2026 Macon Film Festival

TITLE: H20: The Cosmic States of Water
PROJECT CREATOR(S): Stéphane Bertrand
TRT: 29:00
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France
SYNOPSIS: 

In a faraway land amid the icy northern waters, a little sea otter named Sedna spends her days playing, fishing, diving with her fellow otters, and savouring the sorbets of Kuak, an ice cream seller who is super-sensitive to the cold.

Sedna is fully adapted to her environment, and has everything she needs to live the contented life of a happy little sea otter. But Sedna dreams of traveling to distant places… And on this day, like every year, she is on the lookout for Toklo, a mercurial and wily cormorant due back from his long southward migration. Sedna is eager to hear this intrepid adventurer’s eye-popping stories. And once again, Toklo thrills the little sea otter with his tales of flying over rivers and lakes, crossing oceans and grappling with hostile weather. And so Sedna makes a decision: she too will go travelling! But poor Sedna comes up against Toklo’s kindly but slightly condescending scepticism. Hers species is sedentary, so going on journeys is not for her. Adventure is for adventurers.
But that night, thanks to H2O, Sedna will go on an extraordinary journey to discover the water cycle on Earth. Then, buoyed by a fresh self-confidence and her newly gained knowledge, she persuades Toklo to accompany her the following night. Together with H2O, our two heroes embark on an even longer and more amazing journey.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: In the Shadow of the Mountain
DIRECTOR: Nathan Knox
TRT: 71:00
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: In the Shadow of the Mountain follows John Adams, a first-time playwright from Southwest Virginia, as he stages his ambitious Civil War musical in a small Southern town. What begins as one man’s creative leap becomes a collective act of courage, as the diverse cast commits to giving life to a painful, divisive moment in American history. For Adams, the story is personal—his own ancestors enslaved people and carried them into battle. For the ensemble, the project is more than performance: it is a chance to reach audiences across political and racial lines and foster empathy where division has long taken root. Blending rehearsal struggles, performance footage, and candid reflections, the film captures how a community of artists used theater to confront legacy, invite dialogue, and remind audiences that unity is still possible, even when history’s weight feels heaviest.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Compromised
DIRECTOR: Rachel Hardy
TRT: 41:46
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: Discover the untold story of America's education system as we journey alongside Black educators, the forgotten heroes whose pivotal roles in the Brown v. Board case reshaped history. Witness their extraordinary journey as their tireless advocacy turns the tide of history, only to face the tumultuous aftermath that upends their lives and reshapes the entire educational landscape.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Dorchester Academy: A Legacy of Liberty
DIRECTOR: Kay Flowers Johnson
TRT:41:04
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: A documentary film highlighting a former African-American boarding school in South Georgia that went on to play a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement. Ambassador Andrew Young joins local historians in recalling how he, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other Civil Rights icons came to Liberty County in the 1960s to teach citizenship and voting rights to hundreds of Black citizens who traveled to the idyllic campus. This documentary reveals not only seldom-told local history, but significant American history. This film is dedicated to promoting, protecting, and preserving the treasured legacy of a place, a people, and a history that changed the world.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Voyage of the Stars
PROJECT CREATOR(S): AXILONE HOLDING, CINEMARINE UNDERWATER IMAGERY
TRT: 29:00
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France
SYNOPSIS: 
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Summer Lost
DIRECTOR: Timothy Hall
TRT: 88:00
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: A man attempts to keep his terminal illness a secret while attending a wedding, but an unexpected romance reshapes his future as well as his past.
RATINGS: Adult Situations

TITLE: Downbeat
DIRECTOR: Danny Madden
TRT: 91:00
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: Down and out drummer Mauro has to flee the south and crash with his sister Isa in Boston. He takes to the streets, drumming with buckets and pans in an attempt to make money and stay in Isa’s good graces, but he can’t stop screwing things up.
RATINGS:  Adult Content, Strong Language

