2026 Festival Films

9 Million Colors

The ocean is paradise for Fran the shrimp. Her deadly claws take whatever they desire.

Screening in Heebie Jeebies Shorts

Ahoy!

Generations after a global environmental collapse, a young boy raised at sea discovers a map and begins a journey to a mythical place once known as “land.”

Screening in Short Films One

Akababuru: Expression of Astonishment

Kari is afraid to laugh until she meets Kera, who shares with her the myth of Kiraparamia, a woman punished by the gods for laughing at her husband.

Screening in Centerpiece: Native Stories

Screening in Girls’ POV

The Almost Adults

Sofia, a nine-year-old child, is mysteriously replaced by a twenty-something version of herself.

Screening in Short Films Three

The Apricot

A ten-year-old boy spends his first summer working on the family apricot farm.

Screening in Short Films Two

Screening in ¡Hola Cine!

Autokar

In the 1990s, 8-year-old Agata leaves Poland for Belgium.

Screening in Short Films Three

Bats & Bugs

When a streetlamp is lit in the night, deep in the jungle, countless numbers of insects are magically drawn into a trance.

Screening in Short Films One

Beast of the Seine

When the children of a quaint Parisian village are terrorized by a sinister threat, a remarkable dog emerges as the unlikely hero.

Screening in Short Films Three

The Big Bad Wolf

This is the story about a little piggie who befriends a not-so-big bad wolf, much to the outrage of his father.

Screening in Student Showcase

Screening in Short Films One

Screening with Hoppers

Bird Boy

When August discovers a giant egg, it hatches more than just a baby ostrich.

Screening with Waves

Bread Will Walk

Can love defy appetite?

Screening in Heebie Jeebies Shorts

Butterfly

In the sea, a man swims. As he does, memories come to the surface.

Screening in Short Films Three

Cardboard

When a single dad pig moves his piglets into a rundown trailer park, a simple cardboard box takes them out of this world.

Screening in Short Films One

Chiquito

When his inventor owner grows too focused on building her teleportation device, armadillo Chiquito must take matters into his own paws.

Screening in Student Showcase

Screening with Mary Anning

Clara Takes the Wheel

Today is Clara’s birthday. Her father decides to give her driving lessons. Things don’t turn out the way he had hoped.

Screening in Girls’ POV

Cleaning’s a Cakewalk

Independent and imaginative Albert learns the value of hard work when he has to clean the Chapter House.

Screening in Centerpiece: Native Stories

Cloud Fish

A very tiny fish sails in a vast underwater city. Is he too small to see the world?

Screening in Shorts for Tots

The Day I Licked a Pebble

On an ordinary summer afternoon in the countryside, three bored siblings decide to go get snacks.

Screening in Student Showcase

Screening in Short Films Two

Dormilón

In a quest to become the performer of his dreams, a starry-eyed janitor must confront his nightmares face-to-face.

Screening in Heebie Jeebies Shorts

Duet

Two movers. One grand piano. One very uncooperative staircase and a passion they never saw coming.

Screening in Short Films One

Emergency Contact

Nervous about their family’s fate, Auntie Troy and her fourth grader niece, Scottie, use their imagination to pass the time during a major storm.

Screening in Celebrating Black Stories

Screening in Girls’ POV

Evening Escapades

An adventurous rabbit encounters mischievous animals as he navigates a midnight mushroom garden.

Screening in Centerpiece: Native Stories

Experiences and learning. And parenting.

O is very curious and busy discovering the world.

Screening in Short Films One

Family Harmony

When Gilbert Zermeño dreamed of joining his school band, he pictured himself playing a shiny saxophone.

Screening in ¡Hola Cine!

Screening with Lampie

Fantas

Tania decides to take her horse, Fantas, to meet her friends.

Screening in Celebrating Black Stories

Finding Light in the Dark: a Coming of Age Story

Sixteen-year-old Kiewanna is caught between childhood nostalgia and the growing responsibilities of adolescence.

Screening in Centerpiece: Native Stories

Firewall

Ani misses her father, who can’t access the internet because of a firewall in Iran. She becomes immersed in a vivid retelling of the Persian legend of Zahhak, the Serpent King.

Screening in Girls’ POV

First Winter

Ángel is a newly arrived immigrant experiencing his first winter in Chicago.

Screening in Student Showcase

Screening in Shorts for Tots

Screening with My Life in Versailles

Fluff & Furious

A fluffy pup, inspired by its wild relative, sets out to prove it’s more than just a soft ball of fur.

