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COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL 2026

The 25th year of this acclaimed event features 49 selected films, from 7 different pop culture genres including Action/Adventure, Animation, Comics-Oriented, Documentary (Pop Culture-Oriented), Horror/Suspense, Humor, and Science Fiction/Fantasy.

We have participating filmmakers from all over the world, including Japan, Mexico, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.

The schedule also includes the return of the popular ongoing panel series Comic-Con Film School, a daily series of how-to panels on filmmaking, plus additional film-related panels on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

On Sunday, the CCI-IFF Awards will be presented, followed by screenings of the award-winning films.

This year’s judges are executive producer and founder of the Animation Show of Shows Ron Diamond, Emmy award winning film/television editor and activist Stephanie Filo, and filmmaker and comic book creator Patricio Ginelsa.

2026 Comic-Con International independEnt Film Festival Judges

Ron Diamond

Ron Diamond is an American film producer from Los Angeles. He founded Acme Filmworks (1990), the Animation Show of Shows (1998), and co-founded Animation World Network (1995). Diamond produced live features and 23 feature-length editions of the Animation Show of Shows. Recent productions: main titles for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II and “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Polkamania! amongst many other productions. Diamond has lectured at animation schools, and served as a juror and a guest speaker at Annecy, Stuttgart, Cinanima, Zagreb, Nashville, and other film festivals. He has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Animation Branch since 2002, and collaborates with the LA Opera creative team. Diamond contributes to the restoration and preservation of films that are in the permanent collections of the Academy Film Archive, UCLA Film and Television Archive, and the Library of Congress.

Stephanie Filo

Stephanie Filo, ACE, is a 4-time Emmy winner, 7-time Emmy nominee, Peabody and ACE Eddie award winner who is celebrated for her work across film and television. In 2024, Stephanie made history as the first Picture Editor to be nominated for three editing Emmys in the same year across three different shows. Nominated for her work on Netflix’s Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Hulu’s History of the World Part II, and HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show, Stephanie’s nominations also made her the first Black editor to be nominated 3 times for Picture Editing in a single year. Stephanie has also been a part of other historic Emmy wins. In 2020, for the news documentary Separated, she and Nzinga Blake became the first Sierra Leonean woman to win an Emmy award. In 2021 she was awarded Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming, making herself and her team at the time the first all Women of Color editing team to win an Emmy. In 2022, Stephanie was awarded for her work once again, making herself and her colleagues the first all-Black editing team to win an Emmy, as well as the first all-Black editing team to win an ACE Eddie award. Stephanie most recently cut together Minhal Baig’s We Grown Now, for which she received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Editing, and is currently working on the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again. Aside from editing television and film, Stephanie spends much of her spare time producing and editing social action campaigns and documentaries, primarily focused on the rights of women and girls worldwide. Some of her notable campaigns include her work with the United Nations, International Labour Organization, and the Obama White House Task Force’s It’s On Us campaign to combat campus sexual assault. Stephanie’s charitable work has been featured in Forbes Magazine, Entertainment Tonight, Telegraph UK, Yahoo, Al Jazeera, XWhy Magazine, and various others. Her work on the news documentary series Mental State earned her a news Emmy nomination for the episode “Aging Out” about youth aging out of the American foster care system. Stephanie also earned an Emmy win for her editing on the Mental State episode “Separated” which covered ICE deportations. Stephanie serves on the board for Girls Empowerment Sierra Leone, a social impact and feminist-based organization for Sierra Leonean girls aged 11-16. She is also one of the co-founders of End Ebola Now, an organization created in 2014 to spread accurate information and awareness about the Ebola Virus and its impact through artistic community activism. Stephanie is based in Los Angeles, CA and Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Patricio Ginelsa

Patricio Ginelsa is a filmmaker and comic book creator trained in cinema production at USC. He began as associate producer on the award-winning film The Debut, and his first feature, Lumpia, drew critical praise—Variety called it a film that “takes low budget to new heights”.  His music video Bebot for the Black Eyed Peas received the California Preservation Foundation President’s Award for its focus on Stockton’s Little Manila district. His latest feature Lumpia with a Vengeance won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival, premiered at Comic-Con, and spawned a whole line of Deep Fried Universe comic books he now writes and self-publishes under his production company Kid Heroes Productions.

