, often illicit world of basement film vaults.

BIFF Shorts: Decolonial Spotlights

Anti-ethnographic works that provide windows into the lives, minds and cultures of some of the world's most exciting Indigenous filmmakers.

Free Event

Ava w/ This Crowded Room

After the death of her best friend, Ava is thrown into her senior year of high school alone.

دانه‌ی انجیر معابد; / The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Judge Iman grapples w/ paranoia amid political unrest in Tehran. When his gun vanishes, he suspects his family, imposing draconian measures.

BIFF Shorts: Twisted

Sit back, relax, and get uncomfortable.

BIFF Shorts: Live and Let Die

Existential tales.

23 Mile

A collective portrait of the Midwestern Swing State Michigan during cataclysmic events in 2020 - including a plot to kidnap the governor.

Queen of the Ring

A young single mother defies societal norms by becoming a professional wrestler during a time when it was illegal in most of the U.S.

Magpie w/ One Take

A couple find their lives turned upside-down when their daughter is cast alongside a controversial star.

BIFF Shorts: Students (Program 2)

The next generation of great storytellers, now.

His Name Is Ray

Ray once had everything. A job that he loved with the Coast Guard. The father to a family. But his addiction took it all away.

BIFF Legacy Gala: Demolition Man w/ David L. Snyder

Join us as we celebrate the work of industry veteran David L. Snyder – BIFF's inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award Winner!

Homegrown

A verité portrait of a fractured America, offering an unprecedented look at right-wing activists as they search for purpose and power.

Driver

After losing everything, Desiree Wood takes a second lease on life as a long-haul truck driver.

إلى عالم مجهول / To a Land Unknown

A Palestinian refugee living on the fringes of society in Athens gets ripped off by a smuggler and sets out to seek revenge.

BIFF Panel: Love (Italian Style)

BIFF's Closing Night Gala film in focus – featuring Cabrini Star Cristiana Dell'Anna + Director Marco Gianfreda!

Free Event

Universal Language

In a mysterious interzone somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg, lives interweave with each other in surreal and surprising ways.

BIFF Parties: That's a Wrap!

Kick back and unwind after 8 days of film, music and art!

Free Event

Tre Regole Infallibili / Three Infallible Rules

A single mother and her son both fall in love, and struggle to find a balance between their home and romantic lives.

A Witch Lives in the Attic w/ Red Thumb

A witch and other strange things live in the attic above a lonely, dope-addled artist's home.