News

Over 30 leading experts in the genre film industry accepted the invite to help put together Dread Central’s list of Best Genre Film Festivals & Programs in 2025/2026: visionary festival programmers, influential studio executives, genre-savvy distributors, seasoned sales executives, respected journalists/critics, and acclaimed filmmakers.

In alphabetical order of their last names, here they are with their professional achievements summarized in short bios: Emily Bennett

Writer/Director Emily Bennett is an Academy-recognized screenwriter and Fangoria Chainsaw Award-winning director. Her films Alone With You, Accidental Stars, Lvrs, and Bed have screened at festivals such as Sitges, Fantastic Fest, Brooklyn Horror, Telluride Horror, Bifan, and Fantasia. Her screenplay, Ache, placed quarter finalist in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship (2020).

In 2023, Bennett won a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for her debut feature film Alone With You, which she co-directed with husband and Dp Justin Brooks. Her second feature film, Blood Shine, is currently in post and stars Bennett,...

Quiver Distribution's newest horror flick Follow Her is now in limited theaters and can be found on VOD outlets. The movie follows a livestreamer who thinks she's found the answer to her financial troubles when a screenwriter presents her with a lucrative offer, but there's a bigger price to pay than what she initially realizes. You can get a glimpse into this story by watching the official trailer below.

Follow Her is directed by Sylvia Caminer, a two-time Emmy Award winner. Luke Geissbuhler shot the movie. It is produced by Caminer, Michael Indjeian, and Sibyl Santiago. John Gallagher co-executive produced. It is written by Dani Barker (The Unprofessionals) who stars in the movie alongside Luke Cook (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Mark Moses (Mad Men), and Eliana Jones (Night Hunter).

The official synopsis for the movie is as follows:

Jess (Dani Barker) has finally found her hook: secretly filming creepy...

A social media star on the rise (played by Dani Barker) discovers that online fame can come at a deadly price in the new thriller Follow Her, an innovative and enthralling film that was one of my favorite features screened at the 2022 Popcorn Frights Film Festival (where it won the Jury Prize for Best Film).

With Follow Her now in theaters and on VOD via Quiver, Daily Dead caught up with director Sylvia Caminer in a new Q&a feature to discuss the making of Follow Her, including working with lead actor Dani Barker (who also wrote the screenplay), keeping horror fans on their toes with the film's subversive scares, exploring the dangerous side of social media, what it was like to direct her first narrative feature after a successful career of documentary filmmaking, and plans to continue exploring the world of Follow Her in a potential trilogy or series.

With the rise in popularity of social media content videos on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and OnlyFans, the dangers of privacy intrusion, for both the content creators and those that appear in the content, has skyrocketed over the last few years. Video content that has only lasted a few seconds or minutes, has upended people's lives, and in extreme cases, has resulted in things like job losses and death threats.

Sylvia Caminer (An Affair of the Heart) shines a spotlight on these dangerous themes in her new movie Follow Her, which is written by Dani Barker, who also plays the lead role of Jess. Aside from Barker, the film stars Luke Cook (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Eliana Jones (Hemlock Grove), Mark Moses (Platoon), and Cristala Carter (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin).

The movie has won 20 awards throughout the film festival circuit, including Best Horror Film at the MidWest WeirdFest, Best...

There’s nothing like having somebody shove a foot in your mouth for a sensual scene on the first day of filming a sexually charged thriller. Follow along, because Follow Her has fascinating behind-the-scenes fodder.

“The first day we [co-star/writer Dani Barker] came on to set, we had to shoot the sexual scene first,” admitted Luke Cook, who plays Tom in the film, an attractive and mysterious man who hires financially strapped livestreamer Jess (Barker) to help him finish writing a screenplay. “Dani puts her foot in my mouth, and we — Dani and I — had just met in real life, so that was incredibly intense for me. For some reason, and I'm not a prude, I was like, ‘I'm not ready for this. I don't want to do this now. I want to get to know Dani a little bit, and maybe we can ease into that later.’”

No coffee and chat here,...

With Memorial Day behind us, summer is on its way, and this summer is going to be absolutely loaded with new horror movies. We’re calling it the Summer of Screams for a reason!

But first, this week is all about Stephen King and Subspecies…

Here’s all the new horror releasing May 30 – June 4, 2023!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

From Bayview Entertainment, this week’s new releases kick off with Addison Heath and Jasmine Jakupi’sMy Cherry Pie, an indie slasher that’s now available on VOD outlets.

The film is said to be a “gory slice of retro horror.”

