New Media Film Festival® Announces 2026 Lineup Highlighting Global Innovation in Film, Music and Storytelling

“NMFF looked like an outlier in 2009 with its odd categories. Now those formats are mainstream. NMFF keeps pushing creators, the market & audiences toward new storytelling,” Oscar Winner Nick Reed

LOS ANGELES, CA, April 14, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ — The New Media Film Festival® today announced its full 2026 lineup, featuring an expansive slate of narrative films, documentaries, science driven projects, innovative storytelling formats and music culture collaborations from international filmmakers, award recognized creators and globally known artists. The 17th annual festival will take place June 3–4, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.

This year’s slate includes 35 world premieres, 5 U.S. premieres and 18 Los Angeles premieres, representing 58 premieres across 80 new media films and projects. Creators represent the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Italy, France, Ireland, Norway, Israel, Switzerland, Malta, Serbia, Panama, Kazakhstan, Brazil and Japan.

This year’s selections include work from YongJik Lee (Sunflowers), Fabio Thieme (A Dream My Sister Had), Loïs Levy (Summer 1990), Kenji Ishimaru (If You See a Cat), Leeorah Hursky (Naked Soul), Lori Moilov (Reach the Sky; creator of Limitless Podcast), Nick Roth (Is Ai Gonna Get Better, or Nah?), Da Eun Kim (A Day (HARU)), Dr. Owain Llwyd (Life in the Trees) and Rod Findley (Dolphins of the Reef).

Music and culture programming features major artists including multi platinum Pendulum and WARGASM with their collaboration Cannibal, and a visual teaser centered on David Byrne, the Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe winning cultural icon known for reshaping the boundaries of performance and visual storytelling.

Documentary and cultural titles include Kinfolk – The Juke Joint Blues, featuring historically significant blues figures such as Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, Theresa Needham and Muddy Waters Jr.

The lineup also includes appearances from notable industry leaders such as Bob Weis, former President of Walt Disney Imagineering, who joins the Limitless Podcast LA premiere as a special guest.

The festival’s classic and tech driven category highlights span Bartogay Lake, One Day the Sun Will Only Shine for You, Sign, Father Christmas, Storm Hunters, Our Brightest Nights, In Media Res, Moon Over Capri, Roots & Relics, The Mystery of Emma Thorn, Halloween Girl – Gods and Monsters, Marionette, Take Me Home, 2 Can Play, Honey Fungus, The Chapel Door, Ceol Chicago, Talking Heads’ David Byrne – What Is the Reason For It?, To the Moon, If You See a Cat, Dolphins of the Reef and Life in the Trees.

Family and youth oriented selections include The Adventures of The Sensokids, Ish Meets a Mermaid and Kishta, the Black Cat. The lineup features Indigenous and Sámi creators, including regional Emmy winning Native American filmmaker Jonathan Thunder (Ish Meets a Mermaid) and internationally recognized Sámi multimedia artist Gjert Rognli (One Day the Sun Will Only Shine for You).

The festival’s science and innovation program includes Antibiotic Resistance: Could Metals Be the Answer?, Emergence in Marfa and the hybrid media project Androsphere. Immersive selections include Tirosen – King Boat VR Experience.

Innovation driven programming includes work from leading contemporary and digital artists such as Bernar Venet, A.A. Murakami, Mitchell F. Chan, Daniella Loftus, Anna Carreras, DADABOTS, OONA, remnynt and Luke Shannon, representing the forefront of conceptual art, generative design and AI driven creativity.

Notable talent featured across the 2026 lineup includes:

David Byrne – Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe winner

Mary Lou Belli – Two time Emmy winner

Blair Underwood – Golden Globe and Grammy nominee

Vernon Davis – Sports Emmy winner

Cindy Herron – Grammy winner (En Vogue)

Ernesto Paglia – International Emmy winner

Gjert Rognli – Internationally award winning Sámi multimedia artist

Jonathan Thunder – Regional Emmy winning Native American filmmaker

Ava Della Pietra – Billboard charting artist and Broadway alum

Lynn Lowry – Cult cinema icon

Paul Ben Victor – SAG Award nominee

James Urbaniak – Annie Award nominee

Nicole Kang – Series regular, Batwoman

Mather Zickel – SAG ensemble nominee

The 2026 lineup reflects a forward looking vision that celebrates innovation, global voices and the evolving landscape of film, music, science and immersive media.

Festival Director Susan Johnston emphasized the festival’s continued commitment to innovation, noting that “each year we champion creators who push the boundaries of story, technology, and culture. The 2026 lineup reflects the global imagination shaping the future of new media.”

Founded in 2009, the New Media Film Festival is a Los Angeles–based event dedicated to honoring stories worth telling. The festival showcases work across more than 28 categories, spanning classic and tech driven formats including narrative and documentary projects, pilots, web series, scripts, animation, music driven visuals, experimental work and emerging media.

Each year, the festival brings together storytellers from around the world and is supported by a distinguished judging body that has included industry professionals from Marvel, HBO, PBS, BBC, ABC and other leading creative institutions. With a focus on discovery and innovation in both form and format, the festival highlights creators working at the intersection of story and technology, from page to screen and beyond.

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