TITLE:  Waterorganiods
PROJECT CREATOR(S): Shapes of Emergence
TRT: 37:57
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France/United States
SYNOPSIS: The capture of a live performance using a macroscope to film and project, in real time, an invisible reality: that of self-organizing aqueous structures. The piece challenges our perception of the most familiar and vital substance on Earth: water. Visual physics experiments are performed alongside improvising musicians, as a kind of puppetry that animates an emerging, primitive form of life. Motion patterns arise from fluids and granular materials manipulated by the artists and projected on a large scale. In this practice, the emergence of artistic and natural forms become inseparable.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: December, Day Zero
DIRECTOR: John Robert Hammerer
TRT: 7:55
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: A recovering alcoholic comes face-to-face with his bartender ex-girlfriend when he attempts to drop off a Christmas gift at her bar.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Hostile Work Environment
DIRECTOR: Dawn Jones Redstone
TRT: 7:55
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: When fridge politics spiral out of control, Liza isn’t sure if her passive-aggressive co-worker is just a jerk or actually undead. With barricades, microaggressions, and donuts on the line, survival in this office comedy gets gross.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: The Pick Up
DIRECTOR: Karen Wang
TRT: 19:05
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: Drew, a New York City school teacher, sets out one morning to collect items for her upcoming wedding. When she shows up at the doorstep of her old high school crush, Caleb, she impulsively invites him to join her for the rest of her pickups. What begins as an awkward catch-up eventually turns into heartfelt confessions, leading both friends to revelations about their past and future selves.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Turn Off
DIRECTOR: Brent Ogburn
TRT: 14:50
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: ‘“Turn Off” follows Ryan, a 30 something alcoholic, as he faces his current reality and his past while navigating daily life in rehab. We’re introduced to the characters surrounding him, including one eccentric middle-aged hippie, Cal. Ryan frequently finds himself outside his comfort zone, disgusted with the weirdos in the place and thrust into sharing some of his story with the group. Ultimately he must make a decision: participate in healing practices and risk the fear of self-discovery, or abstain and prolong his healing process or worse, relapse.
RATINGS: Language, Violence, Drug Use

TITLE: Do Right Man
DIRECTOR: Gary L Baker II
TRT: 11:06
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: Ten-year-old Henry joins his father for a quiet night at a small-town bar. When a jealous man’s rage boils over, he and a warm-hearted waitress are caught in the violence, forming a quiet bond that offers the guidance he’s been missing.

TITLE: Polarissimae: Mysteries of the Pole Star
PROJECT CREATOR(S):
TRT: 35:06
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Ukraine
SYNOPSIS: This is the story of little Max, who discovers the wonders of the starry sky during his summer holidays. Max’s quest to uncover the secrets of the Pole Star takes him on an extraordinary journey through time and space — from celestial maps and a homemade planetarium to distant planets, where other polar stars shine.
This animated film celebrates the power of imagination, which opens new horizons, and the power of dreams, which lead us like a guiding star from stargazing to the launch of a spacecraft.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Resolution: A Cinephonic Rhapsody for the Soul
PROJECT CREATOR(S): Scott Berman
TRT: 45:00
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: 

A Dome Theater / VR experience that brings to life the heartfelt album Salvage Enterprise by The Polyphonic Spree. Created by Oscar & Emmy winners, this cinephonic journey invites you to feel, hope, and be moved through a powerful multi-sensory spectacle.
In a world overwhelmed by noise and distractions, this immersive film reconnects us to the powerful art of the album. Built around Salvage Enterprise, an emotionally rich record by The Polyphonic Spree, the film takes you on a cinephonic journey of hope - vulnerable, courageous, and deeply human - transforming the album’s themes of resilience and renewal into an uplifting cinematic experience. With inventive visual storytelling that maximizes the artistic and emotional impact of the album’s songs, this film envelopes audiences in a healing world where music and art come together to remind us that hope endures, and through it, we can discover the fullness and beauty of the human experience.

