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The 15th Montclair Film Festival has revealed its complete 2026 programme, with dedicated documentary, fiction and New Jersey short-film competitions among a substantial slate of shorts screening in October.
The Montclair Film Festival has completed the line-up for its 15th edition, which will take place from 16–25 October 2026 in Montclair, New Jersey, with short films forming a significant part of the newly announced programme.
The festival will present juried short-film awards across three competitive sections: Documentary Shorts, Fiction Shorts and New Jersey Shorts.
Five films have been selected for the Documentary Shorts Competition: The Baddest Speechwriter of All, directed by Ben Proudfoot and Stephen Curry; Buckskin, directed by Mars Verrone; Division, directed by James Paul Dallas; The Hotline, directed by Ricki Stern and Jesse Sweet; and One Last Order, directed by Lauren DeFilippo and Sam Soko.
The Fiction Shorts Competition comprises six titles: Albatross by Amandine Thomas, Callback by Matthew Puccini, I Saw You in the Flood by Kevin Xian Ming Yu, In Lieu of Flowers by Stacey Torkelson, Scratch by Aliya Kamalova and Sweet Boy by John Kim.
Six more films will compete in the New Jersey Shorts Competition: Beast of the Seine by Jon Portman, Getar Hero by Teddy Stern, Like Little Earthquakes by Matteo Moretti and Freddie Gluck, The Quiet Between by Sam Evoy, St. Joseph by Maky Rupert and Us Being Epic by Jeannette Louie.
A Much Larger Short-Film Slate
Competition represents only part of Montclair’s short-film offering.
The complete programme contains dozens of additional shorts spanning fiction, documentary and other forms, including work from both established and emerging filmmakers.
Among them is Top of the World, a 40-minute documentary short directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West about Windows on the World, the restaurant that occupied the top floors of the World Trade Center. Cohen is scheduled to participate in a post-screening Q&A.
The wider short-film programme also includes titles such as Crisis Actor by Lily Platt, Free Joan Little by Yoruba Richen, Scenes from the Divide by Alison Klayman and Testing Testing Sandi Bachom by David France and Paul McGuire.
For short filmmakers, the structure is notable because Montclair maintains distinct competitive categories for documentary and fiction shorts alongside a separate section highlighting filmmakers connected to New Jersey.
Tickets Open From 28 September
The festival itself runs from 16–25 October.
Tickets for the complete programme are scheduled to go on sale to Montclair Film members on 28 September at 10:00 a.m., followed by general public sales on 1 October at 10:00 a.m.
The 2026 edition will open with Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine and close with Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth!, while the wider programme includes films and appearances from filmmakers including Ava DuVernay, Brad Bird and Simon Stone.
For short-film audiences, however, the newly announced competition selections provide a useful snapshot of the emerging and established filmmakers Montclair’s programmers are highlighting this year. The winners of the three short-film competitions will be worth watching as the festival unfolds in October.
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