A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil
Two Minneapolis homeowners and a chainsaw sculptor shape meaning (and a 20-foot-tall pencil) from the twisted trunk of a fallen oak tree. But this pencil isn’t meant to last. Every year, thousands gather to sacrifice a part of the pencil in a sharpening ceremony, and in the process renew the collective promise to “do something.”
Amarelo Banana
After another night of insomnia, a man comes across a strange community living in his building and discovers the elaborate illusion they have created.
Animated Shorts 2026: Program One
RiverRun is an Academy Award-qualifying festival in the category of Animated Shorts, meaning the winner in this category may submit for Academy Awards consideration.
Because Today is Saturday
It’s Saturday, and a woman struggles with the difficulty of reconciling her home life and her need to escape.
Cameraman
In the late 90s, a newly immigrated Iranian cameraman finds himself adrift in London. Struggling to adapt, he must decide whether to risk his family’s limited savings on a stranger’s offer—one that promises a way back to the identity he once knew.
Carcassone-Acapulco
As flight 7836 reaches cruising speed above the Atlantic Ocean, the pilot, co-pilot, and flight attendant are startled by an unexpected knock at the door! Chaos and confusion ensue as the crew enter a long and meandering debate regarding the stranger’s fate: should they open the door, or not?
Casa
A group of 20-year-olds pursue their fashion dreams at Casa 93, a unique institute offering a last chance for some and a new beginning for others, capturing their transformative journey through an extraordinary year.
December, Day Zero
A recovering alcoholic comes face-to-face with his bartender ex-girlfriend when he attempts to drop off a Christmas gift at her bar.
Do You Love Me
An immersive journey through 70 years of images and sounds from Lebanon. Exploring the collective psyche of Beirut, marked by beauty, trauma, joy, and forgetting.
Documentary Shorts 2026: Program 2
RiverRun is an Academy Award-qualifying festival in the category of Documentary Shorts. This is one of two shorts blocks in competition, of which the winner may submit for Academy Awards consideration.
Fly
When a ballet company holds auditions for a competitive apprenticeship, a perfection-driven dancer has their world upended by a rival who rekindles their love for the craft.
Grounded
In this meta-documentary, a group of high school students at a boarding school in Northern Michigan set out to make a film about regenerative farming, only to get tangled in the contradictions between what they learn and the system that feeds them.
I Found a Box
One day, Guy, a bird running in the forest, runs into a box. Guy asks himself, “But what can this box be used for?”
I Got My Brother
Two brothers reflect on their candid and often humorous memories of surviving the foster care system and prison, realizing along the way that their path to healing has always been each other.