29th SCAD Savannah Film Festival Unveils Lineup for 2026

Here is the press release with the announcement of the lineup for the 29th SCAD Savannah Film Festival:

 The Savannah College of Art and Design’s 29th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival (Oct. 24-31) announced its 2026 lineup and panel programming. The nation’s largest university-led film festival and one of the largest of any kind in the Southeast, this eight-day celebration of cinematic excellence brings major industry luminaries — award-winning directors, writers, and actors — to Savannah alongside both professional and student filmmakers. Each year, more than 74,000 people attend, and the festival has become a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, hosting exclusive of the years’ most exciting screenings, competition films, feature films, documentaries, shorts, animated films, panel discussions, and workshops at SCAD’s historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces.

The 2026 schedule includes Gala and Signature Screenings, Special Presentations, Professional and Student competition films, the Docs to Watch and Pixels and Pencils screening series, and the Behind Their Lens and Below the Line panel series. Over its history, the festival has screened more than 250 Academy Award-nominated films and honored nearly 225 legendary actors, directors, producers, writers, and filmmakers from around the world.

The festival is an extension of SCAD’s top-ranked School of Film and Acting, where students in film and television, acting, production design, sound design, themed entertainment design, dramatic writing, and the school’s new vocal performance program learn from and work alongside leading professionals in the entertainment industry. This year’s lineup spans genres, formats, and career-best performances, giving SCAD students a rare inside look into how the most prolific films of this year get made, marketed, and championed on the road to awards season.

“This is one of those lineups where you look at the filmmakers and performers and realize just how much incredible work is happening across the industry right now,” said Christina Routhier, executive director of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. “We have films from some of the world’s most distinctive talents, alongside bold work from emerging voices. What I love most is that our students get to experience it all by being in the room with these artists, hearing how the work came together, asking questions and making connections that can shape their own careers. That combination of great cinema, access and discovery is what makes SCAD and our festival such a meaningful place to experience the year in film.”

Gala & Centerpiece Screenings

The SCAD Savannah Film Festival is renowned for spotlighting major award contenders, screening a multitude of studio and streamer films prior to their wider release. The festival will open Saturday, Oct. 24, with a screening of Bleecker Street and LD Entertainment’s A Talent for Murder. A24’s The Debut will screen Tuesday, Oct. 27, as the Centerpiece Gala Presentation. On Saturday, Oct. 31, the festival will close with Searchlight Pictures’ Wild Horse Nine. The following 24 films have been selected for distinguished screenings:

• A Talent for Murder (Bleecker Street/LD Entertainment), dir. Anton Corbijn
• Behemoth! (Searchlight Pictures), dir. Tony Gilroy
• Being Heumann (Apple Original Films), dir. Siân Heder
• Clarissa (Neon), dir. Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri
• Club Kid (A24), dir. Jordan Firstman
• The Debut (A24), dir. Jesse Eisenberg
• Elsinore (Focus Features), dir. Simon Stone
• I Play Rocky (Amazon MGM), dir. Peter Farrelly
• Ink (Netflix), dir. Danny Boyle
• Josephine (Sumerian Pictures), dir. Beth de Araújo
• La Bola Negra (Netflix), dir. Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo
• The Liberation (Bleecker Street), dir. Guy Nattiv
• The Mosquito Bowl (Netflix), dir. Peter Berg
• Mouse (Independent Film Company), dirs. Kelly O’Sullivan, Alex Thompson
• The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (Sony Pictures Classics), dir. Noah Segan
• Paper Tiger (Neon), dir. James Gray
• Tender Loving Care (Bleecker Street), dir. Mike Leigh
• Wild Horse Nine (Searchlight Pictures), dir. Martin McDonagh

Special Presentations

Get a look at buzzworthy films from the world’s leading filmmakers premiering at the festival or not yet in wide release. In previous years, these films have gone on to win Academy Awards and other prestigious accolades:

