Deaf Way Film Festival

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (98 min)

Join us for a 30-minute post-screening conversation with film director, Shoshannah Stern and film programmer, Andrea Passafiume.

For Industry Pass Holders Only

Modeled after a speed-dating format, this networking event is designed to foster intentional connections, spark meaningful conversations, generate ideas, and inspire potential collaborations. Tables will feature prompts to guide discussions and encourage creative exchanges. In this lightly structured setting, participants will be randomly assigned to tables and rotate every 10 minutes. At each table, attendees will introduce themselves and share insights about their work, leaving the event having met several new contacts to continue connecting with throughout the weekend.

OkThanksBye (91 min)

Join filmmaker Zilvinas Paludnevicius for a hands-on workshop exploring how to create powerful, short-form documentaries using just your smartphone. Participants will learn key techniques in visual storytelling, framing, and filming in ASL, with a focus on capturing authentic Deaf experiences.

• Fluent
• Dinner Table Syndrome
• The Power of Goodbye
• Medal Chase
• Talk
• Money & Ducks
• My Deaf Papa
• A Love Letter to the Light

Deaf (90 min)

(Lunch on your own)

Loud Love (97 min)

The Deaf Film Festival Alliance panel convenes organizers from Deaf film festivals around the globe to discuss the operational processes, submission criteria, and cultural considerations behind curating their events. This session aims to explore the potential for a unified international alliance, fostering collaboration and shared framework across Deaf film festivals worldwide.

(on your own)

Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie (1 hr 40 min)

Through Our Stories: Storytelling and Representation in Film brings together panelists to share their personal journeys in the film industry. They will discuss the rewards, challenges, and lessons learned from their experiences, offering insight and inspiration for creatives, particularly from marginalized communities.

• Serendipity by Sofia
• Contours
• Refrain
• Glass Cage
• Resilience
• Ghost Sandwich
• Idle Hands

OkThanksBye (90 min)

(Lunch on your own)

The Way We Talk (2 hr 10 min)

(on your own)

The Deaf Way Film Festival 2025 will close with an Awards Ceremony that recognizes the creativity, vision, and powerful storytelling of films. Hosted by Visionaries of the Creative Arts (VOCA), the evening promises a celebration of artistry, culture, and community that will be the perfect way to wrap up the festival.

Each award reflects the votes of the Deaf Way Film Festival community—whether through our audiences or our screening committee, with awards presented in the following categories:

Audience Awards

• Best Narrative Feature
• Best Narrative Short
• Best Documentary Feature
• Best Documentary Short

Screening Committee Awards

• Best Overall Feature
• Best Overall Short

This unforgettable night will not only honor the award-winning films but also celebrate the collective spirit of Deaf storytelling on a global stage. The Awards Ceremony is more than an announcement of winners—it’s a tribute to the artistry that defines the Deaf Way Film Festival.

As the weekend winds down, industry pass holders are invited to a relaxed Sunday brunch designed to strengthen the bonds you’ve built throughout the festival. This gathering is less about breaking the ice and more about cementing networks — creating space to deepen conversations, explore collaborations, and reflect on the ideas sparked over the past few days. Leave the festival inspired, supported, and ready to carry these new relationships forward beyond the festival.

• Bison Film Camp Projects
• Silent Rhythm
• The Path We Paved for You

98 Minutes
Marlee Matlin was thrust into the spotlight at age 21 as the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award® for her work in Children of a Lesser God. As a trailblazer in the Deaf community, Matlin soon found herself in the spotlight as the most influential Deaf actor of her generation, and with that came the weight of responsibility and expectations that she had to navigate without precedent. In this powerful documentary from filmmaker,
actress and writer Shoshannah Stern (making her directing debut), Matlin reflects on her extraordinary life, its triumphs and sorrows, and the nature and meaning of the legacy she has created.

9 Minutes
In this funny short narrative set in Canada, a quirky new hearing employee joins a Deaf-owned business and quickly begins to drive her boss crazy.

12 Minutes

A lonely Deaf boy has cochlear implants, but that doesn’t fix the barriers he must navigate at Thanksgiving dinner with a family that may as well be strangers to him.

23 Minutes

Margot is a woman whose health is slowly degenerating from ALS. When she asks her mother Christiane to help her end her life on her own terms with dignity, Christiane is forced to confront a profound challenge to her maternal love.

9 Minutes

Meet Rudolfs, one of the top Deaf competitive swimmers in the world. This exhilarating short documentary follows Rudolfs as he gives us a glimpse of his training routine and what drives him to push forward to the top of his game.

2 Minutes

When a Deaf man needs his air conditioning fixed, his CODA daughter plays referee when a repairman comes to the house to offer an estimate.

