Warren Etheredge watches 2,500 short films a year. He works his way through those 2,500, narrowing it down and eliminating thousands, until just 58 are left. Those 58 become the 2025 Denizen Summer Shorts Festival in New Paltz, running from August 1 to August 3, directed by J. J. Kandel and programmed by Etheredge. This is the third year the pair are putting on the festival, spotlighting shortform filmmakers.
The films are sorted into six themed blocks: “For Local’s Sake” and “For Art’s Sake” on August 1, “For Kids’ Sake” and “For Fuck’s Sake” on August 2, and “For Mom’s Sake” and “For Money’s Sake” on August 3. August 2 also features an animation workshop with TED-Ed animation director Lisa LaBracio, and August 3 has an awards ceremony and an “Art of the Interview” panel with Etheredge.
“I think short films are harder to make,” says Etheredge. “Short films are more reflective of an actual artistic sensibility. In a short film, everything has to work every single moment. If your suspension of disbelief is broken in two minutes, it’s not coming back.”
The “For Money’s Sake” block includes Two People Exchanging Saliva, an absurdist short about a doomed bond between two women in a society where kissing is punishable by death and currency is measured in pain, directed by Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh. “For Local’s Sake” features Safe Haven, a documentary by Ilona Tuominen about a couple in their 80’s that run an animal sanctuary together. “For Art’s Sake” includes Kamikaze, directed by Ray Smiling, which tells the story of a model named Knives getting caught between two people in a failing relationship in her pursuit of fame.
The Summer Shorts Film Festival began as Kandel’s one-act play festival, hosted at 59e59 in Midtown Manhattan. Harry Lipstein, founder of the Denizen Theatre, frequented Kandel’s film festival. During the pandemic, the festival closed, and Kandel ended up moving out of the city. The two put their heads together and helped extend Kandel’s vision post-Covid. Live theater was difficult to coordinate with Covid restrictions, and since Lipstein owned the Denizen, switching from play to film was a natural transition.
All they needed was a programmer. Kandel met Etheredge at Walla Walla Movie Crush, a short film festival that Etheredge runs. The two hit it off, and were able to make Summer Shorts a reality. “I feel like I have the best shorts programmer in the country,” says Kandel. “I certainly give him the space and freedom to do what he does.”
Almost every director starts their career making short films, yet those films lack screening opportunities. Most prestigious film festivals feature fewer shorts than features, and they section off those shorts in their own block; for example, Cannes 2025 screened 11 shorts and 50 features. Kandel and Etheredge hope to boost the voices of these filmmakers with their festival, putting their movies on the big screen for everyone in the community to see.
“They’re movies you’re not gonna see anywhere else. For the most part, they’re not getting programmed,” says Kandel. “We’re really showing films that aren’t necessarily getting the exposure that they should.”
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