NARRATIVE FEATURES
In Competition
Rich Newey and Annika Marks’ Adult Children, Bentonville 2025 Best Ensemble Jury Award and Newport Beach Film Festival 2025 Festival Honors Award for Outstanding Ensemble. 17-year-old Morgan hopes her older half-siblings will be able to shed some light on what it means to be an adult. Sadly, they don’t have a clue.
Mickey Keating’s Crooks, Tribeca 2026. A couple of scammers, Johnny and Faye, rob the decadent Moonlight Casino. Faye betrays Johnny, taking the money, but is hunted down by a murderer and meets a mentally unstable waitress.
Myrsini Aristidou’s Hold On to Me, Sundance 2026 World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award. It's summer, and 11-year-old Iris is running wild through the streets with her older friend Danae when she learns her estranged father, Aris, is back in town for his own father's funeral.
Rodrigue Jean’s Labrador — Autopsy of Silence, Tribeca 2026 Best Performance, Best Cinematography, and Best International Narrative Feature. As a cargo ship sails through a storm off the coast of Basse-Côte-Nord, a cook is found murdered on board. From the perspective of Alupa Tulugak, an Inuk mechanic and friend of the victim, this story reconstructs the events as a thriller.
Marie-Elsa Sgualdo and Nadine Lamari’s Silent Rebellion, Venice 2025 and Raindance 2026 Best International Feature. A virtuous teen in 1943 Switzerland questions her village's morality when they turn away French refugees. After a personal trauma upends her life, she must find the courage to forge her own path against social expectations.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
In Competition
Adam and Zack Khalil’s Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild], Sundance 2026 NEXT Audience Award. Ancestors manipulate time and space within museum archives, confronting history and spirituality as specialists battle for Indigenous remains' repatriation, exposing enduring worldviews that legitimized their initial collection.
Felipe Bustos Sierra’s Everybody to Kenmure Street, Sundance 20206 World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance. Glasgow residents abandon their daily routines to gather on Kenmure Street after learning authorities plan to deport their neighbors, sparking an impromptu grassroots movement.
J.J. Gerber’s The Life We Leave, SXSW 2026 and Seattle International Film Festival 2026 Golden Space Needle Award for Best Documentary. An ambitious entrepreneur and two funeral directors pioneer a groundbreaking eco-friendly deathcare facility in Washington state, challenging traditional burial practices and transforming end-of-life rituals.
SHORT FILMS
In Competition
The narrative shorts in competition include: Ilke Paddenburg’s A Shot at Art, SXSW 2026; Anna Baumgarten’s Balloon Animals, Sundance 2026; Willa Niava and Kristelle Laroche’s Jazz Infernal, Sundance 2026 International Fiction Short Film Jury Award; Ben S. Hyland’s The Man That I Wave At, Sitges 2025 Best Short Film Award; Abby Pierce and Tiny Cruz’s So, Boom, Tribeca 2026 Special Jury Mention for Narrative Short; and Pranav Bhasin’s We Were Here, SXSW 2026 Redbreast Unhidden and Narrative Short Audience Award.
The documentary shorts in competition include: Arielle Knight’s The Boys and the Bees, Sundance 2026 Non-Fiction Short Film Jury Award; Taliesin Black-Brown’s Listen, Tribeca 2026 Best Documentary Short; Liza Mandelup’s Luigi, Sundance 2026; Ashley Brandon’s Panther Pat, Slamdance 2026 Best Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize; and Livia Albeck-Ripka and Víctor Tadashi Suárez’s Still Standing, Sundance 2026 and Slamdance 2026.
The animated shorts in competition include: Kate Renshaw-Lewis’ Busy Bodies, Sundance 2026 and Slamdance 2026 Best Animation Short Grand Jury Prize; Celia Alcina Matesanz, Fuxuan Deng, Pontheera Nimmanakiat, Ané Quintana, and Hongru Su’s The Famous Last Show, Gobelins l'école de l'image; Anna Ginsburg and Miranda Latimer’s Hag, SXSW 2026 Animated Shorts Competition Special Jury Award; Boris Boidron, Lucile Brunet, and Lauren Félines’ Les Vieux, École des Nouvelles Images; Stephen P. Neary’s Living with a Visionary, Sundance 2026 Animation Short Film Jury Award; and Daniel Neiden and Edward Jordon’s Whale 52 – Suite for Man, Boy, and Whale, Berlinale 2026 Crystal Bear for Best Short Film.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Out of Competition
Matt Johnson’s narrative feature Tony. A 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain travels to Provincetown and stumbles into the chaotic world of a restaurant kitchen, setting off a summer that will shape the course of his life. Starring Dominic Sessa, Emilia Jones, Dagmara Dominczyk, Rich Sommers, Stavros Halkias, with Leo Woodall and Antonio Banderas. A24 will release in theaters August 2026.
Ben McKenzie’s documentary feature Everyone is Lying to You for Money, DOC NYC 2025. Actor and author Ben McKenzie investigates the lies, hype, and harm behind cryptocurrency’s rise—and who’s really paying the price.
Episode one of Chris Smith’s documentary series Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult, HBO Max. Hoyt Richards, at 16 years old, meets an enigmatic Manhattan socialite on a Nantucket beach and is pulled into his spiritual group, Eternal Values.
LOCAL SPOTLIGHT
Out of Competition
Craig Downing and Matt Isaac’s Dad Genes, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2026. A documentary that follows Aaron Long, a former sperm donor who later connects with several of his biological children, eventually forming an unconventional family and becoming the subject or worldwide media attention. Subject Aaron Long is a Vashon Island resident.
Andrew Franks and Peter Hilgendorf’s Radioheart: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole, Seattle International Film Festival 2026. A documentary that explores the life and career of DJ Kevin Cole, tracing his path from the club dance floors of Minneapolis' First Avenue to the global stage of Seattle's KEXP radio station. Director Andrew Franks grew up on Vashon Island.
Katherine Dudas, Olivia Blue, Madison Lawlor, and Decker Sadowski’s Theater is Dead, Fantastic Fest 2025 and Newport Beach 2025. Sheltered Willow auditions for mysterious director Matthew's play, a Greek tragedy adaptation. Enthralled, she ignores dangers and undergoes self-discovery as the lead under his tutelage. Theater is Dead was shot entirely on Vashon Island.
The Local Spotlight shorts include: Chiara Motley and Rachel Noll James’ 36 Questions, World Premiere; Donald Saunderson’s Long Time, No See, deadCenter 2026; Isabel Pask and Sam Paley’s Scout’s Honor, Seattle International Film Festival 2026 Live Action Short Grand Jury Prize; and Anjini Taneja Azhar’s Who Are You, Nanu?, Tasveer Film Festival and Market 2025 Narrative Short Audience Choice Award.
