Preview Of Slamdance Film Festival 2026 On Slamdance Channel

Bummed at missing the chance to go down to Los Angeles to catch the 32nd Slamdance Film Festival (hereafter “Slamdance”) in person?  Fear not, the Slamdance Virtual 2026 Festival is now live on the Slamdance Channel.  From February 24 to March 6, 2026, people who buy a $50 virtual pass can access over 100 films of various lengths from over 50 countries (including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Palestine, and Vietnam), such as these:

An unusual intrusion from the past takes place in Jose Eduardo Castilla Ponce’s short “Levantamuertos: Cumbia For The Dead.”  Chuy’s childhood was made miserable by Kevin’s bullying.  Now the two reconnect in an unexpected way.  Kevin’s now dead, and Chuy’s a cumbia-loving embalmer who has a secret gift for talking with the dead.  When the embalmer learns his old nemesis buried a fortune before he died, the duo set out on an unusual road trip to recover the money. 

The Ramon of Shervin Kermani’s documentary short “Ramon Who Speaks To Ghosts” is a man who wanders the island of La Palma with his microphone.  He hopes to find spectres to talk to, given that a volcanic eruption recently occurred here.

Sam Tricomo’s “Puke Bitch Episode One” concerns siblings Dove and Larry, who are stuck living in a small town.  To amuse themselves, they party hearty and mock their foster mother.  What else is there to do in this town seemingly joined at the hip to death?

Xinhao Lu and Mufeng Han’s dramatic short “After That” takes place in the wake of World War III.  Wanderer Xinhao seems to be the sole survivor.  Before he goes, he decides to memorialize his past.

David Maler’s historical epic “Zumeca” gets its title from the name of a Taino woman who possesses great emotional intelligence and a strong connection to nature.  When she finds the emotionally broken Spanish refugee Miguel, she sees something special in him that he can’t see.  Their intimate relationship will eventually form the first family of the Americas, but at a terrible cost.  

Natalia Koniarz’s documentary feature “Silver” takes viewers to the oldest mine in Bolivia.  12-year-old Juvi is the viewer’s guide to the lives of the people who work the mine’s shrinking silver deposits.  Does the cost in human lives and suffering get balanced out by the value of what the miners unearth?

Could a strip-mall casino offer hope for a better future?  Jacob Hatley and Tom Vickers’ verite documentary “Clovers” takes viewers to such a semi-legal establishment.  Jennifer Paschal is the new manager of this casino, located in a decaying Southern town already hit by unemployment and a drug epidemic.  The gamblers and outcasts who flock to the casino hope to find something greater, legal or illegal, in their lives.  Whether any of these people will get their wishes granted is a different story.

Why are people in the Mexico City borough of Xochimilco willing to wait decades to care for a Baby Jesus icon for one year?  Martin Edralin’s documentary short “La Mayordomia” explains how it’s popularly believed that such stewardship will bring miracles and good fortune to those who undertake the task.

Amber Su has failed at adulting.  She’s broke, virginal, and feels humiliated owing even pizza money.  Could taking Coco Ging’s self-help course be the answer?  When the process includes sexual outbursts, ritualized public humiliation, and monetized shame, you have to wonder.  See what Amber eventually becomes in Stella Chen’s animated short “Bootstrapping For The Boobied.”   

You’ve heard of teens sneaking out of the family home to go to a party?  Shannon Lee’s animated short “Starlit” takes that idea one step further.  The trio of girls in this story are off to party with energy drink bootlegging aliens.  Along the way, they discover their individuality and see what the universe has to offer them.

“Tony Odyssey,” the titular protagonist of Thales Banzai’s surreal drama, winds up going on a different sort of road trip.  He’s on the run along with his friend and accomplice, Ivy.  The cause of their flight: robbing the bar owned by Tony’s ruthless employer, Mr. Casio, and making off with Casio’s stash of Drug, the substance that powers the criminal’s operation.  When both fugitives consume the Drug, the phrase “road trip” takes on new meanings, such as a visit to a surreal metropolis and even a chance to literally talk with God.  Could Tony’s consciousness-raising adventure help change the current direction of his life?

Depressed insurance claims adjuster Will doesn’t need drugs to inspire him to seek a new direction in life.  As Episode 1 of Edward Bursch’s “The Human, Will” shows, the only inspiration Will needed to start exercising free will was the freak accidental shooting and killing of his pet goldfish, Frodo.

