What makes the Vashon Island Film Festival (VIFF) an incredible cinema experience and event, whether you love independent film or just like going to the movies to see something different, is not the island’s beauty and its Ionic sea air that support art and healthy living, nor the fascinating people who inhabit and visit the island. It’s the character and pride of the VIFF founders, staff, board, and supporters, who create the festival and feature some of the best festival films of the year, along with fascinating film-industry folks in attendance, making it unlike any festival around. The lack of pretense allows everyone to meet and have meaningful discussions, and the festival’s accessibility at the iconic, family-operated cultural landmark Vashon Theatre is truly unique. VIFF is a cultural experience that connects movie-goers seeking insight into the world through impactful, visual storytelling.
For 2026, VIFF will showcase eight features and seventeen shorts from the current festival circuit, plus three Special Presentations, seven Local Spotlights, and the local shorts competition, shortCUTZ. The festivities will also include a selection of events for patrons to enjoy, including the Opening Night Reception, Saturday Night Soiree, and Red Bicycle Awards. This year’s VIFF slate, curated by the VFI programming team, led by Lead Programmer and actress Stacey Oristano (Friday Night Lights, Bunheads, Shameless), will present five narrative and three documentary features in its feature competition.
The narrative features in competition include Rich Newey and Annika Marks’ Adult Children, which won the Bentonville 2025 Best Ensemble Jury Award and the Newport Beach Film Festival 2025 Festival Honors Award for Outstanding Ensemble. It follows 17-year-old Morgan, who hopes her older half-siblings will shed some light on what it means to be an adult. Sadly, they don’t have a clue.
Antonio Banderas and Dominic Sessa share a kitchen moment in Tony.
Mickey Keating’s Crooks, Tribeca 2026, follows a couple of scammers, Johnny and Faye, who rob the decadent Moonlight Casino. Faye betrays Johnny, taking the money, but is hunted by a murderer and meets a mentally unstable waitress.
Myrsini Aristidou’s Hold On to Me won the 2026 Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award. It’s summer, and 11-year-old Iris is running wild through the streets with her older friend Danae when she learns that her estranged father, Aris, has returned to town for his father’s funeral.
Rodrigue Jean’s Labrador, Autopsy of Silence, won Best Performance, Best Cinematography, and Best International Narrative Feature at Tribeca 2026. A cargo ship sails through a storm off the coast of Basse-Côte-Nord when a cook is found murdered on board. From the perspective of Alupa Tulugak, an Inuk mechanic and friend of the victim, the story reconstructs the events as a thriller.
Marie-Elsa Sgualdo and Nadine Lamari’s Silent Rebellion, Venice 2025 and Raindance 2026 Best International Feature. A virtuous teen in 1943 Switzerland questions her village’s morality after it turns away French refugees. After a personal trauma upends her life, she must find the courage to forge her own path despite social expectations.
Documentary features in competition include Adam and Zack Khalil’s c [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild], which won the Sundance 2026 NEXT Audience Award. Ancestors manipulate time and space within museum archives, confronting history and spirituality as specialists battle over the repatriation of Indigenous remains, exposing enduring worldviews that legitimized their initial collection.
Felipe Bustos Sierra’s Everybody to Kenmure Street won the 2026 Sundance World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance. After learning that authorities plan to deport their neighbors, Glasgow residents abandon their daily routines to gather on Kenmure Street, sparking an impromptu grassroots movement.
J.J. Gerber’s The Life We Leave, which won the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Documentary at SXSW 2026 and the Seattle International Film Festival 2026, follows an ambitious entrepreneur and two funeral directors as they pioneer a groundbreaking eco-friendly deathcare facility in Washington state, challenging traditional burial practices and transforming end-of-life rituals.
The narrative shorts in competition include: Ilke Paddenburg’s A Shot at Art, SXSW 2026; Anna Baumgarten’s Balloon Animals, Sundance 2026; Willa Niava and Kristelle Laroche’s Jazz Infernal, which won the Sundance 2026 International Fiction Short Film Jury Award; Ben S. Hyland’s The Man That I Wave At, which won the Sitges 2025 Best Short Film Award; Abby Pierce and Tiny Cruz’s So, Boom, which received a Tribeca 2026 Special Jury Mention for Narrative Short; and Pranav Bhasin’s We Were Here, which won the SXSW 2026 Redbreast Unhidden and Narrative Short Audience Award.
The documentary shorts in competition include: Arielle Knight’s The Boys and the Bees, winner of the Sundance 2026 Non-Fiction Short Film Jury Award; Taliesin Black-Brown’s Listen, winner of the Tribeca 2026 Best Documentary Short; Liza Mandelup’s Luigi, Sundance 2026; Ashley Brandon’s Panther Pat, winner of the Slamdance 2026 Best Documentary Short Grand Jury Prize; and Livia Albeck-Ripka and Víctor Tadashi Suárez’s Still Standing, Sundance 2026 and Slamdance 2026.
