Everybody is Somebody – Albuquerque Film Festival 2026
DATE
Albuquerque Film Festival March 27 thru 29, 2026
LOCATION
Guild Cinema, 3405 Central Ave NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106
EVENT DESCRIPTION
A beacon of digital celebration for the world’s storytellers, this annual festival is dedicated to showcasing the most diverse array of narratives. The general mission is to empower every filmmaker with a burning passion, to connect creators with audiences, and to help solidify their mark in the ever-expanding universe of film.
PROGRAM 2026
| Friday | ||
| 4:45pm-5:45pm | Creekbed Carter Hogan: The Relic Song | Adeliza Backus-Pace |
| Operation Wolf Foster | Justin Grubb | |
| The Barber Diaries | Joseph Brown | |
| The Booth | Ryan Christopher | |
| True North | Ryan Parker | |
| We’re Kinda Different | Ben Meinardt | |
| Candy Coated Bullets | Brad Uyeda | |
| 6pm-7:45pm | The Long Walk: A Dance with Humanities | Philip Lawrence, Edison Eskeets |
| Q and A | ||
| 8pm-9:30pm | Land of Giants: Baffin Island | Sunny Stroeer |
| Requiem in white | Leila Hernández-Webster, Ian Hopkins | |
| On tract | Daniel Glickman | |
| Hilda | Ellie Aslanian | |
| When Girls Go Missing | Jeanette DeDios | |
| 80 for 80 | Tamara Susa | |
| Dr. Milksop | Ethan Geiger | |
| Wild Birds of the Americas: Evolutions in Bird Song | Kennedy T Cooper | |
| Ofrenda | Terry Ngo | |
| Saturday | ||
| 3pm-4pm | BOSSBABE | Shayna Davidson |
| Two In The Morning | A.Z. Ocoza | |
| Bloodlines | Othniel Horvath | |
| In The Mind of Kevin Louis | WILLIAM GARCIA | |
| Q and A | ||
| 4:10pm-5:45pm | Go Down, Diller | Andrew Bateman |
| Eternal Elegy in Velvet | Michelle Martinez | |
| He/She/Us Short Film | Susan Kelejian | |
| The Texas Coral | Jarob Abbott | |
| Q and A | ||
| 6pm-7:20pm | Tipping Point | L. Scooter Morris |
| Lovely Lola Jean | Matt McKee | |
| Only Fools | Evelyn Romo | |
| Hitori (Alone) | Jonas Luciano Huerta | |
| The Raking Society | Colleen Mooney | |
| Welcome Home | Lauren Trujillo, Taylor Trujillo | |
| Parent Teacher Conference | William Adam Harrison | |
| Q and A | ||
| 7:30pm-10pm | Spiral into the Yellow Void | Levin Garbisch |
| Q and A | ||
| Sunday | ||
| 3pm-4:20pm | The Picture Of Mikey Kratzer | Dan King |
| Solar Neighbor | Austin Cole | |
| Prior Bad Acts | Thomas Allen Gear | |
| Drag Race | Kenneth Archer McIntyre | |
| 4:30pm-6pm | Imperfect | Makayla Yazzie |
| The Narrowz | Anthony Parker | |
| Triple Threat | Avery Valdes | |
| Unraveling the Ribbon | Gwen Briesemeister | |
| Allow access | Nick Givechi | |
| Q and A | ||
| 6pm-8pm | Left Behind | Robyn Casper |
| How To Survive Hollywood | Paul Ruven | |
| Q and A | ||
| 8:00 PM | Award show |
OFFICIAL SELECTION 2026
| Project Title | Synopsis | Directors | Writers | Producers | Key Cast |
| Wild Birds of the Americas: Evolutions in Bird Song | All over the Americas birds make a variety of sounds and songs. Birds do this to attract mates, control territory, and much more. | Kennedy T Cooper | Kennedy T Cooper | Kennedy T Cooper | |
| Ofrenda | A boy of Vietnamese descent and a boy of Mexican descent connect through the loss of their grandfathers and their cultures. | Terry Ngo | Terry Ngo | Ha Ngo | Anthony Ngo, Noah Grillo De Dios, Marie Velasco |
| Creekbed Carter Hogan: The Relic Song | A bard recounts the history of the medieval Catholic Church’s practice of exhuming corpses for religious merchandise. | Adeliza Backus-Pace | Adeliza Backus-Pace, Carter Hogan | Adeliza Backus-Pace, Carter Hogan | Carter Hogan, Chad Bigelow, Sam Ringer |
| Go Down, Diller | An anxious single father seeks to protect his teenage daughter from a talking bear that works at a fast food restaurant. | Andrew Bateman | Eric Howerton, Andrew Bateman | Andrew Bateman, John Schorg | Ryon Thomas, Lauren Robinson, Ben Hilzer |
| Prior Bad Acts | Marine Leroy Brown tries to protect the other riders on a subway car and chokes a man to death. | Thomas Allen Gear | Thomas Allen Gear | Thomas Allen Gear, Mary Beth McCormack | Anushua Aira, Alex Richardson, Allan Lazo |
| Drag Race | Two rivals race each other in the confrontation of a lifetime. | Kenneth Archer McIntyre | Kenneth Archer McIntyre | Nelson Sanchez, Nata Aguilar, Dalton Scroggins, Brien Guy | |
| The Booth | An average evening at the quiet downtown diner is turned upside down when a mysterious stranger offers Sam the deal of a lifetime. | Ryan Christopher | Ryan Christopher | Anna Greene, Roderick Hickman | |
