If you’ve made it through the first two parts of my OCFF 2026 coverage, I thank you. Welcome to the final installment in the series.
Viewing entries in
Film Festival
The 2026 Oak Cliff Film Festival was held between July 30 and August second. Why am I only now posting my coverage of it, over two months later? I’ll just say that depression is a hell of a drug, and leave it at that. Better late than never. Please read on for part one of my OCFF 2026 coverage.
Some changes are coming to what has become one of my favorite movie events of the year since its 2023 inception. For its fourth year, the It Came From Texas Film Festival is packing up the tumble weeds and ten-gallon hats and heading for the stars, and I’ve got all the details right here.
The last time I published in this space, I promised that further coverage of Tribeca 2026 would be coming the next day. That was over a week ago. Life (and my own laziness) got in the way, but I’m back with the penultimate piece about my Tribeca 2026 adventures. Below, I finish up my coverage of documentaries before transitioning to the narrative features I saw at the fest.
Welcome, at long last, to my coverage of Tribeca 2026. I meant to write and publish during the festival, but I hit a snag, so I had to adjust my strategy. I stayed with a high school friend and his husband on Long Island (Hi, Rex and Corey!), and for some reason, I was unable to successfully connect my laptop to their Wi-Fi network. I was able to connect my phone with zero issues.
That meant that I also couldn’t do any internet research on my laptop while writing. I had to look things up with my phone whenever I needed to confirm a bit of information; it was a real drag. I’m sure it was a weird, random setting on my laptop, but I simply didn’t have the wherewithal to figure it out at the time. I tried valiantly to write during the festival, but, unable to format and upload the coverage to my website, I eventually decided to simply enjoy the fest and worry about writing when I got home. Without further ado, let’s go back to early June together for my first out-of-state trip for a festival. Seems like it was only yesterday (insert Wayne and Garth doing the “doodly doo” sound)…
I have exciting news. For the first time in the almost dozen years I’ve been maintaining this website, I will be traveling outside of the state of Texas to cover a film festival. I’m going to Tribeca!
DIFF 2026 is the fifteenth film festival that I’ve covered for this site over the course of 3.5 years. After that much experience, I think I’ve finally become immune to the high-octane excitement that comes with a festival premiere in which a significant portion of the audience worked in some way on the movie being screened.
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!
Welcome back to the thrilling conclusion of my Denton Black Film Festival 2026 coverage!
Welcome to the first part of my coverage of the Denton Black Film Festival, 2026 Edition. The fest was held January 28 through February 1, and extended virtually from the first through February eighth.
I’m kicking off my 2026 film festival coverage with a trip to my old college stomping grounds. Denton, Texas, home of my alma mater, the University of North Texas, is host to the Denton Black Film Festival, the largest fest in Texas that focuses solely on Black-created films and performing arts.
The theme of this year’s fest, True Texas Tales, delivered to the audience, among other things, Depression-era bank robbers, an East Texas murder scandal, an inspiring account of Black excellence in the Jim Crow South, and a (highly whitewashed) look at the state’s most iconic location and historical event.
The mastermind behind the It Came From Texas Film Festival, Dallas-area media relations and publicity veteran Kelly Kitchens, has returned with a six-shooter on her hip and astride her prized pony to deliver the third annual iteration of her celebration of movies made wholly or primarily in the Lone Star State.
If you’re sleeping on the Oak Cliff Flim Festival (OCFF), I’m here to let you know that you’re missing out on one of the country’s most authentic, scrappy, and original celebrations of the moving image. Each of the handful of times I’ve attended the fest – including once as a volunteer over a decade ago, and twice now covering it for this site – I’ve been delighted by its punk-rock aesthetic and complete and total immersion in film culture. The programmers and staff at OCFF schedule quirky, thought-provoking titles that rarely disappoint.
OCFF 2025’s theme, Real Movies for Real Movie People, stresses the idea of human emotion and connection through movies. The fest’s website landing page features a graphic that includes the phrases “Human Cinema, Filling Heads, Connecting Souls, Sparking Feelings.”
Based on my personal belief that the absolute best antidote to small people with small minds – a constituency that only seems to grow by the day here in the good ole US of A – is as much exposure to different cultures, perspectives, ideas, and art as possible.
So, if anything can get me out of my funk, it’s a film festival.