Lady Puritan
Filmmakers Gustine Füdickar and Justin Streichman‘s DWF LA 2026 short film Lady Puritan will blow your mind. The story follows Meredith, a woman experiencing intense nightmares and excruciating physical pain. Upon the recommendation of a spiritual guide, Meredith undergoes a reckoning of past, present, and future.
Streichman’s editing is a wonder. A hallucinatory journey that makes sense even when it shouldn’t. The close-up work of flora is creepily unnerving. It immediately draws the eye to the smallest bits of decay. The unsettling nature of the film, no pun intended, ramps up tenfold from there.
Visually stunning, Füdickar and Streichman tease audiences with what must be a nod to Andrew Wyeth‘s 1948 painting, Christina’s World. If you know anything about art, the choice is simply brilliant. Throughout the film, particularly in the opening and closing credits, there are microscopic slides of what appear to be butterfly wings, adding an entirely new level of metaphor and a metamorphosis angle. Regardless of their specifics, the impact is astounding.
Füdickar’s physical work is exquisite, between fear, wrath, manic energy, and acceptance. You cannot walk away unchanged by this performance. All the building blocks are there for a feature. Lady Puritan is truly haunting. It manages to land squarely between terror and sensuality. It is a visual personification of feminine rage and generational trauma. For any audience member embracing their witchy era, this short will have you shaking with excitement.
Lady Puritan Dances with Films Site
WRITERS/DIRS: Gustine Füdickar & Justin Streichman
PROD: Justin Streichman
CAST: Gustine Füdickar, Dorothy Dubrule, Stacy Dawson Stearns
As dream life bleeds into waking reality, a woman haunted by her Puritan ancestor must confront the terror buried deep within her bloodline. Through ritual and violent trial of the body, she fractures the veil between worlds and is thrown into a fight for her life. Lady Puritan is a surreal psychological meditation on ancestral trauma and the intimate horror of what we are born carrying. Set against the shadow of American Puritanism, the film explores the tension between repression and embodied desire.
WARNING: THIS FILM CONTAINS FLASHING IMAGES THAT MAY CAUSE DISCOMFORT OR TRIGGER SEIZURES FOR PEOPLE WITH PHOTOSENSITIVITY.
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Shane West, heartthrob to a generation of women like me thanks to A Walk To Remember, still exudes an effortless charm that leaps off the screen. As Jared, he taps into a terrifying rage. Morgan Kohan gives Claire every bit of herself. It’s the arc we die for. Bravo to Zelda Williams for playing Jared’s human counterpart (more of her, please), and to director Alexander DeSouza and Ashley Brandon for the seamless editing. Magali Lafeur nails the production design.![Morgan Kohan in HOLO_[JULIAN LOMAGA]_5](https://i0.wp.com/reelnewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/Morgan-Kohan-in-HOLO_JULIAN-LOMAGA_5-scaled.jpg?resize=678%2C367&ssl=1)
DeSouza creates an ominous atmosphere. Screenwriter Alexander Hernandez-Maxwell pulls on our darkest desires and intrusive thoughts. Fans of Severence, Westworld, and the 2024 doc, ![Shane West In HOLO_[JULIAN LOMAGA]_32](https://i0.wp.com/reelnewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/Shane-West-In-HOLO_JULIAN-LOMAGA_32-scaled.jpg?resize=678%2C367&ssl=1)
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Samara Weaving plays Caroline with both a curious innocence and a ferocious need. A woman with deep-seated mommy issues and supposed free will looking to feel seen. Kyle Gallner, AKA My Music Boyfriend (IYKYK), AKA Scream King, is our charming bad influence, Oliver. A whip-smart, observant, effortless hustler, his journey is just as complex as Weaving’s. Gallner always makes it look easy. The two share a goo-goo-eyed chemistry that makes the knees weak. You are buying every dangerous and sensual beat.
As their crimes progress from petty to armed, Caroline’s conscience creeps in, and a close call digs a deeper hole for her and Oliver. Rehmeier keeps the audience on their toes from the get-go, using Oliver’s teaching techniques to lure you into his game, but suspect a potential long con. But Rehmeier and writer Tom Dean are smarter than that with a script that knocks it out of the park. 
Of course, the score god Chris Bear did the music. Bear, Rehmeier, and editor Justin Krohn understand the emotional impact of a strategically placed song. The red, white, and blue costumes (which match the opening credits) are iconic. Rehmeier’s ability to create a visual identity in his films is truly chef’s kiss. 
The cast has a few solid performances, and true to form in the history of horror films, a large number of the ensemble are most definitely NOT high school-aged, nor are any of the staff remotely close to real-life teachers. Frankly, I love this weird tradition. Lexi Graves and Teon Kelley are genuinely fantastic. David Howard Thornton, best known to fans as Art The Clown, sticks out for his over-the-top shenanigans, but quite frankly, his energy saved me from paying bills on my phone during the final third.
The score features repetitive synth notes, reminiscent of 80s slashers. The edit could use a shave. The set looks closer to a flop house rental than a family home. The practical makeup on David Howard Thornton is super fun. Spoiler Alert: The janitor kill is probably my favorite.
