25th Annual FirstGlance Philadelphia Film Festival

Don’t miss the event of the Fall!

25th Annual FirstGlance Philadelphia Film Fest

October 14-16 2022 at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville

Our first full capacity event since 2019!

Celebrate 25 years with FirstGlance as we screen amazing indies from around the globe and down the street.

FirstGlance is Pennsylvania’s longest running truly independent film festival since 1996!

SUPER EARLY BIRD ALL ACCESS PASSES ON SALE NOW!!

LIMITED Quantities, plus all Early Bird Passes get a Limited Edition Swag Bag at the event!

All Earlybird purchases are eligible for a giveaway- 2 VIP Passes to FirstGlance Los Angeles 23 in Spring 2023!

Spend the weekend in Phoenixville, PA and celebrate indie film!

Screenings, After Parties, Filmmaker Lunch, Dinner and a Movie Deals, local business discounts, awards ceremonies and limited edition 25th Anniversary events and merch!

Come back to the theater with FirstGlance!

ABOUT FIRST GLANCE FILMS

FirstGlance Films began in 1996 as an indie film festival in the basement of a small theater in Center City Philadelphia. FirstGlance Films has currently produced over 40 festivals in Philadelphia and Hollywood.  In addition to producing their award winning bi-coastal film festivals, FirstGlance has year round activities that include On-line Short Film Competitions, Short Film Productions, and streaming and VOD Distribution. For more information, please visit firstglancefilms.com.

LIVE FESTIVAL | OCTOBER 14TH – OCTOBER 16TH

DAY ONE | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14TH

Friday – Filmmaker Luncheon | 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Friday – Official Red Carpet | 4:30 pm – 7:45 pm

Friday – FirstNight  |  7:45 pm – 10:30 pm

FILMS

• Jolly Butcher: Killer Content Creator, Jolly Butcher has a fun serial killer unboxing video for you. What did their good friend, the Horoscope Killer send them to unbox?
• Dear Mirror: Sarah convinces her boyfriend Jason to play around with a “fun” spell instead of their nightly face-time calls. Jason reluctantly agrees, unfortunately he doesn’t follow the rules and they both end up paying the price.
• Red Rooms: In darkest corners of the darknet, there are places where victims are held captive, psychologically tortured, live-streamed, then given a chance to escape if they confess their worst sins, preserving them online for eternity in Red Rooms.
• Another Night Out: After a night out on the town, a couple returns home to discover that they may not be alone. What transpires after makes them question everything.
• Being Born: Yoshiko Yasukawa’s fifth grade daughter Hiromi is the target of bullying by her classmates because of her curly hair. Yoshiko is aware of the bullying, but too busy with running a barber shop to do anything about it. When Hiromi dies in a purported accidental fall from a cliff, Yoshiko comes to suspect that the bullying was the driving factor behind her daughter’s death.
• Shifted: Murderous creatures roam the streets bringing certain death. Neighbors trapped inside a house with one killing the others. A monster inside and monsters outside. Who will save you when the world has Shifted?

DAY TWO | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15TH

Saturday Matinee | 12:30 pm

FILMS

• Lioness: A moving and powerful look at the bonds of parenthood. Barricaded in a motel room, a mother’s determination and primal instincts kick in to protect her child’s innocence.
• Trust: During WW2, a young Jewish girl is questioned by a Nazi Lieutenant who wiles her with chocolate and outdoor play then tries to trick her into revealing her family’s true identities by switching languages to expose her family is Jewish.
• Eureka: A young indentured Chinese prostitute must overcome her toxic dependency on the brothel madam on the eve of the 1885 anti-Chinese riot in Eureka, California.
• David Tuck “Never Forget”:  David Tuck, Holocaust survivor and Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center speaker, recounts surviving WWII, living a life without hate, but never to forget the past.
• In Love With A Problem: Miranda Wang and Jeanny Yao were still in high school when they discovered plastic-eating bacteria in Vancouver’s Fraser River. Passionate about the problem of plastic waste, the two millennial innovators are now on an inspiring journey to solve it. Their dedication has taken them all the way from Vancouver to Silicon Valley. From bacteria to cutting edge chemistry, their story has illuminated one of our earth’s biggest eco disasters.

