LOS ANGELES — September 16, 2026 — The seven-day theatrical run will take place at Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills, Sept. 18–24. Voce Spettacolo today announced that five short films will receive a theatrical engagement in Los Angeles as part of their 2026 Awards Season. The slate includes Swim Sistas, directed by Cat White and featuring the voice of Academy Award nominee Naomie Harris (Moonlight) as Mami Wata; Panoramic View: Portrait of the Artist Francine Tint, directed by Pola Rapaport; Uncle Artoo, directed by Zoë Whittaker; Per Chi, directed by Alessandro Spallino and produced by James Tumminia; and Choices, directed by Andrea Ciavatta.
Swim Sistas directed by Cat White and produced by Kusini Productions and Candid Broads Productions is a poetic celebration of water, sisterhood and the enduring strength of Black women across generations. The film follows a young girl discovering joy in the water, Great Britain’s first and only Black female Olympic swimmer as she breaks historic barriers, and a woman learning to swim at 54 while confronting an inherited fear. The film has been selected by several Academy Award-qualifying festivals, including Indy Shorts International Film Festival, HollyShorts Film Festival, DOC NYC and American Documentary and Animation Film Festival (AmDocs).
Directed by Pola Rapaport, Panoramic View: Portrait of the Artist Francine Tint is a 21-minute documentary portrait of 81-year-old abstract expressionist painter Francine Tint. The film traces Tint’s journey from her childhood in Brooklyn and early career as a leading New York stylist to her experiences in the male-dominated abstract art world and her immersion in New York’s vibrant club culture of the 1980s and ’90s, while exploring her lifelong commitment to painting.
Zoë Whittaker’s Uncle Artoo offers a darkly comic new chapter in the mythology of Nosferatu. After centuries spent in darkness, the world’s oldest vampire attempts to embrace a new role as a foster carer, navigating the challenges of raising children while struggling to resist the pull of his old habits. The film received the Best Directorial Debut award at Indie Shorts and the Jury Prize at Manchester Film Festival, and was selected for the 25th San Diego International Film Festival.
Directed by Alessandro Spallino and produced by James Tumminia (Love, Gilda – Viva Verdi!), Per Chi centers on Viva Vittoria, an Italian grassroots initiative involving thousands of volunteers in the fight against violence against women. Unfolding across four emotionally charged chapters, the documentary offers intimate portraits of women from Novara, Italy, whose collective efforts transform handmade blankets into symbols of resistance, healing and hope while raising millions of euros to support the organization’s mission. Tumminia also served as executive producer of the Academy Award-nominated Viva Verdi!.
Completing the slate, Andrea Ciavatta’s Choices explores the encounter with diversity as an act of crossing boundaries—an experience of transcendence that can challenge established identities and systems while confronting forces of exclusion and repression.
The engagement marks Voce Spettacolo’s latest Los Angeles theatrical initiative during the 2026 Awards Season, bringing five independent short films to a Los Angeles audience and industry community.
“We are very proud to bring these five films to Los Angeles and to create a theatrical platform for filmmakers whose work deserves to be seen and discussed within the broader industry community,” said Walter Nicoletti, founder of Voce Spettacolo. “For Voce Spettacolo, these engagements are an opportunity to give independent filmmakers a presence in Los Angeles, connect their work with audiences and industry professionals, and create a meaningful step within the Awards Season journey. Our goal is to bring together distinctive voices and very different stories while giving each film the opportunity to enter the Los Angeles conversation on its own terms. We are particularly excited to welcome these filmmakers to Beverly Hills and to continue building a bridge between international independent cinema and the Los Angeles film community.”
OFFICIAL TRAILERS
PANORAMIC VIEW: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST FRANCINE TINT
SCREENING DETAILS
Dates: September 18–24, 2026
Venue: Lumiere Cinema at the Music Hall
Address: 9036 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
For tickets and showtimes:
www.lumierecinemala.com
