Dreams in Nightmares (2026)
A new take on the American road movie, Dreams in Nightmares follows a group of queer friends in their mid-30s navigating love, identity, and belonging.
A FILM BY SHATARA MICHELLE FORD
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With their second film, Shatara Michelle Ford (Test Pattern) puts their singular stamp on the American road movie. Dreams in Nightmares, which stars Denée Benton (The Gilded Age) and Jasmin Savoy Brown (Yellowjackets, Scream 7) follows a group of queer friends in their mid-30s navigating love, identity, and belonging across America. Anchored in themes of chosen family and self-discovery, the film blends humor and emotional depth against the backdrop of a journey through the Midwest and beyond. Dreams in Nightmares is an expansive and tender ode to the chosen family and to the radical act of claiming space to dream—and to exist—in an increasingly fraught country.
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Berlinale
BFI Flare
Pink Apple Film Festival
Queer Frames
Champs Élysées Film Festival
Taipei Film Festival
Bildrausch Filmfest Basel
GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival
Roffa mon Amour
SCENE Manchester's LGBTQ+ Film & TV Festival
Oslo Pix
Jakarta World Cinema
Mix Milano
Queer Film Festival Utrecht
Hamburg International Queer Film Festival
Mix Copenhagen
Scottish Queer IFF
American Film Festival
Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF)
Chéries-Chéris, festival international du film LGBTQ&+
Pink Panorama
BlackStar Film Festival
NewFest
InsideOut
WorldPride
Frameline
CinemaQ
Twisted Arts
Reeling Film Festival
Out On Film
Reel Q International Film Festival
ImageOut Film Festival
Houston Cinema Arts Festival
Outfest
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2026 / 128 mins / USA, UK, Taiwan
English with English subtitles
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Writer & Director: Shatara Michelle Ford
Producers: Pin-Chun Liu, Shatara Michelle Ford, Naïma Abed, Adam Wyatt Tate
Producers: Josh Peters, Robina Riccitiello, Ben Stillman, Tim Headington, Tyler Bagley, Chris Quintos Cathcart
Executive Producers: Yu-Hao Su, Lia Bunman, Jacqueline W. Liu, Annie Yang, Liska Ostojic, Emilie Georges
Cast: Denée Benton, Mars Storm Rucker, Dezi Bing, Sasha Compere, Charlie Barnett, Molly Bernard, Alfie Fuller, Malek Mouzon, Joss Barton, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Regina Taylor, Robert Wisdom
Director of Photography: Ludovica Isidori
Editor: Cyndi Trissel
Production Designer: Eloise Ayala
Costume Designer: Mikhaela Zabalerio
Music Composer: Lia Ouyang Rusli
Music Supervisors: Alison Rosenfeld, Kayla Monetta
Sound Designer: Thomas Ouziel
Casting Director: Rebecca Dealy
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Shatara Michelle Ford (Director & Producer)
Shatara Michelle Ford (they/she/their) is an African American filmmaker born in Arkansas, raised in Missouri, and based in Los Angeles. Ford’s films explore memory, perception, alienation, isolation, America and Americanness; all the while interrogating systems of oppression through characters who must live, survive, thrive, or languish within them. Ford’s script, Queen Elizabeth, was featured on the 2017 Black List. Their debut feature TEST PATTERN was released by Kino Lorber in 2021 to critical acclaim, landing on over a dozen Best of 2021 lists. It received three Gotham Award nominations including Best Feature, four Spirit Award Nominations including Best First Feature, an NAACP Image Award nomination, and won prizes from San Francisco Film Critics Circle, Austin Film Critics Association, Women Film Critics Circle, New Orleans Film Festival, and BlackStar Film Festival. Additionally, Ford was awarded the prestigious New Generation prize by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and is a 2021 Pew Fellow.
