Beyond Fest, Los Angeles’ biggest film festival, returns for its 2026 edition next month with a stacked features lineup and a newly-revealed shorts slate that is just as eclectic.
Presented by MUBI and programmed and produced in partnership with the American Cinematheque, Beyond Fest returns to the Egyptian Theatre, the MUBI Theatre at the Aero, Directors Village, and the MUBI Theatre at the Los Feliz 3, with all ticket sales going to the 501(c)(3) non-profit film institution. The festival will run from September 23 to October 6, 2026.
Across five curated blocks, plus a few wild card feature film pairings, Beyond Fest's 46 shorts span everything from murderous K-pop idols to cursed clowns to. The shorts program this year also has its first-ever cash prize sponsor in indie verticals production and distribution studio Early Media, which has sponsored the prize giving as prize as part of its search for new directing voices.
Highlights among this year's shorts slate include 11 World Premieres, which Beyond Fest describes as follows: Noam Kroll's dinner-party-gone-wrong chamber piece Jack & Christine, Beyond Fest alumni Julia Kern and Michael Prieto's razor-sharp mother-daughter reckoning Marge; Gregory Foltynowicz's surreal nightmare Observer / Participant; Ben White's oil-drenched tale Don't Pick Up; Dalila Droege's mother/menarche-nemesis psychological horror Beauty Night; Dylan Trupiano and Noah Morse's gleefully deranged Son of Danson; Henry Chastain's stranger-dangerific There's Room For Two In Here; Jamie Sanger's grief-deconstructionist Clayhead; Maxwell Rousso's power-and-image thriller Bad Look; Kiko Morah's found-footage curio Rushes of a Killer; and Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and Shawn Foree’s (Digital Leather) hypnotic fever-dream Invention 13.
There's also the International Premiere of Ray Savaya's sitcom-set thriller Friends Like Us and the US Premieres of Ocean Vashti Jude's sapphic romanti-sci Pick Up Game, Shir Ariya's potent unrequited love portent The Sorrows of Young Charlotte, Sarah Rich's paranoid airport-set Obscure Identity, Amit Gupta's karmic folkhorror Kāalgaon, and Matt Halsall's doppelgänger thriller Idols, which picked up buzz following its recent Fantasia International Film Festival premiere and stars Hojo Shin in a demanding dual role as both a struggling K-pop trainee and the superstar she becomes obsessed with.
That's just scraping the surface of the Beyond Fest shorts, so for tickets and further information on all the mini movies on offer, head over to the official fest site right here.
BEYOND FEST 2026 SHORTS LINEUP
Beyond Shorts: Mind Games
Pick Up Game / Dir. Ocean Vashti Jude / USA [US Premiere]
There's Room For Two In Here / Dir. Henry Chastain / USA [World Premiere]
Obscure Identity / Dir. Sarah Rich / USA [US Premiere]
Next In Line / Dir. Danny Dolan / USA [LA Premiere]
Idols / Dir. Matt Halsall / South Korea, Japan, UK [US Premiere]
The Orange Circle / Dir. Mike Robinson / USA [LA Premiere]
Headphones / Dir. Steven Arriagada / Australia [West Coast Premiere]
By Yourself / Dir. Elaine Frost / USA [LA Premiere]
Observer / Participant / Dir. Gregory Foltynowicz / USA [World Premiere]
Beyond Shorts: Peak Chaos
Million Dollar Man / USA / Dir. Riley Scott
Vape Glow / Dir. Steven Schloss / USA [West Coast Premiere]
Scissors / Dir. Hannah Alline / USA
Midnight Drop / Dir. Ricky M Staffieri / USA
Son of Danson / Dir. Dylan Trupiano & Noah Morse / USA [World Premiere]
No. 3 / Dir. Joe Heath / USA [West Coast Premiere]
Fight for the Fantasy / USA / Dir. Marissa Goldman
A Stable Marriage / USA / Dir. Josephine Decker
The Seeing Eye Dog Who Saw Too Much / USA / Dir. Eric Jackowitz
Beyond Shorts: Heartburn
Early Human Media / Dir. Adrian Delcan / USA
The Sorrows of Young Charlotte / Dir. Shir Ariya / UK [US Premiere]
Fester / Dir. Max Parr / Canada [LA Premiere]
Jack & Christine / Dir. Noam Kroll / USA [World Premiere]
Friends Like Us / Dir. Ray Savaya / Canada [International Premiere]
Overlooked / Dir. Lola Blanc / USA [West Coast Premiere]
Bad Look / Dir. Maxwell Rousso / USA, Germany [World Premiere]
Mancave / Dir. Fredrik S. Hana / Norway [LA Premiere]
Beyond Shorts: Family Business
Marge / Dir. Michael Prieto & Julia Kern / USA
Beauty Night / Dir. Dalila Droege / USA [World Premiere]
Imprint / Dir. Ran Jing / USA
Claddagh / Dir. Anna Drezen / USA
Are You Fucking Kidding Me?! / Dir. Zen Pace / USA
Clayhead / Dir. Jamie Sanger / World Premiere / USA
In My Blood / Dir. Alex Bendo / USA [West Coast Premiere]
A Stable for Horses / Dir. Davie Paterson / Australia
Beyond Shorts: Prey Tell
Camp Oleander / Dir. Alyssa Aldaz / USA
What We Carry / Dir. Karl-Mary Akre / USA [West Coast Premiere]
Udders! / Dir. Michael Spencer / USA [LA Premiere]
Kāalgaon / Dir. Amit Gupta / USA, India [US Premiere]
Feed the Dark / Dir. Rob Himebaugh / USA [LA Premiere]
Sola / Dir. Brian Hernandez / USA [West Coast Premiere]
Don't Pick Up / Dir. Ben White / USA [World Premiere]
Bagman / Dirs. Vaughn Gaston & Connor Gaston / Canada [LA Premiere]
Wild Cards (Paired with Features)
Invention 13 / Dirs. Conor Oberst & Shawn Foree / USA [World Premiere]
Coyotes / Dir. Said Zagha / Palestine, France, Jordan, United Kingdom
This Place is a Sh*thole / Dir. Will Wightman / UK
Rushes of a Killer / Dir. Kiko Morah / Netherlands [World Premiere]
