The Chattanooga Film Festival will return for its 13th year this summer with a mix of in-person and virtual programming.
The festival will take place June 18-21 at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, with a virtual component running June 19-27. Organizers also released a first wave of films and special events planned for the 2026 edition.
Among the announced guests is filmmaker Joe Lynch, who will make a return appearance at the festival alongside his wife and frequent collaborator, filmmaker Becca Howard. The pair will host a live episode of their podcast, “A Couple of Old Fashioneds,” during the festival.
Lynch and Howard will also host anniversary screenings of the cult films “Heavy Metal” (1981) and “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives” (1986), which mark their 45th and 40th anniversaries, respectively, in 2026.
The performance collective Everything Is Terrible will also return to the festival with its live show “Memory Hole: Animals Are Over,” which combines found home video footage with live performance and music. The group has appeared at the festival multiple times in past years.
In addition to in-person programming, the festival will once again offer a slate of virtual films and events, including the fourth year of its nightly secret screening series, “Red Eye.” The series features online screenings and watch parties centered on unconventional and experimental films.
Festival organizers reiterated their policy banning films made using generative artificial intelligence software. Chris Dortch II, the festival’s director and lead film programmer, says the policy reflects broader concerns about changes within the film industry.
“As we rapidly approach a world in which all major film studios are owned by the same small group of billionaires and both the theatrical window and the human side of film production are being threatened, we feel a deep responsibility to remind fans that it’s human heart, creativity and community that have made the medium of motion pictures such an impactful one,” Dortch says.
Building on that stance, the festival announced its first “A.I. (Analog Idiocy)” filmmaking challenge, which invites filmmakers to submit 30–60 second, AI-free public service announcements opposing the use of generative AI. Submissions are due by midnight April 30 and can be emailed to CFFhelpdesk@chattfilmfest.org.
The winning entry will receive two 2026 VIP festival badges and will screen before all in-person festival screenings.
The initial lineup of films includes “Grind,” a horror anthology directed by Brea Grant, Ed Dougherty and Chelsea Stardust that examines modern work culture through four interconnected stories; “Camp,” directed by Avalon Fast and presented by Dark Sky, which follows a camp counselor grappling with grief, trauma and supernatural forces; “Flush,” directed by Grégory Morin, a dark comedy centered on a man trapped in a bathroom stall as a series of increasingly chaotic events unfold; “First Feature,” directed by Curtis James Matzke, a documentary chronicling the making of a student filmmaker’s debut feature film that will have its world premiere at the festival; “Mockbuster,” directed by Anthony Frith, a behind-the-scenes documentary examining the production of a low-budget genre film made by The Asylum; and “Lucid,” directed by Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall, about an art student whose experiments with lucid dreaming spiral into a nightmarish reality.
Founded in 2013, the Chattanooga Film Festival has received national recognition from outlets including MovieMaker Magazine, Dread Central and Fangoria. The festival is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization run by volunteers, with proceeds from ticket sales and donations funding each year’s event.
Source: Chattanooga Film Festival