Mystic Film Festival Brings Four Days of Independent Cinema to Mystic and Westerly
Mystic Film Festival Brings Four Days of Independent Cinema to Mystic and Westerly Sept. 24–27, turning multiple venues on both sides of the Connecticut-Rhode Island line into screening rooms for one of the region’s largest celebrations of independent film.
And the Chamber calendar seriously undersells this one.
The 9th Annual Mystic Film Festival includes narrative features, feature documentaries, dozens of short films, three blocks devoted entirely to student filmmakers, filmmaker conversations, networking events, a screenplay competition, and a closing-night awards ceremony.
The official festival site is: Mystic Film Festival 2026
The 2026 festival runs across several venues rather than operating out of a single theater. Mystic Luxury Cinemas in Olde Mistick Village remains the cornerstone venue and hosts opening night, while screenings and programs expand to La Grua Center in Stonington Borough, the Mystic & Noank Library, and The UNITED in Westerly.
More Than a Weekend at the Movies
Mystic Film Festival was created by area filmmakers and artists with a deliberate dual mission: give Connecticut and New England filmmakers somewhere to show their work while bringing independent films from around the world to southeastern Connecticut.
Nine years later, that local festival has developed a surprisingly large footprint.
The 2026 official slate contains more than 100 films, spanning narrative and documentary features, narrative and documentary shorts, animation and student work. The feature-documentary program alone includes films about politics, sports, Native identity, aviation, photography, speed, international borders and defectors.
This is also a festival where the people who made the films are part of the experience. Filmmaker Q&As, workshops, industry events and informal conversations are built around the screenings rather than treating each movie as a standalone theatrical showing.
The 2026 Film Schedule
Because several screens and venues operate simultaneously, there isn’t one linear schedule. Audiences build their own festival.
The festival’s official individual film pages and venue schedules confirm the following major screening blocks. The festival’s Event Schedule should be checked before attending for the final screen assignment and any last-minute changes.
Thursday, Sept. 24 — Opening Night
The festival opens at Mystic Luxury Cinemas in Olde Mistick Village, traditionally putting the spotlight on locally produced work and filmmakers from the region.
Opening night is specifically designed to celebrate films made by local filmmakers before the festival expands into its multi-venue schedule Friday through Sunday.
Friday, Sept. 25 — UNITED Theatre
12–2 p.m. — Crystal Cross
Narrative Feature
2:30–4:30 p.m. — The Life We Leave
Feature Documentary
5–7 p.m. — Micronations
Feature Documentary
7:30–9 p.m. — Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story
Feature Documentary
All four screen in the UNITED Micro Cinema in Westerly.
Friday — Mystic & Noank Library
The festival also moves into the library for programming Friday. One confirmed screening block runs 12:45–2:45 p.m. and includes Forever Home, a 20-minute student documentary directed by Kyle Francis Barton about Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Massachusetts and the work of rehabilitating injured wildlife for eventual release.
Friday — Mystic Luxury Cinemas
Multiple short-film programs also run at the festival’s Mystic anchor venue.
Among the confirmed Friday programs is a 4–6 p.m. documentary-short block that includes Under the Ice, director John Martin’s nearly 30-minute documentary about a woman confronting depression and alcoholism through an attempt to swim beneath the ice of a frozen Norwegian lake and pursue a Guinness World Record.
Saturday, Sept. 26 — UNITED Theatre
12–2 p.m. — Tails of the Himalayas…Of Dogs & Devotees + Unspoken Bond
Documentary Short + Feature Documentary
2:30–4:30 p.m. — Art of Destruction
Feature Documentary
5–7 p.m. — Nobody Wants to Be Here, Nobody Wants to Leave
Narrative Feature
7:30–9:15 p.m. — Act One
Narrative Feature
Saturday — La Grua Center Student Film Showcase
Saturday brings an entire parallel festival-within-the-festival to Stonington Borough.
La Grua Center hosts three blocks of student films, moderated by Jim Quinn, with opportunities for audiences to hear from participating filmmakers.
11 a.m. — Student Shorts Block 1
Yer Smackin’
Busker
Wiwa
Running On The Edge
Us And Them
I Constantly Thank God For Estaban
The Magic Words
Perspico
How’d It Go?
1:30 p.m. — Student Shorts Block 2
The Locked Groove
No Small Matter
Clucky’s
Value
Dental Breakdown
Trapped Air: Life With No Burp-Zone
Garden Of Babel
Separate Together
Face Me Face You
4 p.m. — Student Films Block 3
Same Time Tomorrow
Made Whole
Night Of Silence
Falling Behind
Running Against The Odds
Batteries
The Last Hug
Corsano’s Roach
The subjects alone demonstrate how broad the student program has become. Running Against the Odds, for example, tells the story of Narragansett runner Tarzan Brown, a two-time Boston Marathon winner who represented the United States at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
No Small Matter comes from a 15-year-old filmmaker and examines a court designed to address homelessness and mental-health issues through treatment and support rather than conventional punishment.
And Trapped Air: Life With No-Burp Syndrome is a five-minute documentary about R-CPD and the patients who live with the inability to burp.
Saturday — Mystic Luxury Cinemas
Mystic Luxury Cinemas simultaneously hosts additional short-film blocks.
