When I was a kid, I learned about the Cuban Missile Crisis, MAD military strategy, and duck-and-cover, but it all seemed so long ago and far away to me. I was aware that, even as I sat and ate lunch with my friends in the cafeteria, or watched Darkwing Duck with my brother after school, there were thousands of nuclear weapons scattered across the globe. At any minute, something could go horribly wrong that could completely wipe out the human race. But I just never thought about it much. Responsible people were in charge, my naïve 13-year-old brain reasoned, and they were making sure we would all be safe.
Now, it’s practically all I think about.
That’s because our current president recently threatened that “[a] whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if Iran’s leaders didn’t genuflect to his liking and accept every demand he made in response to that nation closing off one of the world’s most vital trade routes. They took this action because President Donald Trump instigated an offensive, illegal, and immoral war of choice against Iran.
The above is the weirdest way I’ve ever chosen to announce my excitement for an impending film festival that I’m covering. (I’m a blast at parties.) As I gear up for this year’s Dallas International Film Festival, I can’t help but lament the absolutely insane leadership of the United States and the economic, environmental, and human destruction happening under their watch.
I’m connecting these ideas because movies – like the overwhelming majority of all art – is concerned with making sense of the world and why it is the way it is. Movies are a way to understand ourselves and the society we’ve built. And as unmoored as the world’s current circumstances make me feel, I will always look forward to a film festival and immersing myself in human creativity, even as I fear the consequences of the dark side of that creativity.
DIFF 2026 will be held April 23-April 30, with the bulk of screenings taking place at the Victory Park Cinépolis. Additional screenings will be held at my beloved Texas Theatre, along with filmmaker panels and discussions happening at Virgin Hotel Dallas, the premier sponsor of the fest.
I’ll be attending one of the Virgin events when, on Saturday, April 25, the hotel hosts a “Fireside Chat with Greg Kwedar” at noon. Kwedar is a director, writer, and producer who cowrote, with the film’s director, Clint Bentley, last year’s Oscar-Best-Picture-nominated Train Dreams, responsible for one of the most transcendent movie-watching experiences I had with a 2025 release. I’ve seen the picture three times now, and each viewing was a deeply moving event.
In addition to Train Dreams, Kwedar also directed Sing Sing, one of the best movies I saw at DIFF 2024. I alerted my good friend Tim – another Train Dreams enthusiast – about the discussion, set to be moderated by Christian Vasquez, and he decided to join me for the event. I’ll report back on what I discover, as part of my DIFF Report from the Field.
This is the first year that I got a chance to set my lineup for the festival before writing the usual curtain raiser. So, instead of using the rest of this space to list movies that I hope to see, I want to highlight a few of the titles that I’ll definitely be seeing, barring some unforeseen event, like a nuclear detonation. Without further ado, let’s dive into five of my most anticipated DIFF 2026 screenings:
Obsession: I saw a teaser for Obsession, the feature directorial debut of actor, filmmaker, and comedian Curry Barker a few months ago and it creeped me out so much, I immediately subjected Rae to it. The brief synopsis is as enigmatic and unsettling as the teaser: “After breaking the mysterious ‘One Wish Willow’ to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.” During research for this curtain raiser, I discovered that Barker had the idea for his movie while watching the “Monkey’s Paw” episode of The Simpsons.
A still from Obsession.
Kim Novak's Vertigo: The new documentary from Alexandre O. Philippe, who directed the fascinating movie-centric docs Lynch/Oz, about how The Wizard of Oz shaped the work of filmmaker David Lynch, and 78/52, about one of the most famous sequences in film history, is back with Kim Novak’s Vertigo, which, according to the fest description, “[e]xplores Kim Novak's life, highlighting her role in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, and her journey from stardom to a reclusive life as an artist in Oregon, using rare archival footage and Novak's own reflections.” Philippe also made last year’s Chain Reactions, a doc about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as a documentary, of which I’m only now learning, from 2004 with the provocative title Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water.
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid: As has become my habit for the last three years, at the midway point of the fest, on Monday night, you can find me at the Stodghill Classic Movie Night screening. For the 19th edition of this DIFF mainstay, the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the titular outlaws, will be screened. This is the first DIFF classic movie night that I’ll attend having already seen the movie on exhibition. (The previous three I’ve been to were screenings of Shane, An Affair to Remember, and From Here to Eternity.) Butch Cassidy is one of my all-time favorite westerns. If you’ve never seen it, I can’t think of a better first time than on the big screen!
A still from Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.
One in a Million: This documentary from directors Itab Azzam and Jack Macinnes sounds like a harrowing, but possibly hopeful, sit: “Filmed over 10 years, one girl’s epic journey from Syria to Germany and back again. She and her family navigate war, exile, and heartbreak in a foreign land, illuminating the complexities of the refugee experience.”
Kenny Loggins: Conviction of the Heart: I’m planning on cranking up the yacht rock and ripping off the knob to close out the fest. Hopefully this doc about Kenny Loggins won’t descend into blatant hagiography, always a concern when the subject of the film agrees to participate. From the DIFF guide: “Everybody cut footloose! From chart-topping anthems to movie soundtracks, multi-award-winning singer songwriter Kenny Loggins reflects on a career that defined a generation, tracing his life on and off stage across decades of reinvention.”
With over 125 titles screening, plus numerous speaker panels and other events, there should be a little something for everyone at DIFF. The festival guide, a full list of events, and the ability to purchase both festival badges and individual tickets are all available at the DIFF 2026 website. I’ll publish at least one update during the fest. As always, you can find a complete log of everything I’m seeing at DIFF 2026 over on my Letterboxd account.
See you at the movies!