In this rhythmic psychological thriller, a lonely aspiring teen actress finds herself drawn to an acting teacher who pulls her into a web of desire and control, blurring the lines of seduction and obsession.
After backing out of a suicide pact that leaves her husband dead, a sheltered farmer’s wife flees the shame and hidden debts that destroyed their life together and disappears into the port city of Eilat, where an unexpected bond with migrants, refugees, and a compassionate hotel manager forces her to rebuild herself from nothing and discover a life beyond the one she was told to live.
After a crushing breakup, Lucy moves back in with her eccentric single dad and dives into bad dates, false starts, and growing pains. Big-hearted and sharply funny, Lucy Schulman is a charming comedic coming-of-age story from multihyphenate Tribeca alum Ellie Sachs.
Synopsis: When the buffet where Zeke’s mom works closes down, he’s forced to entertain the wild advances of a rich regular who is weirdly and vehemently obsessed with becoming his father.
After a breakup, rudderless millennial Jane hires a team of Gen-Z consultants to reinvent her life. But what begins as a makeover soon spirals into a sharp social media satire about image, app culture, and the cost of becoming someone else.
Seven years after her Grammy Award-winning Amidst the Chaos, Sara Bareilles reunites with her closest collaborators to record a new album. What emerges is an intimate, cinematic process that lays bare the musician’s deep connections and inspirations in Tribeca alum Josh Alexander’s moving music documentary.
Omaha
Molly Belle Wright and Wyatt Solis play Ella and Charlie. These two young actors will blow you away. Their chemistry with John Magaro is something from the movie gods. Wright bears the weight of being the eldest daughter, exquisitely. A performance immediately clocked by those who have lived it. 
Christopher Bear‘s music is akin to an American folktale, almost echoing Taylor Swift. Paul Meyers‘ camerawork and Jai Shukla’s editing create a tangibility that touches your soul. The film’s deliberate pacing and lingering shots allow the audience to be in the moments of realization, joy, and grief of this little family. 
Mabel
Nicholas Ma‘s darling coming-of-age film Mabel follows Callie, a 6th-grade botany-obsessed girl who struggles to adjust to her family’s move. 
Judy Greer is a gem. Having worked with and for scientists, Greer nails the bluntness and often curt tone in Ms. G’s delivery. It’s a performance that wins in its specificity. Newcomer Lexi Perkel‘s raw turn will undoubtedly hit the core of anyone raising a headstrong leader. Perkel settles easily into Callie’s hyper focus. You can see the light in her eyes as the two become one. Perkel is so effortless, you’d think she were the subject of a documentary. 
Mabel struggles slightly with pacing, even at a satisfying 84-minute runtime, but its relatable storytelling keeps it a breezy watch. Anyone who has ever felt different, misunderstood, or any parent of a child on the spectrum (even though Callie is specifically not) will relate to the desire to find connection and genuine friendship. Mabel is a solid family film. 
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Has a sequel ever been more fun? It’s a question worth sitting with, because the answer is almost certainly no.
Maybe it’s the sheer zaniness of the premise that makes expansion feel so natural. A woman marries into a cursed dynasty of obscene wealth, survives a wedding-night blood sport orchestrated in service of the devil, and then because the universe has a cruel sense of humor gets pulled right back in when the ruling families of the satanic council scramble to fill a vacant seat of power. The countdown starts again. There is a new estate. This one has a casino.
Perfectly blending horror and comedy once again, the film hits the ground running and does not relent for 108 minutes. Notably, it even manages some genuinely touching moments between sisters before hurling you back into the gleefully unhinged action, a trick that requires real skill to pull off without breaking the spell.
Sam finds musician David’s absence a subconscious excuse for connecting with the beautiful but aloof Dianne. As the months roll on, Dianne is working out her midlife crisis shit with Sam as her newfound bestie. Crashing out, and rightfully so, over aging, a waning acting career, and deepening depression. Sam, managing the eclectic needs of the three girls, a seemingly narcissistic husband, and his own feelings of inadequacy, must navigate new feelings and old fears.
Something that really stood out to me from an acting and writing standpoint in Fantasy Life warrants a mention. Eating scenes are actually quite rare in film. I don’t mean sitting at a table doing dialogue, I mean actually consuming food as the actors speak. It’s one of the most natural actions in our everyday lives, but we don’t often get treated to genuine relationship-building when actors have their mouths full of food. That simple and very specific choice by Shear has such an impact. It solidifies an immediate intimacy between Sam and Dianne. Bravo.
For all the reasons, Shear and Peet have the most electric chemistry. They share a beautiful, “will they, won’t they” energy, far beyond the trope itself. It’s so very easy.
Jordan Dulieu (Danny) gives us an emo rocker heartthrob and villainous mayhem with equal fire. He is genuinely mesmerizing. Avalon Fast (Gen) is great. Her delivery is so natural, you might think she’s in a documentary. Alexandra McVicker (Anna) brings innocent ingénue energy. The three have stellar chemistry. I not-so-secretly wanted a threesome scene between them. Shout out to Intimacy Coordinator, Zoe Taylor, for the overall hotness. 
MacKay has a neon-saturated visual calling card and always provides a kick-ass soundtrack. Another genius collab with 
SXSW 2026 Watchlist
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