Cindependent Spotlight:
A Curated Showcase of Bold & Brilliant Cinema
Each September, Cindependent is proud to shine a spotlight on undiscovered and rising talent from across the country and the globe.
As a festival, we're especially proud to celebrate the brilliant independent filmmakers who live and work in the greater Cincinnati area. The Cindependent Spotlight series will carry that celebratory spirit across the calendar year, with 9 handpicked repertory film screenings and 4 special programs running from March to December in the black box theater at the Contemporary Arts Center.
The repertory lineup features the debut films from auteur directors, Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love and Basketball), Tim Burton (Pee Wee's Big Adventure), Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides), Anna Rose Holmer (The Fits), and Brad Bird (The Iron Giant), alongside some true star making turns by the Queen City herself in films by John Huston (The Asphalt Jungle), John Sayles (Eight Men Out), Larry Yust (Homebodies), and William Wyler (The Best Years of Our Lives). The special programs include a first of its kind Dance Film program curated by local filmmaker and Cindependent alum, Cat Rider, in August, and a Cindependent 2025 Best of Fest program in October.
Cindependent Spotlight events will feature community partners, special guests, and unlimited opportunities to learn from and connect with industry professionals and film enthusiasts.
Cindependent is set apart by our dedication to recognizing and elevating the freshest new voices in independent filmmaking and by our commitment to uplifting the Cincinnati film community. We are excited to share this stirring program of breakthrough film as we continue to build together as a community.
- Jonny Shenk Curation Director of Cindependent Film Festival
Upcoming Screeings
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April 19th
6:00PM
Contemporary Arts CenterAsphalt Jungle (1950)
In a smog-choked city somewhere in the American Midwest, an aging criminal mastermind, newly released from prison, hatches a plan for a million-dollar jewel heist and draws a wealthy lawyer and a cherry-picked trio of outlaws into his carefully devised but inevitably doomed scheme.
Pre-film panel with former Cincinnati Enquirer film critic Margaret McGurk, film programmer Lillian Currens, and comedian Karl Spaeth, moderated by Peter Van Hyning.
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May 3rd
1:00PM
Contemporary Arts Center
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
Pee-wee's on a quest to get back his beloved red Schwinn DX cruiser after it's stolen. Pee-wee's journey is filled with strange characters and situations. He receives help from a fortune teller, who tells him his bike is in the basement of the Alamo. Pee-wee's obsession with his bike drives him to travel across the country to get it back.
In partnership with Queen City Bike
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May 31st
6:00PM
Contemporary Arts Center
The Fits (2015)
While training at the gym 11-year-old tomboy Toni becomes entranced with a dance troupe. As she struggles to fit in she finds herself caught up in danger as the group begins to suffer from fainting spells and other violent fits.In partnership with Women in Film Cincinnati.
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June 21st
6:00 PM
Contemporary Arts Center
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents in suburban Detroit in the mid 1970s.
In partnership with Leontine Cinema
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July 19th
6:00 PM
Contemporary Arts Center
Eight Men Out (1988)
A dramatization of the Black Sox scandal when the underpaid Chicago White Sox accepted bribes to deliberately lose the 1919 World Series.
In partnership with the Cincinnati Reds
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August 16th
6:00 PM
Contemporary Arts Center
In/Motion: A Night of Dance Film
An innovative night of dance film programming from filmmaker, artist, and Cindependent alum, Cat Rider.
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October 11th
6:00 PM
Contemporary Arts Center
Cindependent 2025: Best Of Shorts
Cindependent presents a special program of the best short films of the 2025 Film Festival.
In partnership with the University of Cincinnati
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October 25th
6:00 PM
Contemporary Arts Center
Homebodies (1974)
Cincinnati senior citizens (Peter Brocco, Frances Fuller, William Hansen) stall urban renewal by killing anyone who tries to make them move.
In partnership with Phantom Cinema
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November 8th
1:00 PM
Contemporary Arts Center
The Iron Giant (1999)
In this animated adaptation of Ted Hughes' Cold War fable, a giant alien robot (Vin Diesel) crash-lands near the small town of Rockwell, Maine, in 1957. Exploring the area, a local 9-year-old boy, Hogarth, discovers the robot, and soon forms an unlikely friendship with him. When a paranoid government agent, Kent Mansley, becomes determined to destroy the robot, Hogarth and beatnik Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.) must do what they can to save the misunderstood machine.
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December 7th
1:00 PM
Contemporary Arts Center
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Fred, Al and Homer are three World War II veterans facing difficulties as they re-enter civilian life. Fred (Dana Andrews) is a war hero who, unable to compete with more highly skilled workers, has to return to his low-wage soda jerk job. Bank executive Al (Fredric March) gets into trouble for offering favorable loans to veterans. After losing both hands in the war, Homer (Harold Russell) returns to his loving fiancée, but must struggle to adjust.