(The Last Place on Earth by David Gardner)
“As always we have some intense, urgent stories in the program that the world must hear now, but I feel confident that none of them are without nuance, a flip side, and certainly hope. My hope is that the festival once again will gift the audience a space to pause and allow expansion of the imagination, empathy and compassion.”
That’s Bend Film Festival director Selin Sevinç, describing the ambitious remit of the 2026 Bend Film Festival, which runs in and around Bend October 7-11 this year. The full program is a sprawling 42 features, 68 shorts, 17 countries, and 11 languages, including five Indigenous and minority languages rarely heard on screen. The vast majority of the program is new to Central Oregon. That’s not to say these films are exactly from away: eighteen were made right here in the Pacific Northwest, including six in the dedicated Local Focus shorts block celebrating Oregon storytelling.
It can be tough to generalize about a given Festival’s theme, but to the keen observer, the 2026 slate organizes itself around a few quietly insistent ideas. Restoration and return run through several of the year’s most compelling films: The River Remembers and First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath follow rivers freed by dam removal; Aanikoobijigan (Ancestor) pursues ancestral remains fought home from museum archives; Saving Etting Street watches a Baltimore block reclaim itself house by house; and The Butterfly Lab tracks incarcerated women raising endangered butterflies back from the brink. These aren’t easy feel-good stories exactly, but rather something more honest: accounts of what it actually takes to bring something back.
Another strand reaches for the intimate and the domestic. Take Me Home, Tangles, Pina, Terri & Richard and Forcefield of Love (whose subjects fall in love later in life), form a contemplative and powerful sequence of films about caregiving, aging, and the grace that can live inside those experiences. Alongside them, Mouse offers a moving reckoning with grief, and Union County delivers an unvarnished look at addiction and recovery.
Then there are the films about voices under pressure. Crime & Parody follows a comedian jailed for political satire. Escalation puts journalists in the crosshairs. And Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie tells that story in Rushdie’s own words and voice: a timely reminder that free expression has never been merely theoretical.
The Festival’s offscreen as well: a full slate of panels, conversations and parties will take place alongside and among the films, including the final gathering of the third iteration of BendFilm’s mentorship and development lab, Basecamp. Not to mention awards and recognitions: this year’s Indie Filmmaker of the Year is Rory Kennedy, the Academy Award–nominated, Primetime Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker behind more than forty films, including most recently Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing and The Trial of Alec Baldwin (both will be screening at the festival followed by Q&As with Rory). Reached for comment, she noted, “Independent film has given me the freedom to tell the stories I care most about. Bend is a fantastic film festival and community, and I am deeply moved by this recognition.”
Canadian actress Tantoo Cardinal (Cree/Métis) will be the 2026 Indigenous Honoree. This year’s crop of Festival awards will be given at a ceremony on the evening of October 10, presented by jurors drawn from some of the industry’s most celebrated production companies, distributors, incubators and festivals.
What’s already clear is that this year’s festival represents BendFilm at its most expansive and most focused simultaneously: more countries, more debut voices, more languages, and the same commitment to cinema that challenges, moves, and sticks around after the credits roll.
Tickets and passes are on sale now. The full program is at bendfilmfestival2026.eventive.org.