Screening in Student Showcase

Fort Buku

Captivated by the story of Fort Buku, once the refuge of the Boni freedom fighters who fought back against oppression, three friends head into the Surinamese jungle to uncover its unresolved disappearance.

Screening in Celebrating Black Stories

Frankie

Goldfish care comes with a lot of unexpected challenges.

Screening in Student Showcase

Freddy

Freddy’s exciting adventure of magic and friendship.

Screening in Centerpiece: Native Stories

Screening with My Grandfather is a Nihonjin

Ghost School

Rabia shows up to school only to discover it’s closed. Undaunted, she’ll seek answers.

Screening with Whereabouts

The Girl Who Cried Pearls

A girl overwhelmed by sorrow, the boy who loves her, and how greed leads good hearts to wicked deeds.

Screening in Short Films Three

The Great Feat

Pablo needs to rescue his friend Pascualina, a laying hen, who ends up kidnapped by the town shopkeeper.

Screening in ¡Hola Cine!

Helping Hands

After being humiliated while preparing for the school play, a shy teen discovers her little act of kindness has triggered a series of good deeds.

Screening in Short Films Two

Hoppers

Disney and Pixar’s all-new animated comedy adventure introduces Mabel, an animal lover who seizes an opportunity to use a new technology to “hop” her consciousness into a life-like robotic beaver and communicate directly with animals, uncovering mysteries beyond anything she could have imagined.

Screening with The Big Bad Wolf

Inkwo for When the Starving Return

Dove, a gender-shifting warrior, uses their Inkwo, Indigenous medicine, to protect their community from an unburied swarm of terrifying creatures.

Screening in Heebie Jeebies Shorts

Juana Pelos

Relentlessly picked on and finding no support in shedding her hairy shame, Juana sees no other option but to take her body hair-related matters into her own hands.

Screening in ¡Hola Cine!

Screening in Girls’ POV

Kaiju Guy!

A hilarious, mile-a-minute ode to monster movies and staying true to yourself.

Screening with Konigiri-Kun: Super machine?

Konigiri-Kun: Super machine?

Everyone’s favorite, sesame-sprinkled rice boy returns to NYICFF, this time trying to fix his new egg friend with a crack in his shell.

Screening in Shorts for Tots

Screening with Kaiju Guy!

Screening with Papaya

Lampie

Lampie has it all: lighthouses, seascapes, and a menagerie of circus workers, of course!

Screening with Family Harmony

Legend of Fry-Roti: Rise of the Dough

A niece must find harmony when her aunties burst into an epic showdown: frybread vs. roti.

Screening in Centerpiece: Native Stories

Leili’s Photo

Eight-year-old Leili needs to take a pinhole picture of her family for school the next day, but her family won’t cooperate.

Screening in Short Films Two

Lena’s Farm: Motherless Egg

Lena’s dog finds an egg in his bowl. How will it hatch without its mother?

Screening in Shorts for Tots

Lena’s Farm: Full Nest

The squirrel has warmly padded his nest with all kinds of stolen treasure when a flood breaks and the forest animals flee to Lena’s farm.

Screening in Short Films One

Lola and the Sound Piano

Lola’s little brother, Simon, is sensitive to hidden sounds. She builds a noise machine to speak to him.

Screening in Short Films Two

A Magnificent Life

From the renowned, Oscar®-nominated director Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville)—his first feature over a decade—see it before it hits theaters!

Mary Anning

An intrepid fossil-hunter works to solve a big mystery.

Screening with Chiquito

Maus Im Haus

In the early hours of the morning, curious mice explore the old man’s library. They make musical discoveries.

Screening in Student Showcase

MINE!

In early 20th century midwest USA, deep underground, a group of coal miners make an incredible discovery.

Screening in Heebie Jeebies Shorts

ÜMIT

In a village without light, a young astronomer named Ümit, inspired by hope, creates a tool to reunite her people with the Sun.

Screening in Student Showcase

Mom’s Prank

A cunning mother uses a vacuum to get her son to keep her company.

Screening in Short Films Two

Moominvalley

Our favorite, silly Scandinavian creatures are back!

Screening with Puddle

Murmuration

An elderly man realizes he’s suddenly turning into a bird.

Screening in Heebie Jeebies Shorts

My Grandfather is a Nihonjin

When Noboru learns of an uncle he’s never met, he vows to reunite his family.

Screening with Freddy

My Life in Versailles

Rich with color and heart and based on the NYICFF 2020 Grand Prize-winning short!

