By George & Josh Bate
Today, the Oak Park IL Film Festival (OPIFF) announced the line-up for its 2026 event, which runs September 19 and 20.
An annual celebration of cinema with a unique connection to the Oak Park neighborhood of Chicago, this year’s Oak Park IL Film Festival will kick off with a screening of Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said (2013) at the Classic Cinemas Lake Theatre. Actor and Oak Park native Tavi Geninson will be there to introduce a pre-recorded Q&A about the film.
OPIFF is categorized into six blocks, the first four of which unfold on Saturday, September 19. Meals are provided for guests and festival pass holders throughout the weekend. In addition, an industry panel and special presentation from animation producer and Oak Park resident Charlie Sweitzer will be held during the festival.
Weekend festival passes that grand access to all film screenings and events at the Madison Street Theater are available now for purchase at a discounted $60 before September 10 by visiting www.opilff.org/tickets.. Individual block tickets will soon be available for purchase at the early bird cost of $12, moving up to $15 closer to the festival.
Keep reading for a full breakdown of all the films screening at this year’s Oak Park Illinois Film Festival….
Saturday September 19 – Block 1: “Breaking Free”
The following block includes films about the idea of feeling trapped
Bored
Synopsis: A man bound by his own meticulous routine is forced to take initiative when the unimaginable occurs: his bus is late.
- Director: Jack Smith
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 15:38
- Oak Park Connection: Crew
- Nominated for: Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor
Call Me Speed!
Synopsis: A story about overcoming obstacles.
- Director: NickyJoe Perez
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 10:00
- Oak Park Connection: Director, Cast, Locations
Space Hustler
Synopsis: A daydreaming kid imagines his science teacher as a space man and goes on a wild journey while stuck in detention.
- Director: Josh Stone
- Category: Music Video
- Runtime: 6:07
- Oak Park Connection: Producer, Crew
- Nominated for: Best Design Elements
Eighteen
Synopsis: Five young men cross the threshold of adulthood in their own way, on the same day.
- Director: Gabe Brucato
- Category: Teen Filmmaker
- Runtime: 63:00
- Oak Park Connection: Director, Locations
- Nominated for: Best Teen Filmmaker
The Knot Job
Synopsis: Two smart-mouthed secret agents try to bicker their way out of captivity.
- Director: Afrim Zenuni
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 4:25
- Oak Park Connection: Producer, Writer, Cast
Hot Water
Synopsis: A corrupt kidnapped judge has until a pot of water boils to admit to wrongdoing or his head goes into the scalding water.
- Directors: Miles Gunter, Cassie Kramer
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 9:56
- Oak Park Connection: Director, Writer
- Nominated for: Best Narrative Short, Best Director, Best Actress
Saturday September 19 – Block 2: “Devine Feminine”
The following block includes short films focused on women claiming their power
Corners of Girlhood
Synopsis: Self-expression through bedroom design.
- Director: Jane Carmen Zylstra
- Category: Teen Filmmaker
- Runtime: 6:47
- Oak Park Connection: Director, Subjects, Locations
- Nominated for: Best Teen Filmmaker
Sing a Black Girl Song
Synopsis: Three young friends navigate the challenges of adolescence, embracing their unique voices and the power of their sisterhood.
- Director: Danielle Dougé
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 10:45
- Oak Park Connection: Writer, Producer
- Nominated for: Best Director
Sewer Pigs Declare War on London!
Synopsis: When the sewer pig army invades London, punk rock teen Ayo must fight alongside an unexpected ally to defend her community from the looming porcine threat.
- Directors: Nat Fernandez, Sarah Christine Ungaretti-Levy, Quintin Marx
- Category: Animation
- Runtime: 4:07
- Oak Park Connection: Director
Marimar’s Story
Synopsis: In October 2025 during “Operation Midway Blitz,” Marimar Martinez was shot five times by a Customs and Border Protection agent.
- Director: Andrew Freer
- Category: Documentary (Short-form)
- Runtime: 5:41
- Oak Park Connection: Director
- Nominated for: Best Documentary (Short-form)
The Tensile Strength of Air
Synopsis: After witnessing a suicide in public, Lauren re-evaluates herself in relationship to friends, family and career.
- Director: Shayna Connelly
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 16:02
- Oak Park Connection: Director, Writer
- Nominated for: Best Cinematography, Best Design Elements, Best Supporting Actress, Best Actress
The Wilted Flower
Synopsis: A surreal mystery about an attorney hired by an aging woman to draft her will.
- Director: Remsy Atassi
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 14:12
- Oak Park Connection: Producer, Crew
- Nominated for: Best Design Elements
Saturday September 19 – Block 3: “Community”
The following includes films about common systems of belief and identity
Sahar
Synopsis: A documentary portrait of Muslim immigrants in Chicago — first generation, second generation, people who have been reduced to stereotype, to headline, to suspicion; people who arrived carrying one world and built another inside it.
- Director: Lali Khalid
- Category: Documentary (Short-form)
- Runtime: 11:42
- Oak Park Connection: Subject
Sur La Kuro
Synopsis: Two humanoid LAWs (Lethal Autonomous Weapons) achieve free will and refuse to carry out their killing assignments… and form a rock band.
- Director: Brett Miller, Vic Butera, Mike Yndestad
- Category: Music Video
- Runtime: 14:42
- Oak Park Connection: Cast, Locations
Surviving Zendik Farm
Synopsis: For decades, Zendik Farm promised utopia while calling mainstream society the Death Culture; former members must rebuild their lives in the very world they had forsaken.
