Tallgrass Film Festival runs October 15–18 in Wichita, Kansas
Wichita, Kan. (Sept. 8, 2026) The Tallgrass Film Association announces its complete lineup for the 24th annual Tallgrass Film Festival, taking place October 15–18, 2026, in downtown Wichita. Presenting sponsors for the 2026 festival are KAKE TV, Cargill and Kate & Clay Bastian, with Visit Wichita, Fidelity Bank, and Dan & Lynette Murphy serving as premier sponsors.
The announcement builds on the four Spotlight Films revealed last week, Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird), Loves Company, Copeland, and Crystal Cross, rounding out a 2026 slate of 25 features and 83 shorts representing 16 countries, with premieres ranging from World and North American to USA, Regional, and Kansas. Among the feature highlights are the World Premiere of Harrison Ford Comes to Wichita, a documentary from Wichita native, now Los Angeles-based, Graham High about the actor’s decades of low-key visits to Wichita, and Seized, which follows the police raid on the Marion County Record, a story that has gripped the region since a small Kansas newspaper became a national flashpoint over press freedom.
The 83 shorts span eight categories, Narrative, Documentary, Emerging Filmmaker, Kansas, Gordon Parks Award, Murmurations, Music Video, and the experimental and animated works of the Vortex program, including Greensburg Anew, which revisits a photographer’s decades-old images of Greensburg, Kansas, against the town rebuilt after an EF5 tornado, Cowtown, an Emerging Filmmaker entry chronicling the fight to save one of Wichita’s oldest churches from demolition, and Asano, a Vortex Animation portrait of a day in the life of a New York City kid from Harvester Arts resident artist Aaron Asis.
Additionally, Tallgrass Film Festival presents Best of Women in Dance on Film: 2021-2025, a shorts program featuring seven films selected from Women in Dance’s programs across five years. Bringing together artists and collaborations based in Canada, Germany, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the lineup celebrates a range of creative voices at the intersection of dance and moving image.
“I am so proud of the 2026 lineup for Tallgrass Film Festival and thrilled to bring these excellent films to Wichitans and the world,” said Programming Director Ouma Amadou. “There is something for everyone in this year’s lineup, and I believe audiences will recognize the Midwestern stubbornly independent ethos throughout this diverse slate.”
This year’s restructuring, in partnership with new administrative and operational partner Harvester Arts, brings the festival back to a walkable Old Town Square footprint and with it, some new additions. The majority of the action will take place within a few blocks of each other: Boulevard Theatres as the festival’s home base, opening night at Shocker Studios, and additional Saturday screenings at the newly renovated Orpheum Theatre. A festival tent in Old Town Square will host daytime activities and filmmaker meet-and-greets by day and parties by night, including a Friday night live variety show produced by local artist and performer Madi White, bringing her signature blend of clowning, puppetry, and music to the festival grounds. The box office will be located at City Arts, with a filmmaker and VIP lounge at Rock Island Studios. Throughout it all, festivalgoers will spot Poppi, introduced this year as the festival’s new mascot and self-proclaimed Popcorn Princess, greeting audiences and filmmakers at screenings and events across the festival.
It’s all part of what’s shaping up to be the event of the season in Wichita, and with the full 2026 lineup now revealed, there’s never been a better time to lock in a TALLpass.
“Last year was our first year back in Old Town, and this year we’re building on that by bringing even more of the festival into Old Town Square. It gives audiences the chance to walk from a screening straight into a party, a filmmaker meet-and-greet, or a conversation with a director they just watched on screen.,” said Tallgrass Managing Director Tom Mittlestadt. “That’s the Tallgrass experience!”
About the Tallgrass Film Festival
Founded on Tim Gruver’s vision to bring independent film to Wichita, the Tallgrass Film Festival has grown over more than two decades into a nationally recognized celebration of independent cinema, known for its accessibility, filmmaker focus, and strong sense of place. Now in its 24th year, Tallgrass continues to evolve, presented by the Tallgrass Film Association and Harvester Arts as a four-day festival in downtown Wichita featuring narrative and documentary features, shorts, and the Emerging Filmmaker Program, alongside year-round programming at the Tallgrass Film Center.
