DWF:NY 2026

New York, NY (January 20, 2026) – Dances With Films – the Indie Film Festival that eschews ‘Marquee Names’ for Indie Talent announced its Audience and Industry Choice Award winners during yesterday’s breakfast awards event at The Stand (116 E 16^th Street) following a weekend of sold-out screenings and events during its 4^th New York edition of the indie-focused film festival.

Films and pilot projects that had the plight of the country’s immigrants on their mind, and documentaries featuring heartfelt New York stories led both the Industry Choice Awards and the Audience Choice Award winners with Nadir Saribacak’s Gazelle, about a Turkish music teacher struggling to get a foothold in the U.S. for his family, winning the Industry Choice Award – Over 40 Minutes, Brandon Widener’s Immigreat wining the Audience Choice Award for Best Television and Web Series Pilot, with his series telling the stories of inspirational immigrants. Sabbuur Ikhlas’ Untouchables: The Story of St. Benedict’s Fencing won the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary with a film about a legendary New York-based fencing coach who led diverse teams described by producer Matthew Brewster during their acceptances speeches, as the “Bad News Bears” of fencing. The Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary Short went to Brad Bailey’s Her Fight, His Name: The Story of Gwen Carr and Eric Garner. Carr’s appearance at the film festival was one of several emotional highlights this past week. The Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Peter Odiorne’s The Cereal Aisle Effect.                                     

In the pre-awards presentations remarks during the ceremony, Dances With Films’ Co-Founder Leslee Scallon spoke of the significance of the awards presentations taking place during Martin Luther King, Jr., with DWF’s penchant putting filmmakers on a pedestal who give voice to the underserved. Co-Founder Michael Trent added that DWF’s philosophy of fostering the support between the festival’s ever-growing family of filmmakers has continued for close to 30 years now.

The Industry Choice Award – Under 40 Minutes went to Vasilisa Kuzmina’s Song of Silence, and she along with co-writer Daisy Anderson inspired appreciative applause from their fellow filmmakers when they said the film was made with an all-female crew. Additional emotional highs during the awards occurred Jesse Cowell delivered an impassioned speech about the struggle he and other indie filmmakers endure to build a career and gain their own personal level of success after he won he repeated his win from last year, gaining the  Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Short with Where’s My Package?.

Dances With Film’s Midnight category, which has gained critical praise from Dread Central for its programming delivered Audience Choice Awards to Cameron A Tubb’s Acolyte (Best Midnight Feature), and Jamie Manelis’ My Dead Dad’s Funeral (Best Midnight Short).

The awards ceremony also included a presentation of Dances With Films LA’s Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Short to Hans Augustave for his film NWA (Black). Augustave had been filming and was unable to attend the film festival in June, so the impressive “man reaching for his dreams” statue, designed/created by John Barry was brought to New York so it could be presented in person. In addition, Leslee Scallon and Michael Trent received an award in recognition of the film festival’s support of Adam Zaslow’s documentary Zzaslow K-427, about an amazing mine detection dog who had a profound effect through his deployments and then later on the director himself. The film, which also screened at DWF LA, had its first screening in New York courtesy of the festival filled with first responders.

Recently selected by MovieMaker Magazine as one of its “25 Coolest Film Festivals”, DWF NY packed a lot of crowds into the theaters at Regal Union Square during the film festival’s four days of screenings. The film festival featured 30 feature-length and pilot world premieres among its lineup of 157 films. Dominik Sedlar’s Vindicta is the Opening Night feature selection, and Salvatore Sciortino’s Roof will make its world premiere as the Closing Night selection. The film festival also featured six Orange Carpets over the four days with filmmakers from 150 films enjoying their “rock star” moment in front of the cameras, and joined by celebrities and noted stars like Paul Shaffer, Shane West, Wendell Pierce, and Bradley Whitford.

The 2026 Dances With Films NY Filmmaker Award Winners: