6p  READING IS FUNDAMENTAL

~ Presented by Water Street Market

LeVar Burton said: “For me, literacy means freedom. For the individual and for society.” Yup, reading matters. In this block, we celebrate literature, libraries and those who champion them, while denouncing those who would violate these sacred spaces and texts.

• SPEEDY!  d. Jin Oh

• PRIDE AND PREJUDICE — OFFICIAL TRAILER  d. Justin White & Abby Rowland  ⭐️ 🌎

• SMALL KINDNESS  d. Matthew Palmer ❤️ ⭐️

• AN ONGOING LIST OF THINGS FOUND IN THE LIBRARY BOOK DROP, USUALLY BEING USED AS BOOKMARKS d. Kayla Abuda Galang  ❤️

• AFTER WHAT HAPPENED AT THE LIBRARY  d. Skyra McCarthy  🏆

7p  A NOBLE PROFESSION

~ Presented by the Theodore & Renee Weiler Foundation

We believe the children are our future, teach them well and… here, three educators lead the way, exhibiting great patience, providing quiet support, and offering compassionate redress.

• THE BOY WITH THE DINOSAUR HEAD  d. Imran J Khan ⭐️ 🏆

• STALIN BOYS. d. Ora deKornfeld & Bianca Giaever  🏆

• ADO  d. Sam Henderson  🏆

8p  …A MANY SPLINTERED THING

~ Presented by Diana Knauf & Björn Levidow

Love is many things… easy ain’t one of them. In this hour, a man overthinks a digital connection, an older woman struggles keeping pace while speed-dating, a young woman hooks up in a storm, and Myles Smith gets down singing in the sunshine.

• BUCKETS  d. Drew van Steenbergen

• MORE THAN HAPPY  d. Wei Keong Tan 🏆

• SEPTEMBER, ALL OVER  d. Kali Kahn  🏆⭐️

• TBA

• MARY THE WIDOW  d. Ryan Noufer 🏆

11a  DISRUPTING HOLLYWOOD

~ Presented by Prodigy Camp

• Titles TBA

Noon  MULLIGANS

Sometimes in golf, a player is permitted a do-over, but life rarely grants second chances for the rest of us. In this block are four exceptions to the rule: a New York law allows an elderly woman to seek justice, a streaming-show producer gets a second act despite her brother, a punked teen restates his greatest embarrassment, and a filmmaker resolves a grade school mystery.

• HILDA O. VS THE STATE OF NEW YORK  d. Alison Cornyn & Heather Greer

• STRANGE PERFORMANCES AT THE CHURCH  d. Ray Smiling  ❤️  ⭐️

• REPLAY  d. Phil Mazo ⭐️

• BIG BASS  d. Drew Dickler
  

1p  PREGNANT PAUSE

Strife begins at conception. Being a mom is the toughest, lowest-paying gig in the world. It’s got its perks, too. Here, a famous virgin, a ticking-clock celebrity, and an outdoorsy mom-to-be question what to expect while expecting… while friends band together to help a mom-to-not-be, and a mom-who’d-rather-not-be battles postpartum depression.

• PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MOTHER  d. Andy Clay Huey  🏆 ❤️

• DOMESTIC DEMON (Ընտանեկան Հարաման) d. Anahid Yahjian

• BIO DAD  d. Riki Lindhome  ❤️

• ROMINA  d. Paola Mendoza

• TEEN MARY  d. Ali Rosenthal
  

2p  THIS MUST BE THE PLACE

Home is where they want to be but I guess they’re already there. In this hour, meet two resilient men welcoming rising tides, a baffled farmer surveying changing lands, a strong-willed woman fleeing her meddling family, and a dedicated photographer capturing flashing lives.

• SOME KIND OF REFUGE  d. Alexandra Kern  🏆

• HELL  d. Parker Croft

• AM I A BAD PERSON?  d. Alanna Long  🏆

• INTO THE DARK  d. Fiona Otway

3p  BYE & CELL

~ Presented by EXA Investigations

The American carceral system dehumanizes those it warehouses. In this block, we see stories of those going into and others returning from prison stints, and how the experience irrevocably impacts the individual.

• I GOT MY BROTHER  d. Victor Gabriel

• SO, BOOM  d. Abby Pierce  🏆

• PRISON AND TIME  d. Evan Bode  🏆

• DAYLIGHT  d. Jon Kasbe

4p  GOOD MOURNING?

We die twice — once when life leaves our bodies, then when our name is spoken for the last time. In this block, siblings and spouses, parents and partners keep the memories of loved ones alive with helium and tears, endurance events and low-riders

• BALLOON ANIMALS  d. Anna Baumgarten  🏆 ❤️

• DICK’S-A-THON  d. Dylan Young  ⭐️

• JUST A LITTLE VODKA  d. Lydia Ricci ❤️ 🌎

• TEARS TEARS ONLY TEARS  d. Yuval Shapira ❤️

• ROLL MODELZ  d. Yahir Tzec-Carasco & Oliver Rodriguez Dickson  ⭐️
  

7p  LIFE, GIVE OR TAKE

While many ponder the existential implications of the afterlife, in this block we celebrate the moments immediately before and after death, a time that can make us question how we spend our days or how we pay for our choices.

