Official Selections: 11th LA Women in Film Festival

Congratulations to our accepted filmmakers!
Films are listed in alphabetical order, index to the left.
Scroll Down to learn more about each film

Animals

Narrative Short
**World Premiere**
In a random act of kindness, Zoya invites a stranger into her home who has no intention of leaving. Following the death of her mother, Zoya inherits the family home. Her mother was last on a long list of Zoya’s family members that have passed away. There’s no one left in the family home but Zoya. When Amelia, astranger who claims to have rented her home on Airbnb, arrives, Zoya clings to the unexpected comfort of the presence of another person. Zoya lets Amelia stay the night, not wanting to spend a night alone in the cold home. When a night turns into an indefinite stay, their companionship twists into a game of control and abuse. As the situation becomes dire, it becomes a question of why can’t Amelia leave but more importantly why does Zoya stay?
Director: Maya Gray
Producer: Michael Jasper
Writer: Maya Gray
Cast: Serine Sianosian, Rachel Alig, Geneva Cimone, Peter Kalisch, Jamie Criss, and Chad Adbnerson
Cinematographer: Olugbenga Osikomaiya
Editor: Michael Jasper

Beyond the Skin

Documentary
**USA Premiere**
" This is a story of scars, and it is dramatically true.
Narrating it is Bepi Losasso, a plastic surgeon from Udine who travels to Pakistan to operate on the victims of acid disfigurement. His testimony tells us about his mission, the commitment to restore the smile to women, girls and children who, because of brutal violence, have lost everything: face, role, dignity.The women evoked in the documentary bear the mark of a refined and diabolical punishment. They are female, they are weak, and often, they are beautiful; their guilt is always the same: they dared to say no, refusing an imposed husband. Instead of killing them, it is more convenient to disfigure them with a treacherous liquid, which corrodes the skin and engraves on their bodies an indelible, unequivocal mark: so that all the others know, and none ever dare again.
An inconceivable violence, distant… but perhaps not so far away.
Director: Alessandra Usai
Producer: Alessandra Usai, Sara Svagelj, Nicola Mennuni, Ettore Spezza,
Writer: Alessandra Usai e Annalisa Maniscalco
Cast: Giuseppe Losasso, Daniela Fasani, Filomena Lamberti
Cinematographer: Sara Svagelj
Editor: Alessandra Usai
Best film as **Honorable Mention at Materla Int. film festival.** (29-09-2025)
Website: www.nicalfilms.com http://www.alessandrausai.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nical_films_/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/productionitaly

At the heart of the story, the testimonies of three victims: Nasrin and Iram, two young Pakistani women, and Filomena Lamberti, the first Italian woman victim of acidification. Disfigured by men they dared to leave.The documentary, set between Italy and Pakistan, retraces the places of the doctor’s mission and interweaves them with a fast-paced editing of testimonies, archive footage, and evocative reconstructions that represent the stories of the girls marked with acid. At the side of the victims, the doctor, supported by activists and diplomats, undertakes a difficult path: full of sacrifices and obstacles, but also of unexpected encounters with sensitive people and important personalities who embrace the cause with great humanity.

A story of courage and competence that overcomes difficulties; a story that also speaks of the future, and of smiles that begin to open again after the abysses of suffering."

Good Night June

Short Film, Drama

*Good Night June* is a haunting dystopian drama set within the confines of a single home, where obedience is broadcast over the airwaves and survival depends on compliance. Amid perpetual rain and societal collapse, June fights to protect her daughter from the dangers outside — and the rising threat inside their own home.
**Director:** Kourtney Gleason
**Producers:** Ashley Carr, Annie Girard
**Writer:** Alexis Archer, Kourtney Gleason
**Cast:** Whitney Rice, Josh Lawson, Indiana Elle, Matt Danner
**Cinematographer:** Eddy Scully
**Production Designer:** Paris Pickard
**Costume Designer:** Maressa Ritchmyer
**Editor:** Taylor Sage Mott
**Accolades / Press:**
“Good Night June was one of the most fascinating films for someone like me, interested in religion and dystopia. Set in a future shaped by climate and societal collapse, a woman locks her husband up at night while obedience is broadcast over the radio by the Supreme Teacher.”
— James F. McGrath, *Patheos.com*
*“This cinematic tour de force visualizes a haunting, mysterious twilight world of perpetual rain and unrelenting peril, in which a mother must protect her daughter.”*
— Indy Film Fest, 2025
**Website:**
https://happy-misfit.com

**Instagram:**
https://www.instagram.com/goodnightjunefilm/

**Facebook:**
https://www.facebook.com/HappyMisfitProductions

Director’s Note:
Inspired by current struggles over women’s autonomy and personal freedom, Good Night June explores how authoritarianism seeps quietly into domestic life. Through this film, I wanted to capture both the beauty and the dread of resilience in a world where silence has become a form of survival.

Official Selections: 11th LA Women in Film Festival

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