In My Cherry Pie, “On the run, three criminals find themselves holed up at a notorious old hospital that happens to be the hunting ground of a masked killer.”

Glenn Maynard, Trudi Ranik, and Sotiris Tzelios star.

After a successful festival run, Sylvia Caminer...

After a successful festival run, Sylvia Caminer‘s horror movie Follow Her is making its way to limited theaters and VOD platforms on June 2, from Quiver.

Bloody Disgusting has the exclusive drop on the official trailer for Follow Her, which explores the dark side of internet fame…

“Jess (Dani Barker) has finally found her hook: secretly filming creepy interactions she encounters via online job listings, and using the kinks of others to fuel her streaming success. For her next episode, she’s been hired by Tom (Luke Cook) to write the ending of a screenplay in a remote, lavish cabin. Once there, the alluring self-proclaimed screenwriter hands her a script in which the two of them are the main characters. This client isn’t what he seems, and even though the money’s great… the real payment here could cost her life.

“Follow Her is a psycho-sexual thriller that questions...

MidWest WeirdFest have announced the full program for 2023. The 7th annual film festival – a cinematic celebration of of all things fantastic, frightening, paranormal, and just plain weird – takes place March 3rd – 5th, 2025 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Among the fest’s fantastic line-up of horror, sci-fi, underground and documentary cinema, are several fantastic films that will be premiering at the event. One of these is Braek (pictured above), a genre-bending crime caper come rural horror movie. Says Braek director John Fallon:

The making of Braek was a suicide mission and I couldn’t have pulled it off without my small yet efficient cast/crew. Better to go to war with 15 lions than a 100 sheep as they say. We are very proud to have our USA premiere at Midwest WeirdFest, a festival that I’ve always esteemed. Braek is more than just another ‘home invasion’ type...

The Austin Film Festival (Aff) has announced the 2022 Film Competition Jury and Audience Award winners alongside the Screenplay Competition winners. In the festival, writers are recognized for their contribution to film, television, theatre and new media. The competitions received over 5,000 film submissions and over 10,000 script submissions.

Film Jury Awards

Narrative Feature: Welcome, Violeta!, written by Fernando Fraiha & Inés Bortagaray, directed by Fernando Fraiha

Documentary Feature: With this Light, directed by Nicole Bernardi-Reis & Laura Bermúdez

Comedy Vanguard Feature: The Library Boys, written/directed by Zane Borg

Dark Matters Feature: The Domestic, written/directed by Brad Katzen

Narrative Short: One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, written/directed by Ana Yang

Student Short: Sammy, Without Strings, written by Will Henderson, III & Ralph Parker, III, directed by Ralph Parker, III

Documentary Short: Gina, directed by Kathryn Prescott

Animated Short: Rosemary A.D. (After Dad), directed by Ethan Barrett

Produced Digital Series: Serjan Bratan, written by Alisher Utev & Sergei Litovchenko,...

Roster includes Follow Her, The Artifice Girl, The Mental State.

US-based Jackrabbit Media is engaging with AFM buyers on a slate of six genre features including festival winners from Portugal’s Fantasporto Film Festival and Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.

Sylvia Caminer’s psychological thriller Follow Her won best film at Fantasporto in April and centres on a live streamer who accepts an invitation to go to a remote cabin and finds herself in the middle of a twisted revenge plot. Dani Barker wrote the screenplay.

Fantasia international feature winner The Artifice Girl follows an internet vigilante who develops a...

Luke Cook and Dani Barker star in ‘Follow Her’

Sylvia Caminer’s feature narrative directorial debut Follow Me is a twisted cautionary tale and a clever skewering of internet celebrity. Social media’s made thousands of people famous for doing nothing more than filming themselves putting on makeup or declaring themselves experts on some random topic. (No actual proof is necessary.) One video is sometimes all it takes to launch a lucrative career.

Follow Her’s protagonist, Jess Peters (Dani Barker), hopes the road to financial success is paved with the online videos she surreptitiously films of men in compromising positions. Need a dominatrix to lock you in a freezer? Message Jess. Looking for a woman to tie up and tickle? Jess is your woman if the price is right.

Jess is adept at switching up accents and changing her appearance, almost as if each of these short gigs is...