Media Contacts:
Jaci Ignudo
Marketing & Communications Lead
Tallgrass Film Festival
marketing@tallgrassfilm.org
Ouma Amadou | Hugo Phan
Programming Director | Programming Coordinator
Tallgrass Film Festival
programming@tallgrassfilm.org
Tom Mittlestadt
Managing Director
Tallgrass Film Festival
tom@tallgrassfilm.org
Kristin Beal | Harvester Arts
Administrative & Creative Director
Tallgrass Film Festival
kristin@tallgrassfilm.org
The 2026 Feature Films
When We Were Live (dir. John Spottswood Moore) Made entirely of rediscovered public access footage, this documentary revives the real characters who turned an Austin community TV station into a stage for unfiltered self-expression, decades before social media. Documentary Feature Competition. Regional Premiere.
AMAZING LIVE SEA MONKEYS (dir. Mark Becker, Aaron Schock) A widow wages a David-and-Goliath battle to reclaim control of her late husband’s iconic novelty toy from the corporate men she says stole it from her. Documentary Feature Competition. Regional Premiere.
baby/girls (dir. Alyse Walsh, Jackie Jesko) Filmed over two years with intimate access, this documentary follows three teenage mothers in America’s Heartland as they give birth and work to break cycles of poverty, addiction, and abuse. Documentary Feature Competition. Kansas Premiere.
Landscapes of Memory (dir. Leah Galant) A filmmaker’s journey to uncover her family’s Holocaust history collides with the present after she’s detained while filming a demonstration, prompting a meditation on memory, trauma, and who gets to tell history. Documentary Feature Competition. Kansas Premiere.
The Last Critic (dir. Matty Wishnow) The first documentary feature about Robert Christgau, the self-proclaimed “Dean of American Rock Critics,” who helped invent modern music criticism and is still writing in his eighties. Documentary Feature Competition. Kansas Premiere.
Uncommitted (dir. Razi Jafri) Arab and Muslim American organizers turn grief over Gaza into a grassroots political movement that reshapes conversations about representation and power within the Democratic Party. Documentary Feature Competition. Kansas Premiere.
Run Amok (dir. NB Mager) A teenager stages a musical reenactment of the school shooting that killed her mother, pulling together a cast of misfits while the adults around her try to stop the show. Narrative Feature Competition. Regional Premiere.
The Peril at Pincer Point (dir. Jake Kuhn & Noah Stratton-Twine) A sound designer sent to a remote island to record audio for a horror film finds himself tangled in a local legend about a ghostly sea captain and his lost crew. Narrative Feature Competition. Kansas Premiere.
CAITY (dir. Lindsay Calleran) A teenager covering for her newly sober, relapsing father at their family’s haunted house business must also navigate her own relationship to substances, and to a new employee she’s falling for. Narrative Feature Competition. Kansas Premiere.
Glorious Summer (dir. Helena Ganjalyan, Bartosz Szpak) Three women live in a sealed, sun-drenched palace where an unseen system fulfills their every need, until cracks in the idyll surface a desperate need to escape. Narrative Feature Competition. Regional Premiere.
Mallory’s Ghost (dir. Arabella Oz, Nick Canellakis) A woman’s insecurities spiral into suspicion when her boyfriend’s captivating ex resurfaces during a retreat to coastal Maine, and strange occurrences in the house escalate. Narrative Feature Competition. Kansas Premiere.
She Keeps Me Young (dir. Doron Max Hagay) An unexpected friendship with a high schooler upends a woman’s relationship with her overbearing best friend in this sharp, hilarious satire. Narrative Feature Competition. Kansas Premiere.
Harrison Ford Comes to Wichita (dir. Graham High) Each year, Harrison Ford flies his private plane into Wichita, sparking decades of local folklore. This documentary weaves that mystery together with Wichita native, now Los Angeles-based, filmmaker Graham High’s own return to his hometown to confront a fractured family history. Kansas Feature Competition. World Premiere.
All American Girls (dir. Christy Wegener) This documentary goes inside the American Girl brand that shaped generations of girlhood, featuring founder Pleasant Rowland’s first on-camera account of building it. Kansas Feature Competition. Kansas Premiere.
Brimstone Terrace (dir. Tyler W. Moore) After taking his own life, a public defender wakes up in Purgatory, where Satan personally recruits him to prosecute souls on Hell’s behalf. Kansas Feature Competition. Kansas Premiere.
