What to Watch at IFFBoston 2026

Back in 2002, not long after I came to the Boston Globe, a group of movie-loving locals in town started an annual film festival dedicated to showcasing the best recent finds from Sundance, TIFF, SXSW and other high-profile events, along with a mix of New England-centric cinema. Boston was in need of a serious, well-curated film showcase at that point, the competition being pay-to-play faux fests like the Boston International Film Festival, niche fests like the beloved Boston Underground Film Festival, the venerable Boston Science Fiction Film Festival with its annual 24-hour movie marathon, and the Boston Film Festival itself, which had been the only game in town in the 1980s and ‘90s but by the turn of the millennium had devolved into a yearly round of cocktail gatherings at which movies were secondary to seeing and being seen.

Given all those other festivals, the new guys had no choice but to adopt the unwieldy monicker of the Independent Film Festival Boston, or IFFBoston (or IFFB, pronounced “IF-buh” if you’re so inclined). And yet the little festival that could went ahead and did. Now, 23 years on and for the past decade under the aegis of director-programmers Brian Tamm and Nancy Campbell, it is by far the best game in town, with Fall Focus screenings, special events throughout the year, and a big, honking spring whoop-de-do that offers a week-long showcase for some of the year’s best upcoming independent features and documentaries (not to mention a groaning board of short films from moviemakers local and otherwise).

The 23rd edition officially launches on Wednesday, April 22, and continues through the 29th, with screenings at the Somerville Theatre in Somerville, the Brattle in Cambridge and the Coolidge Corner in Boston. (Only in Boston will you find a major movie festival that unspools everywhere except within the municipal boundaries of the city for which it’s named.) With 40 features and many more shorts in the offing, parsing the options can be tough, so here’s a Watch List guide to 12 IFFBoston features to watch out for. Title links take you to info and ticket sales for each movie, and I’ve added release dates, where possible, for those Watch List readers not in the greater Boston area.

“I Love Boosters” (Aprill 22, 7:30 p.m., Somerville Theatre) – The festival’s opening night film is the latest provocation from writer-director Boots Riley, who gave us the blistering telemarketing satire “Sorry to Bother You” (2018) and the funky Amazon Prime social allegory “I’m a Virgo” (2023). Keke Palmer (“Nope”) stars as the leader of a radical band of shoplifters fanning out across Riley’s home turf of Oakland, liberating high fashion togs and re-selling them at flea-market prices. Demi Moore plays their fashion designer nemesis with an Anna Wintour hairdo. Expect a live-action underground comic with a secondary high of silliness. The revolution will not be wholesale. (Opening in theaters May 22.)

“Maddie’s Secret” (April 23, 9:30 p.m., Brattle Theatre) – An exuberantly ridiculous farce about … eating disorders? Comedian John Early stars as the title Maddie, an L.A. foodie with an online following and bulimia she’s desperate to keep hidden from her followers. Early has rounded up a solid cast of comedian friends (Kate Berlant, Vanessa Bayer, Conner O’Malley) for a film that satirizes internet influencer culture with a surprisingly dramatic core. This got raves at last September’s Toronto International Film Festival. (Theatrical release TBA later this year.)

“Seized” (April 24, 8:00 p.m., Somerville Theatre) – A documentary about the 2023 police raid on the Marion County Record of Marion, Kansas, which was prompted by the paper’s coverage of a local restaurant owner, the town’s police chief and others, and which resulted in the death of the paper’s 98-year-old owner and 34 news organizations condemning the raid. Sharon Liese’s film investigates a low-water moment in the putative freedom of the press and a high-water mark in public resistance. (No theatrical release set.)

“I Want Your Sex” (April 24, 8:30 p.m., Brattle Theatre) – From director Gregg Araki (“The Doom Generation,” “Mysterious Skin”), a kinky comedy about a “sex-forward” performance artist (Olivia Wilde), whose new assistant (Cooper Hoffman) is drafted for duties above and beyond the usual coffee-making. Rumored to be a comeback for the long-AWOL Araki as well as a tart portrait of a sexually uptight younger generation more than meeting its match. Hoffman is Philip Seymour’s son, with a career that’s coming along quite nicely, and the supporting cast includes Daveed Diggs, Margaret Cho, pop tart Charlie XCX and “Jackass” majordomo Johnny Knoxville. (In Theaters July 31.)