Screening with First Winter

Nanu!

How do you cancel an online order? Grandfather certainly had no idea.

Screening in Student Showcase

Ni Wapiten

There’s more nature than you’d think at the community garbage dump.

Screening in Centerpiece: Native Stories

No Room

These cars have legs. Maybe that’s why they feel so entitled to use the pavement as they please.

Screening in Short Films Three

Papaya

Bold colors, polka dots, and palm trees all wrapped into the tale of a wayward papaya seed. From the team behind the Oscar®-nominated Boy and the World!

Screening with Konigiri-Kun: Super machine?

Passing By

A girl unexpectedly bumps into her childhood best friend and finds herself torn between rekindling their lost connection or letting the moment slip away forever.

Screening in Student Showcase

Pear Garden

At nighttime, six-year-old Lily tries to get her grandma’s breasts back for her.

Screening in Student Showcase

A Pizza Me!

Two employees from rival pizzerias deliver to the same party—and must convince the host to choose.

Screening in Student Showcase

polliwog

Marlene identifies with an oddly developed tadpole. She decides to set it free.

Screening in Girls’ POV

Pow!

A Native American kid scrambles to charge his dying video game console at a bustling intertribal powwow.

Screening in Centerpiece: Native Stories

Prout

Obsolete appliances and waste of all kinds are sent to the planet Prout, Earth’s dumping ground.

Screening in Short Films One

Puddle

While waiting for the repairman, Mac bears the brunt of a hot day and a broken AC while his cat, Puddles, melts into mischief.

Screening in Student Showcase

Screening with Moominvalley

¡Que Suene La Banda!

Javier, a classical musician preparing for his college audition, must finally embrace his Mexican roots.

Screening in ¡Hola Cine!

Remaining Native

For college-hopeful track superstar Ku Stevens, running is in his blood.

Screening with Tule

Rest

In the swelling and waning in the forest of needles, the mundane world drifts away, and we only live to breathe.

Screening in Heebie Jeebies Shorts

The Scarecrows’ Wedding

Two devoted scarecrows are planning a wedding to remember. When the groom insists on leaving to collect one last thing for their big day, a smooth-talking scarecrow swoops in with plans of his own.

Screening in Shorts for Tots

Shanley

A mischievous little egg relishes on bringing chaotic energy into the dining room.

Screening in Short Films One

Screening with Space Cadet

Sketches on Ice

It snowed! Lou and Marius are building a snowman, but Mom calls them back home. Outside, the snowman has moved.

Screening in Shorts for Tots

Something Greater Than You

A pair of feuding raccoons, having found shelter from a winter storm, receive an unexpected guest.

Screening in Short Films Two

Space Cadet

Astronaut and robot caretaker, separated by millions of miles, keep close through cherished memories.

Screening with Shanley

Spooky

A flying, unexpected house guest might be just what Kemi needs to reconnect with her family.

Screening in Celebrating Black Stories

Sprout

A young plant girl starts sprouting a mustache. Her hairy situation gets even worse when she has to face her dad.

Screening in Student Showcase

Tentsítewahkwe (We Pick It Up Again)

Embodying the Mohawk value of Tentsítewahkwe, Jessica Shenandoah goes on a knowledge-gathering journey across all four seasons to reinvigorate the healing, land-based practices of her ancestral grandmothers.

Screening in Centerpiece: Native Stories

There are No Such Things as Ghosts

Reimagining the ubiquitous Japanese children’s song.

Screening in Shorts for Tots

Screening with Whoever Steals This Book

Turbulence

First flight. No parents. Total panic. Trapped at 30,000 feet in an airborne freak show, one boy must hold on for dear life… or completely lose it.

Screening in Heebie Jeebies Shorts

Tule

A modern Pomo girl reflects on the culturally vital, but now suffering tule plant at Clear Lake in Northern California.

Screening in Centerpiece: Native Stories

Screening with Remaining Native

Waves

A young boy must learn to take pride and find his flow rather than wash himself away.

Screening in Student Showcase

Screening with Bird Boy

We’re Kinda Different

Our hero is, well, different, and he’ll tell you in song.

Screening in Short Films One

Whereabouts

A journey through NYC, unfolding through small, intimate moments. The quiet magic of simply moving through the world.

Screening in Short Films Three

Screening with Ghost School

Whoever Steals This Book

Calling all Crunchyrollers! Teen Mifuyu must defend her family’s library from a powerful curse.

Screening with There are No Such Things as Ghosts