Inspiration at the 63rd New York Film Festival

Rowen Fricke, MPMT ‘26, participated in CJCxNYC Immersive Fall 2025. He attended the New York Film Festival with a professional development stipend from the program.

Last fall, I had the pleasure of going to the 63rd New York Film Festival, one of the most prestigious festivals in the world. The festival screened nearly one hundred films, both feature-length and short. I got to see four films during the festival: Springsteen: Deliver me From Nowhere, Is This Thing On?, The Mastermind, and It Was Just an Accident. As a film major who wants to one day be a director, I found this experience to be nothing short of inspiring. 

I had the chance to listen to a Q&A with Jeremy Allen White, who plays Bruce Springsteen in the biopic, hearing about his craft and the work he put in to bring the character to life. After this experience, I realized how important it is for artists to be surrounded by other artists. 

The movies themselves taught me a lot about politics in different times (present day Iran, 1950s America), as well as different form techniques that I really responded to. Is This Thing On? is directed by Bradley Cooper, but has a low-budget feel to it. Handheld camera, simple locations, but still evoked an emotional response out of me. Aspects of the films I watched will most certainly influence my next short films, both in the scriptwriting and production processes.As an aspiring filmmaker, I have never been more motivated than when I was at the festival, watching movies, talking about movies. Not only did the New York Film Festival inspire me to make movies, but it inspired me to make movies in New York.

Category: CJCxNYC Student Blogs, Student Author
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