• All of a Sudden (Neon), dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
• Bedford Park (Sony Pictures Classics), dir. Stephanie Ahn
• Bitter Christmas (Sony Pictures Classics), dir. Pedro Almodóvar
• Bunker (Sony Pictures Classics), dir. Florian Zeller
• Coward (Mubi), dir. Lukas Dhont
• Everytime (1-2 Special), dir. Sandra Wollner
• Fatherland (Mubi), dir. Paweł Pawlikowski
• Fjord (Neon), dir. Cristian Mungiu
• Gentle Monster (Netflix), dir. Marie Kreutzer
• Iron Boy (Sony Pictures Classics), dir. Louis Clichy
• La Gradiva (1-2 Special), dir. Marine Atlan
• A Long Winter (Mubi), dir. Andrew Haigh
• Look Back (GKIDS), dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
• Minotaur (Mubi), dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
• Possible Love (Netflix), dir. Lee Chang-dong
• Rose (Mubi), dir. Markus Schleinzer

Signature Screenings

The Signature Screenings series features premiere and special screenings, with some followed by Q&As with select directors, writers, actors, and producers. This year’s selection of films and series include:

• Backrooms (A24), dir. Kane Parsons
• Blue Heron (Janus), dir. Sophy Romvari
• The Invite (A24), dir. Olivia Wilde
• Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Quiver), dir. Jonathan Kent
• The Matrix (Warner Bros.), dir. Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
• Misty Green (A24), dir. Chris Rock
• The Odyssey (Universal Pictures), dir. Christopher Nolan
• Project Hail Mary (Amazon MGM), dir. Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
• SCAD Presents: A Mosquito in the Ear (Persimmon), dir. Nicola Rinciari
• Sense and Sensibility (Focus Features), dir. Georgia Oakley
• Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (Orion Pictures), dir. Bassam Tariq

Honorees

The festival will present honors to Paul Bettany (Virtuoso Award), Meghann Fahy (Spotlight in Television Award), Ethan Hawke and Sterlin Harjo (Outstanding Collaboration in Television Award), Guitarricadelafuente (Discovery Award), Helen Mirren (Legend of Entertainment Award), Julianne Moore (Icon Award), Emmy Rossum (Outstanding Achievement in Television Award), and production designer Patrice Vermette (Variety Creative Impact in Production Design Award). 

After Dark Screenings

The SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s home for late night fun and genre fare, these soon-to-be-cult-classics are selected to thrill, scare, and entertain.

• Clayface (Warner Bros.), dir. James Watkins
• The Cycle (Shudder), dir. Jordan Downey
• Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Mubi), dir. Jane Schoenbrun

Docs to Watch

The 13th annual Docs to Watch series will be accompanied by a roundtable with the directors hosted by Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter. Selected films include:

• American Doctor (Watermelon), dir. Poh Si Teng
• Avedon (Netflix), dir. Ron Howard
• Cookie Queens (Roadside Attractions), dir. Alysa Nahmias
• Everest: The Other Side (National Geographic), dir. Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
• The Last First: Winter K2 (Apple Original Films), dir. Amir Bar-Lev
• My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile, dir. Julia Loktev
• Once Upon a Time in Harlem (Neon), dir. William Greaves, David Greaves
• One in a Million (Frontline), dir. Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes
• The Trial of Alec Baldwin (Abramorama), dir. Rory Kennedy
• You Can See Everything (A24), dir. Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim

Pixels and Pencils: Top Animated Contenders

Presented in partnership with Variety, Pixels and Pencils highlights the directors behind the top animated films of the year. Showcasing a broad array of artistic avenues and animation styles, this series culminates in the directors roundtable panel, hosted by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis.  Selected films include:

• Forgotten Island (DreamWorks/Universal Pictures), writers/dirs. Joel Crawford and Januel P. Mercado
• Hoppers (Disney/Pixar), dir. Daniel Chong
• Ray Gunn (Netflix), dir. Brad Bird
• Tangles (Independent Film Company), dir. Leah Nelson
• Wildwood (Laika), dir. Travis Knight