Stars: Dani Barker, Luke Cook, Eliana Jones, Mark Moses, Crystal Carter, Brian Vincent, Justin L. Wilson, Lorraine Farris | Written by Dani Barker | Directed by Sylvia Caminer

Struggling actor and moderately successful live-streaming star Jess Peters has found her way into the zeitgeist. By secretly filming creepy interactions she encounters via online job listings, she uses the kinks and weirdness of others for Internet success. For her next episode she’s hired to write the ending of a screenplay, which leads her to a cabin in the woods with Tom, the self-proclaimed writer. But reading the script, Jess realises she is the main character and Tom is not who he seems…

There has been, in recent years, a plethora of films that look at the “horrors” of the internet – be it social media, a total lack of privacy etc., etc.; films like Cam, The Den, Unfriended and Host. However Follow Her...

Screamfest Horror Film Festival announced today its first-wave lineup of competitive features and shorts for its 22nd edition running October 11th through 20th at the Tcl Chinese Theater.

The Hulu Original film Matriarch will hold its world premiere screening on October 11 – opening night – before premiering on the streamer for Huluween on October 21.

From the press release:

“Run Sweetheart Run from Prime Video and Blumhouse will close Screamfest LA on October 20th. After what begins as dinner with a client, a single mom (Ella Balinska) finds herself hunted by a monstrous and seemingly unstoppable assailant (Pilou Asbæk). Co-written and directed by Shana Feste, the film is a must-see watch for the Halloween season and helmed by an extraordinary team of women both in front and behind the camera. A Q&a will follow the screening featuring the cast and crew.

“Considered the “Sundance of Horror,” Screamfest is proud to showcase new...

GenreBlast Film Fest has announced its lineup for the seventh year of their international independent genre film festival, beginning this upcoming Thursday, September 1st.

The four day in-person event will feature fourteen feature films and roughly ninety short films from around the world as well as the results of their annual screenplay competition. Emanating from the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, Virginia, GenreBlast continues to champion truly independent genre cinema and this year features one of its strongest lineups of cross-genre fare so far. With horror, science-fiction and fantasy, action, and even cult and midnight offerings, the fest prides itself on being an eclectic mixtape of genres and filmmakers.

Of the thirteen features selected this year, there are two world premieres, one North American premiere, one U.S. premieres, one east coast premiere, four regional premieres, and four Virginia premieres and a special advance screening.

Liam Regan’s satirical bloodbath...

This past month, a wave of captivating horror cinema washed over Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach with the eighth annual Popcorn Frights Film Festival. I was honored to once again serve on the jury for this year's Popcorn Frights, and we're thrilled to reveal both the juried and audience award winners for this year's festival, including Sylvia Caminer's Follow Her (Jury Prize for Best Film), Carter Smith's Swallowed (Jury Prize for Scariest Feature Film), Shane Brady's Breathing Happy (Best New Nightmare), and Kyra Gardner's Living with Chucky (Audience Award for Best Feature Film).

We have the official press release with full details on all of the winners below, and to learn more about Popcorn Frights, visit their official website:

https://www.popcornfrights.com/

Press Release: August 29, 2022 // -- As its eighth edition comes to a close after eleven nights of in-person and virtual programming, Popcorn Frights Film Festival is...

Popcorn Frights Film Festival announced today its juried and audience awards that were selected from its lineup of 113 films (36 features and 77 short films from 20 countries) in 10 categories.

This year’s jury consisted of members of national media and local filmmakers, who chose to honor Florida filmmaker Sylvia Caminer’s Follow Her with the Jury Prize for Best Feature Film.

In announcing the Feature Film Prize for the film, the jury said the following: “A socially relevant horror movie for modern times, Sylvia Caminer’s Follow Her features a completely unpredictable screenplay by star Dani Barker with a twist at the end that rivals The Sixth Sense. Caminer’s directing style is near perfection, and we can’t wait to ‘follow her’ into her next film.”

Accepting her award, Sylvia Caminer said, “Winning the Jury Prize for Best Film is such an incredible honor as the level of programming at Popcorn...

Sylvia Caminer‘s horror movie Follow Her is having its North American Premiere at Popcorn Frights on August 14th and its United Kingdom Premiere at Frightfest on August 28th, the critically acclaimed film previously wining Best Picture, Best Actress, and the Audience Award at Portugal’s Fantasporto 2022 and the Audience Award at Slovenia’s Grossmann Fantastic.

In Follow Her, which explores the dark side of internet fame…

“Struggling actress and live-streamer Jess Peters (Dani Barker), known to her online followers as J-peeps, has finally found her hook: Secretly filming creepy interactions she encounters via online job listings, and using the kinks of others to fuel her streaming success. For her next episode, she’s been hired to write the ending of a screenplay in a remote, lavish cabin.