Saturday Afternoon  | 2:00 pm 

FILMS

• Wali and Zuri: Wali, 13, attempts to make a new group of friends after being invited to play basketball. When his pesky younger sister Zuri, 10, forcibly tags along, he sacrifices their relationship to fit in and ultimately learns what is most important.
• Good Luck!:  Can sisterhood survive the “Hollywood Machine”? Four friends are about to find out. As they hustle through LA LA Land mastering the art of the audition, industry party, and callback, it becomes evident the ladies might have to master something else…letting go of each other. Good Luck!
• Sheet Music: Adryan Coogan Jr. and J.C. Willis face anxieties and question themselves as musicians moments before a big performance at a segregated nightclub in 1930’s Harlem.
• The Condemned Free: With the United States of America beating out big countries such as India, Russia and China for having the highest incarceration rate in the world we find ourselves asking the question; is Mass Incarceration and the School to Prison Pipeline America’s new modern day slavery?

Saturday Twilight | 4:30 pm

FILMS

• The Rasmus – Jezebel: Music Video-Midnight, it’s time to put your face on. I’m just the first shot on your hit list, a predator on wheels. Woke up with bruises on my body. Hands tied, like Jesus on the cross. Jezebel, I don’t know how you got in my blood.
• Let’s Leave the Planet: Tara comes home from a long day working retail to find her boyfriend Andy, an animal researcher, stoned in their usual rooftop hangout. That’s when Andy finally drops some news onTara: he’s an alien and it’s time to leave Earth. Tara has a hard time believing him, but as evidence mounts, she can’t ignore facts– she has to make a choice: leave Andy or leave the planet.Andy appeals to her heart, and before she can even consider the impossibility of consent in this relationship, they are swept away to a new life among the stars.
• Lifecell: In a dystopian future where everyone is powered by batteries, Jace and Em decide to risk everything at the hope of a better future.
• Static Space: Jamie lives an autopilot existence in Indiana until Noa’s distant voice comes through her ham radio. Two women who couldn’t be more different are about to learn a powerful connection can change everything.
• Nightline: A bittersweet tale around a live interview radio broadcast that changes the lives of several innocent people. After lying low in the USA for almost 20 years Radek makes a surprise visit to his home city of Prague A fierce struggle for time and justice begins.

Saturday Night | 7:45 pm 

FILMS

• Adrian Sutherland – Politician Man: Politician Man, the debut single from Adrian Sutherland, is a protest song for Canada. It speaks to Canada’s troubled relationship with First Nations.
• There Are Mermaids in LA: Chaos ensues in this inverted fairytale when a mute and naked redhead washes up in the backyard of a woman unable to sit quietly with herself.
• Zeroth Law: In the future, Because of the global desertification, people hide in grottoes and live a frugal life regulated and protected by a high-tech society. An old man comes to the young man’s room and plays violin at 4 p.m. every day, while the young man who collects waste products is preparing to go to the outside world secretly. But the young man finds a colossal lie.
• Hero: A young woman ventures into a mystical forest in search of a legendary sword. Along the way she faces many trials, and comes at last to an ultimate test of her courage before she can claim her prize.
• That Night: Any night out in a big city has the potential to be a good night, the risk of being a bad night, and typically ends up somewhere in between—but only some nights can claim to be That Night.

DAY THREE | SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16TH

Sunday Matinee | 1:00 pm 

FILMS

• Swipe Monster: A series about Courtney Whitlock, a dating app addict looking for love but stuck in the revolving door of modern singledom. Starring Barrett Wilbert Weed, Sam Vartholomeos.
• Andrew Ginger: Everything in Amile’s life is the same dull note. He’s bored with his job, his friends, himself… that is, until he meets the doting Andrew online, and falls head over heels for a man he’s never met. A modern fable about the delirium and disillusionment that can accompany dating in the digital age.
• Flat Earther: Martin and Cassandra’s date takes an unexpected turn when their conversation challenges personal assumptions and beliefs. By the end of the night both will find they are living in a different than what they believed it to be.
• DIVR: The three founders of an exclusive lesbian sex app may be shattering the start-up world’s glass ceilings, but the pressures of success have begun to threaten the integrity of their friendship – and worse, their brand.
• No You’re Stupid: Every day sisters Christina and Masha face various life situations that exist in the lives of many teenagers. It is the first love, treachery, treason. They have to find ways to solve these problems, despite the difficult relationship.
• Stupid Cupid: A woman has a date with fate.