2026 Comic-Con International independEnt Film Festival Schedule

THURSDAY, JULY 23

  • 10:00–11:00: Comic-Con Film School 101: Preproduction and Screenwriting

Documentary

  • 11:00–12:30: Beyond Godolphin: The Hank Jones Story
  • 12:30–2:10: STREET SMART: Lessons from a TV Icon
  • 2:10–2:55: Untold Legends Of Comic Books: Bernie Wrightson
  • 3:00–4:00: PANEL: The Filmmaking Process and Reemergence of Found Footage
  • 4:00–4:55: The Sight Unseen
  • 5:00–6:00: PANEL: How to Make Your Own Feature Film (In 15 Hard-but-Not-Impossible Steps)!
  • 6:05–6:40: The Illustrator
  • 6:45–7:45: PANEL: Documentary Filmmaking How-To
  • 7:45-9:30: SABER
  • 9:30-11:15: Halcyon Daze: The Final Voyages of Disney’s Star Wars Galactic Star Cruiser

FRIDAY, JULY 24

  • 10:00–11:00: Comic-Con Film School 102: Production

Comics-oriented

  • 11:00–11:30: Pizza Man
  • 11:30–11:50: A World of Difference: Dani Bowman
  • 12:00–1:00: PANEL: To Film School or Not to Film School, Animation is the Question!

Animation

  • 1:00–1:20: Sean the Baby
  • 1:20–1:40: SIX
  • 1:40–2:00: Blooky: The Book Who Wanted to be Read
  • 2:00–3:00: PANEL: Championing Independent Animation Through Community Organization 
  • 3:00–3:15: Franken Struck
  • 3:15–3:40: The Last Bell
  • 3:40–4:00: Duck & Sauerkraut
  • 4:00–5:00: PANEL: Badass on a Budget: Timeless Tips for Making Your Zero-Budget Action Film
  • 5:00–5:20: TRUST
  • 5:20–5:45: The Gun
  • 5:45–6:00: Feathers and Fur

Science Fiction/Fantasy

  • 6:00–6:30: Two Beaths
  • 6:30–7:00: Long Away
  • 7:00–7:30: Dorion
  • 7:30–8:05: Wherever Adventure Takes Me
  • 8:05–8:25: Las Cosas Que Brillan
  • 8:25–8:50: An Old Friend
  • 8:50–9:05: I Walked Through the Wall
  • 9:05–9:30: Mintrix and the Elven Figurine
  • 9:30–9:55: Pocket Change
  • 9:55–10:20: The Tears of Sisyphus
  • 10:20–10:45: Hivemind Deluxe

SATURDAY, JULY 25

  • 10:00–11:00: Comic-Con Film School 103: Working with Actors and a Crew

Humor

  • 11:00–11:30: Lobo: Christmas Special
  • 11:30–11:50: Two Step
  • 11:50–12:15: It’s Hard Not to be Romantic About Time Travel
  • 12:15-12:45: Dead Pen Tracks
  • 12:45-1:10: The Wrongest Yard
  • 1:10-1:30: Spill The Frijoles
  • 1:30–2:30: PANEL: Funding Your Director’s Vision

Action Adventure

  • 2:30–3:10: Sandra Munt
  • 3:10–3:40: Powerless
  • 3:40–4:00: The Spectacular Night-Bolt
  • 4:00–5:00: PANEL: Unlocking Virtual Production: Game Engines and the Future of Independent Filmmaking
  • 5:00–5:30: Faithful
  • 5:30–5:50: Inner Child

Horror/Suspense

  • 5:50–6:10: The Monitor
  • 6:10–6:25: Necrosectos
  • 6:30–7:30: PANEL: Filmmaking in the New Era: Audiences, Brands, Emerging Tech & Impact
  • 7:30–8:30: PANEL: Selling the Hit-what You Always Wanted to Know About the Stunt Industry- in Memory of Eric Cajiuat

Humor cont’d

  • 8:30–8:50: The Traveler & The Troll
  • 8:50–9:20: Meadowhawk

Action Adventure cont’d

  • 9:20–9:45: Alpha Initiative Zero 9:45–10:20: Heroes Among Us: Kid Electric

Horror/Suspense cont’d

  • 10:20–10:50: Avem
  • 10:50–11:10: My Severed Arm
  • 11:10–11:35: Eclipse

SUNDAY, JULY 26

  • 10:00–11:00: Comic-Con Film School 104: Post-Production and Distribution
  • 11:00–12:00: CCI–IFF Awards Presentation
  • 12:00–5:00: CCI–IFF Award Winners Showcase (Winners and times TBA)

CCI-IFF 2025 Winners

  • Best Action/Adventure Film: El Espiritu
  • Best Animated Film: Flying From War
  • Best Comic-Oriented Film: Kaiju Kid
  • Best Documentary: Shopping for Superman
  • Best Horror/Suspense Film: Parachutes
  • Best Humor Film: Fireflies in the Dusk
  • Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Film: First Sight
  • Judge’s Choice: First Sight
Link to Film Festival Schedule

CCI-IFF 2024 Winners

  • Best Action/Adventure Film: The Man in the Blue Suit
  • Best Comics-Oriented Film: DL Guy
  • Best Documentary: Married to Comics
  • Best Horror/Suspense Film: Universe 25
  • Best Humor Film: Hello My Name is Friend-Man
  • Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Film: Angelman
  • Best Animated Film and Judges’ Choice Award: Thaba Ye