The contemporary Istanbul art world is the setting for Melik Kuru’s drama “Dump Of Untitled Pieces.”  Asli is a young photographer whose humiliating failures at selling her art mean she and roommate Murat are in danger of getting evicted from their apartment.  Her frustrated smashing of an art gallery window brings not the cops but an important curator named Mete, who wants to rebrand Asil’s act as performance art.  Will the young photographer’s acceptance of Mete’s offer be something she’ll come to regret?

By contrast, the freak accident that befalls Johnson, the protagonist of Ahsabul Yamin’s narrative short “Dyspepsia By Salty Biscuits,” does not bring enlightenment or even possible prosperity.  His accidental swallowing of a bug causes his overactive imagination to make him believe the insect’s living in his stomach, causing him all sorts of mental and gastrointestinal ailments.  How far will he go to cure his “illness?”

On the other hand, the crisis in Gabriel de Varona’s gonzo “The Old Man And The Parrot” makes Johnson’s dilemma sound totally rational.  De Varona mixes together a bizarre curse, a vegan Cuban restaurant, and a taxidermied parrot.  Ana is the estranged daughter of spiritual guru Radel.  When the pistol-wielding Praxi bursts into Radel’s home during her visit to the guru, the daughter slowly learns about her father’s involvement with the armed man and the man’s lover, Yoelvis.  It soon becomes clear that only Ana can undo the mess that’s resulted in the current situation.

Nik Arthur’s experimental hand-animated short “Witness: An Organima Film” uses organic matter to depict sentience in such small “life forms” as a water droplet and a beam of sunlight.       

The DZATA lab is no more.  Fortunately, Francois Knoetze, Amy Louise Wilson, and Russel Hlongwane have created a video series to preserve the institute’s activities and ideas.  See what results when the documentary interacts with the poetic in “DZATA: The Institute Of Technological Consciousness.” 

“Daddies Boi” happens to be the name of an app for those seeking sex work and/or companion gigs. Jason Avezzano’s queer dark episodic comedy focuses on two best friends forced to rely on the app for reasons of survival.  Ozzie gets dumped by their sugar daddy for a younger model; Billie owes money up the proverbial yin-yang.  But their journey through queer nightlife becomes a mix of empowerment and peril.

Can self-help and meditation techniques be used to get people to renounce their allegiance to whiteness?  Kearra Amaya Gopee will attempt such a feat with the installation “an excision spell.” 

Krzysztof Kieslowski is not the only filmmaker to use a national flag as inspiration for a film.  The three director anthology film “Three Colors: Pan-African” uses the colors of the Pan-African flag to tell three stories about Black resilience.  Ahmari Rose, the protagonist of RED (Liberation), had hoped to use his skill at football to provide for his family.  What will he do when a devastating knee injury threatens that dream?  Undocumented immigrant Joana faces deportation after getting fired from her job in BLACK (Unity).  Her only hope might be to trust the strangers in the surrounding African-American community.  Finally, in GREEN (Prosperity), actor Jontavius “John” Rodgers stars in a Black sitcom with slipping ratings.  Does continuing to provide for his family mean John must accept leaning into the racist caricature the network wants him to accept?

Ever wonder what it feels like to try living with sickle cell anemia?  Comedian/director J. Snow answers that question with his personal documentary feature “You Look Fine.”  When he gets trapped in his hospital bed thanks to a sickle cell crisis, Snow turns the camera on himself to create a combination stand-up set and visual journal to convey his experience of living with the disease. 

Nobody disputes the 2023 problem that provides the launching point for Ori Segev and Noah Dixon’s documentary “The Bulldogs.”  On February 3, 2023, the rural residents of East Palestine, Ohio, were forced to evacuate their struggling town after a train derailment released 1.1 million pounds of carcinogenic vinyl chloride.  The disaster may have brought out the mainstream media.  But what future will the people of East Palestine have after the news cameras leave?

Sometimes a long-term problem can only be solved with a dose of healthy competition, such as paddle tennis vs. pickleball to the death. Sveinn Ingimundarson and S.D. Saltarelli’s documentary “Kings Of Venice” takes viewers to Venice Beach.  Here, paddle tennis has been reduced from a proud sport to something played by oddball enthusiasts.  A horde of pickleballers seek to claim the paddlers’ playing turf for themselves.  The two different groups wind up competing with each other for the “title” to the spot.