A confirmed 2–4 p.m. narrative-short program includes My Dog: The Paradox, an animated short from Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal and co-creator of Exploding Kittens, about the joy and inevitable heartbreak of loving a dog.
That same block includes The Lord of All Future Space and Time, a 23-minute mashup of Western revenge story, science fiction and comedy.
Another narrative-short program runs 4–6 p.m., including Drowned, about a single mother with chronic illness confronting medical setbacks and the possibility of losing custody of her child.
Saturday Night Becomes a Filmmaker Gathering
At 6:30 p.m. Saturday, the movies give way to an Industry Networking Event at La Grua Center.
The gathering runs until 9 p.m. and brings filmmakers, screenwriters and other festival participants together away from the theaters.
It’s an important part of what Mystic Film Festival has become. The festival isn’t only trying to find an audience for finished movies. It’s also trying to create relationships among people who may make the next ones.
The event requires a separate RSVP for participating filmmakers and screenplay finalists.
Sunday, Sept. 27 — UNITED Theatre
The Westerly screenings continue throughout the festival’s final day.
12–2 p.m. — In Spite of Ourselves
Narrative Feature
2:15–4:15 p.m. — School For Defectors
Feature Documentary
2:30–4:30 p.m. — Documentary Shorts Block
Resume of Regrets
One Soupy Season
How I Survived a Kamikaze Attack
The Petal Pusher
Plant Life
4:30–6 p.m. — Fat + One Woman One Bra
Narrative Short + Narrative Feature
The 2:30 documentary block screens in the UNITED Main Cinema while the other Sunday programs use the Micro Cinema, allowing simultaneous programming.
Sunday — Mystic Luxury Cinemas
Additional programs continue in Mystic.
One confirmed block begins at 11:30 a.m. and includes animation such as Half Baked, a short comedy about a young adult repeatedly failing to learn how to cook and ordering pizza after every disaster.
A 4–6 p.m. narrative shorts program includes The Yellow Sponge is the Dish Sponge, Michele Noble’s comedy about a couple whose disagreements over cleaning and household chores escalate on the day of a party.
More Than 100 Films, From Features to Six-Minute Experiments
The size of the slate makes the festival difficult to summarize with a handful of marquee titles.
Among the documentary features are Art of Destruction, Micronations, Remaining Native, Fork In The Road, March Forth, Nasty, Public Access, School For Defectors, Sculptors of Speed, Outliers, People Vs. Politics, Slowburn Shoot, Team 28, The Flight of Jackie Cochran, The Life We Leave, They Fight With Cameras, Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story and Unspoken Bond.
Narrative features include A Woman’s Work, Act One, Crystal Cross, In Spite of Ourselves, Nobody Wants to Be Here, Nobody Wants to Leave, One Woman One Bra and Road To L’Etape Du Tour.
The shorts program goes considerably deeper, with dozens of narrative and documentary films running from just a few minutes to nearly feature length.
That makes the festival less like going out to see one movie and more like sampling a film world that normally doesn’t make it to a commercial multiplex.
Screenwriters Get Their Own Competition
Films aren’t the only stories competing.
The Mystic Film Festival’s Screenplay Competition is now in its sixth year, providing a route into the festival for writers whose work hasn’t yet become a finished movie.
The competition has expanded its categories as the festival has grown, and the top screenplay winners are announced during festival weekend.
That distinction matters. Independent film festivals often become one of the few places where an unproduced writer can enter the same professional conversation as directors and producers with completed films.
Mystic has deliberately made that part of its mission.
Sunday Night Ends With the Awards
The four days conclude where they began: Mystic Luxury Cinemas.
The Mystic Film Festival Awards Ceremony runs from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Sunday.
A wine reception is scheduled from 6:30 to 7 p.m., followed by the ceremony beginning at 7 p.m.
Awards recognize standout work across the festival’s categories, and the winners of the screenplay competition are also announced during the festival.
By that point, audiences will have moved among two states, several theaters and cultural venues, features, documentaries, shorts and student films.
That’s a considerably bigger event than the little Chamber calendar listing suggests.
For four days, Mystic and Westerly effectively become one regional independent-film campus.
More information is available at the Event Website link below.
To purchase tickets, click the Event Ticketing link below.
Details
Event: 9th Annual Mystic Film Festival
Dates: Thursday, Sept. 24 through Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026
Locations: Mystic and Stonington, Connecticut, and Westerly, Rhode Island
Cornerstone Venue: Mystic Luxury Cinemas, 27 Coogan Boulevard, Mystic
Additional Venues: The UNITED, La Grua Center, Mystic & Noank Library and other festival locations
Programming: Narrative features, documentary features, narrative and documentary shorts, animation and student films
Also Included: Filmmaker Q&As, workshops, networking events, screenplay competition and awards celebration
Saturday Student Showcase: La Grua Center, 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Saturday Industry Networking: La Grua Center, 6:30–9 p.m.
Sunday Awards: Mystic Luxury Cinemas, 6:30–9 p.m.; wine reception at 6:30 p.m., ceremony at 7 p.m.
Tickets: Individual screening tickets and festival passes are available through the festival’s ticketing system. Because multiple programs run simultaneously, ticket holders should confirm the venue and screen for each selection when reserving.
Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.