World Premieres of New Features by Alex Karpovsky and Tommy Franklin Among Reveals for Baltimore Festival’s Fourth Edition
New/Next Film Festival, presented by Baltimore Public Media and taking place October 1-4, 2026 in Baltimore’s historic 5-screen Charles Theatre, announced its full lineup of 160+ films today, including 30+ emerging titles, 6 world premieres and 5 U.S. or North American premieres.
Tickets for individual screenings and All Access Passes, which offer Premium access to all screenings, including Opening and Closing Night parties, exclusive filmmaker events and more, are available now.
New/Next opens Thursday, October 1st with the Baltimore-made Eternity One, Marnie Ellen Hertzler’s documentary portrait of a disappearing Chesapeake Bay island community, featuring an original score by Baltimore dream-pop icons Beach House.
The festival closes Sunday, October 4 with The Projectionist, Alexandre Rockwell’s story of a haunted old man confronting his past through the lens of a forgotten movie theater, with Rockwell joined in Baltimore by cast members Vondie Curtis-Hall, Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou, Harriet), and Karyn Parsons (The Fresh Prince of Bel Air).
World premiere features at the fourth edition of New/Next include the uproarious Steve Little-starring dark comedy Riptides by Alex Karpovsky (HBO’s Girls), the deeply moving personal documentary You Don’t Know My Name by Tommy Franklin, and the DIY regional-cinema marvel The Tower by Auden Lincoln-Vogel and Philip Rabalais.
New/Next’s lineup also includes 100+ cutting-edge short films, buzz features Chronovisor, Everytime, La Gradiva, The Lorraine, and zi.
New/Next will offer the world premieres of two important restorations: the character-rich road comedy Sitting Ducks (1980) by independent maverick Henry Jaglom, and the bucolic documentary The Shepherds of Berneray (1981) by Allen Moore and Jack Shea, which screens with the premiere of Moore’s 2026 follow-up, Returning to Berneray.
“We’re thrilled and humbled that so many world-class talents have chosen us for their premieres,” says New/Next co-founder and director of programming Eric Allen Hatch. “This festival isn’t about red carpets, but about discoveries and new experiences through cinema. Every one of these features, whether playing to its first audience or its fiftieth, affirms the robust state of film as an art form—and moviegoing as one of life’s great joys.”
New/Next is a five-screen, four-day celebration of emerging film culture, featuring 160+ films from new and established artists presenting bold and visionary work. Now in its fourth year, New/Next has grown into a fixture on the national independent film circuit, quickly becoming a destination for curious and passionate audiences and filmmakers.
Audiences are drawn to Baltimore for a program not widely seen elsewhere, with a lineup that spans first features, newly restored breakthroughs, international gems, and the year’s most formally and culturally interesting independent film works.
The features celebrating their North American premieres at New/Next include Ana Baldini and Roly Witherow’s acerbic Lisbon-set comedy Kiss and Be Friends; Theodore Schaefer’s neatly interlocking narrative triptych The Arrow at Rest at Every Instant of its Flight; and Mylissa Fitzsimmons’ immersive, sensory-rich coming-of-age character study MacKenzie. U.S. premiering in Baltimore is Big Break, a fresh and inventive horror-comedy from director Ian Faria and comedy group Simple Town, and The Ground Beneath Our Feet, Yrsa Roca Fannberg’s Cannes Critics’ Week-winning portrait of a Reykjavik retirement home.
