Winter Film Festival – February 18-22 2026 – WFF2026

Despite the bomb cyclone hitting NYC, we did it!
Thank you to our amazing filmmakers, our superstar volunteers, speakers, sponsors, writers and judges, and anyone who came out to join the community of film for our celebration! We’ll be posting photos & videos over the next few weeks.
SEE YOU NEXT WINTER!

Celebrate Diversity in Film with New York City’s WINTER FILM FESTIVAL! The 14th Annual Winter Film Festival runs February 18-22 2026, showcasing creative fresh voices from emerging filmmakers worldwide. Our outstanding 103 Official Selections are a diverse mixture of animated films, documentaries, dramas, comedies, horror films, music videos, and web series of all lengths, including 20 student films and 34 first-time filmmakers. Filmmakers come from 27 countries; half of the films were created by women, half created by people of color and 25% created by New Yorkers.

Tickets on sale NOW! Screening Tickets are $12.50/In Advance, $16.50/Door, $5/Door with Student ID. Parties and Education Sessions/Workshops are free and open to the public. Screening blocks run 1½-2½ hours with a mix of shorts and feature-length films, with a Q&A Session with the filmmakers.

Official Artwork for 2026 Festival designed by Matt Curtis.

Winter Film Festival 2026 animation designed by Rylie McCloskey, Neorah Paul, Marina Kikkawa and August Sanchez from Professor Mike Enright’s 2D Animation Studio III class at Pratt Institute’s Department of Digital Arts and Animation.

Additional 2026 animation designed by Professor Mauricio E. Salazar Cavazos with Miguel Alexandre Castillo Guzman, Luz Eugenia Morales De La Rosa, Ana Elizabeth Aldape Gonzalez, Mia Valentina Carrillo Perez, Keira Jannai Garcia Castillo, Mariana Rodriguez De Leon, Diego Arturo Torres Juarez and Professor Rodrigo Farias.

Interested in helping out at WFF 2026? Visit here to sign up for volunteer shifts!

Winter Film Festival 2026 Films

About Winter Film Festival

Winter Film Festival is an all-volunteer women and minority-run organization as part of Winter Film Awards Inc, a 501(c)3 organization founded in 2011 to celebrate emerging talent in local and international filmmaking. We showcase creative fresh voices from emerging filmmakers worldwide in all genres and lengths – feature length and shorts, narrative fiction, documentary, animation, horror, web series and music videos. Our mission is to promote diversity, bridge the opportunity divide and provide a platform for under-represented artists and a variety of genres, viewpoints and approaches. We believe that only by seeing others’ stories can we understand each other and only via an open door can the underrepresented artist enter the room.

Winter Film Festival programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Promotional support provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment.

Winter Film Festival is thrilled to be included in Film Festival Alliance’s Film Festival Directory, a comprehensive list of more than one hundred reputable film festivals committed to upholding the newly established best practices for professional film festivals. Explore the directory to read through our profile and learn more about our fellow member festivals, their programming philosophies, and more here: https://bit.ly/FFADirectory

Have questions about who we are? Visit our FAQ

Winter Film Festival Sponsors and Partners

Corporate and local support of Winter Film Festival plays an critical role in the life of the Festival and underscores WFA’s commitment to quality, adventure and diversity in the art of cinema. WFA is privileged to work with the following partners and sponsors:

Filmmakers, sign up for a free casting account on Backstage by following this link: https://www.backstage.com/film-video-and-tv-casting/. You can then post casting and crew calls for free using the promo code WFACAST. Use your Backstage login details (email and password) to sign into our sister platforms, Mandy and Starnow, and post for free using the same WFACAST code. Please note that the code can be used each time you post a listing on Backstage, Mandy, and Starnow.

2026 Winter Film Festival Speakers and Panelists

2026 Winter Film Festival Writers

Aadil Cheema

Amanda Lou

Ashley Cohen

Belton DeLaine-Facey

Cristina Slattery

Despina Afentouli

Joseph Mauceri

Julia Sexton

Kajal Kapoor

Lianna Albrizio

Marc Pollak

Nefeli Soteriou

Nilufer Yenidogan Ozmekik

Nyhle Wilson

René Estes

Sarai Browne

Whitney Larkins

2026 Winter Film Festival Submission Judges

THANK YOU to Hari Bhaskar, Jelena Boskovic, John Brind’Amour, Jonathan Burdick, Katy Rochelle Cacolice, Aadil Cheema, Ruiran Chen, Xiao Xiao Chen, SungChul Choi, Khadijah Davis, Toon de Melker, Kady Edwards-Campbell, Zoe Fancher, Lechara Fletcher, Rhonda Fletcher, Steph France, John German, Carlos Glick, Sondra Gomez, Donte Grey, Junior Griggs, Alexis Hall, Kiana Hamel, Siyuan He, Quincy Irmiter, Ryan Keenan, Veronica Kent, Asier Kintana, Elias Kushner, Donn Lamkin, Whitney Larkins, Robert LaRue, Yanjun Long, Rebel Love, Paul Marengo, Joseph Mauceri, Miguel Medina-carrion, Oakley Mertes, Christopher Meyer, Christian Moore, Joanne Naclerio, Michael Nagle, Youlim Nam, Martina Marie O’Boyle, Nilufer Yenidogan Ozmekik, Allie Palazzo, Maya Parkoff, Alana Phillips, Yunhong Pu, David Pulson, Roseanne Robertson, Andrea Rodriguez, Clément Roux, Mauricio Salazar, John Silvey, Elise Smalley, Ana Valentin, Nyhle Wilson, Katharine Winters, Simone Yael and Valentin Zuza.

Winter Film Festival Team

Winter Film Festival is led by George Isaacs (CEO & Founder) and Steffanie Finn (Executive Director). Thank you to our tireless team – Joseph Mauceri, Michael Joseph Murray, Lisa Wilf and Vaughn Murphy.

Thank you to Winter Film Festival staff, volunteers, screeners, judges, writers, panelists, friends and helpers! This event couldn’t happen without you!