A far different competition gets chronicled in Salome Cummins, Isaiah Gauthier, David Grabiad, Christopher Morgan, and Brendon Schulz’ documentary feature “Brailled It.”  The film follows its blind and low-vision under-18 subjects as they come to Los Angeles to face off against other competitors in the Braille Challenge.  However, what makes this film different from other kids’ competition films is that the cinematography shows sighted audiences what the world looks like from the kids’ perspectives.

Julie Forrest Wyman’s documentary feature “The Tallest Dwarf” serves as a cinematic clapback against societal fetishization of dwarfism.  When the filmmaker discovers she has inherited hypochondioplasia dwarfism, she winds up working with dwarf artists to create works embodying their full humanity and rejecting societal pressure to take drugs to make themselves taller. 

Ashley Brandon’s documentary short “Panther Pat” recounts a forgotten moment in American football history.   In 1970, schoolteacher Patricia Palinkas stepped onto a professional football field to play for the Orlando Panthers, becoming the first woman to actively challenge the sport’s gender barrier.  She may not have memorized a playbook, but she very much had something to prove. 

Roman goddesses “Diana & Minerva” never met in the mythic record.  But in Francesca Occhionero’s experimental short, they do so, but as two modern women in a pink kitchen in a 1980s Mexican villa.  What do they talk about?  Personal pain, the erosion of civility, and subjects of that nature.  How this conversation is carried on, though, is part of what makes this short an experimental one.

Who is Zere Azylbek?  Is this pop star activist from Kyrgyzstan really an “agent of the West?”  Or is she a voice of female resistance in a country that still allows young women to be kidnapped as brides?  Find out in Leigh Iacobucci’s verite documentary “A Free Daughter Of Free Kyrgyzstan.”

Prison guards perform on millions of American prisoners the “routine” practice known as the strip frisk.  Could that frisk also be an act of sexual abuse sanctioned by the U.S. government?  Inmates Corey Devon Arthur and Sara Kielly contend that’s what’s happening, and they’re willing to risk retaliation to document their claims.  Sandro Ramani and Corey Devon Arthur make their case in the documentary short “In Exchange For Flesh.”  

Ready for some punk superhero action from Chile?  Then you need to check out Diego “Mapanche” Fuentes’ feature narrative “Matapanki.”  Ricardo is a punk whose main joys in life are drinking and going to gigs with best friends, Claudia and Mella.  When a strange alcoholic brew gives him superpowers every time he drinks it, he decides to use his newfound abilities to change society.  But a bloody screwup turns the world against him.

Ready for a hothouse political drama?  Then you need to check out Jessica Barr’s “The Plan,” a comedy-thriller shot in a single take in an East LA apartment.  Take a group of young activists who want to make a lasting impact by launching a coordinated violent disruption of a high-profile graduation ceremony.  Add in the proverbial ticking clock and an increasingly hot day.  Then watch what happens as personal grievances, unresolved traumas, and even doubts about what the group is fighting for start boiling to the surface. 

As a caveat, some of the Slamdance films mentioned above might not be available virtually for one reason or another.  However, the following Slamdance 2026 films definitely won’t be part of this year’s Slamdance Virtual Festival.  There might be a chance these three films already have future theatrical screenings lined up. 

Alexandre Rockwell’s “The Projectionist” is a reclusive man who works alone in a fading art house theater.  One fateful night, he’s forced to confront a tortured personal past marked by a wrongful conviction and the death of his wife.  Will he find peace by the final reel?  Co-produced by Quentin Tarantino.

In Yuqing Lai’s lesbian drama “Whisperings Of The Moon,” actress Nisay returns to her old Phnom Penh theater following the sudden death of her father.  There, she reunites with her former lover Thida and meets Thida’s daughter Malika.  Old memories of Nisay and Thida’s passionate relationship collide with such present-day realities as marriage and loss.  What will happen when they’re forced to part? 

Finally, there’s the new film by “The King Of Kong” director Seth Gordon.  He’s joined by Nikki Calabrese for the weird true-crime documentary  “Under The Rainbow: The Curious Crimes Of The Ruby Slippers.”  It concerns the museum theft of a classic piece of film memorabilia: the original Ruby Slippers from “The Wizard Of Oz.”  The trail of clues and calamities will lead from the streets of Minnesota to the heart of big-time crime.

(For further information about accessing the Slamdance 2026 Virtual Film Festival through the Slamdance Channel, go here.)