19 Minutes

In this sophisticated action comedy told in sign language, a woman police officer interrogates a drug trafficker about a missing box linked to a mafia network throughout Spain and Chile. What is going on with the rubber ducks, and are things really what they seem?

20 Minutes

Wyatt is a Deaf man who works hard and enjoys a close relationship with his hearing daughter, Allison. However, when Allison starts posting popular YouTube videos teaching sign language, it sparks an unexpected family storm.

8 Minutes

A filmmaker redefines the essence of cinema by questioning the role of sound, inviting audiences to rediscover the power of imagery and light in storytelling.

97 Minutes

Loud Love follows Alan and Brian, a Deaf gay couple in New York, as they raise their spirited hearing twins after a seven-year surrogacy journey. Blending cinema verité with intimate interviews, the film captures a decade of parenting across cultures, languages, and expectations — exploring Deaf identity, family dynamics, and what it truly means to be heard. As love gets louder, so do the challenges.

103 Minutes

Shelley Beattie, a Deaf woman and champion bodybuilder, found fame in the 1990s on the hit TV show American Gladiators, where she competed under the name “Siren” before her untimely death in 2008. While charismatic, gorgeous and a fierce competitor, Beattie also battled personal demons, struggling with mental illness, addiction and questions of her own identity. Framed by the insight of another Deaf woman in Hollywood who found herself in the spotlight at the same time, Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin, this riveting documentary unpacks the fascinating story of Shelley “Siren” Beattie and her complex legacy entwined with beauty, mental illness and love.

8 Minutes

In this playful short narrative, Sofia is a woman who uses her vivid imagination to consider different approaches to win over another woman she has developed a romantic interest in.

12 Minutes

A modern art museum provides the setting for a Deaf couple (played by Lauren Ridloff and John Autry II) who are desperate to rekindle their spark.

13 Minutes

A Deaf maximum-security prisoner undergoes an experimental medical procedure to acquire early release and be reunited with his daughter. However, the procedure results in unexpected consequences.

12 Minutes

A Deaf woman battles an internal force gnawing at her will to live, in a haunting cinematic mood piece that explores isolation and resilience.

18 Minutes

Joseph is an isolated elderly Deaf man who lives alone and likes it that way. When his nephew gifts him a computer, he reluctantly learns to use the internet, which opens an unexpected door into his past.

3 Minutes

In this charming animated short, a Deaf entity tries to order a sandwich in a hearing restaurant, with humorous results.

22 Minutes

During a reluctant visit to his mother’s house with his son, a Deaf father (played by James Caverly) must confront a toxic family dynamic and find a better way forward for the future.

130 Minutes

In this absorbing coming-of-age drama, Sophie, Wolf and Alan are young people in Hong Kong who are all Deaf, but with very different experiences, upbringings and philosophies surrounding their deafness. As they form a bond of friendship and navigate life together, the trio reflects deeply on issues surrounding identity, language and acceptance.

91 Minutes

In this charming coming-of-age story, shy Jamie and her bold friend Imane meet at a Dutch boarding school for the Deaf and soon become inseparable. When Jamie’s grandmother suddenly falls ill, she and Imane hatch a plan that will take them on a daring road trip to Paris, with many obstacles and fun adventures along the way.

99 Minutes

As Ángela, a Deaf woman, and Héctor, her hearing partner, await the birth of their first child together, their underlying concerns and tensions boil to the surface. Without being certain if the child will be hearing or Deaf, Ángela experiences a crisis of confidence and identity that puts both her relationship and sense of self to the test.

6 Minutes

*Bison Film Camp Project (Team 1) (After completing a series of fundamental filmmaking workshops, Bison Camp film students from grades 10-12 were challenged to incorporate a series of required elements including a zebra, money, a phone and a quote that said, “Why are we here?” Challenge accepted!)

In this imaginative thriller, a group of young students must fight back when they encounter a mysterious message that turns people into grinning zombies.

5 Minutes

*Bison Film Camp Project (Team 2) (After completing a series of fundamental filmmaking workshops, Bison Camp film students from grades 10-12 were challenged to incorporate a series of required elements including a zebra, money, a phone and a quote that said, “Why are we here?” Challenge accepted!)

A group of young students get trapped in a room and are asked to solve a perplexing riddle. As time ticks away, bad things start happening.

30 Minutes

This short documentary explores the history and legacy of the Gallaudet Dance Company, which has always pushed the meaning of dance beyond the scope of sound. Centering on the dance company’s Director for 44 incredible years, Sue Gill-Doleac, we observe the hard work surrounding the final Spring dance performance before her retirement in 2022.

75 Minutes

This fascinating documentary gives a broad and important history of the LGBTQ+ experience at Gallaudet during the 1950s-1980s from first-hand interviews of Gally alums who were there when the LGBTQ+ population was not welcome on campus and had to fight for recognition and acceptance.