Woods Hole Film Festival

06/24/2026

CONVERSATIONS brings together seven shorts about the ties that bind us. Through family gatherings, old friendships, lessons learned, and unexpected encounters, these films explore how love, memory, and identity are shaped by the conversations we have—and the ones we wish we had.

Featuring:
🎬 THE LAST FRY by Sam Zarrin
🎬 SEA SONG by An-Phuong Ly
🎬 JASMINE. HOME. MOTHER by Ugnė Skonsmanaitė
🎬 FISHING LESSONS by Guy Kozak
🎬 A PICTURE OF MY FATHER by Jonathan Miller, Zach Russo
🎬 WHO’S WAITING FOR YOU? by Daniel Palala, María Lempicka, YUCA
🎬 THE FRENCH LESSON by Tim L. Glover

Some conversations happen around the dinner table. Others unfold across oceans, through memories, or in the silence between loved ones.

📅 July 27 | 4:00 PM
📍 Redfield Auditorium, 45 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA
🎟️ Festival passes and ticket packages available here: https://woodshole.elevent.io/packages

Individual tickets on sale starting July 1st.

06/23/2026

💔 A marriage in trouble. A mysterious stranger. A reality coming apart.

When the mysterious Ernesto enters the lives of Thomas and Sandra, his charm reignites the spark fading from their marriage. But as strange figures begin appearing throughout the neighborhood and Sandra's attachment to Ernesto deepens, Thomas starts looking for answers. By the time he uncovers Ernesto’s true motives, it’s too late...

THIRD is a screening, blending dark comedy with thriller elements, and keeping the relationship drama at its core.

🎬 Directed by Alexander Parkinson, USA, 2026, 84 mins.
⭐ Starring Alexander Parkinson, Coley Company, Norio Nishimura, Veanna Black, and Kim Berrios Lin
🎥 Narrative feature | Dark Comedy Thriller | New England Premiere
📅 July 28 | 7:30 PM
📍 Meigs Room, MBL's Swope Center, Woods Hole, MA
🎟️ Festival passes and ticket packages available here: https://woodshole.elevent.io/packages

Individual tickets on sale starting July 1st.

06/22/2026

✍️🏆 Congratulations to the finalists of the 2026 Woods Hole Film Festival Screenplay Competition!

From first-time finalists to returning writers, this year's outstanding selection reminds us that great filmmaking begins on the page. Welcome back to alumni finalists: double finalist Isadora Dees, three-time finalist Josh Kirk, returning finalists Sara Hallowell, Lisa Marie Tedesco, and Jacintha Charles, and festival alum Ellen Ancui, whose award-winning short film SAVERIO screened at Woods Hole last year.

🎉 Winners will be announced at the Closing Night Party & Awards Celebration on August 1 at the Captain Kidd.

FEATURE LENGTHS
DRAMA:
🥇 Sakli (Hidden) — Hakan Ünal
🥈 Welcome to Dabsville — Sara Hallowell
🥉 Cassandra's Maze — Harlan Bosmajian
COMEDY:
🥇 Who Are These People — Isadora Dees
🥈 Don Hustle — Josh Kirk
🥉 Silicon Sally — Ellen Ancui

SHORTS
DRAMA:
🥇 The Night Shift — Jacintha Charles
🥈 Self Storage — David B. Holton
🥉 Savestate — Isadora Dees
COMEDY:
🥇 Love on the Lift — Lisa Marie Tedescro
🥈 Perfect Ex*****on — David R. Schleicher
🥉 The Rurals (Aldeans) — Judson Vaughan

Congratulations to all of this year's finalists! 🎬

06/21/2026

🐘❤️ It's never too late for one last adventure.

When Nora arrives at Shady Rest Retirement Home, she's resigned to a quiet future. But everything changes when she meets Edna, a spirited firecracker with a sharp wit and a zest for life. Through carpet bowling, chair exercise, and a shared determination to live fully, the two forge an unlikely friendship—and a plan to escape.

As Edna's memory begins to fade, Nora sets out on one final mission to remind her friend that there are still elephants left to dance on.

Funny, tender, and deeply moving, is a celebration of friendship, aging, and embracing life's possibilities at any age.

🎬 Directed by Julia Neill & Jacob Smith, Canada/USA, 2025, 94 mins.
⭐ Starring Sheila McCarthy, Mary Walsh, Amanda Brugel, Kevin Kincaid, and Reid Price.
🎥 Narrative Feature | Dramedy | New England Premiere
📅 July 31 | 5:15 PM
📍 Meigs Room, MBL's Swope Center, Woods Hole, MA
🎟️ Festival passes and ticket packages available here: https://woodshole.elevent.io/packages

Individual tickets on sale starting July 1st.

06/21/2026

🏳️‍⚧️✨ In a divided world, love can be a radical act.

Inspired by the Emmy Award-winning Netflix short, The Dads Film follows fathers of trans and nonbinary children as they navigate an increasingly fraught political landscape and confront impossible choices between country and family.

Directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Luchina Fisher and executive produced by Dwyane Wade, this intimate documentary is a moving portrait of fatherhood, courage, and unconditional love.

