The world’s biggest and best genre film festival, Beyond Fest, is back for 2026. The Fest includes 10 WORLD PREMIERES, 1 INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE, 4 NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERES, 7 U.S. PREMIERES, 28 WEST COAST PREMIERES, 81 FEATURE FILMS in all.
Beyond Fest runs from September 23rd to October 6th in Los Angeles, California. Primetime is opening the festival with its West Coast Premiere at the historic Directors Village in Westwood. The other opening night film, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother opens up at the historic Aero Theater in Santa Monica. Finally, closing out the fest is the 35mm restoration of Ken Russel’s The Devils at both the Egyptian Theater and the Aero Theater.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow, Thursday September 10th at 10:00AM PT. There will be a virtual waiting room queue beginning at 10:00am PT at American Cinematheque’s website.
Here’s part of the release from Beyond Fest talking about the lineup:
Robert Eggers joins in person for ‘A Decade of Decay’- a day-long celebration of his work, chronologically screening THE WITCH, THE LIGHTHOUSE, THE NORTHMAN and NOSFERATU. Eggers will discuss his body of work and give an exclusive, first look at footage from his upcoming film WERWULF which hits theaters everywhere this Christmas. Major premieres welcome Duncan Jones for the rebirth of the iconic 2000 AD comic character, ROGUE TROOPER, Mike Flanagan with his cast to debut the first two episodes of Prime Video’s CARRIE, slide king Sung Kang brings his propulsive DRIFTER, Brad Caleb Kane joins with the early Voorheves years aka CRYSTAL LAKE, Conor Oberst pairs the World Premiere of his short film, INVENTION 13, with Nobuhiko Obayashi’s HAUSU, and RZA unleashes the World Premiere episode of SATURDAY AFTERNOON KUNG-FU THEATER – BORN INVINCIBLE paired with the 4K restoration of MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE.
Horror reigns supreme with the World Premiere of V/H/S/MIXTAPE, bringing together RZA, Flying Lotus and Ernest Dickerson; West Coast Premieres of Mike P. Nelson’s outrageously fun giant-snake-gone-wild BEWARE BOIÚNA, Zachary Wigon and Maika Monroe’s delightfully unhinged VICTORIAN PSYCHO, Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer’s anarchic DRAG, Joshua Giuliano’s blood-soaked RIVER, Samjad’s vampiric action-gore fest HALF, Adam Egypt Mortimer’s hallucinatory PATHETIC FALLACY, Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kölsch’s nature horror THE SWALLOW and Jordan Downey’s delirious THE CYCLE.
Must-see West Coast Premieres include Hirokazu Kore-eda’s devastating LOOK BACK, Alex Gibney’s incisive MUSK, Russell Goldman’s cerebral and unnerving SENDER, Anton Corbijn’s elegant and murderous A TALENT FOR MURDER, Dempsey Bryk’s kinetic CRASH LAND, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s brilliant and timely MINOTAUR, James Gray’s operatic PAPER TIGER, Doron Max Hagay’s wonderfully awkward SHE KEEPS ME YOUNG and Jonás Cuarón’s fantastical CAMPEÓN GABACHO. Directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson bring their naughtily lustful WICKER to Los Angeles for its West Coast Premiere where guests can expect a few little treats and a little mischief on arrival. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER – BLACK AND WHITE EDITION receives its International Premiere, while Jane Schoenbrun’s TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA enjoys the World Premiere of its “VHS EDITION”.
Beyond Fest continues its tradition of honoring Cinema icons with unforgettable in-person events. In addition to the previously announced M. Night Shyamalan retrospective, Bruce Dern takes over the Aero Theater with THE ’BURBS, SILENT RUNNING, THE DRIVER and the U.S. Premiere of Mike Mendez’s DERNSIE: THE AMAZING LIFE OF BRUCE DERN; Dolph Lundgren joins for DOLPH: UNBREAKABLE paired with UNIVERSAL SOLDIER; Martin Brest is joined by Danny DeVito for HOT DOGS FOR GAUGUIN and BEVERLY HILLS COP, and Al Pacino for SCENT OF A WOMAN; while Danny DeVito joins for a very special 70mm screening of HOFFA – its first in 30 years.
Restorations and recuts feature prominently including the North American Premiere of WILD AT HEART in 4K and a special screening of MULHOLLAND DRIVE co-presented by Rucking Fotten; Michael Mann marks the 20th anniversary of MIAMI VICE with the World Premiere of his all-new cut of the film, MIAMI VICE: DIRECTOR’S FINAL CUT in 4K, Bob Odenkirk joins to introduce Jackie Chan’s 4K restoration of RUMBLE IN THE BRONX 4K, E. Elias Merhige’s brings BEGOTTEN in mind-melting 4K, Bong Joon Ho’s THE HOST is newly restored in 4K, Terror Vision’s World Premiere restoration of CROWLEY, and Severin’s World Premiere 4K restoration of Michele Soavi’s THE GOODBYE KISS.
10 year anniversaries get their shine with Fede Álvarez returning with Rodo Sayagues, Stephen Lang and Danny Zovatto for a very special screening of DON’T BREATHE, Jeremy Saulnier steps back into GREEN ROOM with some special guests, director/writer Dennis Hauck, John Hawkes and cast peel back the curtain on their LA noir, TOO LATE, and Babak Anvari and Narges Rashidi join to celebrate UNDER THE SHADOW.
Maintaining our commitment to providing the world’s best discoveries for free, the Los Feliz 3 is packed with premieres and emerging filmmakers including the West Coast Premieres of Paolo Strippoli’s infernal THE SPIRAL, Ben Sottak’s thrill-tastic HALLOWARRIOR, Caleb Phillips’ paranoid sci-fi IMPOSTERS, Óscar Martín’s feral UPIRO, Matt Barats’ deadpan ANCHORS AWEIGH, Alex Schulman’s discomforting ADULT SUPERVISION, Koji Shiraishi’s occult nightmare KINKI, Noah Stratton-Twine and Jake Kuhn’s inventive THE PERIL AT PINCER POINT and Isabel Sandoval’s sensual MOONGLOW; North American Premieres of Rebekah McKendry’s tense vampire tale SUNDOWN, Casey Walker’s wintry ITHAQUA and Nathan and Ben McQuaid’s riotous WELCOME TO G-TOWN; World Premieres of Nadim Tabet’s intimate ghost story IN THIS DARKNESS I SEE YOU, Sean Hogan’s nightmarish THE DARK GETS IN, Britt Falardeau’s exquisite HINTER and Alison Eve-Hammersly’s terrifying ERIE; the U.S. Premiere of Paul Wright’s emotionally-charged MISSION; and the special presentation of Max DeFalco’s LA rollercoaster TEN WILL.
What Do We Think Of The Lineup?
Looking over the entire lineup, this is one of their best in the history of the fest. They’ve got plenty of new films, old films, restorations, and much more for any kind of film fan out there. They also have plenty of in-person guests to get the insight and stories behind some of these films from the people who were there and made them. Beyond Fest is much more than just a film festival at this point. Its a gathering of people who love film and love to watch film in some of the best theaters out there. I’ll be excited (and anxious) getting tickets with the rest of you.
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