2026 Award Nominees

Award Nominees Announced!

We are thrilled to announce the 2026 Salem Film Fest jury award nominees! This year's selection features films recognized for their powerful storytelling and cinematic excellence.

In a unique tradition of Salem Film Fest, winners in each category will be awarded original handmade trophies created by artists based in Salem. These awards not only honor the filmmakers' achievements but also celebrate the collaboration between the film fest and the local art community. As we celebrate the nominated films and the visionaries behind them, we aim to spotlight the talent and creativity that mark the highlights of this year's Salem Film Fest! 

Image: FIUME O MORTE!

SPECIAL JURY AWARD

Selected by a jury composed of documentary industry professionals. Includes $1000 in prize money.

NOMINEES:
FIUME O MORTE!
NUISANCE BEAR
THEYDREAM
TIME AND WATER
TRACES OF HOME

Jurors include: Sara Archambault, Anna Feder, Karthik Pandian, Michael Premo, and Milton Guillen.

Image: CUBA & ALASKA

AWARD FOR JOURNALISM

Awarded to the filmmaker deemed to have best presented a challenging story through engaging and fair minded investigative reportage. Award includes $500 prize in prize money. 

NOMINEES:
AMERICAN DOCTOR
CELTIC UPTOPIA
CUBA & ALASKA
ELEPHANTS & SQUIRRELS
TO USE A MOUNTAIN

Jurors include Margo Guernsey, Peter Keough, Zac Manuel, James Sullivan and Nicole Tsien.

Image: JARIPEO

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER MAGAZINE AWARD

Selected by Stephen Pizzello, editor-in-chief/publisher of the American Society of Cinematographers' monthly magazine.

NOMINEES:
A PLACE OF ABSENCE
AGATHA'S ALMANAC
JARIPEO
NUISANCE BEAR
YOU.SLEEP.STAY.

Image: TRUE NORTH

CULTRERA CUTS EDIT AWARD

Named after SFF co-founder and film editor Joe Cultrera, selected by a panel of documentary film editors.

NOMINEES:
BARBARA FOREVER
FARRUQUITO, A FLAMENCO DYNASTY
NIÑXS
TRUE NORTH
UNLESS SOMETHING GOES TERRIBLY WRONG

Jurors include Nathan Fitch, Loulwa Khoury, Julie Mallozzi, Flavia de Souza, and Sally Wu.

Image:  SIMPLY DIVINE

BEST SHORT AWARD

NOMINEES:
COMMUNITY THEATRE
ENTRE LE FEU ET LE CLAIR DE LUNE
PLACEKEEPERS
SIMPLY DIVINE
THE FIRST TIMES

Jurors include Cam Howard, Katherine Irving, and Jenny Miller.

A Creative Non-Compliance Guide to Salem Film Fest 2026

Guest Blog written by John Andrews, Creative Collective

Some films play by the rules. They find a compelling subject, follow it faithfully, and deliver something solid and safe. There’s nothing wrong with that. But the films that tend to stay with you longest are the ones made by people who decided the rules didn’t apply to them. These are the filmmakers who found subjects who lived the same way.

Salem Film Fest 2026 is full of both kinds. This guide is for the second kind.

These are the films about artists who refused the obvious path, communities who built something outside the system, and individuals who looked at what was expected of them and said no — then made something extraordinary from the wreckage. Purchase tickets at salemfilmfest.com.

The Rule-Breakers

BARBARA FOREVER

Friday, March 27th, 6:45 PM @ Cinema Salem Filmmaker Attending — Live Q&A | East Coast Premiere Content Warning: Nudity

If there’s a patron saint of creative non-compliance in this year’s lineup, it’s Barbara Hammer. Over a career spanning more than eighty films, Hammer did something simple and radical. She made exactly the films she wanted to make, in exactly the way she wanted to make them, without apology. Her work — unapologetically lesbian, formally adventurous, urgently personal — helped invent a whole tradition of cinema. Hollywood had no interest in creating that tradition.