RATINGS: None

TITLE: SnowBugs
DIRECTOR: Jenny Schuermann
TRT: 2:43
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: During a snow day, three girls find themselves in a tricky situation after one of them accidentally goes too far during their snowball fight.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Tapestry
DIRECTOR: Jason Sheedy
TRT: 6:30
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: A desperate mother performs an occult ritual to resurrect her lost child.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Blank Slate
DIRECTOR: Andrew Schwab
TRT: 15:34
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States (Georgia Made)
SYNOPSIS: Claiming to remember every moment of her life, a woman spirals between past and present during an interview for her local news channel, slowly revealing the hidden cost of a life she can never leave behind as her memories start closing in around her.
RATINGS: Language

TITLE: Deuce Purgatory
DIRECTOR: Sydney Adams
TRT: 14:07
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: ‘Deuce Purgatory’ is an absurdist comedy about a mixed doubles tennis match that devolves into madness when the players get stuck at 40-40 for seemingly an eternity. Our loveable, self-hating but tennis obsessed protagonist Shelly Shlop realizes that in order to win the match, she must find self-worth. 'Deuce' explores how sports bring out our worst (and best).
RATINGS: Language, Violence

TITLE: Fantomet
DIRECTOR: Rob Tiffin, Mitchell Hardage
TRT: 10:56
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: A man rents an Airbnb for the weekend. As he settles in, signs emerge that he may not be alone.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Crime & Parody
DIRECTOR: Will Thwaites
TRT: 87:00
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: Nearly a decade before Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert came under attack for their political humor, an unknown comedian from Ohio finds himself in even more serious trouble for making fun of the government. Crime & Parody opens with the story of Anthony Novak, an amateur comedian who creates a parody Facebook page mocking his local police department. The page is satire, but the police take it very seriously. They raid Anthony’s home with guns drawn, throw him in county jail, and charge him with a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison. In the years that follow, Anthony fights in court to defend his First Amendment right to criticize the government. With support from The Onion, his case is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, just as debates around free speech and political expression are reaching a boiling point in America. Anthony’s case helps raise two questions that continue to grow more urgent: how do you hold the government accountable when they violate your rights, and what responsibility does law enforcement have to its citizens?
RATINGS: Strong Language, Adult Situations

TITLE: Third
DIRECTOR: Alexander Parkinson
TRT: 83:00
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States
SYNOPSIS: When Ernesto mysteriously falls into their lives, Thomas and Sandra begin to shake the middle-age malaise clouding their marriage, but as Sandra’s attachment to Ernesto deepens, his real motive is exposed.
RATINGS:  Violence, Adult Content, Strong Language, Drug Use

TITLE: Of 1's and O's
PROJECT CREATOR(S): Grégoire Delwaulle
TRT: 5:13
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Deutschland
SYNOPSIS: Bitflips, complex physical phenomena that endanger technological devices are a real issue in space exploration. But where do they come from and how do they happen?
RATINGS: None

TITLE: One Step Beyond: A Journey to Mars
PROJECT CREATOR(S): Aaron Bradbury, NSC Creative Enquiries
TRT: 25:00
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
SYNOPSIS:  One small step was just the beginning. Now, we take one step beyond - driven by curiosity, bound for Mars, and ready to write the boldest chapter in human exploration. Experience the thrill of launch, the challenges of life in space, the cutting-edge technology of NASA’s Artemis program, and the search for life that could transform how we see our planet, our past, and our place in the cosmos - as we prepare for humanity’s biggest step yet: setting foot on Mars.
RATINGS: None

TITLE: Larissa
DIRECTOR: Alireza Shah Hosseini
TRT: 90:00
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Iran
SYNOPSIS: LARISSA tells the story of a young Afghan refugee girl sold—along with her family—to a powerful landowner, Davood Kan, in Iran. Forced into backbreaking work alongside dozens of undocumented migrants, Larissa’s intelligence and beauty draw the landowner’s attention. Pulled from the fields, she is promised protection and privilege — but at a devastating cost. When she resists his escalating abuse, the illusion of safety shatters. What begins as a quiet attempt to endure becomes a perilous struggle for dignity. Told through a raw and intimate lens, LARISSA is not just the story of one girl but a reflection of countless hidden lives. It confronts the exploitation, silence, and systemic violence faced by Afghan refugees in Iran and other countries, while honoring the resilience of those who refuse to be erased.
RATINGS:  Violence, Adult Content, Strong Language

More information coming soon!