• RETIREMENT PLAN  d. John Kelly  🏆

• AFTER THE FUNERAL  d. Eddie Prunoske  🏆 ❤️

• TIME OF DEATH  d. Aaron Bourget  ❤️  ⭐️ 🌎

• GIVING UP AIR  d. Andrea Banjanin

• PAPER TRAIL  d. Don Hertzfeldt  🏆 ❤️

• DEAD GRANDMA  d. Rachel Kempf & Nick Toti

• SECOND DATE WITH WET SARAH  d. Creston Whittington & Evan Enderle 🏆

8p  SPECIAL SKILLS

On resumés, you’ll often find applicants boasting about their tangentially-related(?) skill sets. This year’s Crush kicks off with a tribute to uniquely talented individuals who can speak Spanish, burp on cue, bird watch with the best, corner the market on Girl Scout cookies, grant wishes, or tackle mundane household chores. 

• FITTED SHEET  d. Celia Beasley  ⭐️

• ERUCTATION  d. Victoria Trow

• THE 12 INCH PIANIST  d. Lucas Ansel  

• AND USTED TAMBIEN  d. Andrea Cañizares-Fernández & Emilia Mendieta Córdova

• A MYSTICAL ORNITHOLOGY  d. Jeremy Seifert & Benjamin James Roberts

• SCOUT’S HONOR  d. Isabel Pask  🏆  ⭐️
  

9p  STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GET OFF

Pleasure-seeking can be, but isn't always, fun and games, sweat and bodily fluids. In this NSFW block, meet men and women whose pursuit of carnal knowledge comes on a pass/fail basis, from the happily married to the newly acquainted, from the role players to the relationship-strayers. 

• DISC  d. Blake Winston Rice

• LONG-TERM EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIR  d. Neely Goniodsky  ❤️  ⭐️

• FORCEFIELD OF LOVE  d. Riley Engemoen & Liz Moskowitz  🏆  ❤️  ⭐️

• A STABLE MARRIAGE  d. Josephine Decker  🏆⭐️

• DRY SPELL  d. Kacey Musgraves & Hannah Lux Davis 

• ACHIEVER  d. Charlie Traisman

Noon  SH!THOLE COUNTRY?

People in glass white houses shouldn’t throw stones. While some officials critique perfectly respectable nations on other continents, perhaps we’d be better served tending to our own citizens’ needs and our own ethical conduct. Here, two Oscar®-winners, a poet, a CrushFam member, and Vince Staples all examine America’s state of the union.

• DIFFERENT AND WRONG  d. Bill Morrison  ❤️🌎

• WHITE FLAG  d. Vince Staples & Bradley J Calder

• AMERICAN INFRASTRUCTURE  d. Aaron Bourget  ❤️  ⭐️  🌎

• CAN I PUT YOU ON HOLD  d. James Cutler

• VIOLET AND MARLOWE ROB A BANK  d. Wesley Wang

• ILLUSION OF DEPTH  d. Aaron Bourget  ❤️  ⭐️  🌎

• THEY  d. Renée Zellweger  🏆

1p  CARING FOR OTHERS

People will blithely tell you to “take care,” but for those who give care, there is an understanding that altruism is anything but easy. In this hour, we meet a domestic worker who can’t summon HR, a son overwhelmed by the demands of his mother, a mom trying to shield her kid from the worst, a coder with a desire to give back, and a New Yorker happy to push back.

• DIENA  d. Jesse Kreitzer ⭐️ 🏆

• PAUL’S PORTRAIT  d. Andrea Gonzalez Mereles

• STAND ‘CLEAR THE CLOSING DOORS  d. Stacey Sargeant  🏆

• MORE THAN DUST  d.  Julia Weisberg Cortés 🏆

• I WANTED TO HEAR YOUR VOICE  d. James Pellerito
  

2p  HELP US, FATHER…

…For you have sinned. In the block, meet a quorum of bad dads, from the gambler to the drunk, the abusive to the bullish and the homophobic. But perhaps, all will redeem themselves? Finally?

• PUNTER  d. Jason Adam Maselle

• FATHER, CAN’T YOU SEE I’M BURNING?  d. Grant Conversano ⭐️

• WIND ACROSS THE ROOM  d. Jiaxi Shen

• BLESSED  d. Birute Sodeikaite

• KILORAN BAY  d. Michael Bruce  🏆

3p THE BLOCK OF JOB

~ Presented by JJ Kandel & Harry Lipstein

In a Capitalist society, work can feel more inescapable than death or taxes. Here, a cobbler, a muse, a driving instructor, and a drive-thru order-taker tackle adversity and reconsider the sovereignty of the almighty dollar.

• SHANTI RIDES SHOTGUN  d. Charles Frank

• GOODBYE TIMONE. d. Richie Keen 🌎⭐️

• SOLE (얼)  d. Haneol Lee 

• SIT-OFF (A COEN BROTHERS SUPERCUT)  d. Ariel Avissar  ❤️  🌎

• ONE LAST ORDER  d. Lauren DeFelippo & Sam Soko

4p  SAY WHAT?

~ Dedicated to Clarence B. Jones

Rudyard Kipling said, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” And like any drug, one must be careful not to abuse language. What we say matters, as does everything we don’t. In this block, a selective mute, a collegiate couple, and MLK Jr.’s lawyer express themselves… artfully.

• YOU TRYNA SAY YOU LOVE ME?  d. Ty Molbak  🏆

• WHALE 52 — SUITE FOR MAN, BOY, AND WHALE  d. Daniel Neiden  🏆

• THE BADDEST SPEECHWRITER OF ALL TIME  d. Ben Proudfoot & Stephen Curry ❤️