Director Brydie O’Connor’s debut feature draws on Hammer’s vast archive of films and unreleased materials. It lets Hammer’s own voice and images carry the story. As a result, the film is less a biography than an immersion. It is a portrait of what a creative life looks like when it’s lived entirely on its own terms. Salem Film Fest is proud to give this film its East Coast premiere; it grew out of the short LOVE, BARBARA, which screened here in 2023.

 

CELTIC UTOPIA

Friday, March 27th, 6:50 PM @ National Park Visitor Center Filmmaker Attending — Live Q&A | East Coast Premiere

Nobody told the punks and hip-hop artists of modern Ireland that they were supposed to fall in love with ancient Gaelic folk music. They did it anyway — and what came out the other side is one of the most alive musical movements in Europe right now. CELTIC UTOPIA follows this folk renaissance as both a cultural story and a political one, tracing how a post-colonial society wrestles with a tradition it was nearly stripped of. The artists here aren’t preservationists. Instead, they’re insurgents who found an old weapon and figured out new ways to use it.

 

TORNADO TASTES LIKE ALUMINUM STING

Friday, March 27th, 2:00 PM @ Peabody Essex Museum World Premiere

For most of their life, Harmon — an autistic, queer, nonbinary playwright — worked in obscurity. Unhoused for a time. Housebound for ten years. Always creating. TORNADO TASTES LIKE ALUMINUM STING traces the making of a groundbreaking new play by Harmon, and the film itself refuses every normative convention in the process: nonlinear structure, hallucinogenic animation by Soul Proprietor (a studio of autistic artists), and a logic that follows neurodivergent perception rather than bending itself into a shape audiences expect. This is a World Premiere — one of the most formally daring shorts in the festival.

 

BLOOD & GUTS

Friday, March 27th, 9:25 PM @ Cinema Salem Filmmaker Attending — Live Q&A | New England Premiere Content Warning: Fake blood and gore

The Adams family — Toby, Zelda, Lulu, and John — makes indie horror films together. They lack conventional boundaries, conventional budgets, and conventional ideas about what a family creative practice should look like. Directors Carlye Rubin, Katie Green, and Tina Grapenthin portrait a household where the personal and the artistic are completely inseparable, and where the mess of making things is treated as a feature, not a bug. A love letter to everyone who’s ever built something strange and real with the people closest to them.

 

The Ones Who Rewrote the Script

TRUE NORTH

Saturday, March 28th, 10:30 AM @ Cinema Salem New England Premiere

In the 1960s, Montréal was quietly becoming a global nexus of Black liberation — a fact that has been almost entirely written out of mainstream historical narratives. Director Michèle Stephenson uses never-before-seen archival footage and intimate first-person testimony to recover two pivotal, underrecognized events: the Congress of Black Writers and the Sir George Williams Affair. TRUE NORTH is the story of people who understood that the official version of history was a choice, not a fact — and who chose differently.

ALGERIA. Algiers. 1st Panafrican Cultural festival. Thursday, July 24th 1969. At the University. US poets Ted JOANS (center) and Don LEE (on the left) at a meeting on New Black Poetry.

 

JARIPEO

Saturday, March 28th, 8:50 PM @ Cinema Salem New England Premiere

Every Christmas in Penjamillo, Michoacán, the annual jaripeo — a central Mexican rodeo — performs a very specific idea of masculinity for the whole town. Beneath the spectacle, a queer subculture exists in the gaps. Director Efraín Mojica, who grew up between Penjamillo and Riverside, California, blends personal memory, Super 8 footage, and raw vérité to build intimate portraits of three lives shaped by tradition, desire, and identity. As a result, JARIPEO is quiet, precise, and deeply subversive in the best possible way.

