A New Film Fest is All About Animals – And Has Sex-Changing Clownfish & Stoner Cats

“A new film festival starring Western Snowy Plovers, sex-changing clownfish, and cats given sentience by pot? No way,” a disbelieving reader might say. But such a festival exists. It’s the first San Francisco Critter Fest (hereafter “Critter Fest).” Running from September 17 to 20, 2026 both online and live (mainly) at the Four Star Theatre, this new annual film festival comes from the proverbial mad geniuses behind the S.F. Indie Fest and its associated offbeat film festivals. Viewers coming to the festival for those four days will be treated to a mix of nineteen features and short films on “animals, pets and wildlife.”

Things kick off with a film likely to anger TERFs, J.K. Rowling, and more than a few knuckle-dragging Rethuglican types.  Drew Denny’s “Second Nature (6:15 PM on September 17, 2026 at the 4-Star)” shows how sexual diversity in the animal kingdom is way more complicated than the gender binary.  For example, clownfish easily change their sex, bonobos are matriarchal, and there are gay swans and albatrosses.  Elliott Page narrates this eye-opening nature documentary.

Playing with the Denny film is AJ Jefferies’ animated short “Ducks.”  It may start off with a normal day in the park, which includes the sight of extremely normal ducks.  But these waterfowls turn out to behave in anything but normal ways.

“Ducks” also plays as part of the “Flying Critters” online shorts program running from September 17-20, 2026.  Another short in the program is Bryce Spangler’s documentary “Talking To Owls (also 12:00 PM on September 19, 2026 at the 4-Star),” which lets viewers join a group of biologists and graduate students deep in West Texas’ Davis Mountains.  Their studies of the owls that live in these mountains reveals both unusual adaptations and the role these birds play in the area’s food web.

Scientific study is just part of the human-bird relationship featured in Marc Schlossman’s documentary short “Lights Out (also 2:00 PM on September 19, 2026 at the 4-Star).”  The other part, embodied by the volunteers of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, is rescue of stunned and injured but alive birds.  These bird collisions occur because Chicago’s towering glass skyline intersects a major bird migration route.  Is there a way to save some of the one billion birds that die annually in building collisions?  If the tower branded by the Corrupt Orange Coot happens to be one of those Chicago buildings these unfortunate birds hit, this writer wouldn’t shed any tears over that tower’s abrupt demolition.

Moving from the Windy City to the City by the Bay, Danny Roberts’ documentary short “The Western Snowy Plover (also 12:00 PM on September 20, 2026 at the 4-Star)” takes viewers to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.  The titular bird lives in close proximity to humans.  This film winds up being a presentation of two perspectives: how humans see the snowy plover, and how the bird probably sees itself.

Sticking solely to its subject’s perspective is Roman Willi’s short documentary “Sandcastle - The Secret Life Of Potter Wasps (also 12:00 PM on September 20, 2026 at the 4-Star).”  The potter wasp followed in this film displays tenacity and perseverance in dealing with predators and other challenges.

Garrett Graham’s documentary short “Austin Bat Refuge (also 2:00 PM on September 19, 2026 at the 4-Star)” brings the “Flying Critters” program full circle with a return to a different part of Texas.  Austin is home to two important bat-related things.  One is the South Congress Avenue bridge, which is home to one and a half million Mexican free-tailed bats.  The other is the titular refuge, which houses orphaned and injured bats until they can be released back into the wild.  Viewers who loved “The Invisible Mammal” will like this film.

The other online shorts program is “Walking And Crawling Critters,” also running from September 17-20, 2026.  The program kicks off with Claire Musser and Maddie Bear’s “Bears In Hot Tubs (also 12:00 PM on September 20, 2026 at the 4-Star).”  This short documentary presents an offbeat example of nature-human coexistence.  In this case, Maddie Bear and her bear clan wander through Los Angeles’s suburban landscapes not as intruders but as neighbors curiously navigating this human built world on their own terms.

The next short takes viewers to a mountainous Italian town called Barga.  Calvin Bowers’ short documentary “For The Love Of Cats (also 2:00 PM on September 19, 2026 at the 4-Star)” illustrates the relationship between the cat-loving people of Barga and the street felines who trot along beside them.

Simon Dickel’s documentary short “Gianna & Anne - Significant Otherness (also 4:00 PM on September 20, 2026 at the 4-Star)” depicts the relationship between a cow named Gianna and her human Anne.  They communicate in their own language and have a connection characterized as “significant otherness.”

