The Nevada City Film Festival (NCFF) returns for its 26th edition June 26–28, 2026, transforming the historic streets of downtown Nevada City into a living, breathing celebration of independent cinema unlike any before it. Part festival, part symposium, part think tank – this year’s edition marks a bold evolution: a space where filmmakers, artists, and audiences come together not just to watch great films, but to exchange ideas, spark collaborations, and reimagine the future of cinema itself.
A New Kind of Festival Experience
The 26th edition serves as a bridge between the beloved, award-winning festival experience audiences have come to know and a new, more expansive vision for what a film festival can be. Screenings of exceptional short films from around the world remain at the heart of the program – alongside creative cohorts designed to go deeper into the filmmaking process, foster dialogue among like-minded artists, and send every attendee home with something tangible to bring back to their own corner of the world.
Thursday Night Kick Off
Come behind the scenes of one of the most exciting new initiatives supporting local filmmakers and meet the artists bringing it to life.
Join NCFF festival directors and Filmed in Nevada County grant recipient award-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary director and producer Jared Callahan for an intimate sneak peek at CATCH, one of two productions selected for this year’s grant. You’ll hear directly from Callahan along with the cast and crew who brought the film to life right here in Nevada County and get a firsthand look at what it takes to make meaningful work in our own backyard.
This is also your chance to learn more about the grant and how NCFF and its partners are actively working to support and invigorate the local film industry. Whether you’re a filmmaker, a film lover, or simply someone who believes in the power of local storytelling, this evening is for you.
7 Shorts Programs. 50+ Films. Infinite Perspectives.
This year’s shorts lineup spans ancient Mesopotamia to the year 2730, the mountains of Anatolia to a California drive-in at dusk, the aftermath of the LA wildfires to a Punjabi farmworkers’ dance floor in 1980s Yuba City. These curated film programs take audiences on a journey through the full spectrum of human experience:
Short Film Programs
- Still Here – A Rebels’ Cry: Eight films that refuse to be forgotten – from Ukrainian artists turning war debris into defiant art at Burning Man, to a Yorük family’s ancient seasonal migration through the Taurus Mountains.
- The Long Table – Family Across Generations: Seven films about the people who shape us before we can speak and haunt us long after they’re gone.
- Fierce – The Ones Who Don’t Break: Eight films about vulnerability, strength, and the people who bend the world back just by refusing to break.
- Laugh Until It Hurts: Seven films celebrating our most ridiculous human follies – zero dignity, maximum joy.
- Into the Unknown: Three films where real life is stranger than fiction – part X-Files, part environmental thriller, part haunting animated meditation.
- From the Beginning of Time: Seven films spanning ancient myth to the far future, asking what it has always meant to be here.
Spotlight on Animation
This year, NCFF shines a special spotlight on animation and the artists who bring imagination to life. At a moment when technology is transforming the creative landscape, the festival believes it is more important than ever to celebrate the human touch, the artistry, and the storytelling power that animators bring to the screen.
Highlights include the Sundance, San Francisco International Film Festival, and Seattle International Film Festival Award-winning Paper Trail, directed by Don Herztfelt; the Sundance Short Film Jury Award–winning Living with a Visionary, a hand-drawn animated masterpiece about love, loss, and 50 years of marriage; and the Cannes and TIFF award-winning anyone lived in a pretty how town, narrated by the late Jane Goodall. Plus many more.
Creative Cohorts
- Award-winning animator and NCFF alum Joey Clift brings together four of the most exciting Native American voices working in animation today. Morgan Thompson, the first and only Native animator to win an Annie Award and is currently in production on Cartoon Saloon’s highly anticipated feature Kindred Spirits. Quinne Larsen, a boundary-pushing director and board artist, just premiered their latest short at Sundance. Vera Starbard, Emmy-nominated writer on Molly of Denali, brings her voice to one of animation’s most celebrated Indigenous series. And Nicolette Ray lends her talents to Spirit Rangers as a storyboard artist helping bring Native stories to a new generation. Together, they represent the present and future of Indigenous storytelling on screen.
- Boundary-pushing filmmakers and animators Helder Sun (The Simpsons, Robot Chicken, Stoopid Buddy) and Ri Crawford (I’m a Virgo, Mad God, Sorry To Bother You) will take part in conversation with fellow animators on what the art form reveals about flexibility, agility, and creative resilience. Animation demands that you solve problems that don’t exist yet, invent worlds from scratch, and find movement in stillness – skills that translate far beyond the screen. This cohort digs into what animators know that other creatives are still learning: how to hold a vision loosely, pivot without losing the thread, and find the unexpected solution hiding inside the impossible constraint.
- Artist Spotlight: Dariustwin – Light Painting Photography, Short Films & Stories. World-renowned artist Darren Pearson gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse into his 19+ year practice of creating freehand light art seen by millions worldwide. Learn about his technique and process, the sources of inspiration that fuel his work, and enjoy an honest conversation about what it means to build an artistic identity at the intersection of disciplines.
Kids and Family
FREE Children’s Watch and Wonder Program – NCFF presents an abbreviated version of their popular Watch and Wonder children’s program on Saturday morning, featuring a puppet-making workshop led by master creature effects fabricator Fred Fraleigh (Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: Civil War, X-Men: Apocalypse) followed by a screening of Where the Wild Things Are, which Fraleigh also worked on. Open to all ages, but limited to 40 students. This program reflects NCFF’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of storytellers and film lovers.
Building Thriving Creative Communities
What does it actually take to build a creative community that lasts?
NCFF Producers Retreat Director and celebrated producer and advocate Karin Chien leads a conversation with two artists who have spent their careers answering that question. Griff Williams – painter, filmmaker, author, and gallerist – founded San Francisco’s Gallery 16 in 1993, building one of the Bay Area’s most enduring independent creative spaces. Erin Washington, founder of SoulCenter – a design studio at the intersection of Black arts and innovation – has worked as a producer and strategist across some of America’s most vital cultural institutions, including Arena Stage, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Public Theater, and The Curran. Together, they bring decades of hard-won experience building communities across galleries, theaters, festivals, and digital platforms. This cohort is for anyone who believes that art doesn’t just happen in a room — it happens because someone built the room.
What: 26th Annual Nevada City Film Festival
When: June 26-28, 2026
Where: Historic Nevada Theatre, 401 Broad Street, Nevada City
Tickets: Early Bird Festival Passes $79 includes all films, creative cohorts, Official 2026 NCFF t-shirt, after parties, and more. Individual Tickets, $9/Student, Senior & Military, $11/GA, Children’s Program Free.
Info: www.nevadacityfilmfestival.com
About the Nevada City Film Festival
Since 2001, the Nevada City Film Festival has brought top independent film, music, and comedy to the historic foothills of the Sierra Nevada, attracting thousands of attendees, international filmmakers, and industry guests. Often referred to as the “Sundance of the Sierra,” NCFF has been named one of the Top 50 Film Festivals in the World by Moviemaker Magazine six times, including 2026. It was named one of the “25 Coolest Film Festivals” by Moviemaker Magazine in 2023 and ranked #9 in the USA by 10Best/USA Today.
Past festival guests include Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine), Mike Mills, Terry Zwigoff, Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim, Patrick Brice, Bill Nye, David Zellner, Mark and Jay Duplass, and comedians Maria Bamford, Tig Notaro, Nick Kroll, Eric Andre, Marc Maron, and many more.