 

NIÑXS

Sunday, March 29th, 12:15 PM @ Peabody Essex Museum Filmmaker Attending via Recorded Q&A | Massachusetts Premiere | Co-presented by Panorama Film Festival and WickedQueer Content Warning: Depictions of transphobia; staged images of death and gore

Fifteen-year-old Karla is navigating adolescence, a rural Mexican town that doesn’t understand her, and the decision to legally transition. She's telling her own story, on her own terms, alongside trans filmmaker Kani Lapuerta. Kani has collaborated with her since childhood. NIÑXS refuses the tragedy narrative. Instead, it’s nuanced, joyful, and intergenerational — a coming-of-age story made by and for people who’ve had enough of other people deciding what their story should look like.

 

FARRUQUITO, A FLAMENCO DYNASTY

Saturday, March 28th, 1:20 PM @ Peabody Essex Museum Filmmaker Attending — Live Q&A | New England Premiere | Co-presented by CineFest Latino Boston Film Festival

Farruquito inherited a dynasty. At 20, already celebrated as the finest flamenco dancer of his generation, he faced an accident, a pedestrian’s death, and a prison sentence. He came back anyway. Directors Santi Aguado and Reuben Atlas follow the full arc of his story alongside his grandfather Farruco — a genuine innovator of the form — and his son El Moreno, who now carries the weight of what the family name means. This is a film about what it costs to be exceptional, to fall, and to return.

 

The Outsiders Who Built Something Anyway

ELEPHANTS & SQUIRRELS

Sunday, March 29th, 12:00 PM @ National Park Visitor Center Filmmaker Attending via Recorded Q&A | United States Premiere

In 2019, Sri Lankan artist Deneth Piumakshi Veda Arachchige discovered something in Swiss museums: ancestral remains and cultural objects from her indigenous community, brought to Basel by European explorers in the early 20th century and never returned. She decided to do something about it. ELEPHANTS & SQUIRRELS follows her fight for repatriation alongside community leader Uru Warige Wannila Aththo, sparking a larger debate about art restitution and what it means to decolonize a museum. An act of creative and political non-compliance dressed as a documentary.

 

TO USE A MOUNTAIN

Sunday, March 29th, 12:25 PM @ Cinema Salem Filmmaker Attending — Live Q&A | New England Premiere

Six rural American communities have been identified as candidates for a burial site for 77,000 tons of nuclear waste. Against the impassive machinery of government process, director Casey Carter finds something more interesting. This is a people’s history of resistance, stewardship, and deep attachment to land. TO USE A MOUNTAIN is a film about what happens when ordinary people refuse to accept that decisions about their home will be made without them.

Practical Notes

Friday night scheduling conflict. BARBARA FOREVER and CELTIC UTOPIA screen simultaneously on Friday at 6:45 and 6:50 PM respectively — at Cinema Salem and the National Park Visitor Center. Both are essential for anyone following this guide. Check the full schedule at salemfilmfest.com and plan accordingly.

Shorts programs are worth your time. TORNADO TASTES LIKE ALUMINUM STING screens as part of the So Close, So Far: Arts and Culture in Our Hometowns shorts program on Friday, March 27 at 2:00 PM at the Peabody Essex Museum. The film screens alongside three other strong shorts. The program runs about 90 minutes and is one of the hidden gems of the festival weekend.

Tickets. Individual tickets are $16. The 5-ticket pack ($75) and 10-ticket pack ($145) are worth it if you’re planning a full weekend. Book at salemfilmfest.com or in person at the SFF Ticket Desks at Cinema Salem and the Peabody Essex Museum.

Creative non-compliance isn’t a style. It’s a posture — a refusal to accept that the story has already been told, the form has already been settled, or the outcome has already been decided. The films in this guide were made by people who didn’t accept any of that. Spend a weekend with them in Salem and see what that looks like when it works.

Salem Film Fest 2026 runs March 26–29. Full schedule and tickets at salemfilmfest.com.

2025 Award Winners

Salem Film Fest 2025 screened a total of 37 documentary films, including 22 features and 15 shorts. Among those films, this year the festival honors six filmmakers with awards which represent the appreciation of our audience and jury, and recognition of achievement in different disciplines in filmmaking. 