Roman Willi has another short documentary in Critter Fest, “The Leap Beneath (also on 12:00 PM on September 20, 2026 at the 4-Star).”  The film follows a springtail as it looks for food on the forest floor.  But performing such a task means navigating through the mites, beetles, and other small creatures that keep the forest floor alive.

Local documentary film maker Jay Rosenblatt joins Stephanie Rapp in directing the delightful documentary short “Tripawds.”  The title happens to be the nickname for three-legged dogs.  The setting is an annual San Francisco gathering of tripawds and their humans.  These good boys and girls may not look physically perfect, but that doesn’t mean they’re lacking for love.

The second online shorts program concludes with Jonas Steiner’s more serious documentary “Risky Routes (also 12:00 PM on September 20, 2026 at the 4-Star),” which concerns a fight for survival.   The toads that are the subjects of Steiner’s film just want to return to the waters of their birth to reproduce.  But the routes these amphibians are taking to get there involve navigating past such physical dangers as speeding cars.

The online version of Critter Fest also offers four feature films.  The first of these is Viacheslav Rakovskyi and Jeremy Chilnick’s documentary “The Ark (also 2:00 PM on September 20, 2026 at the 4-Star).”  Subjects Zhenye and Anatoly Piplipenko just wanted to live in a quiet country home in Eastern Ukraine.  But the Russian invasion of Ukraine would result in the couple’s home being transformed into the area’s largest animal sanctuary, a place where rescuing the animals wounded and displaced by the war is their way of preserving a small part of Ukrainian life.

Cam Lui and Michael Schnee’s documentary feature “Better Call Babs (also 2:00 PM on September 19, 2026 at the 4-Star)” delivers a cinematic ride-along with its titular subject, pet detective Babs Fry.  For San Diego humans who’ve lost their beloved critter, Fry is the person you call when you have no idea of next steps.  This recovering addict displays the grit and determination (and the badassery) to find and return a lost pet.

Peoples’ love of their pets is just one example of the human-animal relationship.  Don Hardy’s feature documentary “Unspoken Bond (also 4:00 PM on September 20, 2026 at the 4-Star)” presents three portraits of other bonding between humans and animals.  The stories are: a dressage rider recovering from the loss of her Olympic-hopeful horse, an ex-addict who becomes a fox rescuer, and a PTSD-stricken vet whose service dog helps him reconnect to humanity.

The final online Critter Fest feature film will be of interest to Broke-Ass viewers because it’s a Free Screening of a complete animated series.  “Stoner Cats” comes from Chris Cartagena (“Happy Feet”), Sarah Cole (“Spider-Verse 1 & 2”), and Ash Brannon (“Arcane”).   The titular aging fuzzy quintet lives with Ms. Stoner, a matriarch battling early Alzheimer’s.  When the cats accidentally eat from their human’s “special supply,” they gain sentience.  Now these furballs do all they can to protect their human…and satisfy their munchies.

“Stoner Cats” is not the only free animated feature screening as part of Critter Fest.  There’s also Chris Renaud’s “The Secret Lives Of Pets 2 (8:00 PM on September 18, 2026 at Proxy).”  In the new film, terrier Max (Patton Oswalt) has a thorny relationship with his human’s son Liam.  Max’s Pomeranian friend Gidget’s (Jenny Slate) plan to rescue Max’s favorite toy from a cat-infested apartment takes a definitely unexpected turn.  Would-be superhero rabbit Snowball (Kevin Hart) gets enlisted in rescuing an animal from a cruel circus owner.

Another feature which will be shown at Critter Fest only in the theater is the Lorenzo Hagerman documentary “Flamingos: Life After The Meteorite (12:00 PM on September 19, 2026 at the 4-Star).”  Remember the meteor strike on the Yucatan Peninsula that wound up eliminating dinosaur life from the face of the planet?  Nowadays, that impact spot has become a breeding place for tens of thousands of Caribbean flamingos to create the next generation of these birds.  Julieta Venegas narrates this look at that breeding process in action, from the building of mud nests to ducking hungry predators.

Finally, Matthew Wright’s documentary feature “Wild Asia - Life At Extremes (12:00 PM on September 20, 2026 at the 4-Star)” comes from the BBC Studios Natural History Unit.  It’s a look at the type of life that survives in the more extreme parts of the Asian terrain.  From a jumping Jerboa in the Gobi Desert to a Tibetan fox doing hide-and-seek hunting among yaks to sapcicle-seeking Japanese songbirds, prepare to see some astonishing images.

Incidentally, Critter Fest claims no responsibility for attendees who add a new critter to their household after feeling moved by seeing one of the festival’s films.