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“Princess Cyd” is a delightful gem of a film, a delicate piece of naturalism centered around not one, but two, fully realized women characters. While it may technically be Stephen Cone’s eighth feature, the Chicago-based filmmaker has never seen a film play at Sundance, SXSW, Tiff, or any other major film festival. That’s about to change: With “Princess Cyd” receiving glowing reviews, earning Cone comparisons to the late Jonathan Demme, and an early career retrospective at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), Cone won’t be an outsider much longer.

“I’ve gotten used to the rejections,” Cone told IndieWire during a recent interview. “I’ve learned to be patient. But, I won’t lie, it’s been extremely unusual to fall through what feels like a very special crack in the floor.” Though the major American festivals have so far shut him out, Cone...

Princess CydStephen Cone has been making movies at a steady clip for over a decade and yet remains largely unknown. It is a momentous and wholly deserved occasion then for him to receive a retrospective at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. Despite mixed receptions and even more erratic distribution patterns, his collection of films isn’t as motley as one might think. While each might tiptoe in a different direction, they maintain a hand in the Stephen Cone universe, imprinted by the same particular humanistic insight. In one of his earliest films, In Memoriam (2011), a young man so subsumed with the sudden death of a couple, fallen from a roof during the throes of pleasure, conducts his own investigation into their ill-fated demise. Innocuous curiosity masks what is essentially an existential inquiry and takes a self-referential pivot when he decides to recreate and film the events,...

Stephen Cone has the tenacity of first-time director, yet he has eight feature films and dozens of shorts to show for it. His vision for filmmaking, grit in self-fundraising, and ability to collaborate with fresh faces (like Joe Keery of Stranger Things fame) and veteran actors alike results in nimble productions with a quick turn-around.

The Film Stage’s Jose Solís reviewed Cone’s newest film Princess Cyd, which opens today in NY and Chicago, saying: “With this, Cone also continues to be one of the few directors who has chosen to contextualize faith rather than demonize it. He shows greater interest in the places where we are like each other, all while celebrating what makes us different.”

Offering a look into his still-young career, Eric Hynes, Associate Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image, programmed Talk About the Passion: Stephen Cone’s First Act, going from...

Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party is one of 2016’s finest releases, and that you probably missed it completely during a short run earlier this year shouldn’t point towards anything about the work itself. Its day-in-the-life coming-of-age film mold strikes familiar notes; more surprising is how it captures an almost-overwhelming number of issues (e.g. religious and sexual identity, suburban life, infidelity, jealousy, and group dynamics) with the ear of a skilled novelist and the eye of an accomplished formalist. It goes without saying that a) you should watch Henry Gamble, and b) the writer-director, Stephen Cone (also of Black Box and The Wise Kids), is one to watch. With that in mind, we’re very happy to unveil first details of his next project, Princess Cyd, which will begin production this week.

Described as “a summer’s tale,” the Chicago-set picture follows Cyd (Jessie Pinnick), a 16-year-old athlete who,...

After a festival run last year, Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party, the latest film from Stephen Cone (Black Box, The Wise Kids), begins its theatrical release in New York City today. A coming-of-age picture dealing with sexual confusion, social tension, and the theme of identity in middle America, we were fans of it following its BAMcinemaFest‎ screening, and are pleased to exclusively premiere the theatrical poster.

“The themes we make films about, we often don’t realize are important to us until much later,” Cone tells New York Times. “I’m 35. I haven’t spent the last 20 years thinking I need to tackle these knotty issues that I’ve been dealing with. It’s only lately in the last 5 or 6 years that I’ve decided to focus on some of the ideas and tensions that have been bubbling beneath the surface.”

Check out the poster below (designed by Caity Birmingham...

We’re back with another Q&A feature, this time talking with Saturday Morning Mystery director Spencer Parsons, who tells us about growing up with Scooby-Doo, balancing horror and comedy, and his time on the set of the movie:

With this movie being Scooby-Doo influenced, can you tell me about your experience with Scooby-Doo as a child? What’s one of your favorite episodes?

Spencer Parsons: Oh yeah, when I was little, it was huge to me. My little brother and I would stay over at my grandmother’s house and wake up early to watch it with my older cousins while snarfing down sugary breakfast cereals my mom never let us have. By the time Jason of Star Command came on, I’d be flying high on Count Chocula, trying to get pony rides from the cocker spaniel. So I’d call it formative.

But Scooby and any...