Sunday Afternoon | 2:30 pm

FILMS

• 999: During the lockdown, a man is playing a jigsaw but one piece is missing…
• Turf Valley: Three stay-at-home dads ponder life’s “big” questions for six, maybe seven minutes tops.
• The Trust: When Karen Davis gets the dreaded call that her husband, Harvey has died of COVID, she summons their attorney to read Harvey’s trust to her and their son on Zoom. But when Harvey’s new CPA arrives unexpectedly, Karen’s life is turned from upside down to inside out.
• Stolen Kisses: Stolen Kisses is based on the true story of filmmaker Lidi Toepoel’s aged grandmother Mientje, who lived in a nursing home with dementia and had a boyfriend there. The film shows what dementia does to people, their friends and family using a delicate touch, and underscores how elderly people with Alzheimer’s are often unfairly dismissed.
• Something Borrowed: Three Friends go to the shore for a girl’s weekend, but when a fun idea goes awry, chaos ensues.
• Number 14: After receiving an exclusive offer on a luxury apartment, CJ impulsively makes major life decisions – only to find himself on a wait list. In a fight against time, Cj is forced to push his own limits to overcome the obstacles he now faces.
• Overlook: Listless teen, Tyler, spends his days clocking into work and waiting for purpose to find him in his small town. When a mysterious girl breaks his routine, he realizes he has a lot to learn — and maybe that’s okay.

Sunday Twilight | 4:30 pm 

FILMS

• Saturday Night: “Saturday Night” blends art, music, and movement in a simple vignette that reminds us of the most important of all truths; that life is the blank canvas upon which we must paint our desires.
• Cabeceo: A passionate Argentine Tango dance fantasy featuring a woman exploring the sensual and dangerous possibilities presented by a potential new lover.
• Identity: The Andrew Nemr Story: Identity: The Andrew Nemr Story follows international tap dance artist Andrew Nemr on his unique journey – the son of Lebanese Christian immigrants, bullied as a teenager, being grafted into the African American tradition of tap dance, all the while rediscovering what is means to just be.
• Born in Chicago: Born In Chicago is a soulful documentary film that chronicles the musical passing of a torch as young, white Chicago musicians apprenticed themselves to legends such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Narrated by Dan Aykroyd.

Sunday Closing Night Screening and Awards | 6:45 pm 

FILMS

• The Everyday Show: Diya is an acclaimed film director who appears on Sam’s late night talk show to promote her latest film. But Sam insists on unearthing a decision from Diya’s past that she would rather not discuss on live television.
• 11:07: A couple grows old together.
• City Creatures: A recently relocated couple, Joann and Stephen, must confront the financial strains of their new home and the peculiarity of their new overzealous, animal-loving neighbors. The neighbors’ bumper stickers tell just how deep their affection goes.
• Ackward Endeavors: Reminiscent of Alexander Payne’s About Schmidt and Patrice Leconte’s The Man on the Train, Awkward Endeavors charts the intersecting lives of three lonely men as they struggle to close the gap between themselves and the rest of the world.
• One Last Glance: As a holiday storm approaches, Maura is looking to purchase an arrangement for her father’s grave. She finds herself drawn to a Christmas Tree lot attendant who is friendly, philosophical and, perhaps for a moment, a bit more than that.
• The Stand: Set in Philadelphia, this short film captures a singular moment in a mother’s internal struggle to overcome her abuser and fight for her children. Based on a true story.
• No Perfect Walk: Two friends who drop everything in their lives, sell all their belongings and set out on a journey that would forever change their lives.

Awards Ceremony | 9:15 pm 

Join us as we present Screening Committee Awards to the FirstGlance Philadelphia Filmmakers!

Presented by Raphael Sbarge

We thank you all for your support of our film festival, we understand the concerns of our attendees and this is a mask optional event.

There will be no refunds of physical ticket purchases.