Curtains Up for Cinematic Celebrations: Your Guide to Orange County’s 2026 Fall Film Festivals

From a world premiere to action sports and marine life documentaries, celebrations of culture, cooking, art and more – all in the form of inspiring features and creative shorts – Orange County’s film festivals are jam-packed once again this fall.

Movie lovers will delight in attending these local festivals for the chance to see cinematic works not yet selected for wide release – and some that may never be shown in mainstream theaters. These festivals also typically present parties, filmmaker talks and other events, allowing attendees to truly engage with what they see on the screen and immerse themselves in the event themes. 

Ben Warner, co-founder and executive director of Coast Film & Music Festival in Laguna Beach, said he believes the shared experience attracts people to film festivals. 

“You can stream anything at home, but watching a film with a full room and talking about it afterward is different,” Warner said. “Festivals also give audiences direct access to filmmakers, athletes and changemakers, and a chance to hear why these stories matter. That sense of community is what brings people back.”

The season starts and ends in Santa Ana, beginning with the Viet Film Fest from Oct. 8-11 and OC Film Fiesta from Oct. 8-18, and wrapping up with Sikhlens: Sikh Arts & Film Festival, from Nov 20-22. In between, moviegoers will find an array of silver screen showcases including the star-studded Newport Beach Film Festival, billed as the largest international cinema event in coastal Southern California, attracting Hollywood celebrities and more than 50,000 attendees.

Gregg Schwenk, co-founder and CEO of the Newport festival, said these events “create a sense of discovery and community that is difficult to replicate anywhere else. 

“You’re not simply watching a movie – you’re experiencing it with an audience, meeting the people who made it, hearing the stories behind it and often discovering something completely unexpected,” Schwenk said. 

“There’s also an element of serendipity. You might come to the festival to see one particular film and leave having discovered a filmmaker, an artist or a story that stays with you for years. I think people also enjoy being part of something. For a few days, a community comes together around storytelling, creativity and shared experiences. That’s a very powerful thing.” 

Viet Film Fest

Viet Film Fest, the largest international Vietnamese film festival in the diaspora, is expanding its in-person film festival to four days, from Oct. 8-11, followed by its virtual film festival from Oct. 12-25. The film festival was founded in 2003 to uplift stories about Vietnamese people. In its 23rd year, the festival has received a record number of submissions, ultimately presenting a total of 64 films, including a record number of 20 feature films and 44 short films from across 13 nations.

Many of the special screenings have a consistent, albeit unintentional, musical theme. The Opening Night Screening on Oct. 8, “A Little Dream of Me,” is “a toe-tapping, crowd-pleasing, good date movie musical,” said Eric Nong, artistic director of Viet Film Fest. “We wanted something to open the festival that was accessible and yet could entertain the socks off the audience.”

The Centerpiece Screening on Oct. 10, “Y Vân: The Lost Sounds of Saigon,” is a documentary feature about a granddaughter’s attempts to find the lost master tracks and preserve the legacy of her grandfather, acclaimed composer Y Vân. It will be followed by the concert documentary “Saigon Jazz Presents Carol Kim.” The Closing Night Screening, “Ky Nam Inn,” on Oct. 11, is a romantic drama set in post-war Saigon that grapples with ageism and classism. Its Vietnamese pre-war music is “very important to its soundtrack,” Nong said. “Music plays a very crucial element.”

In recent years, Viet Film Fest has received more animated short submissions than in the past, and Nong believes that this trend is due to the increased democratization of tools to create animated films outside of major American and Japanese animation studios. This year, French film “In Waves” and Vietnamese film “Cricket and the Money Adventure” will become the joint first animated features accepted at Viet Film Fest. 

“I’ve been joking to people that it’s been my white whale to get an animated feature into Viet Film Fest,” Nong said. “I’m so glad we have two this year.”