Young beekeeper Aaro Ray takes a close look at a bee in The Boys and the Bees.
The animated shorts in competition include: Kate Renshaw-Lewis’ Busy Bodies, winner of the Best Animation Short Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2026 and Slamdance 2026; Celia Alcina Matesanz, Fuxuan Deng, Pontheera Nimmanakiat, Ané Quintana, and Hongru Su’s The Famous Last Show, Gobelins l’école de l’image; Anna Ginsburg and Miranda Latimer’s Hag, recipient of the SXSW 2026 Animated Shorts Competition Special Jury Award; Boris Boidron, Lucile Brunet, and Lauren Félines’ Les Vieux, École des Nouvelles Images; Stephen P. Neary’s Living with a Visionary, winner of the Sundance 2026 Animation Short Film Jury Award; and Daniel Neiden and Edward Jordon’s Whale 52–Suite for Man, Boy, and Whale, winner of the Berlinale 2026 Crystal Bear for Best Short Film.
VIFF will also screen three Special Presentations, including Matt Johnson’s narrative feature Tony. A 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain travels to Provincetown and stumbles into the chaotic world of a restaurant kitchen, setting off a summer that will shape the course of his life. Starring Dominic Sessa, Emilia Jones, Dagmara Dominczyk, Rich Sommers, and Stavros Halkias, with Leo Woodall and Antonio Banderas.
Ben McKenzie’s documentary feature Everyone is Lying to You for Money, DOC NYC 2025. Actor and author Ben McKenzie investigates the lies, hype, and harm behind cryptocurrency’s rise—and who’s really paying the price.
Episode one of Chris Smith’s documentary series Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult on HBO Max. At 16, Hoyt Richards meets an enigmatic Manhattan socialite on a Nantucket beach and is drawn into his spiritual group, Eternal Values.
In addition, VIFF will screen three feature and four short Local Spotlights, including Craig Downing and Matt Isaac’s Dad Genes, which is part of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2026. The documentary follows Aaron Long, a Vashon Island resident and former sperm donor who later connects with several of his biological children, eventually forming an unconventional family and becoming the subject of worldwide media attention.
Andrew Franks and Peter Hilgendorf’s Radioheart: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole, Seattle International Film Festival 2026. The documentary explores the life and career of DJ Kevin Cole, tracing his path from the club dance floors of Minneapolis’ First Avenue to the global stage of Seattle’s KEXP radio station. Director Andrew Franks grew up on Vashon Island.
Willow lets out a scream in the countryside in Theater is Dead.
Katherine Dudas, Olivia Blue, Madison Lawlor, and Decker Sadowski’s Theater is Dead, at Fantastic Fest 2025 and Newport Beach 2025. Sheltered Willow auditions for a play by the mysterious director Matthew, an adaptation of a Greek tragedy. Enthralled, she ignores the dangers and undergoes self-discovery as the lead under his tutelage. Theater is Dead was shot entirely on Vashon Island.
Local Spotlight shorts include: Chiara Motley and Rachel Noll James’ 36 Questions, World Premiere; Donald Saunderson’s Long Time, No See, deadCenter 2026; Isabel Pask and Sam Paley’s Scout’s Honor, Seattle International Film Festival 2026 Live Action Short Grand Jury Prize; and Anjini Taneja Azhar’s Who Are You, Nanu?, Tasveer Film Festival and Market 2025 Narrative Short Audience Choice Award.
In partnership with C’Mon Barber, the local shorts competition shortCUTZ will screen films shot entirely on Vashon Island or by current and former residents. Official selections will compete for the Mickey’s Chair Award, which includes a year of free haircuts and 12 film passes to the Vashon Theatre. Winners will be selected by the audience.
Features compete for the Quartermaster Award and the Audience Award for Best Feature, as well as Red Bicycle Awards in categories set by the programming team. Shorts also compete for the Burton Award and the Audience Award for Best Short. Quartermaster, Burton, and Red Bicycle Award winners are selected by VIFF’s jury through anonymous voting. Audience Awards are determined by festival attendees. The awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, August 16.
VIFF is also introducing a new award this year, the S. Gordon Tribble “Superstar” Award, to honor the legacy of Stuart Gordon Tribble, a beloved member of the Vashon Island community and the broader film world who passed away last year. Presented annually in partnership with Gordon’s close friends and film family, the award includes a $1,000 cash prize and selects one notable LGBTQIA+-made or -focused film to be programmed at VIFF. Gordon’s final film credit was as the hair department head on the Special Presentation film Tony, which will headline Opening Night in his memory. The inaugural award will be presented on Closing Night to Labrador—Autopsy of Silence, bookending the festival with a tribute to the man who inspired it.
To learn more about the 5th annual Vashon Island Film Festival, visit vashonislandfilmfestival.com.