In a unique tradition of the fest, winners in each category will be awarded original handmade trophies created by artists based in Salem. These awards not only honor the filmmakers' achievements but also celebrate the collaboration between the film festival and the local art community. As we explore the nominated films and the visionaries behind them, we aim to spotlight the talent and creativity that mark the highlights of this year's Salem Film Fest.

SPECIAL JURY AWARD:

LIFE AFTER — WINNER
Directed by Reid Davenport

Jurors include: Chris Metzler, Clemence Taillandler, Eric Ford, Sarah Vincent, Sierra Urich

Award by Scott Lanes

Award by Arlene Brown

CULTRERA CUTS EDITING AWARD:

SABBATH QUEEN — WINNER
Directed by Sandi DuBowski

Jurors include: Allyson Sherlock, Casey Carter, Eric Gulliver, Flavia de Souza, Sally Wu

Award by Melynn Nuite

AUDIENCE AWARD:

CHECKPOINT ZOO — WINNER
Directed by Joshua Zeman

HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY — RUNNER UP

Directed by Sam Feder

The Audience Award is determined by audience votes.

Award by Deb Linehan

MICHAEL SULLIVAN AWARD FOR JOURNALISM:

BLACK SNOW — WINNER
Directed by Alina Simone

Jurors include: Anna Feder, James Bennett II, James Sullivan, Peter Keough

Award by Elise Mankes

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER MAGAZINE AWARD:

THE RETURN OF THE PROJECTIONIST — WINNER
Directed by Orkhan Aghazadeh

"Visually, there are highlights throughout: gorgeously photographed landscapes; artfully lit, carefully calibrated interiors and exteriors; excellent use of framing and composition to provide thematic subtext; and a glorious use of a widescreen aspect ratio, which lends THE RETURN OF THE PROJECTIONIST a truly cinematic quality that underscores its very message about the joys and glories of movies and the sense of community they can create. As one local puts it, “Being in a cinema watching films together with other people is just different.” - Stephen Pizzello

Presented by Stephen Pizzello, Editor-in-Chief, American Cinematographer Magazine

Award by Sue Grillo

BEST SHORT AWARD

THE FLOWERS STAND SILENTLY, WITNESSING — WINNER
Directed by Theo Panagopoulos

Jurors include: Anna Barsun, Cam Howard, John Gianvito, Katherine Irving, Nathan Fitch

Award by Peter Grimshaw

Mass Reality Check Winners:


1st - PÓPO
2nd - THE CLIMB
3rd - YOUR HARVEST MAY BE DELAYED

Prizes will be awarded by our industry sponsors, Boris FX, Women in Film and Video New England (WIFVNE) and Mass Production Coalition (MPC). The first place winner will also meet individually after the festival with programming staff from Salem Film Fest to get advice about filmmaking as a career and receive insights into funding and distribution, as well as other professional considerations.

Award by Richard Flynn

Keeping It Reel Winners:


1st - A CELEBRATION OF LIFE
2nd - OUR KINK HAIR
3rd - MAKING MAGIC IN MARBLEHEAD

Our doc shorts showcase for Massachusetts high school students, sponsored by Boris FX. A jury will award software packages provided by our sponsor to the top three films.

Programmer's Picks

With Salem Film Fest just around the corner, our programmers have handpicked a selection of must-see films to help you plan your schedule. These Programmers' Picks highlight some of the most thought-provoking and captivating documentaries in this year’s lineup—films that have stuck with us long after the credits rolled. Dive in and discover what’s not to be missed!
 

HOMEGROWN
Saturday, Mar. 29 @ 3:30pm, Cinema Salem


We've extended our time for Q&A for this screening to encourage civil discourse. SFF Alum Margo Guernsey (NO TIME TO FAIL, SFF 2023) will moderate the post-screening discussion with Director Michael Premo & Producer Rachel Falcone.