Preceded by the short film HANDWOVEN following a nonbinary shepherd and weaver working to preserve ancestral traditions in the face of cultural change.

🎬 Directed by Luchina Fisher, USA/Spain/Canada, 2026, 72 mins.
🎥 Documentary feature
📅 July 31 | 4:00 PM
📍 Redfield Auditorium, 45 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA
🎟️ Festival passes and ticket packages available here: https://woodshole.elevent.io/packages

Individual tickets on sale starting July 1st.

06/20/2026

❄️🐻‍❄️ In Churchill, Manitoba—the self-proclaimed “Polar Bear Capital of the World”—an uneasy coexistence is unfolding.

The documentary feature NUISANCE BEAR follows polar bears forced ever closer to human settlements as climate change delays the seasonal freeze of Hudson Bay. Through the bears' perspective, the film reveals a world shaped by tourism, surveillance, and wildlife management, raising profound questions about how humans interact with the natural world.

Winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance 2026 and backed by A24, this visually striking documentary offers a timely and thought-provoking look at life on the front lines of climate change.

🎬 Directed by Gabriela Osio Vanden & Jack Weisman, USA/Canada, 2026, 90 mins.
🎥 Documentary feature
📅 July 30 | 5:15 PM
📍 Meigs Room, MBL's Swope Center, Woods Hole, MA
🎟️ Festival passes and ticket packages available here: https://woodshole.elevent.io/packages

Individual tickets on sale starting July 1st.

06/19/2026

🏆 From Oscar-winning filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel (THE WHITE HELMETS) comes one of the year's most uplifting documentaries.

In THE CYCLE OF LOVE, a young street artist from a poor "untouchable" family in India, embarks on an extraordinary 6,000-mile journey to reunite with the Swedish woman who captured his heart. This inspiring documentary tells the remarkable true story of PK and Lotta, whose chance encounter in Delhi led to one of the most unforgettable real-life love stories.

THE CYCLE OF LOVE is a heartwarming reminder of the power of human connection.

🎬 Orlando von Einsiedel, UK/Sweden, 2025, 98 mins.
🎥 Documentary feature | New England Premiere
📅 July 25 | 4:00 PM
📍 Redfield Auditorium, WHOI, 45 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA
🎟️ Festival passes and ticket packages available here: https://woodshole.elevent.io/packages

Individual tickets on sale starting July 1st.

06/18/2026

⚓🌙For fans of Robert Egger's THE LIGHTHOUSE, THE PERIL AT PINCER POINT delivers a haunting, darkly funny descent into obsession, folklore, and creative ambition for the series.

A struggling sound designer travels to an isolated island in search of the perfect recording for a horror film. Instead, he encounters unsettling local legends, eccentric residents, and a prophecy that suggests artistic ambition may come at a terrifying cost.

Shot in striking black-and-white and winner of the NEON Auteur Award at the SXSW Film & TV Festival, this New England Premiere is a must-see for lovers of bold, atmospheric cinema.

🎬 Directed by Noah Stratton-Twine & Jake Kuhn, UK, 2026, 83 mins.
⭐ Starring Jack Redmayne, Alyth Ross, Os Leanse, and Dashiell Upton
🎥 Narrative feature | Folk Horror | New England Premiere
📅 July 28 | 8:30 PM
📍 Redfield Auditorium, 45 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA
🎟️ Festival passes and ticket packages available here: https://woodshole.elevent.io/packages

Individual tickets on sale starting July 1st.

06/18/2026

Check out this wonderful piece from Moira McCarthy at the Boston Herald celebrating the film Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story about Clyde Best — the world's first Black soccer superstar. ⚽

"[Director Dan] Egan said the film’s timing is great with all the World Cup excitement, but its timing is also great to remind the world – and Boston – of who we are and should be. 'Soccer has the power to unite. This film reminds us of that.' "

Screening July 29 at 5:00PM at Falmouth Academy's Simon Center, Falmouth, MA. Ticket passes and packages on sale online now.

Read on here:

The film documents Clyde Best’s pioneering story of tearing down soccer’s barriers for people of color.

06/18/2026

🏞️ Five friends. Nearly fifty years. One remarkable journey.

THE BEND IN THE RIVER is acclaimed filmmaker Robb Moss's latest return to a group of friends he first filmed on a Grand Canyon rafting trip in the late 1970s.

The third chapter in a remarkable decades-spanning chronicle—following RIVERDOGS and THE SAME RIVER TWICE—the film revisits these friends in their seventies as they reflect on aging, family, regrets, and the choices that shaped their lives. Weaving together footage captured across nearly fifty years, Moss creates an intimate meditation on friendship and the passage of time.

A gentle, deeply moving documentary that often feels like looking into a mirror.

🎬 Directed by Robb Moss, USA, 2025, 83 mins.
🎥 Documentary feature
📅 July 29 | 7:30 PM
📍 Meigs Room, Swope Center, Woods Hole, MA
🎟️ Festival passes and ticket packages available here: https://woodshole.elevent.io/packages

Individual tickets on sale starting July 1st.