Actor Juliette Lewis will be at the Foundry Theater Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m. (Submitted photo)
More screenings, more venues— Yellow Springs Film Fest to return
- Published: September 29, 2026
ED. NOTE: A change has been made to the schedule since the following article was published in the print edition of the News. Juliette Lewis will be at the Foundry Theater on Wednesday, Sept. 30, not Oct. 4 as originally planned. For additional details, go to http://www.ysfilmfest.com
Roll out the red carpet: Movies, music, magic and more are on the weekend-long lineup for the fourth annual Yellow Springs Film Festival, which organizers boast is the largest yet.
Set for Wednesday, Sept. 30 through Sunday, Oct. 4, the YS Film Fest’s nearly 30 events, programs and films will take place on stages and screens across the village — at Antioch College’s Foundry Theater, Little Art Theatre, briefly on a closed-down Short Street and, new this year, 91.3 WYSO’s Union Schoolhouse.
The festival’s lineup of films includes documentaries, concert footage, dramas, comedies and shorts; it begins with a live conversation with movie star and musician Juliette Lewis, and the next day, a set by comedian Hannibal Buress.
Tickets and a full schedule can be found at http://www.ysfilmfest.com
“It’s definitely our biggest to date,” YSFF founder and Yellow Springs resident Eric Mahoney told the News earlier this week. “We added another venue and about 10 more screenings and events this year, with additional days on the schedule. It feels good to have a little more infrastructure to be able to pull this all off.”
At the new location — WYSO’s event space, and what’s being called the YSFF Soundstage for the weekend — will be live music performances from Erika Wennerstrom, the lead singer and songwriter of Heartless Bastards; a special screening of “Beneath the Underground,” a variety show by musician and artist Ian Svenonius; a live conversation with musician, composer and producer Eli Janney; and a free screenwriting seminar.
Another free event: Episodes from seasons one and two of “The Twilight Zone” will be screened on Short Street, with the road temporarily closed to traffic on Saturday, Oct. 3, 7:30-10:30 p.m. This is a continuation of a tradition that began last year — an annual homage to “The Twilight Zone’s creator and Yellow Springs-connected luminary Rod Serling.
Then, the following day, at 3:15 p.m., the Foundry Theater will present a free screening of “Resynator,” a documentary about a daughter seeking to reconnect with her dead father through a synthesizer prototype. A Q&A with the director will follow.
Black Zombie digs beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of modern horror to uncover the zombie’s buried origins. It will be screened at the Little Art Friday, Oct. 2, at 3:30 p.m. (Film still)
Mahoney said he was all too pleased to include this slate of free programming: “So, even if it’s not in your budget to get tickets for every single event, you can absolutely still participate in the festival.”
He noted that although tickets are still available for all 29 events, the festival sold out of badges earlier this year, before the lineup was even announced.
“And that felt good,” he said. “It’s a sign that people trust the curation of this festival a little bit. It’s nice to see that, sight unseen, people just know that they’re going to want to come and watch so many things.”
Still, tickets are going fast, Mahoney said — especially to see Hannibal Buress and Juliette Lewis.
An Oscar- and Academy Award-nominated actor, Lewis has starred in such films as “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” Martin Scorsese’s “Cape Fear” and “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” — to name just a few. Recently, she’s been in the Showtime series “Yellowjackets” and the new “Cape Fear” mini-series on Apple+. She was also the front woman for the punk outfit Juliette and the Licks.
In addition to being a comedian, Buress is an actor, producer, writer and musician. He starred on Adult Swim’s “The Eric Andre Show” from 2012 to 2020 and was featured on Comedy Central’s “Broad City.” He joins the ranks of past YSFF comedy performances from Fred Armisen, Reggie Watts and Kevin Nealon.
“What I love more than standup is infusing different kinds of art forms into the festival,” Mahoney noted.
This year, that infusion will include live magic — an artform dear to Mahoney’s heart, as his grandfather was a prominent magician in Dayton in the 1920s.
Following the festival’s opening-night screening of “Stealing Magic” — a documentary about magician Andi Gladwin tracking down a caper stealing magic tricks and selling them on illicit websites — Gladwin himself and local magician David Williamson will stage a Q&A and magic performances.
The Oldest Person in the World is a decade-long odyssey chronicling the ever-changing record holders of the title of oldest person alive. The film will be screened at the Foundry Theater Saturday, Oct. 3 at 11:30 a.m. (Film still)
In keeping with the festival’s homegrown spirit, the late village resident and filmmaker Julia Reichert will receive her annual accolades in the form of the conferral of an award in her name to a young filmmaker.
New York-based artist Arielle Knight is set to receive the Julia Reichert Award and $3,000, following the screening of “Who Moves America,” a documentary that the late Reichert’s partner and villager Steve Bognar produced, about UPS workers on the brink of mobilizing a countrywide strike.
Knight’s “The Boys and the Bees” is among the works that will be screened in the shorts program.
“This festival is an opportunity to inspire and to empower people — especially young people — to create,” Mahoney said. “That’s the mandate.”
He continued: “And, I feel like more and more, there’s just a lot of noise and negativity and worry and stress that we’re all living with. So, let’s take a minute to step out of that and have fun and gather. This festival can be an amazing and healing experience, centered around art in so many forms.”
For additional information on the Yellow Springs Film Fest, the schedule and tickets, go to http://www.ysfilmfest.com
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