FMS Film Festival 2026

Apr 30

2 min read

Updated: Jun 2

April 2026

The Power of the Crew If this year taught us anything, it’s that no great story is told alone. Every screening, script reading, and production panel this year succeeded because of student and faculty collaboration. Our community stepped up to hold booms, edit late into the night, pull focus, and challenge each other's creative boundaries. This collective energy culminated beautifully in our recent year-end film festival, celebrating everything from experimental media to senior honors projects.

A Celebration of Student Cinema! 🎬 Held over three incredible evenings, our 2026 film festival showcased the immense talent and collaboration of our students. Audiences were treated to a diverse lineup, including advanced documentaries, experimental film and media, and narrative shorts. The week culminated in a powerful showcase of films and scripts from our Senior Honors Thesis cohort. Thank you to everyone who made this unforgettable week of storytelling possible!

Advanced Documentary, April 28 & 29

The festival opened with screenings from Natalie Minik's Advanced Documentary students, featuring films by Doo Min Bang, Daniel Cece, Sofia Daffin, Geri Hart, Julia Hioe, Quinn Kessel, Max Kind, Sophie Littman, John Mulvihill, Zander Penn, Alex Wu, Tom Xiao, and Keyu (Jack) Zhu.

Advanced doc, night 1
Advanced Doc, night 2

Script to Screen & Directed Study, April 28

Students from Don Schechter's From Script to Screen course and Howard Woolf's Directed Study course presented narrative and independent works developed over the semester. Featured filmmakers included From Script to Screen's Seray Ajai, Ken Bailey, Vira Chawla, Alez Herz, Virginia Hopkins, Emmanuel Weintraub, Levi Yang and Directed Studies Alexander Minagar, Chao Ba Ngo, and Marco Steel.

From Script to Screen
Directed Studies

Experimental Film & Media Futures Lab, April 29

The Experimental Film Screening highlighted innovative work from Kyle Petty's students, Ayse Akcayli, Toki Eashir, Samir Jones, John Mulvihill, Sam Ringrose, Elliot Riseman, Sada Schumann, Quinn Sobieraj, Sachin Vaid-Kwinter, Tom Xiao, Grace Xie, and Keyu (Jack) Zhu.

Also included were presentations by Mat Rappaport's Media Futures Lab students Darlene Barth, Lulu Lyu, and Simon Zho.

Experimental Film
Media Futures Lab

Senior Honors Thesis Screenings, April 30

The festival concluded with screenings from the Senior Honors Thesis cohort, celebrating the culmination of years of artistic and academic work. Students presented original works to packed audiences of peers, faculty, friends, and family. Featuring short narrative and documentary film and scripted projects by our Senior Honors Thesis students Eran Avni-Singer, Daniel Cece, Amba Raghavan, Cole McIlvane, Tri Nguyen, Sam Ringrose, Ethan Sims, Ilai Sternoff, Quinn Sobieraj, Tom Xiao, Keyu (Jack) Zhu.