Panels

Join the SCAD Savannah Film Festival for conversations and panels with industry stars and insiders. This year’s panels include:

• The Behind Their Lens series, presented in partnership with IndieWire, celebrates cinematic powerhouses who defied the odds and obstacles to bring us some of the most influential and poignant films and television series in recent years. Panels include:

• Behind Their Lens: Directors, with panelists Beth de Araújo (Josephine), Sophy Romvari (Blue Heron), and more to be announced.
• Behind Their Lens: Producers, with panelists Alison Owen (Back To Black), Lauren Miller Rogen (Tangles), and more to be announced.
• Behind Their Lens: Artisans, with panelists Amy Roth (I Play Rocky, Paper Tiger), Ruth De Jong (The Odyssey), Sarah Broshar (Disclosure Day), and more to be announced.

• The Below the Line series, highlighting the contributions of below-the-line talent to the art of cinema, with a focus on costume design and production design:
  • Below the Line: The Power of Casting
    • Panelists include John Papsidera (The Odyssey), Sarah Finn (Wild Horse Nine), Jessica Ronae (Elsinore), and more to be announced.
  • Below the Line: Costume Design Roundtable with Variety’s Jazz Tangcay
    • Panelists include Arianne Phillips (The Invite), Ellen Mijornick (The Odyssey), Linda Muir (Werwulf), Marci Rodgers (Michael), and Molly Rogers (The Devil Wears Prada 2).
  • Below the Line: Scoring for the Screen with the Alliance for Women Film Composers
    • In this illuminating conversation, members of the Alliance for Women Film Composers discuss their creative process, the challenges and triumphs of the industry, and the vital role composers play in bringing depth and resonance to film and television. Additional information on panelists to be announced.

• The SCAD Alumni Voices panel highlights graduates of the university’s top-ranked film and television degree programs. Panelists include Annie Taylor (M.A., sound design, 2019), Alchemy Post Sound, The Bear, Widow’s Bay; Benjamin Frisch (M.F.A., sequential art, 2011; B.F.A., sequential art, 2009), podcast producer and sound designer, Making Gay History, Critical Darlings; Eldar Isgandarov (B.F.A., performing arts, 2024), actor, Club Kid, The Debut; Wai Yan “Sunny” Chan (B.F.A., visual effects, 2008), facial animator, Wildwood; and Chloe Lipp (B.F.A., film and television, 2008), visual effects artist, Stranger Things, The Mandalorian.

• The World of BRZRKR – Go inside the creation of the epic comic book series BRZRKR with creators and writers Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt along with illustrator Ron Garney as they explore the acclaimed series’ mythology, characters, distinctive visual style, and the collaborative creative process that render its action-packed scenes in vivid color.

• The Art of the Epic: Crafting The Odyssey highlights the contributions of artisans and behind the scenes talent like production designer Ruth De Jong, costume designer Ellen Mijornik, and casting director John Papsidera.

• Building Arrakis and Beyond: In Conversation with Patrice Vermette peels back the curtain with Dune production designer and Variety Creative Impact in Production Design Award honoree Patrice Vermette,who  will sit down with Variety’s Jazz Tangcay for a career conversation and look inside the upcoming, highly-anticipated Dune: Part Three. 

• A Look Inside Walt Disney Animation and Disney’s Hexed with Jared Bush – Get a special first look inside Walt Disney Animation Studios’ upcoming animated adventure Disney’s Hexed with chief creative officer, writer and Academy Award winner, Jared Bush. 

• Variety’s 10 Artisans to Watch, hosted by festival media partner Variety. Participants will be announced in mid-October. 

• Entertainment Weekly’s Breaking Big Panel & Awards. Breaking Big honorees to be announced separately.

• Shudder Presents: The New Face of Horror spotlights rising filmmakers Alex Goyette (Breeder) and Jordan Downey (The Cycle), with moderator Angel Melanson (Shudder director of programming).

