2026 OFFICIAL FILM SELECTIONS

CLIMATE/ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING

"Upstream, Downriver: Uniting for Water Justice" takes viewers into the heart of the battle for water justice. Powerful stories with frontline community activists are interwoven with historical context about landmark regulations that significantly reduced water pollution in the U.S. but failed to serve disadvantaged communities that are hardest hit by today’s climate crisis.

CLIMATE/ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING

Norfolk, Virginia is sinking. The already insufficient sea wall ends where a public housing project, St. Paul’s, begins. St. Paul’s housing projects' residents are Black people. Norfolk is home to the world’s largest naval base and there is currently no public plan to prevent it from going underwater.

Wanda Sykes narrates animated interstitials throughout the film, and three Black millennial comedians, hailing from Chicago, IL (Clark Jones), Atlanta, GA (Aminah Imani), and locally from Virginia Beach (Kristin Sivills), meet with community members and decision makers to understand the story at hand.

CLIMATE/ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING

In Trenton, Vicie Rolling reflects on her parents’ fight against lead pollution in the late twentieth century. Decades after her parents fought to protect their neighbors, community leaders, Shereyl Snider and Sheila Caldwell, continue to battle for environmental justice. Bloodlines is a story of the memory and diligence of a community determined to ensure no more generations are harmed by poisons from the past.

STUDENT

When a troubled young man discovers a mysterious body in a motel room, he finds himself pulled into a disturbing situation he can’t explain. As the night unfolds, paranoia, fear, and uncertainty begin to blur the line between reality and what he believes is happening. With nowhere to turn, he must confront the darkness surrounding Room 264 before it consumes him.

STUDENT

Two women try to save their failing relationship through an impromptu romantic dinner.

SHORT

Linda Hamilton, a high-powered attorney has spent her life winning battles in the courtroom, but nothing prepares her for the fight that begins when her daughter, Sophie, nearly dies from a heroin overdose. Struggling to understand how her bright, talented child became an addict, Linda is consumed by guilt. Meanwhile, her ex-husband, Ray, sees an opportunity to take Sophie to live with him, claiming Linda’s career is to blame. Old wounds resurface, forcing Sophie, Linda and Ray to confront past hurts and actions. In the end, they realize that addiction isn’t about blame—it’s about love, understanding, and the difficult journey toward healing, together.

SHORT

Pastor Brian Thompson is an artist, pastor and designer of the $100 bill. Graduating from Suitland High School in Prince George's County, Maryland, he is the first and only black man to create US Currency.

SHORT

A documentary film dedicated to the life and work of Brumsic Brandon, an influential African American artist and the creator of the beloved comic strip “Luther".

SHORT

Over the course of a single morning, The Barber follows a compassionate barber whose chair becomes a refuge for clients navigating life’s challenges. We observe as he offers quiet guidance without judgment. The Barber reveals how identity is styled and shaped by love, loss, and the stubborn courage to believe in a better day.

SHORT

When his girlfriend ditches him for a “wave god”, a scruffy underdog throws himself into the culture—brushing, greasing, and duragging his way to revenge—only to expose the crown as fake.

SHORT

A woman is forced to confront the emotional leftovers of a failed relationship when her ex-boyfriend moves back into their shared home with his new girlfriend.

SHORT

A grieving granddaughter inherits her grandmother’s home in a gentrifying D.C. neighborhood, where family tensions and generational scars force her to choose between preserving tradition or redefining legacy.

SHORT FILM

Love Song is a drama that explores the intersections of ambition, intimacy, love and legacy, as a music producer wrestles with who he is and who he is expected to be.