“Once there, Tom, the alluring self-proclaimed screenwriter, hands her a script in which the two of them are the main characters. This...

This August, Popcorn Frights Film Festival is returning for its eighth edition with a combination of in-theater screenings and virtual streamings, and Festival Directors Igor Shteyrenberg & Marc Ferman have once again curated a killer lineup for horror fans to enjoy, as the festival's first wave of programming includes the world premiere of Tyler Cornack’s Tiny Cinema, Richard Vergez's live performance of an original score to F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu to celebrate the film's 100th anniversary, the world premiere of Kyra Gardner's documentary Living with Chucky, and much more!

As previously announced, this year's Popcorn Frights Film Festival will be taking place at Fort Lauderdale's historic Savor Cinema for a weekend of exciting screenings on August 11th–14th, followed by more film premieres and short film presentations on August 19th–21st in The Alter Screening Room at the O Cinema South Beach!

You can purchase In-Theater All-Access...

For director Sylvia Caminer’s debut feature film Follow Her, we are immersed in the dangerous side of online culture as a streamer gets more than she bargains for when she decides to take on a potential job, unaware of just what her potential employer’s intentions towards her truly are. As someone who watches hundreds of movies every year, I can’t even begin to tell you how much my mood improves when something comes along and manages to surprise me, and Follow Her did just that, over and over (and over) again. The script, written by the film’s star Dani Barker, is completely engrossing and thought-provoking but also leaves you with some food for thought while you’re watching it (more on that later), but it also finds some ingenious ways of subverting expectations and turning some tried and true tropes on their head as well, making...

Don’t Miss the Female-Created Psycho-sexual Thriller Follow Her Having just swept Fantasporto 2022’s awards, the intense, boundary-pushing psychological horror film screens next at Fantaspoa 2022 Follow Her, from director Sylvia Caminer and writer/star Dani Barker, screens as part of Fantaspoa 2022 and is now available to select press via digital screening link. The thriller, which …

The post Fantaspoa 2022 // Award-Winning Thriller Follow Me appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

Fantaspoa 2022 Announced: "After two years of successful online editions, the 18th edition of the beloved Brazilian genre festival Fantaspoa will return to the cinemas from April 15th through May 1st. This year, attendees will discover a very different Fantaspoa from its last on-site edition (a very distant 2019): instead of its usual two venues, the fest will take place simultaneously in five cinemas, with part of its program also being available online, geo-blocked for viewers within Brazil.

The poster for this year’s festival was conceived by the festival’s art director Thalles Mourão, with the drawing from local artist Fernanda Moreira. The striking image is a mashup of two centenary anniversaries: The Modern Art Week, one of Brazil’s greatest art movements, and F. W. Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece of cinema, Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror.

Nosferatu will also have a very special screening on the opening night of the festival,...

Centenary screening of Nosferatu, world premiere of stoner comedy The Smoke Master bookend event.

Brazil’s Fantaspoa genre festival, billed as the largest of its kind in Latin America, is returning to an in-person event for the first time since 2019 and has unveiled its first wave of titles.

This year’s International Fantastic Film Festival of Porto Alegre will take place in five cinemas around the southern city from April 15-May 1. It is bookended by a special opening night centenary screening of F. W. Murnau’s vampire classic Nosferatu accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by Carlos Ferreira and Brazilian...

Exclusive: Cast is rounding out on gangster comedy All Mobbed Up, which is due to shoot for eight weeks from late October through mid-December in Newburgh, New York.

The ensemble cast so far includes Tony Sirico (The Sopranos), Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos), Golden Globe winner Sally Kirkland (Anna), Joseph D’Onofrio (Goodfellas) and Paul Mormando (Bound By Debt). More will join.

John A. Gallagher (The Deli) wrote and will direct the movie, which is a revenge tale about the drag queen son of a murdered mob boss who goes on a vendetta to avenge his death.

305 Media Group has joined Inclusive Capital, Amu Movie, Dolger Films and Open Factory to provide financing and co-produce the project. Sylvia Caminer (The Deli) will serve as producer. Emmy-winner Judy Henderson Csa (Homeland) is casting director with Craig Dibona aboard as DoP (Blue Bloods).

CBS and The Young and the Restless were the top winners Friday at the Daytime Emmy Creative Arts Awards, which were handed out at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, the site of tomorrow’s 46th annual Daytime Emmys.

The Young and the Restless scored five nods at the ceremony, which honored the year’s best in children’s and animated programming along with crafts. Baobab Studios’ animated Crow: The Legend and Amazon Prime’s soap After Forever scored four wins apiece.