• Critical Darlings — Awards Season Kick-off: LIVE! With hosts Alison Willmore (Vulture) and Richard Lawson (Premiere Party) 

• From Red Carpets to Reels: Entertainment Journalism in the Digital Age with film journalist and host Kevin McCarthy and Gersh agent Sydnie Rowland. 

• The Long Game: Gersh Agents on Building Careers in Entertainment welcomes a panel of agents from Gersh, one of the largest entertainment and sports agencies in the world. 

Competition Films

The SCAD Savannah Film Festival celebrates the work of established and emerging filmmakers, from feature-length films to shorts. The juried competition showcases the best of professional, animated, and student films selected from more than 2,300 entries annually. Festival jurors include Alan Khamoui (senior film executive of development, production, and acquisitions, Amazon MGM Studios), Seth Fradkoff (senior vice president of publicity, Amazon MGM Studios), Sharon Badal (vice president of filmmaker relations, Tribeca Film Festival), Ben Thompson (vice president of shorts programming, Tribeca Film Festival), Mike McNamara (Academy Award-winning producer of The Singers, Festie Bestie), and Sam A. Davis (Academy Award-winning director of The Singers).

Narrative Features

From side-splitting comedies to heart-wrenching dramas, these narrative feature films represent diversity in storytelling, excellence in acting and directing, and exemplary cinematography and editing:

• The Huntress (dir. Suzanne Andrews Correa)
• One of Us (dir. Stefan van de Graaff)
• Summer of Three (dir. Carlitos Ruiz-Ruiz)
• Test (dir. Sam McConnell)

Documentary Features

Beyond simple subject matters, these documentaries present compelling stories that illuminate and educate audiences in a thought-provoking and timely manner:

• Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern (dir. Mike Mendez)
• The Lorraine (dir. Sam Pollard)
• The Secret Reading Club of Kabul (dir. Shakiba Adil, Elina Hirvonen)
• Uncle Roy (dir. Keri Pickett)

Student Shorts

With solid storytelling and emerging vision, these short films cover a range of genres and styles. Shorts from student filmmakers at SCAD and universities around the world that are part of the competition include:

• Student Animated Shorts
  • Stone Lions Don’t Roar (dir. Le Hang Whalen)
  • Cardboard Heart (dir. Catalina Ferreira Martin)
  • Au gré de l’iode (dir. Léa Deprez, Pierre-Luis Bordes, Elliot Desmarets, Jeanne Finet)
  • Sunburn (dir. Esther Son)
  • Me in a Nutshell (dir. Joshua Higgs, Elena Krasteva)
  • Our Fleeting Soul (dir. Marin Caquez, Eva-Louise Moreau, Nour Kharraz)
  • Kenopsia (dir. Camille Redon, Sélène Le, Alice Hegymegi-Kiss, Gregoire Pezzulo, Fanny Belougne, Quentin Szczygiel, Adel Tebib)
  • CHAI (dir. Aryan Anand)
  • The Memory Clocksmith (dir. Jing Rickie Liu, Ellie Grace Colwill)
  • The Moon Stole My Stripes (dir. Sarah Buckley)
  • Sundown (dir. Jérémie Jayraj Itty, Inna Soroka, Julia Estrada Torres, Sammi Khuu)
  • The Nest (dir. Aurélien Coquery, Léa Kermanach, Soline Mauguin, Abel Tixador, Jean Baounon, Romane Selter-Fiette)
  • Moticos (dir. Paige Meakin)

• Student Live-Action Shorts
  • KATTI (Unfriend) (dir. Kanishka Aggarwal)
  • See Me (dir. Cormac Fingeret)
  • Rio Negro (dir. Luke Cooper Escobar)
  • The View Was Everything (dir. Blais Cameron)
  • The Kalgan Horse (dir. Zichen Zhao)
  • Killer Of Men (dir. Jordan Betine)
  • Cadencia (dir. Paulís Cofresí)

