Columbia Filmmakers Shine at New Directors/New Films 2025
Columbia filmmakers Constance Tsang '20 and Gabriel Mayers (CC '17) will screen their work at the 54th edition of New Directors/New Films (ND/NF) set to take place from April 2 through April 13, 2025.
Presented by the Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center, this year’s edition of the ND/NF Festival will screen 24 features and 9 short films, including 20 North American or U.S. premieres at MoMA. The whole program has works by emerging filmmakers from 22 countries.
In the feature-film category, Tsang will be presenting Blue Sun Palace, which nabbed the French Touch prize at the 2024 Cannes Critics’ Week jury. The film follows Amy and Didi in the confines of a massage parlor in Flushing, Queens, as they navigate romance, happiness, and the obligations of family thousands of miles from home.
When asked how the idea of shooting Blue Sun Palace on her home turf came about, Tsang reflected, “I would say it’s always been with me but began to take a firmer shape when I was in film school, in my graduate program. For the longest time, I’d really wanted to tell a story about Flushing, my hometown. And the project gave me a chance to understand my own relationship with my parents, and how I connected to their specific experience. Slowly, it became a story about my own way of dealing with grief and processing the death of my father—a big amalgamation of ideas, things, and memories. I don’t really know how to describe it other than a mixture.”
Also screening in the feature film category is Mad Bills to Pay, written and directed by Dominican American filmmaker Joel Alfonso Vargas and executive produced by Mayers. The film had its World Premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and its international premiere at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. The film follows Rico, who belongs to a tight-knit Dominican-American community in the Bronx. He is hustling his way through a carefree summer. When circumstances arise that force his girlfriend, Destiny, to move in with his family, Rico is forced to face a sobering reality: they are growing up too fast in a city that waits for no one.
Blue Sun Palace and Mad Bills to Pay showcase New York’s Queens and Bronx districts in a fresh, never-seen-before perspective. This makes it all the more exciting that both films will have their home-turf screenings at New Directors/New Films in New York.
La Frances Hui, 2025 ND/NF Co-chair and Curator, observes, “Cinema dazzles in the hands of this remarkable class of new directors, who bring astonishing creativity to exploring and interpreting the vast spectrum of human experience. Their films abound with surprising, magical touches, weaving stories of love, family, and anguish, while also delving into themes of identity, history, and conflict. These filmmakers reaffirm the boundless potential of the moving image to regenerate, create meaning, and expand our horizons. Prepare to be captivated by this exceptional collection of new films.”
Tickets for the festival are on sale now.
Also screening in the feature film category is Mad Bills to Pay, written and directed by Dominican American filmmaker Joel Alfonso Vargas and executive produced by Mayers. The film had its World Premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and its international premiere at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. The film follows Rico, who belongs to a tight-knit Dominican-American community in the Bronx. He is hustling his way through a carefree summer. When circumstances arise that force his girlfriend, Destiny, to move in with his family, Rico is forced to face a sobering reality: they are growing up too fast in a city that waits for no one.
Blue Sun Palace and Mad Bills to Pay showcase New York’s Queens and Bronx districts in a fresh, never-seen-before perspective. This makes it all the more exciting that both films will have their home-turf screenings at New Directors/New Films in New York.
La Frances Hui, 2025 ND/NF Co-chair and Curator, observes, “Cinema dazzles in the hands of this remarkable class of new directors, who bring astonishing creativity to exploring and interpreting the vast spectrum of human experience. Their films abound with surprising, magical touches, weaving stories of love, family, and anguish, while also delving into themes of identity, history, and conflict. These filmmakers reaffirm the boundless potential of the moving image to regenerate, create meaning, and expand our horizons. Prepare to be captivated by this exceptional collection of new films.”
Tickets for the festival are on sale now.