Sarasota Film Festival 2026

Narrative Feature Competition Winner

Charliebird

Director: Libby Ewing

Al is a devoted music therapist at a children’s hospital in Texas. Charlie is the rebellious teen patient assigned to work with h...

Documentary Feature Competition Winner

Soul Patrol

Director: J.M. Harper

Documentary Feature Jury Special Mention

Cookie Queens

Director: Alysa Nahmias

It’s Girl Scout Cookie season, and four tenacious girls strive to be a top-selling “Cookie Queen,” navigating an $800 million bus...

U.S. Narrative Short Competition Winner

In Plain Sight

Director: Mark Hulsewe

Two interconnected stories reveal the ripple effects of silence, complicity, and unchecked cruelty. As cause and consequence coll...

Documentary Short Competition Winner

40 Days in Saratoga

Director: Sam Centore and Michael Madden

Set against the electric backdrop of Saratoga Race Course, 40 Days in Saratoga immerses audiences in the rhythms of a historic su...

Animated Short Competition Winner

My Neighbor

Director: Dominic Carola and Love Carola

Carl the cardinal's territorial ways are interrupted when Misty, a cheerful mountain bluebird, moves in next door.

Narrative Audience Award

On the End

Director: Ari Selinger

Tom, a down on his luck auto mechanic, finds unexpected love with a fellow outcast, but their romance is put in jeopardy when the...

Documentary Audience Award

Occupational Hazard: The First Coral Reefers

Director: John H. Cunningham

Journey through the 1970s and early ’80s with the original members of Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band as they recount their con...