• SCAD Student Documentary Shorts
  • Cora Dale – A Rediscovered Harmony (dir. Silas Immanuel, Isabel Massud Faria De Souza)
  • Madame Marseille (dir. Brennen Fletcher)
  • With You (dir. Rebecca Floto)
  • Assemblé (dir. Lena Faeskorn)
  • From the Sound to the Sea (dir. Olivia Jackson)
  • Nanmoku (dir. Will Franz)
  • An Eternal Sound (dir. Ryan Broussard, Andrew Meriwether)

Shorts Programs

This year’s short film programs are:

• Shorts Spotlight: Unsung Heroes
  • One Last Order (dir. Lauren DeFilippo, Sam Soko)
  • The Baddest Speechwriter of All (dir. Ben Proudfoot, Stephen Curry)

• Ordinary, Everyday Monsters
  • He’s Out There (dir. Kurt Andrew Schneider, Sam A. Davis)
  • Plastic Pastures (dir. Darren Rubin)
  • Four Itchy Boys (dir. Andrew Hebert)
  • Bundle (dir. Carlo Milillo)
  • PRIME (dir. Meagan Coyle)
  • Meeting Your Maker (dir. Gregory Kasunich)
  • Scissors (dir. Hannah Alline)

• Boundary Waters
  • DISC (dir. Blake Rice)
  • Enjoy Your Visit (dir. Erin Cramer)
  • What Have You Done, Zarina? (dir. Camila Sagyntkan)
  • Jane (dir. Eva Ravenal)
  • Because Today is Saturday (dir. Alice Eça Guimarães)
  • Selah (dir. Lara Everly)

• Generation Next
  • Fletcher Street (dir. Jannat Gargi, David Darg)
  • Where We Played: Voices From the Fire (dir. Nat Wolff, Austin Cauldwell)
  • The Boys and the Bees (dir. Arielle C. Knight)
  • The Boy with the Dinosaur Head (dir. Imran J Khan)
  • Couture to the Max (dir. Dori Berinstein)

• Hearts Across Time and Space
  • The Making of Taylor Square (dir. Caroline Josey Karoki)
  • The Second Life of Freddie Nole (dir. Dana Nachman)
  • 32B (dir. Mohamed Taher)
  • The View (dir. Alli Sadegiani)
  • I Got You (dir. Jayme Lawson) — World Premiere
  • The Old Man and the Barber (dir. Nima Fakhrara)

• One World
  • The Art of Sharing (dir. Ricardo Serena)
  • Buckskin (dir. Mars Verrone)
  • Listen (dir. Taliesin Black-Brown)
  • Plant Life (dir. Brett Marty, Josh Izenberg)
  • The Lost Snows of the Alps (dir. Kevin McCarey)
• Dangerous Territory
  • A New Inferno (dir. Nita Blum, Jonathan Pickett)
  • 80 is the Most Dangerous Anniversary (dir. Frank Chi) — World Premiere
  • Escalation (dir. AJ Schnack)
  • Apart (dir. Pola Maneli)
• Your Attention, Please!
  • A Crime Across Four Landscapes (dir. Aidan Weaver)
  • A Man Who Takes Pictures of Flowers (dir. Yoo Lee)
  • Getar Hero (dir. Teddy Stern)
  • Them That’s Not (dir. Mekhai Lee)
  • FLESH IMPACT (dir. Maggie Gyllenhaal)
  • A Sisyphean Task (dir. Gus Flind-Henry, George Malcher)
  • Please (dir. Anna Mantzaris)
• All the Love in the World…and Then Some
  • The Late in Life Guide to Modern Day Lesbianism (dir. Emelie Claxton, Molly Rangel)
  • Kiloran Bay (dir. Michael Bruce)
  • Perfect Love (dir. Kelly McCready) — World Premiere
  • Cheers Camden (dir. Joshua Black)
  • The Last Day of Byron Bray (dir. Michael Borrelli)
  • Callback (dir. Matthew Puccini)
  • Never Never Never (dir. John Sheedy)
• Animated Delights
  • Living with a Visionary (dir. Stephen P. Neary)
  • How Not to Die on an Alien Planet (dir. Carlos Fernandez Puertolas)
  • Paper Daughter (dir. Cami Kwan)
  • Cartoon Physics (dir. Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter)
  • El Cuerpo del Cristo (dir. Bea Lema)
  • Virgin Fandango (dir. Marcy Page)
  • The Undying Pain of Existence (dir. Oscar Jacobson)
  • Sundays (dir. Ashley Gerst)
  • 9 Million Colors (dir. Bára Anna)