"In a time when the strength of our democracy is being tested, HOMEGROWN digs at the roots of those pushing its limits. As U.S. politics continue to shift, this film lingers, evolving with the moment and growing more urgent with time." 
- Emily Abi-Kheirs, Program Director

BLACK SNOW
Sunday, March 30 @ 3:00pm

Director Alina Simone in attendance! 

"BLACK SNOW is an eco-political thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I found this film to be a compelling and foreboding tale chronicling the true threat of unchecked government power." - Jeff Schmidt, Programmer Emeritus

LIFE AFTER
Saturday, March 29 @ 6:30pm, Cinema Salem

Director Reid Davenport will be in attendance for this North East Premiere! The film is open-captioned and ASL interpretation will be provided for the introduction and post-screening Q&A. A/D is available and there is a limited number of devices available at the cinema.

"LIFE AFTER is a nuanced and deeply caring film that tackles an incredibly difficult issue that the general public knows almost nothing about. The film pushes the audience to think about the value of a human being and what it means to care for one another in our society." - Heather Cassano, Programmer

THE SHEPHERD AND THE BEAR
Saturday, March 29 @ 2:45pm, Peabody Essex Museum

Director Max Keegan will be in attendance for live Q&A! 

Join us after the screening for our Wine Tasting with Filmmakers from 4-6pm at Salem Wine Imports.

"Set in the breathtaking landscape of the French Pyrenees, first-time filmmaker Max Keegan explores the conflict provoked by the reintroduction of brown bears within a traditional shepherding community. Prepare for stunning visuals paired with an equally beautiful musical score; this intimate look into a vanishing world captures the tension between humans and a changing environment."
- Monica Cohen, Programmer

HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY
Thursday, March 27 @ 7:30pm, Cinema Salem

Director Sam Feder will be in attendance for live Q&A following the screening! 

Join us before the screening at our Kick Off Party from 5-7pm at Old Town Hall!

"After watching this film I knew I wanted to watch it again in Salem. HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY is a classic film in style, made in and of the moment, it opens the dialogue about civil liberties and what we do to defend them."
- Saul Argenbright, Programmer

CONCERTO FOR OTHER HANDS
Saturday, Mar. 29 @ 12:45pm

Director Ernesto González Díaz will be in attendance for live Q&A! This film is spoken in Spanish with English subtitles on screen. CC and A/D devices are not available for this screening. ASL interpretation will be provided for the introduction and post-screening Q&A!

"Knitting together themes of family, interpersonal connection, the power of art, and the intensely personal ways that each of our bodies is capable of making unique, expressive music, the film is equal parts engrossing and inspiring."
- Joel Roston, Programmer

Start Planning Your Fest!

Filmmaker Spotlight — Josh Zeman, CHECKPOINT ZOO

In the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Feldman Ecopark, a beloved animal refuge on the outskirts of Kharkiv, found itself caught in the crossfire. Home to over 5,000 animals, the zoo had long served as a sanctuary, offering animal therapy programs for children with special needs and adults in recovery. But as relentless shelling devastated the region, the animals were left trapped in their enclosures with dwindling food and water, while a handful of zookeepers struggled to care for them.

Five weeks into the war, the park’s founder, Oleksandr Feldman, issued a desperate plea on social media, capturing global attention. Volunteers and zoos across Ukraine and Europe rushed to help, sparking a daring rescue mission. Risking their lives, a team of zookeepers and volunteers infiltrated the Ecopark to evacuate the surviving animals—some tragically losing their own lives in the process. Through firsthand footage and on-the-ground reporting, filmmaker Joshua Zeman reconstructs this extraordinary rescue, offering a powerful testament to the resilience of both human and animal lives in the face of war.

Bridie O’Connell, Assistant Director of Salem Film Fest, had the opportunity to chat with Zeman ahead of CHECKPOINT ZOO’s New England premiere to learn more about the film.

BO: What initially drew you to this story, and at what point in the crisis did you decide this needed to be documented as a film?