“In Waves” will screen during the Viet Film Fest Encore on Oct. 23. The romantic drama, based on a graphic novel by AJ Dungo, is the story of Los Angeles teenagers AJ (Will Sharpe) and Kristen (Stephanie Hsu) falling in love and staying strong through Kristen’s sudden illness.

Panels will bolster the film offerings: The “Free to Love” Short Film Program on Oct. 10 will showcase short films about sexual orientation and gender expression, with an LGBTQIA+ Panel in partnership with OC Pride, and on Oct. 11, short film “Sea Song” and anthology documentary “Southeast Asian American Journeys” will be followed by a panel including a diverse selection of Southeast Asian American groups speaking on the refugee and immigrant experiences.

OC Film Fiesta

OC Film Fiesta returns Oct.8-18 with more than 50 feature films and shorts from around the world, presented in person and streaming online, along with workshops, parties, and special guests that highlight Orange County’s cultural and artistic diversity. This year’s offerings further connect local aspiring artists and community members with an interdisciplinary collection of filmmakers and artists, many outside of mainstream filmmaking and with strong Southern California ties. 

“(It offers people) a chance to meet their stars and talk to them, pick their brains, like, how do I do that, how did you get your start?” said Victor Payan, co-founder of OC Film Fiesta and executive director of Media Arts Santa Ana (MASA). “That’s always a big part of what we do when we bring artists and community together, it’s that knowledge transfer, creating friendships and not really having a red velvet rope like you have in some festivals.”

OC Film Fiesta opens on Oct. 8 with a screening of Akira Boch’s documentary about Grammy Award-winning Chicano rock band and grassroots activists Quetzal, “Let the City Speak,” during which Boch and band members Quetzal Flores and Martha Gonzalez will be special guests. 

“The Auntie Sewing Squad Resistance Playbook,” a documentary about the sewing collective that sewed and distributed free cloth face masks at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, will screen on Oct. 17, followed by a reading and book signing of Wong’s book “Auntie Kristina’s Guide to Asian American Activism.”

“Rockin’ Wizards,” a new documentary about Chicano Anaheim breakdancing crew the Rockin’ Wizards, will also screen on Oct. 17, with members of the breakdancing crew and director Marissa Herrera in attendance. 

Other screenings and special guests include Herbert Sigüenza from Culture Clash, the Chicano comedy trio that stars in the video compilation “The Best of the Culture Clash Show,” and “Calles du Cinema: Spotlight on Mario Dávila,” which will feature Dávila’s short film “Siempre en la mira,” along with a conversation with the Mexican “grindhouse” genre filmmaker. 

Other notable selections include David Alvarado’s “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez,” Luis Valdez’s classic film “Zoot Suit” and selections from “New Cinema from Iran.”

MASA will also be sharing “What’s up, SA?” a set of short projects created by participants of MASA’s Santa Ana Multimedia Institute cultural affairs program, which teaches community members how to make videos, from public service announcements to visual poems. For Payan, expanding people’s access to the technology and skillsets that will allow them to share their voice is at the core of MASA’s work and OC Film Fiesta’s values. 

“We’re living in real difficult times in terms of censorship and communities under attack and fighting for democracy,” he said. “It’s the independent voices, like the kinds of artists that we feature, that really are going to help us get through this, to organize and mobilize communities around issues.”

Newport Beach Film Festival

One of the largest luxury lifestyle film festivals in the U.S., the Newport Beach Film Festival presents cinematic works that often become contenders for major awards. In fact, Newport Beach is now home to one of the largest concentrations of Guild and Academy voters outside of L.A. and New York City, according to Schwenk.

The 27th annual Newport Beach Film Festival, running from Oct. 15-22, will present more than 100 feature films and 250 shorts from 21 countries in addition to filmmaker Q&As and parties with tastings from dozens of culinary partners. Film categories range from culinary to fashion, international spotlight, animation, horror, documentary, action sports, environmental issues, music, and art, architecture and design. 