Festival tickets for 2026 are available now online at filmfest.scad.edu, by phone at 912.525.5050, or in person at the SCAD Box Office (scadboxoffice.com) at 216 E. Broughton St. in Savannah.

About the SCAD Savannah Film Festival

Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is filled with cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Each year, more than 74,000 people attend the eight-day festival. The festival has become a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, hosting exclusive screenings, competition films, feature films, documentaries, shorts, animated films, panel discussions, and workshops at SCAD’s historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces. Presented in Savannah, a premier film hub in the Southeast, the festival promotes quality movies produced by independent and studio filmmakers.

Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram, Letterboxd, and TikTok @savfilmfest. For additional information and tickets, visit filmfest.scad.edu.

SCAD: The University for Creative Careers

SCAD is a private, nonprofit, accredited university, offering more than 100 graduate and undergraduate degree programs across locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Lacoste, France; and online via SCADnow. SCAD enrolls more than 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 100 countries. The future-minded SCAD curriculum engages professional-level technology and myriad advanced learning resources, affording students opportunities for internships, professional certifications, and real-world assignments with corporate partners through SCADpro, the university’s renowned research lab and prototype generator. SCAD has earned top rankings for degree programs in interior design, architecture, film, fashion, digital media, and more. Career success is woven into every fiber of the university, resulting in a superior alumni employment rate. A 2026 study found that 99% of recent SCAD graduates were employed, pursuing further education, or both within 12 months of graduation. SCAD provides students and alumni with ongoing career support through personal coaching, alumni programs, a professional presentation studio, and more. Visit scad.edu.

About the SCAD School of Film and Acting

With resources that rival Hollywood studios and Broadway theaters, award-winning faculty, professionally run casting offices, and renowned film and television festivals, the SCAD School of Film and Acting prepares students for impactful careers in film, television, and live performance. Students in acting, cinematography, editing, film and television, production design, sound design, and the school’s new music production and vocal performance degree programs work across disciplines on professional-caliber film and TV shoots and stage performances, gaining hands-on experience, production credits, and valuable industry connections before graduation.

The heart of the SCAD School of Film and Acting is the newly completed 11-acre SCAD Film Studios in Savannah, the largest and most comprehensive university film studio complex in higher education. Designed for professional and student productions, the complex includes purpose-built soundstages and an expansive Hollywood-style backlot with more than 50 façades and practical interiors that can be transformed for different locations and eras. Filmmakers in Savannah also have access to a leading-edge LED volume stage, as well as virtual production, postproduction, and extensive production and costume design facilities. Together with SCAD Film Studios in Atlanta — with its own state-of-the-art spaces, such as an LED volume stage, broadcast studios, and editing facilities — located amid one of the nation’s leading film and television production markets, these resources position students on the same sets and spaces they will lead throughout their careers. At SCAD, every set, stage, and studio is a classroom.

Each fall, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival welcomes celebrated filmmakers, actors, producers, and other industry leaders to Savannah, bringing national and international attention to filmmaking throughout the region and Georgia. During the festival’s weeklong lineup of screenings and panels, SCAD students enjoy myriad opportunities to connect with major stars in front of and behind the camera, including exclusive master classes and Q&A sessions.