Staying cool this summer!
After an awesome July, I’m excited to talk about everything that we have coming up in August and beyond!
We held a community mixer in Brooklyn on July 26th!
Huge thanks to everyone who came out to our New York community mixer in Brooklyn this past month!
Was fantastic to see familiar and new faces alike at the Bearded Lady bar in Prospect Heights, who have graciously hosted us twice now!
It had been nearly six months since our last in-person event and I’m excited to be hosting more soon!
Please stay tuned for the next time we’ll be hosting an event near you!
Meet the spotlighted artist of July 2026: Sophia Wilson!
As the second edition of the new monthly ‘1716 Artist Spotlight’, we’re introducing filmmaker Sophia Wilson: writer, director, technician, and the creator of short film ANOK!.
Her earliest memories of feeling inspired to become a filmmaker are nights of staying up past her bedtime watching BBC documentaries on her Kindle Fire (especially the ones with scary thumbnails).
Sophia takes pride in being a Texan filmmaker, having grown up in Houston, and strives to still carry that culture, character, and identity with her and in her storytelling.
Sophia freelances as a sound mixer in her day-to-day life, both on set as a recordist and in post-production for narrative films and commercials. She is also currently an assistant editor at Eden Post in Queens, NY.
Having received her degree in filmmaking from the Emerson College and Paris College of Art’s Global BFA program in 2024, Sophia made several films during her time in Europe, including her thesis film, ANOK!, which would go on to premiere at the Cannes Indie Shorts Awards in 2024.
Interested in watching her work? 1716 just released her latest short film…
ANOK! released on our YouTube channel!
The coming-of-age, roadtrip short film from filmmaker Sophia Wilson — ANOK! — released on our YouTube channel on July 16th!
You can log your viewing experience and share your thoughts with us and the filmmaker Sophia here on Letterboxd!
We’re presenting Space Cowboy in Pittsburgh, PA on August 6th!
The coming-of-age narrative feature film that we’ve been working on since it’s development in spring of 2024, Space Cowboy, is finally nearing its final stages of completion!
Directed by Luca Huff and written by Sophie Montgomery, Space Cowboy tells the story of an impressionable high school soccer player who becomes addicted to painkillers after suffering a season-ending injury.
We’re taking the film to Pittsburgh, PA — the hometown of Space Cowboy star and producer Lorenzo Zottoli — where the Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center is honoring the project with its Emerging Filmmakers Showcase.
Interested in attending? Learn more about the event and reserve a free ticket via the site linked here!
pansies is coming to our YouTube channel on August 21st!
We’re excited to announce our partnership with filmmaker Jamie Simiele in platforming his short film pansies, a queer coming-of-age film that follows two boys who must keep things quiet after almost being caught in the back of a pickup truck.
Growing up in a small, conservative town in Upstate New York, Jamie characterizes his filmmaking as an exploration of the voices of the “American Mongrel”: queer individuals who have navigated the challenges of working-class rural Americana and redefined the American dream.
Written and directed by Jamie as his junior-year thesis film at the Purchase Conservatory of Film and Media, pansies premiered at the 2025 Art of Brooklyn Film Festival, where it was awarded ‘Outstanding Cinematography’.
Throughout 2025 it would go on to screen at the Santa Cruz Film Festival, the Long Beach QFilm Festival, Reeling: Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival, and in 2026, at Wicked Queer.
It would later screen at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) in March of 2026, where it shared a screening block with the 1716 Digital short film Shallow!
pansies will be available to watch on the 1716 YouTube channel beginning Friday, August 21st!
Keep an eye out for more projects releasing this summer!
In addition to ANOK! and pansies, we have an awesome slate of short films planned for release this summer and fall and can’t wait to announce more on our Instagram and YouTube channel soon!
See you soon, and stay posted for next month’s update!
Stay tuned for more details as they become available, and don’t forget to follow along at @1716digital on all platforms!