| Hilda | A brief, fragmentary window into a Kentucky nursing home and the people living and working there. | Ellie Aslanian | Ellie Aslanian | ||
| On Tract | A high school debate champion cannot control his bladder leading up to the big tournament. | Daniel Glickman | Daniel Glickman | Charley Reade, Isabela Cividanes, Jess Jara-Williams | Theo Baldwin-Edwards, Mariah Sage, Blaise Messinger, Paige Merril |
| Bloodlines | Bloodlines is a tense and emotional proof of concept for the upcoming feature film Brothers. | Othniel Horvath | Aneka Meyersberg, Othniel Horvath | Lina Kraftsoff, Jacob Museo | Liam Anderson, Zac Taylor, Lajos “Lalee” Hugyetz |
| ALLOW ACCESS | A sentient automated ordering system holds siblings hostage in a fast-food drive-thru by using its app’s metadata to aggressively manipulate an upsell. | Nick Givechi | Nick Givechi | Nick Givechi | Tiffany Michelle, Nick Givechi, Kirstie Drew |
| Parent Teacher Conference | An elementary school teacher discovers that the truth will set him free. | William Adam Harrison | William Adam Harrison | Fancisco Cronin, Sara Rose Wasson | William Adam Harrison |
| Requiem in White | Requiem in White, follows James, a musician who recently lost his fiancee to drug addiction, as he continues trying to rekindle his passion for music while struggling with his grief. | Leila Hernández-Webster, Ian Hopkins | Leila Hernández-Webster, Ian Hopkins | Leila Hernández-Webster, Ian Hopkins | Micah Flamm, Hannah Ford, Nick Kozel, David Garcia |
| When Girls Go Missing | The film centers around a young girl named Jamie, who is about to leave the reservation to study to be a doctor. | Jeanette DeDios | Jeanette DeDios, Antonio DeDios | Nina Revels | Christen McGrath, Saun’ Rae Nez, Richie Kotwica, Albert Leonard Haskie, Monte Deer, Sam Archambault |
| 80 for 80 | Set in the mountains of Aspen, Colorado, 80 for 80 follows Niklaus Kuhn—a Swiss adventurer with his sights set on hiking Highland Bowl 80 times in one season, all leading up to his 80th birthday. | Tamara Susa | Tamara Susa | Niklaus Kuhn | |
| Imperfect | Perfect faces that the idea that society is not too accepting of creativity and has to be fixed | Makayla Yazzie | Makayla Yazzie | Brent Garcia | Erin Charley, Naima Joe, Darah Tabrum |
| Welcome Home | An abusive house hold turns to a night of terror but are the masked figures really the threat they first appear to be? | Lauren Trujillo, Taylor Trujillo | Julian Gowdy | Lauren Trujillo, Taylor Trujillo, Tina Timelord | Diane Villegas, Brendan Healy, Fabricio Ugarte, Jordan Ugarte |
| Dr. Milksop | A pair of outlaws reconvene after narrowly escaping a botched bank robbery. | Ethan Geiger | Ethan Geiger | Ethan Geiger, Kayla Rose | Kayla Rose, Logan Nestelroad, Josh McFadden, Slade Thomas, Charles Dumont, Daniel Daubenspeck, Humberto Espiridion Valdivia |
| Lovely Lola Jean | This cosmic piece of short musical cinema features country music artist, Andrew Wiscombe, in his hilarious hit song, Lovely Lola Jean. | Matt McKee | Guy Jacquier, Tracy Jacquier | Andrew Wiscombe, Marc LaPierre, Sadie Brown, Hannah Eaton, Ava Anderson | |
| We’re Kinda Different | Follow the adventures of this peculiar hero as he sings his way through a mundane office building to profound results. | Ben Meinardt | |||
| How To Survive Hollywood | On her way to a Hollywood dream breakthrough with a $100 million Babygirl 2 pitch, an actress becomes entangled in the mysterious disappearance of her true love. | Paul Ruven | Paul Ruven | Paul Ruven, Margot Barel, Marian Batavier | Monica Keena, Martin Copping |
| Hitori (Alone) | “Hitori, inspired by the Japanese ritual game Hitori Kakurenbo, explores what happens when you break the rules of a spirit-possession game. | Jonas Luciano Huerta | Jonas Luciano Huerta | Manuel Huerta, Marina Montez | Sean Colson, Jaqueline Marquez, Maria Ortiz |
| The Raking Society | When Mae Murphy, the President of the New Mexico Long-Handled Tool Association, learns a member bought a leaf blower, a forbidden tool, the president calls an emergency meeting to decide whether it counts as a long-handled tool—offering a glimpse inside the organization’s quirky inner workings. | Colleen Mooney | Colleen Mooney | Colleen Mooney | Colleen Mooney, Kristin Broadwell, Rio Alexander |
| True North | Lost in the woods, a forgotten compass awakens and begins a mysterious journey toward an unseen force. | Ryan Parker | |||