JZ: A few months after Russia invaded Ukraine, I read an article in the New York Times about a chimpanzee named Chichi who had escaped from the Kharkiv Zoo, which is in Ukraine's second-largest city and only 30m from the Russian border. The escaped chimp was walking through Freedom Square which is a park in the center of this war-torn city. It was that juxtaposition of this chimp searching for its freedom, walking through Freedom Square while the residents of Kharkiv were searching for their freedom, but more so watching this video, you can see the faces of all these onlookers, who were both stunned and delighted by what they were witnessing… and that's the power that animals have on us -- how animals can heal us, how they can break through the horrors of war and make us realize there is still innocence in this world 

The next day, I did some research and discovered that Chichi had been evacuated from another zoo just outside of Kharkiv -- an animal sanctuary called Feldman Ecopark, that had been completely destroyed. And led me to the story of all these zookeepers and volunteers who had filmed themselves evacuating all these animals. At that point it was a story that I knew needed to be told.

BO: What were some of the biggest obstacles you faced in making CHECKPOINT ZOO, regarding access, safety, or storytelling while working in an active war zone?

JZ: Even just getting to Kharkiv took several days. You couldn't just fly into Kharkiv, or anywhere in Ukraine, so first I had to travel to Warsaw, Poland and then someone had to drive across the border and pick us up -- interestingly only Ukrainian women were allowed to drive across the border because the men were being conscripted. And we were in an active War Zone which meant we had to have medical training, we had to wear army helmets and kevlar vests that could stop a sniper bullet. It was intense. Even when we were filming interviews there were missile strikes all around us.

BO: Over the years, we've found that our Salem Film Fest audience loves animals. Through your work on this film, what moments or insights changed how you think about the bond between animals and humans?

JZ: Something that stuck out to me was just how many of the people who had to evacuate were carrying pets with them. It reminded me of a similar situation during Hurricane Katrina where so many people refused to leave their flooding homes unless they could bring their pets. And as much as this is a story of people saving animals, it's also really a story about how much animals save us.

There's one zookeeper in the film in particular who spoke about having a very difficult life and struggled with everything from addiction to homelessness to depression, and how he finally found a purpose in caring for animals at Feldman Ecopark. Its founder, this incredibly wealthy businessman, didn't hesitate at all to sell off incredibly valuable collections to fund the evacuation and even offer up the use of his home to shelter the animals while they looked for permanent homes. And again it's this idea that animals have the ability to bring out the best in us, which is what I wanted to capture with this film.

BO: The events documented in your film unfolded in real time and were captured by those experiencing it firsthand. How did you approach sourcing and incorporating this footage, and what do you think it adds to the film?

JZ: What's interesting is how big of a role that footage actually played in the story itself. The staff found places to relocate the animals to because of footage they posted to their social media explaining their crisis. That footage attracted the four young volunteers who helped with the evacuation and those volunteers filmed even more footage that made the story go viral across the world.

So much of the story unfolded because of the footage being shared by the staff, that incorporating it into the film was very natural. In terms of what it adds to the film, so much. It really grounds the film in the perspective of the everyday people who undertake this impossible mission. It's one thing to be told about a kid driving a pack of kangaroos out of a warzone, but to see that kid, smiling, filming himself on his phone with all these animals in the back of his van, it reminds you that these are real people, that this is really happening.

BO: What do you hope audiences take away from CHECKPOINT ZOO — both in terms of the human story and the larger impact of war on animals and conservation efforts?

JZ: For how much we love animals, we don't often think about them in such situations. We look at tragedies like war and natural disasters and we think about politics, borders, economics, and I hope that seeing it through the eyes of animals, who don't understand or care about any of that, makes us examine our own species. Very frequently, stories about war are stories about the dark, horrible sides of humanity, because war brings out the worst in us. But as I mentioned, animals bring out the best in us, and I hope that by putting the two side-by-side, audiences will see how extraordinary we can be when we're at our best.

CHECKPOINT ZOO screens in-person during Salem Film Fest at Cinema Salem on Friday, March 28 at 4:10pm.

SFF 2026 Presenting Sponsor