Montclair Film Festival Announces 2026 Audience Award Winners

The 2026 Montclair Film Festival has announced its Audience Award winners across four main categories. The festival presented its main Audience Awards across four categories with WILD HORSE NINE, MY NDA, ALL OF A SUDDEN, and AN UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE taking top honors. The fifteenth annual Montclair Film Festival presented by Volvo Car USA took place from October 16-25, 2026.

Audience Awards were given to WILD HORSE NINE directed by Martin McDonagh for Fiction Feature, MY NDA directed by Juliane Dressner and Miriam Shor for Documentary Feature, ALL OF A SUDDEN directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi for World Cinema, and AN UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE directed by Steven Leckart for Short Film.

Competition Winners

Additional competition winners were announced including POSSIBLE LOVE in Fiction Feature, REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION in Documentary Feature, and BEDFORD PARK and THEYDREAM sharing the Future/Now Prize. POSSIBLE LOVE directed by Lee Chang-dong won the 2026 Montclair Film Festival Fiction Feature Competition. REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION directed by Pegah Ahangarani won the Bruce Sinofsky Award in the Documentary Feature Competition. BEDFORD PARK directed by Stephanie Ahn and THEYDREAM directed by William D. Caballero shared the Future/Now Competition Prize and the $5,000 The Mark Urman Award For Filmmaking.

The festival featured three juried categories for feature films: Fiction, Documentary, and Future/Now. The juries for these competitions included notable industry figures.

Short Film and Special Recognition

Short film categories recognized I SAW YOU IN THE FLOOD in Fiction Short and BUCKSKIN in Documentary Short, while Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson's Mouse won Junior Jury prize and Senzo Ueno received Special Jury Prize for LOOK BACK. I SAW YOU IN THE FLOOD directed by K. Xian Ming Yu won the festival’s Fiction Short Film Competition. BUCKSKIN directed by Mars Verrone won the festival’s Documentary Short Film Competition.

Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson directed 'Mouse,' which won the top Junior Jury prize. The Junior Jury included fifteen area high school students representing fourteen area schools. Senzo Ueno won a Special Jury Prize for Excellence In Cinematography for his work on LOOK BACK directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. Jeannette Louie directed 'Us Being Epic,' which won the New Jersey Shorts jury award. ONE IN A MILLION directed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes was awarded the Special Jury Prize.

The Shorts jury was composed of Lydia Cornett, Megan Costello of Vimeo, and Aramide Tinubu of Variety. Artistic Director Tom Hall celebrated the winners. "Congratulations to our award winners for their outstanding work," Hall said.

Montclair Film is a non-profit organization. Its programs are supported by state arts councils and grants. The festival attracts more than 83,000 annual attendees. Additional support was provided by partners including Audible, Ketel One Vodka, and Craig Newmark Philanthropies. The festival plans to continue supporting featured films beyond the festival.