- Directors: Dan Greenstone, Travis Chandler
- Category: Documentary (Long-form)
- Runtime: 81:38
- Oak Park Connection: Director, Subject
- Nominated for: Best Documentary (Long-form)
Saturday September 19 – Block 4: “After Dark”
No Clean Hammer
Synopsis: A solitary man from Bosnia drives from Tuzla to Sweden to recover his mother’s body.
- Director: Brent L. Butler
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 16:16
- Oak Park Connection: Director
- Nominated for: Best Narrative Short, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor
Enter the Void: A Paper Story
Synopsis: In a never-before-seen episode of hit 90’s sitcom, “Doing Well On Paper”, Nathan discovers that something isn’t quite right.
- Director: Jacob Mitzenmacher
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 5:00
- Oak Park Connection: Location
The Antidote
Synopsis: A married couple discovers reconciliation.
- Director: Sarah Falkiner
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 7:57
- Oak Park Connection: Dedicated to Bernie Metzger (1950-2026), composer of Oak Park
- Nominated for: Best Actor
Here to Help
Synopsis: To combat her loneliness, an isolated dweller of the Northern Territory is assigned a Humanoid – but how far will it go to help?
- Director: Dan Aho
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 21:42
- Oak Park Connection: Director
- Nominated for: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress
CLOUT
Synopsis: What begins as a reckless bid for clout spirals into a toxic obsession that crushes a friendship under the weight of the algorithm.
- Director: Kasper Kavalaris
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 16:43
- Oak Park Connection: Crew, Location
The Hitchhiker
Synopsis: Stranded after his car breaks down, a man hitches a ride with a seemingly harmless driver, only to discover too late that his savior is not who he thinks he is.
- Director: Marco Delgado
- Category: Teen Filmmaker
- Runtime: 8:52
- Oak Park Connection: Director
- Nominated for: Best Teen Filmmaker, Best Supporting Actor
Sunday September 20 – Block 1: “Legacy and Impact”
The following block contains documentaries of real humans working to leave their mark in the world
Be the People
Synopsis: Six profiles of people from the Oak Park, IL community striving to make a positive difference in their own ways.
- Director: Risé A Sanders-Weir
- Category: Documentary (Short-form)
- Runtime: 8:42
- Oak Park Connection: Director, Subjects, Locations
Belly Button – Chapter 2 Mezcal
Synopsis: The sacred journey of mezcal production, where ancient techniques passed down through families reveal how culinary traditions preserve indigenous identity in modern Mexico.
- Director: Dan Goldberg
- Category: Documentary (Short-form)
- Runtime: 6:06
- Oak Park Connection: Director
- Nominated for: Best Documentary (Short-form), Best Cinematography, Best Design Elements
Generating Our Future
Synopsis: The growing demand for computing power has spurred the building of data centers all around the Great Lakes region as well as the need for community management of resources.
- Directors: Amelia Richards, Holly Murphy, Indra Malik, Jasmine Dola, Otto Bruner, William Peterson, Gloria Mitchell
- Category: Teen Filmmaker
- Runtime: 7:42
- Oak Park Connection: Directors
Lou Holtz: 60 Minutes to Play And A Lifetime to Remember
Synopsis: Hall of Fame coach Lou Holtz comes out of retirement to coach his final football game: a team of alumni players as old as 52 to challenge the best players in Japan inside the Tokyo Dome.
- Director: Ted Mandell
- Category: Documentary (Long-form)
- Runtime: 26:57
- Oak Park Connection: Subjects
Nasty
Synopsis: Nasty tells the story of Lt. Col. Daniel Nash, an F-15 pilot who was scrambled from Otis Air National Guard Base at supersonic speed on the morning of September 11, 2001, to intercept what was believed to be a hijacked commercial airliner.
- Director: John Gerald Scaletta
- Category: Documentary (Long-form)
- Runtime: 40:02
- Oak Park Connection: Producer
- Nominated for: Best Documentary (Long-form)
Sunday September 20 – Block 2: “The End”
The following block contains films about coping with loss, death, and dying
Abel
Synopsis: A photographer who abruptly lost his sight reflects on the paradox of his disability: how his loss of vision has enabled him to truly see.
- Director: Brian Zahm
- Category: Documentary (Short-form)
- Runtime: 19:43
- Oak Park Connection: Subject
- Nominated for: Best Documentary (Short-form), Best Cinematography
Pseudoxanthoma Elasticum
Synopsis: A genetic disease slowly takes the filmmaker’s eyesight away.
- Director: Abel Berumen
- Category: Documentary (Short-form)
- Runtime: 6:32
- Oak Park Connection: Director, Subject
In the Realm of the Heart
Synopsis: A loving wife wants to throw a surprise birthday party for her husband.
- Director: Doug Burch
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 24:50
- Oak Park Connection: Director
- Nominated for: Best Supporting Actress
Judgement Day
Synopsis: Caught in a liminal space between life and death, a young woman named Zoe finds herself confronted with the events of her past as an otherworldly being questions her about humanity and morality.
- Director: Haley Pellow
- Category: Narrative Short
- Runtime: 10:04
- Oak Park Connection: Director, Location
- Nominated for: Best Narrative Short, Best Director, Best Actress
Saying Goodbye: A Personal Documentary of Attachment and Loss at End of Life
Synopsis: An intimately filmed documentary of family conversations with Dr. Fox’s father as he reaches the end of his life at age 97.
- Director: Geraldine Fox
- Category: Documentary (Long-form)
- Runtime: 38:00
- Oak Park Connection: Director
- Nominated for: Best Documentary (Long-form)