Fighting More Than Fire (dir. Keith Daniels) This documentary traces the untold history of Black firefighters who broke barriers in a segregated Tulsa, Oklahoma, fire department. Gordon Parks Award Competition. Kansas Premiere.
Fort Scott Stories (dir. D. Michael Cheers) An intimate portrait of present-day Fort Scott, Kansas, told through the voices of residents across generations. Gordon Parks Award Competition. Kansas Premiere.
Wood Street (dir. Caron Creighton) Residents of Oakland’s largest unhoused encampment organize to fight eviction in this immersive, vérité documentary. Gordon Parks Award Competition. Kansas Premiere.
A Woman’s Work (dir. A.R. Ephraim) A coal miner in rural Kentucky shoulders her family’s survival while keeping her identity hidden from a community that would judge her for it. Stubbornly Independent Competition. Kansas Premiere.
Don’t Kill My Vibe (dir. Stephen Takashima) A nostalgic road trip between two estranged friends turns chaotic when they discover they’ve unwittingly been transporting drugs. Stubbornly Independent Competition. Regional Premiere.
Seized (dir. Sharon Liese) This stranger-than-fiction thriller follows the police raid on the Marion County Record, a story that has gripped this small Kansas town and spiraled into a national flashpoint over press freedom. Out of Competition.
Documentary Short
- A Derailment (dir. Nathan Truesdell) | Regional Premiere
- Born Secret (dir. Riley Fitchpatrick) | Kansas Premiere
- Greensburg Anew (dir. Susanne Walström) | North American Premiere
- HER BABY DIDN’T BLOCK HER JUMPSHOT (dir. Emily Lobsenz) | World Premiere
- PUPPY LOVE Tails of the City (dir. Lulu Men) | World Premiere
- Sea Song (dir. An-Phuong Ly) | Kansas Premiere
- Sunday Mornings at the Beach (dir. Tim Reid, Aaron Hose) | Kansas Premiere
- This is Not a Heartbeat (dir. Carin Leong) | World Premiere
Emerging Short
- 64 (dir. Max Galante) | Regional Premiere
- COYOTES (dir. Bryn Wright) | Kansas Premiere
- Call Me At 9:00 (dir. Samuel Shulda) | Regional Premiere
- Cowtown (dir. Isaac Gorges) | Regional Premiere
- Everything I’m Not; Everything I Am (dir. Xavier Alexander) | Kansas Premiere
- Foundation (dir. Jack Hinz) | Kansas Premiere
- Moe’s (dir. Jerry Stone) | World Premiere
- Not Just Kicks (dir. Una Finn) | Regional Premiere
- The Bunny (dir. Isaiah Supadi & Oscar Smith) | Kansas Premiere
- The Wheelchair (dir. Clara García, Mariano Reinaldos) | Regional Premiere
- Thorns & Roses (dir. Niamh Manning) | Kansas Premiere
Gordon Parks Award Short
- Arthur Jafa: Sequencing the Notes (dir. Jurrell Lewis)
- Cleo & Zion (dir. Jordyn Rolling) | Regional Premiere
- EL TIGUERE (dir. Andrew J Rodriguez) | Kansas Premiere
- I Know it’s Me. (dir. Astin Rocks) | Regional Premiere
- Oh Happy Day! (dir. Ivan Rome) | Kansas Premiere
- The Baltimore Barber (dir. Chaseedaw Giles) | Regional Premiere
- The Last Wish (dir. Kimberley Ann Surin) | Kansas Premiere
- We’re All Black Down Here (dir. James Mellors) | Regional Premiere
Kansas Short
- Flooding Kaw Nation: Submerged Cities, Desecrated Graves, and Kaw Lake (dir. Tai Edwards, Lisa Tatonetti) | World Premiere
- Hit-Woman (dir. Malachi Lewis) | Regional Premiere
- It’s Nice to Finally Meet You (dir. Kate Compton) | Kansas Premiere
- Rainbow Rider (dir. Georgia Krause) | Kansas Premiere
