CROSSROADS 2026
September 4–6
presented by San Francisco Cinematheque
at Gray Area
CROSSROADS 2026 programming is currently underway.
CROSSROADS 2026, the seventeenth iteration of our annual film festival will be held September 4–6, 2026 at Gray Area in San Francisco.
Selected filmmakers will be notified by email in early July, and the full festival lineup will be announced in late July.
For updates, please join our mailing list and/or follow San Francisco Cinematheque on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Bluesky.
CROSSROADS push[es] together the outer limits of narrative logic, experimental abstraction, and documentary… an essential festival for contemporary moving-image art.
— James Hansen, The Brooklyn Rail
…the most expansive showcase for experimental media in the United States…
— Alex Fields, In Review Online
Founded by filmmaker Bruce Baillie in 1961, San Francisco Cinematheque is the Bay Area’s premier venue for avant-garde/experimental, underground and personally expressive film, video and performance work. In its dedication to exhibiting works of aesthetically radical cinema from all historical eras and geo-political locales, Cinematheque cultivates the international field of artist-made cinema, inspiring aesthetic dialog and critical discourse and encouraging appreciation across the broader cultural landscape.
Inaugurated in 2010, CROSSROADS is San Francisco Cinematheque’s annual film festival, dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary avant-garde film, video and performance work. Artists featured in previous years have included Malic Amalya, Ephraim Asili, Stephanie Barber, Stephen Broomer, Peter Burr, Heehyun Choi, Paul Clipson, Charlotte Clermont, Colectivo Los ingrávidos, Nathaniel Dorsky, Ayana Dozier, Carl Elsaesser, Erin Espelie, Kevin Jerome Everson, Federica Foglia, Siegfried A. Fruhauf, Blanca Garcia, Janie Geiser, Friedl vom Gröller, Karissa Hahn, Christopher Harris, Jerome Hiler, Mike Hoolboom, Sky Hopinka, Alexandre Larose, Karl Lemieux, Saul Levine, Jeanne Liotta, Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu, Simon Liu, Jodie Mack, J.M. Martínez, Lindsay McIntyre, Angelo Madsen Minax, Cristiana Miranda, Jeremy Moss, Zack Parrinilla, Alee Peoples, Adam Piron, Charlotte Pryce, Morgan Quaintance, Michael Robinson, Sylvia Schedelbauer, Daïchi Saïto, Rajee Samarasinghe, Tulapop Saenjaroen, Scott Stark, Jonathan Schwartz, Cauleen Smith, Rhea Storr, Deborah Stratman, TT Takemoto, Makino Takashi, Paige Taul, Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Richard Tuohy, Micah Weber, Erin Weisgerber, Matt Whitman and Antoinette Zwirchmayr.
CROSSROADS is curated annually by Cinematheque’s Artistic Director Steve Polta.