The syndicated The Ellen DeGeneres Show was one of four shows with three wins apiece, among them for directing and writing. Others with three included HBO’s Sesame Street, which was named Outstanding Preschool Children’s Series; NBC’s Days of Our Lives, which leads all programs this year with 27 total noms; and CBS’ The Talk.

Other marquee children’s programming winners included PBS’ Odd Squad, which won the Outstanding...

The inaugural Cincinnati-based Helios Film Festival set to run from October 9-11 has announced the launch of a Female Filmmaker Challenge in partnership with film website TentSquare.

The Female Filmmaker Challenge is open to female writers, directors, cinematographers and producers who want to submit a short film for a chance to win cash prizes, VIP badges to the festival and a spot on the Women In Film panel at the festival.

Actress-filmmaker Pollyanna McIntosh, producer Kerry Fulton and director-producer Sylvia Caminer will choose the winner of the challenge.

Festival director Lana Read (pictured) said, “We could not be more excited to join forces with TentSquare to host this Female Filmmaker Challenge in our very first year.

“As filmmakers ourselves, co-director Ramsey Stoneburner and I are thrilled that the Helios Film Festival will immediately establish itself as a home for female directors and a film festival they can look to as a place dedicated to putting their work front...

By Jay Webb

Previously: What Are Films Without An Audience?

A large portion of our population has thankfully grown past the phase of only wearing bracelets to feel like we are agents of change in our world or society. Today the world is small enough and access is great enough for every individual to truly make small changes that can accumulate to create huge impact on life and planet. Filmmakers are some of the most dynamic multi-taskers of our world society, and on top of that they already have a solid medium with audiences they can inspire to make important world changes.

With most all film projects, a director must envision some type of change he/she wants to inspire in the film’s eventual audience. Whether it is changing their perspective, making them laugh, or giving them insight into the world around them, your story should have a designed...

Toh! has a trailer exclusive for new documentary "Tanzania: A Journey Within," which opens April 25 in New York in conjunction with World Malaria Day (and arrives May 2 in La). Directed by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Sylvia Caminer, the doc explores the journey of two friends -- one, a privileged American woman, and the other a Tanzanian scientist-philosopher as they travel across the African country of the title, with the goal of dedicating their time and efforts to malaria treatment and prevention. A campaign is set up along with the release of the film, called "Buy a Ticket, Save a Life," with proceeds from each individual ticket sold going towards treatment of a child malaria patient in Africa. Here's the official synopsis: He's from a place so old it's been called the cradle of mankind. She's led a privileged life in America without hardship or pain. Together these two unlikely friends embark...

As if filmgoers stopped watching DVDs and Blu-rays altogether around the Fourth of July, distributors tend to be a little lighter in early-to-mid July with their number and caliber of releases—though quality documentaries certainly prevail. However, if there's one trend vamping through the first three weeks of notable discs this month, it's wild women! From Rick Springfield's rabid fanbase of shrieking cougars to neo-Nazi teen girls, nymphomaniac trannies, nefarious lesbian prank callers, and Harmony Korine's bad bevy of bikini babes, let these ladies have their way with you... "DVD is the New Vinyl" is presented by Video Free Brooklyn, three-time "Best Video Store in NYC." For more info, please visit the Vfb website. Best Of July, Part One: "An Affair of the Heart" 2012, dir. Sylvia Caminer (Breaking Glass Films, available on Bd, DVD) There's practically a caveat built into one's enjoyment of this warmly entertaining, unexpectedly funny doc.

Thirty-one years after "Jessie's Girl" made him an 1980s pop culture icon, Rick Springfield can still rouse a crowd. On Sunday night in Toronto, Sylvia Caminer's Springfield-centric doc "An Affair of the Heart" made its international premiere after winning awards at Us fests like Florida and Nashville. Fittingly, the crowd was dominated by middle-aged women clutching Springfield signature-ready posters because the film is just as much about Springfield's fans as it is about the single. Springfield, 61, still gives over 100 performances a year. This includes on a "Springfield and Friends" cruise in which hundreds of fans join him on a ship that sails from Miami to the Bahamas. Caminer's doc take us on the cruise and to dozens of other performances across America (and one at massive outdoor hard rock concert in Sweden, where Springfield wins over a crowd that mostly seems to have no idea who he is). The...