“Every year, we look for new ways to build upon the experience while staying true to what has made the Newport Beach Film Festival special for nearly three decades,” Schwenk said. “This year, we’re continuing to expand the festival’s international reach and the ways we connect audiences with filmmakers and artists from around the world.

“We’re also continuing to develop the festival’s cultural programming, conversations and industry events so that the experience extends beyond simply watching a great film. As the festival has grown, so has the community around it. We’re excited to welcome new voices, new filmmakers and new audiences while continuing to create the kind of intimate, meaningful interactions that have always been at the heart of the festival.”  

The opening night film is “Frampton,” a documentary that paints an intimate portrait of rock icon Peter Frampton, following his meteoric rise in the 1970s, the star’s turbulent years and period of reinventing his sound, as well as the cost of fame – personal sacrifices and fractured family ties behind the scenes. The film also delves into Frampton’s precarious current situation: He has been diagnosed with inclusion body myositis, a degenerative muscle condition that threatens his ability to play guitar. Director Rob Arthur and Frampton himself will participate in a live Q&A after the screening.

In addition to this eye-opening documentary, a few of the festival’s Centerpiece features include James Gray’s crime drama “Paper Tiger,” starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller; Danny Boyle’s biographical drama “Ink,” starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, about media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s 1969 acquisition and transformation of British newspaper The Sun; and Martin McDonagh’s dark comedic political thriller “Wild Horse Nine,” starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Mariana di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, with Tom Waits and Parker Posey. 

The festival will also present the world premiere of director Danny Peykoff’s “…And Out Comes the Wolf,” a story about two friends fighting for a way out of their burnout lives amid the 1990s punk scene in Northern California’s East Bay. 

Closing night features two films including Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth,” about a gifted cellist who returns home to L.A. after 20 years on the road, featuring Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, Hank Azaria and Will Arnett, at Regal Edwards Big Newport; and Daniel E. Catullo’s documentary, “Unleashed Spirits: The Rise of The Hollywood Vampires,” about the legendary 1970s celebrity drinking club and its modern resurrection as a rock supergroup by Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry, at the Lido Theater.

Schwenk said he’s always excited to see the films and also to meet the filmmakers. 

“There’s something incredibly rewarding about watching a filmmaker bring a story to the screen and then having the opportunity to sit down with them and hear what inspired the work,” Schwenk said. 

The Newport film fest stands out, he said, because of its international scope combined with the community and unique environment.

“I think what distinguishes Newport is the experience,” Schwenk said. “It’s a film festival set  against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful communities in the country, but it’s also a  festival where people genuinely connect. We want filmmakers to feel welcomed, audiences to  feel engaged, and everyone to leave feeling that they were part of something special.”

Coast Film & Music Festival

What started as a small showcase of adventure and documentary films in November has grown to include multiple venues in town, major concerts in the 2,600-seat Irvine Bowl and the Coast Summit – a one-day gathering of visionaries and changemakers meant to inspire positive change in the community and the world – during the 10-day festival. The eighth annual event, which runs from Oct. 16-25, includes a lineup of 80 documentary features and shorts. 

Free activities (reservations required) range from yoga and surf sessions to a trail run, beach cleanup and even a scent-blending workshop. Other free events include relaxed coffee talks with filmmakers, surfers, scientists, creatives and changemakers as well as a night of film screenings at The Promenade on Forest, outdoors on Oct. 22. Events with an added cost include the Coast Summit, Changemaker Dinner and full-day workshop with renowned photographer Chris Burkard.

“What hasn’t changed is our focus: stories from the mountains to the sea, documentary only, and rooted in Laguna,” Warner said. “We still give back to local environmental nonprofits, support student filmmakers and award a scholarship to a Laguna Beach High graduate pursuing film.”

Opening night at Rivian South Coast Theater features “Surfilmusic,” tracing Jack Johnson’s evolution from a surfer and filmmaker to a Grammy-nominated and globally recognized musician. Rare surf footage and family archives come together with present-day reflections as the film explores how friendship, travel, filmmaking and life in the water shaped his songs and stories. 