| Land of Giants: Baffin Island | A 7-minute portrait of climber Paul returning to Baffin Island three decades after a life-defining epic, reckoning with risk, age, and the grace of walking away—while still preserving his lifelong love of climbing and adventure. | Sunny Stroeer | Sunny Stroeer | Sunny Stroeer | Paul Gagner |
| Unraveling the Ribbon | This documentary explores the deep cultural, spiritual, and political meaning of the Native American ribbon skirt. | Gwen Briesemeister | Gwen Briesemeister | ||
| Eternal Elegy in Velvet | During a challenging time in her life, Leah is comforted by her best friend Kira. | Michelle Martinez | Michelle Adriana Martinez | Dane Corbin | Paris Jaramillo, Dane Corbin |
| Left Behind | A coming of age short about friendship and feeling confused in your 20s | Robyn Casper | Robyn Casper | Robyn Casper, Jasmine Estes, Virginia Spotts | Robyn Casper, Vee Council, Joseph Levy, Jack Rammage |
| The Picture Of Mikey Kratzer | A story about running, addiction and redemption – set against the backdrop of a 500km underground solo race from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. | Dan King | Tom Reynolds | ||
| Solar Neighbor | This claymation film follows a terminally human placed into cryogenic sleep. While the human drifts in stasis, their home planet changes completely (This film is handmade and uses no AI) | Austin Cole | Austin Cole | ||
| Spiral into the Yellow Void | Amy, a psychic with the ability to heal emotional issues in others, struggles with a personified version of her own depression. | Levin Garbisch | Levin Garbisch | Jordan Henderson, Maggie Brown | Monique Candelaria, Kelton Jones, John Devilman, Ellar Coltrane |
| He/She/Us Short Film | Susan Kelejian | Susan Kelejian | Nicole da Silva, Emmett Preciado | ||
| Tipping Point | We Are The People who recognize this moment for what it is. It has happened before. | L. Scooter Morris | L. Scooter Morris | Robert Gomez Hernandez, L. Scooter Morris | L. Scooter Morris |
| The Narrowz | A hiker goes missing in an area known as, The Narrowz. His mother reports him missing to the game warden. A search party sets out. | Anthony Parker | Anthony Parker | Anthony Parker | Anthony Parker |
| BOSSBABE | A strung-out girl boss gets locked out of her house and goes on an adventure to retrieve her spare key. | Shayna Davidson | Shayna Davidson | Caine Deegan | Amy Puente, Paris Jaramillo |
| Two In The Morning | After their first night together, a young couple discuss whether they’re about to begin a new relationship or are just going to keep repeating the mistakes of the past. | A.Z. Ocoza | A.Z. Ocoza | Bella Frasco, Dana Chisholm | Tatiana O’Brien, Dylan Anthony, Lauren Rivera, Steven Zappe |
| Triple Threat | A suspicious husband meets with a private detective to discuss his predicament. | Avery Valdes | Avery Valdes | Julia Storch | Kenny Alford, Russell Casados II |
| Operation Wolf Foster | Once nearly extinct, the critically endangered Mexican wolf is making a comeback – thanks to a bold conservation effort that places captive-born pups into wild dens. | Justin Grubb | Justin Grubb, Jeffery DelViscio | ||
| Candy Coated Bullets | Valentines Day shipyard is interrupted by a gun toting candy corn with a vendetta. | Brad Uyeda | Brad Uyeda | Brad Uyeda | |
| Only Fools | After a bad date, two fools out of love test their compatibility during a short car ride. | Evelyn Romo | Evelyn Romo | Evelyn Romo | Miranda Miller, Gabriel Vallejo |
| The Barber Diaries | “The Barber Diaries” is a short documentary that takes a look at the changing face of barbering. | Joseph Brown | |||
| In The Mind of Kevin Louis | In The Mind of… A non-fiction series exploring the thoughts, beliefs, and motivations of highly creative people who have achieved a unique level of excellence in their work. | WILLIAM GARCIA | William Garcia | Kevin Louis | |
| The Long Walk: A Dance with Humanities | Six runner-messengers run 330 miles in four days to commemorate the survivors of The Navajo Long Walk and honor the perseverance and endurance of the Dine’. | Philip Lawrence, Edison Eskeets | Edison Eskeets, Philip Lawrence | ||
| The Texas Coral | Two friends are on a hike in the woods, and one is bitten by a deadly snake. As the two face their circumstances, they mend their fleeting friendship. | Jarob Abbott | Jarob Maxwell Abbott | Sebastian Salazar | Gitanjali Denton, Mayia Keizman, P. S. Simons |
Albuquerque Film Festival 