Feature Films in Competition at the 64th AAFF

March 9, 2026

First Film Still from Pour The Water As I Leave Second Film Still from Barbara Forever

Third Film Still from tony odyssey

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is proud to unveil the 11 feature films in competition for 2026, which display the scope of the festival’s programming and its ongoing commitment to artist-driven cinema.

These 11 features are just one part of this year’s festival. Alongside them: 12 short film competition programs (86 short films total), 9 special programs, 3 juror programs, 2 awards programs, 2 student programs, and a constellation of “Off the Screen” installations, performances, and salons throughout the festival. Best known for its shorts programs, AAFF’s feature competition provides a different rhythm—an opportunity to spend extended time with a single work.

This year’s films move from intimate family portraits to metaphysical landscapes, from archival queer histories to psychedelic narrative journeys. Some arrive with major accolades; others premiere here for the very first time. All of them invite you to sit in the dark and travel somewhere unexpected.

Below is a glimpse of what’s waiting.

Wednesday, March 25

We open strong with Little, Big, and Far (Jem Cohen, 2024), a contemplative journey from celebrated filmmaker Jem Cohen. An Austrian astronomer leaves his life behind to seek darker skies—and perhaps deeper clarity—on a remote Greek island. It’s a film about science, climate, family, and the quiet awe of looking up.

Later that evening, TheyDream (William David Caballero, 2025) fills the Main Auditorium. Fresh off receiving the NEXT Special Jury Award for Creative Expression at Sundance, Caballero’s animated feature transforms personal grief into luminous art. Created in collaboration with his mother after devastating family loss, it’s both memorial and medicine.

The night closes with a World Premiere: Find One Who Was Not Born Of Woman That One Is Your Father (Mokhammed Aldridi, 2025), a formally daring meditation drawn from the Gospel of Thomas and filmed on the streets of Damascus. It resists easy categorization—part documentary, part philosophical inquiry.

Thursday, March 26

As part of our 25 Years of Out Night celebration, Barbara Forever (Brydie O’Connor, 2026) honors the groundbreaking legacy of lesbian experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer. Through rare archival material and intimate documentation, the film illuminates a life devoted to making queer histories visible—and unforgettable.

Friday, March 27

Lynne Sachs, one of the true luminaries of contemporary experimental cinema, brings us the North American Premiere of Every Contact Leaves a Trace (2025). For decades, Sachs has collected business cards from strangers. What begins as a simple gesture becomes a meditation on memory, connection, and the lives that brush against our own. It’s playful, searching, and unmistakably hers.

Saturday, March 28

Saturday’s lineup spans continents and forms.

Pour the Water as I Leave (Daniela Repas, 2025), a World Premiere, offers a surreal dance exploration of the Bosnian war through seven resilient lives. It’s as much about endurance as it is about departure.

In the U.S. Premiere of And the Fish Fly Above Our Heads (Dima Adib El-Horr, 2025), a filmmaker turns her lens toward three men waiting on a Beirut beach. Their stillness becomes charged—with history, crisis, longing, and the strange elasticity of time.

Adam’s Apple (Amy Jenkins, 2026), also part of our Out Night celebration, spans nearly two decades in the life of a family in transition. Filmed collaboratively by artist Amy Jenkins and her transgender son Adam, it’s intimate, generous, and evolving in real time.

And if you’re ready for something wilder, Tony Odyssey (Thales Banzai, 2025) closes the night with a psychedelic Brazilian fever dream. A robbery gone sideways launches two friends into a collapsing version of reality—equal parts absurd, spiritual, and cosmic.

Sunday, March 29

Our Ukrainian Special Focus comes into full view with two remarkable works.

Divia (Dmytro Hreshko, 2025) is a meditative, sound-driven journey through Ukraine before, during, and beyond invasion. Without narration or dialogue, it lets landscapes scarred by violence speak in elemental tones.

Flowers of Ukraine (Adelina Borets, 2024) introduces us to Natalia—funny, anarchic, unyielding—as she fights to defend her land. What begins as resistance to developers deepens into something even more existential. It’s a portrait of persistence that feels especially urgent now.

Across these 11 features, you’ll encounter astronomers and archivists, grieving families and stubborn land defenders, beachside philosophers and accidental mystics. You’ll see several premieres including World, North American, and U.S.. You’ll experience films that are quiet and meditative—and others that are loud, strange, and gloriously unclassifiable.

We hope you’ll make time for at least one and see where it takes you—it could surprise you.

64 AAFF Schedule and Tickets