True/False Film Festival announces 2023 film lineup

The True/False 2023 lineup is here, featuring eight world premieres and seven North American premieres among the ranks of the 58 films set to screen at Columbia's biggest film event of the year.

This year's True/False festival will take place March 2-5.

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Over half of the movies in the lineup are directed or co-directed by directors who identify as women or non-binary, and this distinction reflects in the wide range of genres and complications explored in these films. The movies boast a wide range of topics, from a Taiwanese sex-doll hotel's inner workings to the aspirations of students competing for a mariachi band title. Directors explore the complications of legacy, generational trauma and the simple moments of lives lived.

According to the festival, this year's movies "were selected from roughly 1,200 submissions and hundreds more scouted from festivals around the world." The 2023 festival was programmed by film programmer Kristal Sotomayor and Ragtag Film Society artistic director Chloé Trayner with advisors Jonathan Ali and Khaula Malik.

"These are films rooted in ideas yet led by feelings, films where you can feel the filmmaker’s hands at work, and films that don’t offer simple answers but instead pose questions about the world around us," Trayner said in a press release. "It is a collection of films that is geographically, formally, and thematically diverse. We’re so proud to share these artists' work with our audiences."

True/False has long boasted films that have garnered acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Fire of Love, which played at last year's festival, is nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Academy Awards.

Here's the full list of films announced.

True/False 2023 feature film lineup

• Anhell69 (Dir. Theo Montoya; 2022; 72 min.)

• Art Talent Show (Dirs. Adéla Komrzý & Tomáš Bojar; 2022; 102 min.)

• Bad Press (Dirs. Rebecca Landsberry-Baker & Joe Peeler; 2022; 110 min.)

• Bobi Wine: The People’s President (Dirs. Christopher Sharp & Moses Bwayo; 2022; 114 min.)

• Broca’s Aphasia (Dir. SU Ming-Yen; 2022; 83 min.)

• Dogwatch (Dir. Gregoris Rentis; 2022; 78 min.)

• Feet in Water, Head on Fire (Dir. Terra Long; 2023; 93 min.)

• Forms of Forgetting (Dir. Burak Çevik; 2023; 70 min.)

• Gigi La Legge (Dir. Alessandro Comodin; 2022; 103 min.)

• Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Dirs. Michèle Stephenson & Joe Brewster; 2022; 96 min.)

• Going Varsity In Mariachi (Dirs. Alejandra Vasquez & Sam Osborn; 2022; 105 min.)

• Guapo’y (Dir. Sofia Paoli Thorne; 2022; 71 min.)

• How To Have An American Baby (Dir. Leslie Tai; 2023; 116 min.)

• Hummingbirds (Dirs. Silvia Del Carmen Castaños & Estefanía “Beba” Contreras; 2023; 78 min.)

• It Runs In The Family (Dir. Victoria Linares Villegas; 2022; 83 min.)

• Joonam (Dir. Sierra Urich; 2022; 100 min.)

• La Bonga (Dirs. Sebastián Pinzón Silva & Canela Reyes; 2022; 73 min.)

• Last Things (Dir. Deborah Stratman; 2023; 50 min.)

• Mafifa (Dir. Daniela Muñoz Barroso; 2021; 77 min.)

• Man On Earth (Dir. Amiel Courtin-Wilson; 2022; 97 min.)

• Milisuthando (Dir. Milisuthando Bongela; 2023; 117 min.)

• A Moment Of Innocence (Dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf; 1996; 78 min.)

• Moosa Lane (Dir. Anita Mathal Hopland; 2022; 86 min.)

• Natalia (Dir. Elizabeth Mirzaei; 2017; 76 min.)

• Our Body (Dir. Claire Simon; 2022; 172 min.)

• Paradise (Dir. Alexander Abaturov; 2022; 88 min.)

• R 21 aka Restoring Solidarity (Dir. Mohanad Yaqubi; 2022; 71 min.)

• Ramona (Dir. Victoria Linares Villegas; 2023; 83 min.)

• Red Herring (Dir. Kit Vincent; 2023; 90 min.)

• The Stroll (Dirs. Kristen Lovell & Zackary Drucker; 2023; 84 min.)

• The Taste Of Mango (Dir. Chloe Abrahams; 2023; 75 min.)

• Tavuri (Dir. Dervis Zaim; 2022; 93 min.)

• Three Women (Dir. Maksym Melnyk; 2022; 85 min.)

• Time Bomb Y2K (Dirs. Brian Becker & Marley McDonald; 2023; 84 min.)

• Xaraasi Xanne (Crossing Voices) (Dirs. Raphaël Grisey & Bouba Touré; 2022; 122 min.)

True/False 2023 short film lineup

• Alpha Kings (Dirs. Faye Tsakas & Enrique Pedráza-Botero; 2022; 14 min.)

• Anima (Dir. Manuel Mateo; 2022; 19 min.)

• Aqueronte (Dir. Manuel Muñoz Rivas; 2023; 26 min.)

• Aralkum (Dirs. Daniel Asadi Faezi & Mila Zhluktenko; 2022; 14 min.)

• Away (Dir. Ruslan Fedotov; 2022; 28 min.)

• Before It Breaks (Dir. Swetha Regunathan; 2022; 7 min.)

• Caballo de Espuma (Dir. Juanjo Rueda; 2022; 20 min.)

• Echo (Dir. Ross McClean; 2023; 13 min.)

• The Empty Sphere (Dir. Stéphanie Roland; 2022; 19 min.)

• Example # 35 (Dirs. Lucía Malandro & Daniel D. Saucedo; 2022; 6 min.)

• The Feeling of Being Close to You (Dir. Ash Goh Hua; 2022; 12 min.)

• I was born in 1988 (Dir. Yasaman Baghban; 2022; 9 min.)

• Jill, Uncredited (Dir. Anthony Ing; 2022; 18 min.)

• Language Unknown (Dir. Janelle VanderKelen; 2022; 6 min.)

• love at first byte (Dirs. Felizitas Hoffmann & Theresa Hoffmann; 2022; 6 min.)

• Margie Soudek's Salt and Pepper Shakers (Dir. Meredith Moore; 2022; 12 min.)

• Moomin (Dir. Zach Dorn; 2022; 5 min.)

• Moune Ô (Dir. Maxime Jean-Baptiste; 2022; 17 min.)

• No Elements (Dir. Barbara Vojtašáková; 2022; 25 min.)

• Tension Envelopes (Dir. Robert Greene; 2023; 9 min.)

• That Day on the River (Dir. Lei Lei; 2023; 39 min.)

• Tierra de Leche (Dirs. Milton Guillén & Fiona Hall; 2022; 12 min.)

• Visão do Paraíso (Dir. Leonardo Pirondi; 2022; 16 min.)

• While the Night Falls/Mientras Anochece (Dir. Amir Aether Valen; 2023; 18 min.)

• You Are Not Here (Dir. Nastia Korkia; 2022; 16 min.)

Gabriela Velasquez is a planner and audience engagement specialist based out of Columbia, Mo. You can find her on Twitter @not_gabriela.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: True/False Film Festival announces 2023 film lineup