COMIC-CON
Independent Film Festival @ Comic-Con 2026
Celebrating its 25th year, this international showcase of popular arts filmmaking brings together 49 films across seven genres, filmmakers from around the globe, daily Comic-Con Film School panels, and concludes with Sunday’s CCI-IFF Awards and screenings of the winning films.
The 25th year of this acclaimed event features 49 selected films, from 7 different popular-arts 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, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Le programme prévoit également le retour de la populaire série de panels Comic-Con Film School, une série quotidienne de panels sur la réalisation de films, ainsi que d'autres panels liés au cinéma le jeudi, le vendredi et le samedi.
Le dimanche, la remise des prix du CCI-IFF sera suivie de la projection des films primés.
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.
The CCI-IFF takes place in the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina hotel, next door to the Hall A side of the convention center. The Film Festival room is on the lobby level in Grand Ballroom 6.
LOCATION :
The CCI-IFF takes place in the Marriott Marquis and Marina hotel, next door to the Hall A side of the convention center. The Film Festival room is on the lobby level of the Marriott Grand Ballroom 6.
COMIC-CON 2026
INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL JUDGES
Ron Diamond
Stephanie Filo
Patricio Ginelsa
| 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, 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 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. |