“Hokum” (April 24, 10:30 p.m., Brattle Theatre) – The latest entry in the modern horror renaissance comes out of this year’s SXSW film festival with strong word of mouth. Adam Scott (“Severance”) plays a grieving novelist checking into a creepy hotel in Ireland and contending with a legendary witch. The trailer makes it look like a cross between “The Shining” and 2022’s cult hit “Barbarian,” with whom the new film shares a producer. Up-and-coming horror auteur Damian Mc Carthy (“Caveat,” “Oddity”) directs. (Opening in theaters May 1.)

“As I Am” (April 25, 12:00 p.m., Brattle Theatre) – This one’s a find: An Iranian drama set on Boston’s South Shore, about Fariborz (David Diaan), a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War now settled into life as a Massachusetts fisherman, husband and father, and the appearance of a former platoon-mate, Amir (Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam), carrying a secret from their past. Written and directed by Pourya Azerbayjani Dow, a filmmaker in exile, with flashes of meta-awareness that recall the greats of the Iranian New Wave. (Seeking distribution.)

“The Last Critic” (April 25, 12:30 p.m., Somerville Theatre) – A documentary portrait of Robert Christgau, one of the first rock critics and just about the only one left standing sixty years later. His “Consumer Guide” to new music held sway in the Village Voice for three decades and continues today on Substack; Christgau, as salty as ever at 83, remains the self-styled “Dean” of the form. Matty Wishnow directs a film that’s a must for anyone who’s ever held loudly forth about a record album at parties. (Seeking distribution.)

“Remake” (April 25, 7:30 p.m., Somerville Theatre) – Any movie by local documentary legend Ross McElwee is an occasion, and this sounds more affecting than most: A memory play that intertwines a meditation on the filmmaker’s late son with the absurdly futile tale of how McElwee’s 1986 non-fiction hit “Sherman’s March” almost became a Hollywood feature film. The festival catalogue calls it “a layered excavation of memory and image making” from a documentarian whose body of work breathes with an idiosyncratic sideways wisdom. (Theatrical release TBA.)

“Marblehead Morning: 50 Years in Harmony” (April 26, 12:00 p.m., Brattle Theatre) – A one-of-a-kind concert film, filmed in a Cambridge studio and featuring the folk duo of Mason Daring and Jeanie Stahl, who’ve been playing together for over half a century and who bring an unparalleled intimacy of performance to their music. Daring’s other career as a soundtrack composer has led him to score 18 of John Sayles’ movies, among with many other films and TV shows; together, he and Stahl represent the still-beating heart of New England’s singer-songwriting tradition. Directed by Tim Jackson, himself a local triple threat as musician (Robin Lane & the Chartbusters), film critic and actor.

“Blue Heron” (April 26, 8:00 p.m., Brattle Theatre) – Toronto-based filmmaker Sophy Romvari has built a following for her short films, many of which are currently streaming on the Criterion Channel and one of which – 2020’s “Still Processing” – went viral on Letterboxd. “Blue Heron,” Romvari’s long-awaited feature debut, continues the winning streak with a sensitively observed tale of a family coming apart as seen through the eyes of the youngest daughter (Eylul Guven) watching a beloved older brother (Edik Beddoes) step slowly into madness. (Limited theatrical release starting April 17.)

“Power Ballad” (April 27, 7:30 p.m., Somerville Theatre) – Writer-director John Carney had a left-field hit with the gentle rock drama “Once” (2006), and a cynic (*cough*) might say he’s been remaking the same movie ever since. But audiences loved “Begin Again” (2013), “Sing Street” (2016) and “Flora and Son” (2023), and they’ll probably love this one about a washed-up boy-band star (Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers) and a down-and-out wedding singer (Paul Rudd) who spark each other to write one last hopeful hit. Oh, who am I kidding – I’ll probably love it, too. (In theaters June 5.)

“The Invite” (April 29, 7:30 p.m., Coolidge Corner Theatre) – The hit of this year’s Sundance Film Festival serves as the closing-night film of IFFBoston 2026: A dark and devious comedy about a dinner date between two couples, one (Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogen) fractiously bickering and the other (Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz) smooth and sinister. It marks Wilde’s latest stint behind the camera as a feature director, after the winning “Booksmart” (2019) and the more ambitious but less assured “Don’t Worry, Darling" (2022). Third time’s the charm, apparently. (In theaters June 26.)

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