Lights, camera, pets:
the annual Dog & Cat Film Festivals

Animal-lovers flock to the annual Dog and Cat Film Festivals for a unique compilation of short films — a mix of documentary, narrative and animated shorts, solely focused on dogs or cats. The films have all been hand-picked to delight, educate and of course, entertain. Unsurprisingly, they’ve also been known to warm hearts and get tears flowing.

Festival-goers often dress the part, proudly donning cat ears or on-theme stickers and pins. A few theaters even allow pets to attend as guests so audiences can watch the films as their dogs bark along or curl up in the aisles. In addition to uniting animal lovers, the festivals also support dogs and cats in need — 10% of the festivals’ ticket sales are donated to shelters and nonprofits in the local areas where they play.

Festival Founder Tracie Hotchner reviews the submissions herself, and is a natural fit for the job. She’s the author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible and hosts a weekly hour-long radio show dedicated to cats and dogs. She’s also a former actress and screenwriter herself, though she hasn’t personally created any films for the festivals (yet!).

The Dog and Cat festivals run under 100 minutes each and showcase about 18 films. The films are chosen to work both independently and as a compilation, with a mission to inspire — but never tire — the audience. In describing her curation process, Hotchner emphasizes the importance of making sure each film has a clear message, saying, “It can be philosophical, it can be fanciful, it can be silly and fun, it can be tongue-in-cheek, it can be serious — but it has to have an intention.”

She also recognizes how passionate these audiences are about animals and  wants to ensure they aren’t emotionally overstimulated by the festival as a whole. She said, “I think I’ve found that sweet spot between filling people full of amazing imagery, ideas, thoughts, emotions, passion, altruism and such gorgeous wonderfulness in the animals. And then you’ve sort of reached your limit. They come with an open mind and an open heart and I want to serve them something that really fulfills them. [You don’t want people thinking] ‘I gotta get out of here, I’m too filled with emotion.’”

Festival-goers can feel good about more than just the films they see: 10% of ticket sales go to a local shelter or animal welfare organization in each location. While box office gross can vary from city to city — 10% can mean anywhere from a few dollars to hundreds — a little can go a long way. Hotchner shared: "These people [at the shelters] take the time to write me back and say, ‘We really appreciate the visibility, and that bought us three rabies vaccines.’ It matters — the appreciation for any kind of recognition of the work they’re doing. A lot of people whose lives are positively affected and all the animals whose lives are positively affected.”

This year’s dog festival slate features films from throughout the U.S. and across the globe, including South Africa and Brazil. It kicks off with Welly the Dog Poet, a philosophical film which Hotchner describes as “A voiceover of this funny, sort of dumpy-ish dog, and his thoughts about life. It’s fun and funny but also deeply true to what a dog’s experience of life is.” Welly the Dog Poet returns for a second installment towards the end of the festival, creating a bookend for the film medley.

A new addition to this year’s dog festival is the “service dog salute,” a special category dedicated to service dogs that support veterans with PTSD. Hotcher describes the three films as “intensely amazing,” saying “It’s pretty incredible what PTSD takes away from veterans and amazing what the dogs give them back. They just fill you with so much understanding and empathy and appreciation of the human-animal bond. So those movies will definitely be tear-jerkers, in the best sense.”

Though the Dog Film Festival came into fruition first, the Cat Film Festival is an even hotter ticket. “From the first year of the Cat Film Festival, I had twice as many people come [as the dog festival],” Hotchner said. “ If we sell 50 tickets to the Dog Film Festival in Des Moines, Iowa, we sell 100 tickets to the Cat Film Festival. The enthusiasm level is amazing.”

This year’s lineup for the Cat Film Festival showcases ranges from film students to Oscar winners. Kim Best has become a perennial Cat Festival Favorite with two films showing this year, including a documentary about Harold “Catman” Sims, who founded an open-plan cat rescue shelter adjacent to his home. Cat ‘n the Box is an animated film from Maya Ezzeddine, a Lebanese student filmmaker at NYU. Eighty-three-year-old filmmaker Joan Carol Gratz, who won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1992, has two films this year: Leonardo’s Last Luncheon and The Battle for Swan Lake.

For the filmmakers, the festivals offer an opportunity for a bigger audience to see and appreciate their work, which is a reward in and of itself — especially when you consider that they’re hitting a bullseye with their target audience. Hotchner said, “If you’re making short films, you never made them to get rich, and you never made them to make money or get famous. It’s impossible. The only place that that movie that you made about a cat or a dog is ever going to get the appreciation it deserves is in my festivals. Because everybody there really, really loves that species. I really admire the filmmakers a lot because they’re doing this purely from passion, nothing in it for them but an artistic expression of loving a dog or dogs and cats.”

The Dog Film Festival premieres in NYC on Oct 24, 2024 — buy tickets here.

‍The Cat Film Festival premieres in NYC on October 15, 2024 — buy tickets here.  

‍Both film festivals will show in select theaters across the U.S. and Canada in 2025, to be announced at a later date — check the festival websites for updates!