In addition to films about surfing, snowboarding, rock climbing and other adventure sports, conservation and the human spirit that festival attendees have come to expect, Warner noted, “We’ve made a firm commitment to expanding our programming to reflect more of our communities, including Indigenous and Hispanic culture and art as activism.” 

Highlights include “Los Lobos: Native Sons,” the documentary that premiered earlier this year at Austin’s South by Southwest festival about the legendary East L.A. Chicano band, and “Palmas,” Aric Lopez’s look at Kizh-Gabrieleño history and the Chavez Ravine evictions.

“We’re also showing that activism happens at every age,” Warner said, highlighting films such as “Grassroots: The Re:wild Your Campus Story,” which follows students who won a ban of glyphosate-based herbicides across all 10 UC campuses, and “Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage,” which follows Cape Cod women, ages 65 to 86, who swim in local ponds to haul out trash.

“(And) the newly opened Surfing Heritage and Culture Center (SHACC), which has been called the ‘Smithsonian of surfing,’ is a natural addition as a premier venue of the festival,” Warner continued. “And we now have three nights of live music at the historic Irvine Bowl, opening with (supergroup) Rainbow Body’s first-ever live show, followed by Ben Harper and Amos Lee, with Donavon Frankenreiter, G. Love and Lily Meola.”

Rooted Film Festival 

High school filmmaker Julian Maya is creating a space for youth filmmakers through his newly created Rooted Film Festival, which debuts Oct. 18. Operating largely independently, Maya, a senior in the Film & Television Conservatory at the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA), reached out to 155 Southern California high schools with dedicated film programs and received more than 682 submissions.

“For a lot of younger filmmakers, especially the ones under 18 or who aren’t in high school, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to show your work other than maybe YouTube,” he said. “As high schoolers, there’s a lot of film festivals that we can go to, but a lot of them just cost money that some of us just don’t have. Making this a free event really helped them get out to show their work, and I feel like that’s more necessary for high school film contests.”

The festival celebrates family, culture, identity and community, with this year’s theme being “Always Remembering Where It All Began.” Maya was inspired by his own family and their culture of storytelling across the dinner table. 

“I wanted people to dig into their roots,” Maya said. “Tell people their stories of their grandparents or themselves and dig into who they are and what makes them them.”

The 13 official selections include “Cannock Chase,” directed by Sam Lee, “Come on Home,” directed by Aidan Rubino, “Juice Box,” directed by Amirali Rouhighodsinia, “Pink Dress,” directed Thierre Duval Vu, “T-Minus,” directed by Penelope Tong and more. 

Maya also reached out to film industry and community arts partners to host the community resource tables that will be available during the festival, offering education, career and wellness opportunities to students and their families. Partners include RED Digital Cinema, Cine Gear Expo, Pelican, FilmNet, Tilly’s Life Center, Segerstrom Center for the Arts and Rady Children’s Health. 

Twelve film industry leaders also shared personal words of wisdom and encouragement for young filmmakers in a collection titled “Community Voices,” available on the festival’s website. 

Maya also assembled a judging panel that includes Rick Matros, Emmy Award-winning executive producer of “Legacy: The True Story of the L.A. Lakers,” writer, musician, filmmaker and 2023 California Arts Council Individual Artist Legacy Fellowship recipient Anthony Small and Anthony Gudino, a camera and electrical department veteran who has worked on sets for “Shameless,” “The Last Thing He Told Me” and “The Fifth Wheel.” Three youth filmmakers will have the opportunity to receive a $500 award in the categories of Best Celebration of Culture, Best Family Story and Best Community Voice.

Maya intends Rooted Film Festival to become an annual tradition and hopes to expand it to even younger filmmakers, like middle schoolers. 

“I see even my brother, he wants to join the (Film & Television) Conservatory, and I’ve been helping him make his own short stories,” Maya said. “So I know that there’s a lot of kids that want to show their stuff at such a young age, and they just can’t, so I want to open it up to them next year.”

