An inside look at the Provincetown International Film Festival's 2026 slate, honors for Ryan Murphy and Adam Shankman, and the films set to open and close the event
The Provincetown International film festival marks its 28th year with a program that blends high-profile tributes, contemporary festivals favorites, restored cult cinema and vibrant short work. For audiences and industry attendees, the schedule brings a mix of premieres and curated screenings across Provincetown, MA, offering an atmosphere equal parts celebration and critical conversation. The festival showcases both established filmmakers and emerging voices, and the lineup underlines the festival’s ongoing commitment to eclectic programming and community engagement.
Running from June 10–14, 2026, this edition foregrounds gala moments alongside intimate Q&A sessions and restored prints. The organizers have chosen an opening-night title and a closing-night feature that bookend five days of screenings, panels, and tributes. In addition to feature-length selections, the program includes a wide array of documentaries, short films in multiple forms, and special presentations drawn from major archives and contemporary producers. The festival’s scope aims to serve cinephiles, local audiences, and visiting filmmakers alike.
The festival will present industry recognitions that highlight both mainstream and behind-the-scenes contributions to film and television. Among the headliners, acclaimed director-producer Ryan Murphy will receive the Filmmaker on the Edge accolade, acknowledging his multi-genre impact on television and film; Murphy’s recent work includes the series Love Story, centered on the romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Another centerpiece honor goes to choreographer-director Adam Shankman, recognized with a festival tribute that acknowledges his history in musical cinema and commercial directing.
The festival opens with Shankman’s new film, Stop! That! Train!, which features a lively ensemble drawn from the drag-performance scene and sets a celebratory tone for opening night on June 10. Shankman will also take part in a wide-ranging conversation with The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney on June 11 as part of his tribute events. The closing night film is Family Movie, co-directed by Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, a metafilm in which a low-budget horror shoot becomes entangled in a real-life crisis when a corpse appears on set—forcing a filmmaking family to make impossible choices to keep production moving.
Several titles that generated buzz on the festival circuit appear on the schedule, including the Sundance standouts Jaripeo and Leviticus. Noted provocateur John Waters will return as a festival presenter to introduce Kristoffer Borgli’s unsettling art-world satire Sick of Myself, and the festival will also screen a 4K restoration of Waters’ cult classic Desperate Living from the Criterion Collection. This mix of contemporary picks and archival restoration reflects the festival’s dual commitment to discovery and preservation.
Artistic director Lisa Viola summarized the year’s approach as a desire to balance comedy, ambitious drama, and inventive short work while showcasing both veteran filmmakers and first-time directors. The programming emphasizes films that provoke laughter, empathy, and discussion, and the schedule intentionally creates opportunities for audience-filmmaker exchanges. The festival’s curatorial strategy places equal value on premieres, restorations, and documentaries that engage pressing cultural conversations.
The narrative feature roster includes titles such as Cotton Fever, Edie Arnold Is a Loser, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, I Want Your Sex, In a Whisper, Julian, Lady Champagne, Late Fame, Maddie’s Secret, The Musical, On the Sea, Power Ballad, Romería, See You When I See You, She Keeps Me Young, Sparks, Test and Trial of Hein. Documentary highlights span personal portraits and investigative work, including Adam’s Apple, Anne Packard: An Artist’s Resolve, Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story, Barbara Forever, The Brittney Griner Story, Cookie Queens, Give Me the Ball!, The Hand That Holds the Line, Hunky Jesus, The Last Critic, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders, Seized, and more. Special screenings include John Waters’ presentation of Sick of Myself and the restored Desperate Living, as well as site-specific dance work like Erosions.
The shorts program features narrative, documentary and animation selections such as 2 Girls Kissing, Albatross, Away, Callback, Charlie Is Not a Boy, The Windkeeper, The Artist Must Grow Ever More Selfish, Bobby Wetherbee, 60 Years Performing in Provincetown, Free Joan Little, and animated shorts like Apart and Marble & Lemons. Throughout the festival, panels and Q&A sessions aim to foster connection between visiting filmmakers and the Provincetown community, sustaining the festival’s reputation as a place where artists and audiences meet to debate, celebrate, and enjoy cinema together.