New York Film Academy Celebrates South By Southwest (SXSW) Festival Premieres by NYFA Faculty and Alumni
New York, NY, March 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The New York Film Academy (NYFA) proudly celebrates the achievements of its faculty and alumni whose creative talents are showcased in multiple films featured at the South by Southwest festival (SXSW) this year. Among the selected projects are Imposters, Are We Still Married?, and Anima, films that highlight the diverse storytelling, technical skill, and collaborative spirit cultivated within the NYFA community.
“Every year American independent filmmakers vie for an official selection at SXSW, one of the top film festivals in the United States for indie work, and one of the most competitive,” said Crickett Rumley, the Senior Director of the Film Festival Department at the New York Film Academy. “I’m thrilled to see so many of our NYFA alumni world premiering features there, essentially setting themselves up for a successful festival run, and fingers crossed, distribution down the line.”
The three SXSW Premieres that NYFA faculty and alumni worked on include:
The Imposters world premiere film follows a couple whose baby boy is taken. The desperate mother learns of a way to bring him back. However, her husband begins to suspect that what she returned with isn't their son.
The film highlights three NYFA-related Producing credits by alumni Sara Seligman (Two Year Filmmaking, NYC), Joe Bandelli, (One Year Filmmaking, NYC), and Thomas Bond (Two Year Filmmaking, NYC).
Are We Still Married? is the world premiere of an independent short centered on Jack, who is transforming into a vampire after a bat bites him, and his wife, Laura, who struggles to accept Jack’s new dilemma. As the two reconcile and reconnect over the course of the night (Jack always outside the house, Laura always inside), Laura wrestles with the impossible choice, and the stakes ratchet as the clock ticks and daybreak draws near.
Are We Still Married? was produced by NYFA BFA Screenwriting LA alum, Barry Galperin.
The world premiere of the narrative feature, Anima, follows Beck (Sydney Chandler), an anti-social engineer, who after being let go from her robotic companion start-up, finds herself in the offices of a new company claiming to preserve a person's consciousness inside a cloud system. Her first assignment: drive the company's most valuable client, Paul (Takehiro Hira), a lonely button manufacturer, to his final appointment.
Anima includes three NYFA credits, with NYC faculty member, Harrison Allen, as a Producer and two NYFA Alums as Associate Producers: Isabella Cooper (Studied in the Filmmaking Conservatory Program, NYC) and Grayson Rowell (One Year Filmmaking, NYC).
When asked about what he hoped for the premiere of Anima at SXSW, Harrison Allen said,“With any film you hope that the audience “gets” it - that they continue talking about it after the credits roll. Creating art that leads to discussion is the real prize for me.”
Isabella Cooper, a NYFA alum who studied in the Film Conservatory program said, “My work on Anima demonstrated my ability to contribute to a large-scale creative vision. Navigating the intricacies of a shared goal under environmental and budgetary constraints pushed my creativity beyond what I thought was possible and expanded my understanding of how to function effectively as part of a larger production organism.”
“Working on Anima made me realize how much any production depends on trust,” said Grayson Rowell, a NYFA One Year Filmmaking NYC Alum. “No matter how much you prepare, you’re still relying on a team of talented people to solve things in real time, and the film becomes a reflection of that collective effort more than any single person’s vision. I learned to stay steady when things move fast, trust my instincts, and always put the story first.”
NYFA Producers played key roles in bringing these compelling works to life from development through to production, guiding the storytelling experience and the aesthetic direction of these features. Showcasing them on the prestigious stage of SXSW further reinforces the New York Film Academy’s ongoing impact on the global film industry and as a leader in cutting-edge innovations in storytelling.
For more information about the New York Film Academy and its programs, visit www.nyfa.edu.
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About NYFA
New York Film Academy (NYFA) is a world-renowned film, media, and performing arts college that offers BFA and MFA degrees, short-term workshops, 1-and-2 year programs, certificates, online classes, and Summer Camps for teens and kids. NYFA has campuses in New York, Los Angeles, Florence, Italy, and Kazakhstan and runs workshops across the globe. Known for its immersive hands-on learning approach, NYFA students gain practical, real-world experience alongside industry-professional faculty in Filmmaking, Acting for Film, Screenwriting, Cinematography, Producing, Game Design, Musical Theatre, Photography, and more.
Learn more at www.nyfa.edu
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