Newport Beach Film Festival co-founder and CEO Gregg Schwenk said this year’s edition drew record attendance, a record number of premieres, and well-received showcases covering awards contenders, Irish cinema, and music.
“2026 was a pivotal year for us,” Schwenk told Screen. “We had a record number of world, North American and US premieres and more than 50,000 attendees across the entirety of the festival.”
Among the lineup of approximately 125 features and close to 280 shorts was a strong contingent of awards contenders. This is of the festival’s strengths, and Schwenk said more Academy and guild voting members reside in Orange County than anywhere else in North America outside Los Angeles and New York.
Sold-out screenings included La Bola Negra, Paper Tiger, Wild Horse Nine, In Waves, and Ink. On-stage conversations hosted talks with The Social Reckoning writer-director Aaron Sorkin as well as Tony Gilroy, who attended the closing night presentation of Behemoth! starring Pedro Pascal with his production designer Jade Healy.
A vibrant selection of Irish cinema brought 21 shorts and nine features including Dallan Shovlin’s Christmas crime comedy You’ll Never Believe Who’s Dead, Vicky Wight’s Irish drama The Body Is Water, and Lance Daly’s Irish music comedy Trad.
Kneecap and Saipan producer Trevor Birney was part of a delegation of around 20 Irish filmmakers that travelled to Newport Beach and said, “It was great to see so many Irish producers and filmmakers out there. Because of the proximity to LA you get the audience and the chance to mix with other filmmakers and make great connections.”
Birney produced festival selection, Unmasked: From Actor To Animal Activist, a documentary about the life of Chris DeRose co-directed by Seán Mullan and Michael Barwise. “They brought in extra seats to get everyone in and the vibe and reaction were great,” he said. “It’s a distance for us to get there, so to see the films go down so well was amazing. The festival is on the map and a lot of our Irish colleagues will put it on the calendar for 2027.”
Anton Corbijn’s A Talent For Murder was among the award winners, taking the juried best feature narrative award, while Paweł Pawlikowski won the best feature narrative director award for his Polish Oscar submission Fatherland.
In the audience awards Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine was named best narrative feature, while Los Javis’ Spanish Oscar hopeful La Bola Negra earned best international feature. Phuong Mai Nguyen’s In Waves took best animation, Daniel E. Catullo’s 4000 Days won best documentary, Rob Arthur’s opening night documentary Frampton earned best music documentary feature, and Shovlin’s You’ll Never Believe Who’s Dead was named best Irish feature.
James Gray won the Outstanding Achievement in Directing for Paper Tiger, and the Outstanding Achievement in Narrative Filmmaking went to Aaron Burns’ Jimmy Stewart biopic Jimmy and Danny Boyle’s Ink. Newport Beach Film Festival ran October 15-22.
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