- Safer Waters: Artist Stephen Towns on Paradise Park (dir. Tera Lee Hedrick, Lu Vickers, Chloe Lang)
- We’re All Sorry Souls (dir. Alessandra Mesa) | World Premiere
Murmurations Short
- Art21: Delcy Morelos (dir. Ian Forster)
- Fish Die with Mar (dir. Mer Sorribas) | North American Premiere
- In The Still Of Night (dir. Aristides Mantilla) | Kansas Premiere
- São Paulo, New York (dir. Eduardo Machado) | Regional Premiere
- The Last Day Of All (dir. Bryan M. Caballero) | USA Premiere
Music Video
- I’m Wonderin’ (dir. Jen Msumba) | World Premiere
- Kalyn Fay “MORE” (dir. Colleen Thurston, David Wayne Reed) | Kansas Premiere
- Left Behind (dir. David Alexander Ambrose) | USA Premiere
- Marital Bed – Ghost (dir. Aidan Karstadt) | Kansas Premiere
- Mental Trillness by tv-ma (dir. Rylee Dulaney & Ryan Crews) | World Premiere
- Monday Anthem (dir. Zaxarias Diamantis) | Regional Premiere
- Relief by Mourning Habit (dir. Micah Streeter)
- SAME AS U (dir. Daniel Criblez)
- Spin Me Again (dir. Amir Afroozeh) | North American Premiere
- What if I Die Flying Over Oklahoma? (dir. H. Nelson Tracey) | Kansas Premiere
Narrative Short
- After What Happened at the Library (dir. Syra McCarthy) | Kansas Premiere
- Bird Brain (dir. Paige Rodnunsky) | World Premiere
- CRYBABY (dir. Kim Xiong) | Regional Premiere
- Cold Call (dir. Elise Kibler) | Kansas Premiere
- In Her You’ll Find Sanctuary (dir. Isabella Garcia) | Regional Premiere
- Is it Like, a Date?!? (dir. Eliana Pipes) | Kansas Premiere
- Las Cosas Que Brillan (dir. Kristal Sotomayor) | Kansas Premiere
- Matches (dir. Jake Delaney) | Regional Premiere
- RENT-A-FR13ND (dir. Avery Daman) | Kansas Premiere
- Sam Wants Her Sweater Back (dir. Whitney Chitwood) | Kansas Premiere
- something still (dir. Ariel Mahler) | Regional Premiere
- We Were Here (dir. Pranav Bhasin) | Kansas Premiere
Vortex Animation
- Asano (dir. Aaron Asis) | World Premiere
- HOPE (dir. Jamal Ademola) | Kansas Premiere
- HOW NOT TO DIE ON AN ALIEN PLANET (dir. Carlos F. Puertolas)
- I AM FINE (dir. Osi Wald) | North American Premiere
- KARMA (dir. Dan Panaitescu) | Regional Premiere
- People Live Here (dir. Gabrielle Côté) | Kansas Premiere
- Song of Whales (dir. Afroza Hossain Sara) | Regional Premiere
- The CROWN With A SHADOW & The Search For SELF! (dir. JB Ghuman, Jr.) | Regional Premiere
Vortex Experimental
- 8 Seconds at the Three Sisters (dir. André Silva) | Kansas Premiere
- Break All The Vases, Steal All The Flowers (dir. Michael Alexander Morris) | Kansas Premiere
- Crumble (dir. Isabella Hoffmann) | Kansas Premiere
- Freakshow (dir. Caleb Hernandez) | Regional Premiere
- Hungerstruck (dir. Alicia Santos) | Kansas Premiere
- The Big Grate (dir. Clark Barclay) | Regional Premiere
- The Last Bateau (dir. Kenny Rigsby) | Kansas Premiere
- The Phenomenal Nothing (dir. Tina Salmassi & Erica Scandariato) | Regional Premiere
Best of Women in Dance on Film: 2021-2025
- COMPOST (Ana Baer Carrillo and Rocio Luna / ALEBRIJE)
- DYAD (Katherine Helen Fisher and Allysen Hooks)
- Echoes of Silence (Jennifer Aoki)
- Fuse (Ankita Sharma)
- In Capsule (Jessica Smith and Chelsea Ainsworth / Dual Rivet)
- iuSui (Maria Salgado Llopis and Aleth Berenice)
- Violet Crumble (Eva Stone and Simone Elliott / Root Collective)
Note: Premiere status is relevant at the time of publication.