Soo Film Festival

09/25/2026

Soo Film Festival Announces 2026 Audience Awards

The 2026 Soo Film Festival took place September 16-20 at the LSSU Arts Center and Bayliss Public Library, a Superior District Library, in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Festival attendees are asked to choose their favorites by ballot. By audience acclaim, those films are:

Narrative Feature
Small Business, directed by Paul Rothman & Andy North

Documentary Feature
TRI FOR HOPE - From Hell to Paradise, directed by James Dagg

Documentary Short
I Wanted To Hear Your Voice, directed by James Pellerito

Student Documentary Short
Normal, directed by Keall Emmers

Animation
Line 12, directed by Sarah Schulz & Christopher Schmier

Narrative Short
CHECK PLEASE, directed by Shane Chung

International Narrative Short
Uniformed, directed by Dan Biurrum

Student Narrative Short
Tomato Soup, directed by Brendan Michael Conant

The next Soo Film Festival is September 15-19, 2027.

Soo Film Festival, Inc. is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and host film and allied arts festivals in the City of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Soo Film Festival, Inc. seeks to showcase the work of independent and emerging filmmakers from the Great Lakes of North America. Our Mission: Great Lakes, Great Movies!

The most up-to-date festival news is online. Find Soo Film Festival on Facebook at facebook.com/SooFilmFestival, Instagram and Threads Soo Film Festival, and on Bluesky .bsky.social.

09/21/2026

Jim Lehocky attended the world premiere of Small Business, interviewed writer and co-director Paul Rothman, and wrote this article for SooLeader.com. Thank you to everyone who came out for this film, and to everyone who joined us for any of the films.

Festivalgoers got a chance to hear from filmmaker Paul Rothman after the world premiere of ‘Small Business,’ a thriller about a mortgage broker facing a 30-day deadline

09/20/2026

Our closing film is Sunfish (& Other Stories On Green Lake). The feature directing debut of Sierra Falconer, Sunfish was shot on Green Lake and around the Traverse City area where she grew up. The film is an anthology following the residents of a small town and the lake that binds them together. “Sunfish is an invitation to experience what it feels like to live and grow in small town Michigan.”

09/20/2026

Sunfish (& Other Stories On Green Lake) is an anthology following the residents of a small town and the lake that binds them together.

09/20/2026

At 4pm today we present Run For It, a program of documentaries featuring men who pushed their bodies to the limit to raise awareness for important causes. Generation: Cure is about Chad Eddy, how a community rallies, and turning grief into momentum. Then TRI FOR HOPE-From Hell to Paradise documents Brandon Hillaker’s extraordinary 400-mile personal triathlon across Michigan, journeying from Hell to Paradise to shatter mental health stigma and offer hope to those battling suicidal ideation.

09/20/2026

TRI FOR HOPE documents Brandon Hillaker’s extraordinary 400-mile personal triathlon across Michigan, journeying from Hell to Paradise. Over 96 grueling hours, Brandon bikes 330 miles, swims 5 miles, and runs 65 miles to shatter mental health stigma and offer hope to those battling suicidal ideation.

09/20/2026

Up next at 1:00pm is the Welcome HOMES program of short films from around the Great Lakes, including some from right across the border in Soo, Ontario. Get your tickets online or at the door, we’re at the LSSU Arts Center.
The Lake
VENO, Struggling Artist
Tin Can
Cafe Chronicles: The Loop Must Be Closed
Dance Is Everything
Tea Time
Love In All The Small Places
Deaf Date
All the Money in the World
CHECK PLEASE

09/20/2026

Day 5! The last day! There’s still many great films to see. Start your day at 11am with our HOMES Documented program, a selection of documentary shorts from around the Great Lakes region covering a wide variety of topics. We’re at the LSSU Arts Center, tickets are available online and at the door.
Tall Jessie
I Wanted To Hear Your Voice
G**O: The End of Harvey’s
Evenly Matched
Sincerely, Sage Jo
Mall Video Store

09/20/2026

Mall Video Store will screen today at 11am at the LSSU Arts Center.

A short documentary about movie-lovers’ paradise Static Tape Video is premiering in Grand Rapids before touring the Midwest and overseas through September.

09/19/2026

Sault Tribe members Adam and Zack Khalil worked on this film for 8 years. See Aanikoobijigan tonight at 6:30 at the LSSU Arts Center.

"In 1990, a federal law was passed requiring the return of Indigenous human remains and sacred items to their rightful communities. More than three decades later, most of those ancestors are still waiting—boxed, catalogued, and stored in museum basements and university archives. In Aanikoobijigan, filmmakers Adam and Zack Khalil turn their attention to that unfinished work, following the long, often painful effort to bring ancestors home for proper burial. The film centers on a group of tribal specialists in Michigan who carry out this work day to day, navigating institutions built to hold on to what was never theirs."

Read our Spring 2026 issue, featuring David Lowery and Chloé Zhao in conversation on Mother Mary, Radu Jude on Kontinental '25, Boots Riley on I Love Boosters, and more...