Old Towne Film Festival

One of the newest in the area, the fourth annual Old Town Film Festival runs from Oct. 23-25 at Orange Masonic Lodge near the Orange Circle. 

“The Old Towne Film Festival is a nonprofit, filmmaker-focused festival built around thoughtful screenings, conversations and a close relationship with the Old Towne Orange community,” said festival founder and director Dan Parks.

The festival presents 30 to 50 films, with submissions accepted in 18 categories including comedy, drama, action, horror, documentary, animation, experimental, science fiction and fantasy, and other films, divided into separate groups for shorts and features. There’s also a screenplay category.

Opening night will present six community storytellers, appearances by the mayor and Miss Orange and a series of shorts. This year, the festival has embraced a theme, “Permission to Begin Again,” an invitation and a reminder that we already have that permission to start or restart a creative journey – not just filmmaking, Parks explained. 

“Friday opens with our Community Red Carpet and Storytelling Night, featuring six voices from the community sharing real stories about starting, rebuilding, changing direction and beginning again,” Parks said. “The idea behind the evening is that before there’s a film, there’s a story. Real human stories are often the seed of the films we eventually see on screen, and we want to start the festival by celebrating that.”

Among the features to be screened are a black-and-white suspense film called “The Guest Ranch Murders” and “Tree of Fire: A Story of Love and Resilience,” an award-winning documentary about the devastation of Baba’s Tree – caused by the 2017 Thomas Fire, which swept through the Meher Mount spiritual center in Ojai – followed by the recovery of this sacred coast live oak. Another feature film, “The Cuckoo Clock,” focuses on a young woman who falls in love with her grandmother’s home health nurse and then receives warnings from a cuckoo clock after the nurse mysteriously disappears. 

Every attending filmmaker is invited onstage for a Q&A after each film block with “thoughtful questions that allow filmmakers to explain their creative choices and share their journeys with the audience,” Parks said. The weekend concludes with an award show featuring live music on Sunday.

Parks, an Orange resident and filmmaker, started the Old Towne event in 2023 because he noticed a void in the film fest landscape. “After attending and submitting to many festivals, I felt that some were missing the passion and personal connection that make the experience meaningful for filmmakers,” Parks said. 

“I believed a film festival could do more than screen someone’s work. It could create learning opportunities, encourage filmmakers and give them a place where they genuinely feel they belong. I also believed that a successful festival needed to be embraced by its host community.”

Parks said that vision is coming to fruition: “The festival is becoming a community of people who are beginning something: making a film, returning to a passion, starting a project or finishing one they set aside. People who actively pursue their passions are good people to be around because they understand effort. They encourage others and help build them up.”

Notably, last year, the festival premiered its original documentary, “The Old Towne Orange Movie,” which can now be purchased on Blu-Ray disc. 

Dana Point Film Festival 

Another recent addition to the local scene is the fourth annual Dana Point Film Festival, which runs from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 and focuses on marine life and our relationship with the ocean. The festival, typically attended by about 5,000 people, presents more than 30 primarily documentary films. 

In addition to screenings of features and shorts, the four-day festival includes an opening night party at The White Rooster cafe, a Meet the Filmmakers event and the Hauntolulu Surfer Party, with music, films and a surf character costume contest on Halloween night at Killer Dana Surf Shop. 

The festival was founded in 2023 by Lloyd Molander, a film and TV executive involved with action sports channels as well as a documentary filmmaker, who grew up surfing in Dana Point.

“I have a real affinity for the whole area and a love for the ocean,” Molander said. “And I thought, ‘How do I parlay what I love with bringing awareness to the ocean and ocean issues?’ ”

He thought there should be a film festival focused on the ocean since Dana Point is considered the whale and dolphin capital of the world and home to the Ocean Institute. 

“Our mission is to support the oceans and ocean awareness, and there’s no better way to do that than get people in front of films and storytellers that can help us connect them to that,” Molander said.

