It’s a strange feeling.
Knowing that the world premiere of your film is happening…
and you won’t be there.
When I first received the selection from New York University, my mind immediately started imagining it.
A theater in Manhattan.
Hundreds of seats.
A room full of people watching Shifting Courts for the first time.
The kind of moment you dream about when you start making films.
The screening will take place as part of a curated program — mostly American productions, with only a few international films selected.
And somehow, mine is one of them.
For a second, I even imagined something bigger.
What if things had aligned differently?
What if the timing had been just a little off — a few days earlier, a few days later?
Maybe we could have gone.
AmaIa and I.
Travel from New York to San Francisco.
Follow the film across those two weeks.
Be there for both screenings.
But life doesn’t align like that.
At some point, I had assumed that the world premiere would be in San Francisco.
Then New York came in.
And suddenly, everything shifted again.
The world premiere would be in New York.
In a city that, in many ways, feels like the center of everything.
There was even a moment of doubt.
I wasn’t sure if showing it there would affect San Francisco — if there were premiere requirements, if I was making the right decision.
For a few days, I sat with that uncertainty.
Until it became clear: it was fine.
The film could live in both places.
And then came the real realization.
The premiere would happen…
Without me.
It’s hard to explain what that feels like.
There’s something almost surreal about imagining your film being projected in a room like that, in a city like New York — and not being able to experience it.
Not hearing the room.
Not feeling the silence.
Not seeing how people react.
There’s always a part of you that wonders:
Will it connect?
Will it be at the level expected?
Will it make sense in that context?
And yet…
At the same time, something else is happening.
My son is about to be born.
And when I put both things side by side, the answer becomes very clear.
There are moments you don’t miss.
No matter what.
The film will have its world premiere in New York.
And I will be somewhere else.
Exactly where I need to be.
Shifting Courts World premiere at NYU Sports Film Festival.