As I stood in line outside the Hot Docs screening of the Rick Springfield documentary An Affair of the Heart, I overheard the couple in front of me tell their neighbors they’d been following Rick Springfield around the world for 12 years. I remember thinking, “12 years? Really? For the guy who sang ‘Jessie’s Girl’?” Little did I know that was only a small taste of what was to come. When I got inside I couldn’t help but notice this was not your average documentary festival crowd. Where usually there are pale intellectuals, all around me were middle-aged women, eyes awash with excitement and in some cases, just about bursting with joy. I knew I was in trouble when the woman next to me declared she was going to faint and promptly burst into tears. Oh, and did I mention Rick Springfield was in attendance? As I learned during the movie (what I could hear between...

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival began in Toronto last night with the Canadian premiere of Sundance hit "Al Weiwei: Never Sorry." The screening, at the festival's newly renovated hub The Bloor Cinema, kicks off 10 days and nights of North America's largest documentary festival. While plenty of breakout films from Sundance and other major festivals will certainly be a big part of the festival, Hot Docs also offers plenty of opportunity for discovery. So here's 10 films you might not have heard of yet with buzz heading into Hot Docs. Check them out over the next 10 days in Toronto or -- quite likely -- at many doc film festivals to come: Affair Of The Heart (directed by Sylvia Caminer) A Rick Springfield documentary! Sylvia Caminer's "Affair of the Heart" takes on the "Jesse's Girl" singer, checking in with the now sixtysomething Springfield (who still does 100+ concerts a year) and his rabid fans.

Trick Candle Productions and Dolger Films announced that Amy Smart will star in West Coast Swing dance film Love N' Dancing.

Robert Iscove will direct the film, which is scheduled to go into production July 16 in Albuquerque, with second unit work being shot in Philadelphia.

Smart joins Tom Malloy and a cast of swing dancers, in a film written by Malloy and produced by Robert Royston and Sylvia Caminer.

Smart will play Jessica, an English teacher who meets West Coast Swing dancer Jack (Malloy). The pair teams up for competition.

Smart's credits include Just Friends and Crank; she was most recently seen in Peaceful Warrior. Tom Malloy, who brings his passion for West Coast Swing to the project, appeared in Gravesend and will be seen in the upcoming film The Alphabet Killer.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- "The Deli", which serves up a thick and not particularly appetizing slice of New York life, is the kind of laid-back comedy that will leaves audiences hungry for more.

Presenting a colorful cast of New York actors in the ramshackle tale of a delicatessen owner struggling to pay his gambling debts while dealing with myriad eccentric friends, relatives and customers, its minor charms won't get it much attention in a commercial environment. Inexplicably given a recommendation by the National Board of Review, it was showcased recently at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

John Gallagher's feature does give a welcome opportunity for heavy-set chararcter actor Mike Starr to shine in a starring role. He plays Johnny Amico, a deli owner whose gambling habit has put him in jeopardy with the neighborhood mobsters. To make things worse, his mother's number has just come in, but Johnny, although he's taken her money, hasn't placed a bet on it in years.

A lot of familiar faces pass through the deli, including Iceas a meat delivery man; Chris Noth as a trash man; David Johanson as a rambunctious cabbie; and the model Iman (which could account for the inclusion of some David Bowie songs on the soundtrack) as a woman searching for an avocado, etc.

Also showing up in tiny roles are figures such as veteran rapper Heavy D, Heather Matarazzo ("Welcome to the Dollhouse"), Michael Imperioli, Debi Mazar, William McNamara, Jerry Stiller, Shirley Stoler and Burt Young as the neighborhood gangster. Clearly, the filmmakers were able to call in some debts of their own.

Gallagher and John Dorian's anecdotal screenplay is short on true wit or resonance and doesn't add up to very much, but it does offer the opportunity for the colorful cast to provide some amusing moments, and the film manages to present a vivid and authentic depiction of an Italian working-class neighborhood.

Further adding to the atmosphere is the canny use of music from Rome-based CAM Original Soundtracks, including classic themes from composers such as Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone.

THE DELI

Golden Monkey Pictures

Director: John Gallagher

Screenplay: John Dorian, John Gallagher

Producer: Sylvia Caminer

Executive producer: John Dorrian

Director of photography: Robert Lechterman

Editor: Sue Blainey

Original score: Ernie Mannix

Color/stereo

Cast:

Johnny: Mike Starr

Andy: Matt Keeslar

Mrs. Amico: Judith Malina

Pinky: Brian Vincent

Eric the Soda Man: Michael Badalucco

Bo: Heavy D

Phil the Meat Man: Ice

Running time -- 98 minutes

No MPAA rating...