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Here is the press release:
Montclair Film has announced the winners of the festival’s 2026 Montclair Film Festival’s competitions. This year’s festival featured three competitive categories: Fiction, Documentary, and Future/ Now. Additionally, the Fiction and Documentary juries also awarded films for the festival’s Short Film competitions. The MFF also announced the festival’s 2026 Audience Awards and Junior Jury prizes.
Feature Film Jury Awards
POSSIBLE LOVE directed by Lee Chang-dong was awarded the festival’s Fiction Feature Prize.
The Fiction Feature Competition featured ALL OF A SUDDEN directed by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, FATHERLAND directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, MINOTAUR directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, POSSIBLE LOVE directed by Lee Chang-dong, and ROSE directed by Markus Schleinzer
The Fiction jury was composed of Zachary Barnes (Assistant Arts in Review Editor, The Wall Street Journal), Ashley Clark (Curatorial Director, Criterion), Mila Matveeva (Producer and Artist)
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REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION directed by Pegah Ahangarani, was awarded the festival’s Bruce Sinofsky Award for the Documentary Feature Competition, the festival’s top documentary competition prize. The Documentary Jury also awarded the Special Jury Prize to ONE IN A MILLION directed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes.
The Documentary Feature Competition featured CLOSURE directed by Michał Marczak, THE GREAT EXPERIMENT directed by Stephen Maing and Eric Daniel Metzgar, ONE IN A MILLION directed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes, REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION directed by Pegah Ahangarani, and WHEN A WITNESS RECANTS directed by Dawn Porter
The Documentary Feature Competition Jury was composed of Wendy Ettinger (Producer and Co-founder Chicken & Egg Pictures and of Gamechanger Films), Christopher Rosen (Managing Editor Of The Ankler and Co-Host Of The Prestige Junkie Podcast), Nanfu Wang (Filmmaker and Producer)
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BEDFORD PARK directed by Stephanie Ahn and THEYDREAM directed by William D. Caballero tied for the Future/Now Competition, sharing the $5,000 The Mark Urman Award For Filmmaking, honoring early career filmmakers. This award was established in 2019 in memory of the film distribution executive Mark Urman, a longtime Montclair resident, and funded through Montclair Film’s Mark Urman Award Fund.
The Future/Now Competition featured BEDFORD PARK directed by Stephanie Ahn), JACKRABBIT (directed by Ballard C. Boyd), MALLORY’S GHOST (directed by Arabella Oz), MUDVILLE (directed by Adam Pinney), and THEYDREAM (directed by William D. Caballero)
The Future/Now jury was composed of Monica Castillo (NYFCC Member and Film Critic, THE A.V. Club), Gabrielle Nadig (Producer, co-founder Storm City Films), and George Nicholis (Head of Publicity, Magnolia Pictures)
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Audience Awards
The Audience Award for Fiction Feature was awarded to WILD HORSE NINE directed by Martin McDonagh
The Audience Award for Documentary Feature was awarded to MY NDA directed by Juliane Dressner and Miriam Shor
The Audience Award for World Cinema was awarded to ALL OF A SUDDEN directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
The Audience Award for Short Film was awarded to AN UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE directed by Steven Leckart
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Short Film Jury Awards
I SAW YOU IN THE FLOOD directed by K. Xian Ming Yu won the festival’s Fiction Short Film Competition.
BUCKSKIN directed by Mars Verrone won the festival’s Documentary Short Film Competition
US BEING EPIC directed by Jeannette Louie won the festival’s New Jersey Shorts Competition, The Competition featured films in the fiction and non-fiction categories from New Jersey.
The Shorts jury was composed of Lydia Cornett (Filmmaker), Megan Costello (Curator, Vimeo), Aramide Tinubu (TV Critic, Variety)
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Junior Jury
The 2026 Montclair Film Festival’s Junior Jury included fifteen area high school students representing fourteen area schools. The Junior Jury awarded their top prize to MOUSE directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, with a Special Jury Prize for Excellence In Cinematography to Senzo Ueno for his work on LOOK BACK, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda.
In a statement the Junior Jury said “The Junior Jury selected a film that we believe embodies many great aspects of filmmaking. The storytelling shown through cinematography, acting, and the screenwriting create a heartful journey demonstrating the complexity of grief. For these reasons, we are proud to present directors Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s film MOUSE with the Junior Jury Prize.
We are also proud to present a Special Jury Award for excellence in Cinematography to Senzo Ueno the cinematographer of LOOK BACK – with its stunning wide landscape shots, beautiful close ups, and its creative use of exposure and shadows LOOK BACK uses the camera to tell a story of friendship and grief.”
The 2026 Montclair Film Festival Junior Jury participants were: Keren Adu-Gyamfi (Union High School), Kristina Chotai (Pope John XXIII Regional High School), Nina Diomedi (Montclair High School), Maggie Faherty (Bloomfield High School), Asher Gamble (Donald M Payne School Of Technology), Lucas Hubbard (Montclair High School), Austin Kurcharski (River Dell Regional High School), Caley Muniz (Bloomfield High School), Eli Park (River Dell Regional High School), Heaven Pittman (Cicely L. Tyson School of Performing Arts), Ananya Rao (Livingston High School), Isabella Sanchez (Columbia High School), Desi Shapiro (Fair Lawn High School), Allie Weil (Kent Place School), Archer Weisholtz (West Essex High School).
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“Congratulations to our award winners for their outstanding work” said Montclair Film Artistic Director Tom Hall. “We are incredibly grateful to all of the artists who shared their films with our audiences at this year’s festival. The connection these films forged with our festival audiences created an incredible atmosphere of conversation, connection, and community. We are so honored to have been given the opportunity to bring these films to our screens, and look forward to continuing our support of these films in our cinemas and in our community throughout the coming year.”
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