Among this year’s films are the opening night selection, “The OC Effect,” about the surf-skate business evolution, and the closing night selection, “Harbour Chronicles: Shaping a Legacy,” highlighting iconic Seal Beach surfboard shaper Rich Harbour and his legacy of Harbour Surfboards, the world’s oldest continuously operating surfboard manufacturing shop. Some other films look at the effects of floating plastic trash on marine mammals and follow the lives of right whales around the globe. 

Molander said the festival has been a gateway for several films to later be shown on Discovery Channel or streamed on various platforms. While this is rewarding to see, the festival’s goal isn’t to attract Hollywood executives, but rather top marine biologists, top surfers and other people who are authentic to the city with the goal of highlighting how you can “recreate in the ocean and help it out and not destroy it.”

Molander takes pride in creating an event focused on a shared passion in this coastal city.

“It’s a way for people to gather and celebrate something that they love,” he said. “When they look at the ocean and see a dolphin go by, they smile. It doesn’t matter what (political) party you’re in. You see a dolphin and it makes you smile.”

In addition to supporting the festival’s continuation, some proceeds are donated to nonprofit Stand Up To Trash, which organizes beach cleanups and other events that raise awareness about the need to protect the ocean.

Sikhlens: Sikh Arts & Film Festival

Twenty-five years after the creation of Sikhlens, founder Bicky Singh continues to uplift Sikh representation and heritage through the arts, from developing films and documentaries to providing educational opportunities for aspiring artists. A key piece of this work, the annual Sikhlens Arts & Film Festival, will return Nov. 20-22. 

“Sikhlens’ whole (purpose) coming into this space was that our community has no meaningful representation in media, broadcast journalism and films,” Singh said. “And that only happens when your people get themselves into those areas.”

The festival begins on Friday, Nov. 20 with the Sikhlens Red Carpet, followed by two feature films, “Satluj,” a biographical drama about human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra and his courageous investigations during the Punjab insurgency in the early ‘90s, and “Jersey Boy,” the story of a young Sikh boy seeking belonging in the United States in the wake of 9/11.

Saturday offers a wide selection of documentary shorts by Chapman University Dodge College of Film and Media Arts students, as well as children’s programming with a special guest. Animated film “Cosmic Aarti of Guru Nanak” will be screened, children’s book author and elementary school teacher Sandip K. Sodhi will read “Proud to be a Singh” and “Proud to be a Kaur” and children can enjoy a puppet show and puppet-making activity. At the end of Saturday night, feature films “Dastaar,” a Sikh immigrant’s journey to empowerment amid racism and grief, and “Bol Bhavein Na Bol,” a romantic comedy, will be screened.

The “Creative Sikhs” panel session, spotlighting Sikh artists, will also return on Saturday. This year the featured artists will be filmmakers Hansjeet Duggal, Davinder Singh, Harjus Singh, Jasleen Pannu, Chef Chawla, Sally Rubin and Kabir Sethi, as well as author Sodhi, visual artist Jasmeet Kaur and musician Gurpreet Phokela.

“Creative Sikhs is very, very important, because there are (only) a handful of Sikhs or American students who have done subjects on Sikh stories,” Singh said. “We need to honor them …. The second thing is these creative Sikhs inspire our community to understand the power of media, broadcast journalism and films.”

After another day of films in both theaters, and art exhibitions in the theater lobby, Sunday wraps up with feature films “Bambukat 2,” about a village inventor with a last chance at redemption, and “Chaali Din,” a philosophical journey about love and separation. 

Singh encourages individuals of all cultures to attend, seeing the festival as an opportunity for community members to gain deeper cultural understanding and empathy.

“You showcase (Sikh) culture, heritage and religion on the big screen and you can invite your neighbors,” he said. “You can invite schoolteachers and people from your workplace and that is a very inclusive kind of a setting, you know? It’s representation for some people and for other people it helps open them up to different cultures, and then the dialogue happens.”

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