presented by San Francisco Cinematheque
at Gray Area
curated by Steve Polta
#xrds26
CROSSROADS 2026 is the seventeenth manifestation of Cinematheque’s annual film festival. CROSSROADS 2026 features 49 works of film, video and performance by 52 artists representing 22 countries and territories presented in 8 curated programs. CROSSROADS 2026 features alchemical excursions through everyday hauntings, speculative explorations of the materialities of archives, films hovering at interstices between bodily physicality and luminous ephemerality. CROSSROADS 2026 consists of rituals of remembrance, cryptic missives to future generations and the hauntological frisson of surface noise. Special guest artist JG Thirlwell performs live to legendary beatnik polymath Harry Smith’s obsessively occult classic Heaven and Earth Magic. Cinematheque is proud to announce that, of these 53 featured artists, 20 are receiving their CROSSROADS debut this year.
CROSSROADS 2026
featured filmmakers
Kevin T. Allen • Malic Amalya • Alexander Barancheyev • Dianna Barrie • Samy Benammar • Matthew Berka • Magdalena Bermudez • Jiayi Chen • Allison Chhorn • Charlotte Clermont • Karel Doing • James Edmonds • R. James Edwards • Emma Penaz Eisner • Kevin Jerome Everson • Claudrena N. Harold • Onyeka Igwe • Kamila Kuc • Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu • Zuzanna Marczak • J.M. Martínez • Antoni Orlof • Vasilios Papaioannu • Deborah S. Phillips • Emmanuel Piton • Maximilien Luc Proctor • Charlotte Pryce • Kathleen Quillian • Amy Reid • Kaiwen Ren • Jorge Caballero Ramos • Camilo Restrepo • Rajee Samarasinghe • Linda Izcali Scobie • Hogan Seidel • Marcos Serafim • Cauleen Smith • Harry Smith • Kate Solar • Joshua Gen Solondz • Nathan Swann • Maryam Tafakory • TT Takemoto • JG Thirlwell • Richard Tuohy • Silvia Turchin • Bruno Varela • Friedl vom Gröller • Erin Weisgerber • Matt Whitman • Sheri Wills • Chae Yu
CROSSROADS 2026 Reception &
Cinematheque’s 65th Anniversary Celebration
Join us Thursday, September 3 for the CROSSROADS 2026 pre-festival reception and a special celebration of San Francisco Cinematheque’s 65th anniversary! This private event is open to participating filmmakers and current Cinematheque members. The reception time, location and additional details will be shared directly with invited guests.
Not yet a member? Become a Cinematheque member to join the celebration and support our year-round programs. Plus join at the $125 Collaborator level or above and receive the complimentary 65th anniversary bandana; learn more here.
CROSSROADS programs 1–8
presented in person September 4–6 at
2665 Mission Street, San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO CINEMATHEQUE
Director: Steve Polta
Festival Manager/Design: India Nemer
Tech Director: Kent Long
Festival Trailer: Domonik Hernandez
Festival Associates: Kornelia Boczkowska, Manasa Karthikeyan, Ida Kusanovich
Archives: Courtney Fellion, Dasha Shevchenko, Kristie Song, Jamie Wang
Accounting: Vanessa O’Neill
Web Developers
Sophie Rentien Lando, Julie Peeters, Scott Ponik
Cinematheque Board of Directors
Sofia Alicastro, Sage Hirsch, Diana Sánchez Maciel, Christine Metropoulos, Clare Schweitzer, Ellie Vanderlip, Trinity West
Cinematheque Advisory Council
Steve Anker, Gina Basso, Orit Ben-Shitrit, Steven Jenkins, Mark McElhatten, Brent Miller, Oona Mosna, Carissa Potter, Kathleen Quillian, Anne Stone
San Francisco Cinematheque and CROSSROADS 2026 are supported by contributions from California Revealed, the Fleishhacker Foundation, the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund/Grants for the Arts and Cinematheque’s Members and Donors.
Special Thanks for support, assistance and inspiration is extended to: Fara Akrami; Becky Alexander; Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Anthology Film Archives; Artists’ Television Access; AV-arkki; BAMPFA; Craig Baldwin; Gina Basso; Kara Brodfuehrer; Sadie Cain; the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre; Canyon Cinema; the Center for Asian American Media; the Center for New Music; Certain Women; COUSIN; John Davis; Desistfilm; Dobra: Festival Internacional de Cinema Experimental; Ken Eisenstein; Zachary Epcar; Experiments in Cinema; Courtney Fellion; Film Form; Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture; the 4 Star Theater; Jesse Hawthorne Ficks; Jennifer Fieber; Sean Fletcher; Isabel Fondevila; Michael Fox; Frameline; Kathy Geritz; Chloe Ginnever; Gray Area; Jeff Griffith-Perham; Seabrook Gubbins; Jeff Gunderson; Harvard Film Archive; Dennis Harvey; J. Hoberman; Images Festival; INCITE Journal of Experimental Media; International Film Festival Rotterdam; KADIST; KALX; Brett Kashmere; Liz Keim; John Klacsman; Cristina Kolozsváry-Kiss; Bryan Konefsky; The Lab; LaborBerlin; LA Film Forum; Mary Lattimore; Light Cone; Light Field; Light Industry; LIGHTSTRUCK; LUX; Kate MacKay; Kathleen Maguire; Ryan McCandless; Media City Film Festival; Christine Metropoulos; Microscope Gallery; Susan Miller; Milwaukee Underground Film Festival; Seth Mitter; Madeleine Molyneaux; Mono No Aware; Tara Merenda Nelson; Suki O’Kane; Onion City Film Festival; Other Cinema; Susan Oxtoby; Alee Peoples; Julie Phelps; Rick Prelinger; Megan Shaw Prelinger; Prismatic Ground; Prospettiva Financial; Brad Rosenstein; the Roxie Theater; Picture Palace Pictures; Anthony Russell; the San Francisco Dance Film Festival; the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival; the San Francisco Silent Film Festival; [S8] Mostra de Cinema Periférico; Screen Slate; Linda Izcali Scobie; Steve Seid; the SFAI Legacy Foundation and Archive; SFFILM; SFMOMA; Shapeshifters Cinema; Lex Sloan; Michael Sicinski; sixpackfilm; Slash Art; Frank Smigiel; Andrew Smith; Courtney Stephens; Ashley Rose Tacheira; The Temenos; Barry Threw; TIFF/Wavelengths; Mark Toscano; 25 FPS; Pamela Vadakan; Kitty Velvet; Video Data Bank; Vidéographe; Visual Studies Workshop; VTape; Andy Warhol; Winslow House Project; Sura Wood.
In Memoriam: Hartmut Bitomsky, Teresa de Lauretis, Valie Export, Barry Gerson, Yervant Gianikian, Jill Godmilow, Ken Jacobs, Ulysses Jenkins, Amos Poe, Rosa Von Praunheim, Peter Watkins, Sheri Wills, Frederick Wiseman, Fred Worden.
Festival Graphic Image: 09/05/1982 by Jorge Caballero Ramos & Camilo Restrepo