Fantastic Fest Announces 2026 Award Winners
Fantastic Fest has announced its 2026 award winners, recognizing films across its Main Competition, Next Wave, Horror and shorts programs as this year’s Austin festival moves through its closing stretch.
Luka Marčetić’s Girl in the Night took Best Picture in the Main Competition, while Bertrand Mandico earned Best Director for Roma Elastica. Five More Minutes, directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera, received a special mention and also won the festival’s Audience Award.
In the Next Wave competition, Adult Supervision by Alex Schulman won Best Picture and Agata Trzebuchowska was named Best Director for Sick. Jollyface received a special mention, while performances by Konrad Karol and Katarzyna Lubik in Sick and Cole Asher Phillips in Phreaker also received special mentions.
The Horror competition produced several wins for films already central to this year’s genre conversation. Joko Anwar’s Ghost in the Cell won Best Picture, Bloody Tennis filmmaker Nikias Chryssos won Best Director, and Jordan Downey’s The Cycle received a special mention.
The shorts awards included Jimmy’s Custom Coffin for Best Picture in Fantastic Shorts, Bagman in Short Fuse, Sinkpisser in Shorts With Legs and Pre-Parenting in Drawn and Quartered. The Magician was named Best WTF Short.
Fantastic Pitches also returned for its second edition. Father Figure, from writer-director Connor Martin and producer Josh Farnworth, won first place and a $100,000 financing award from Chroma, along with a distribution deal and a planned Fantastic Fest 2027 premiere. American Vermin received a second-place package that includes a Blackmagic Cinema package and mentorship.
Horror Movies Uncut is covering Fantastic Fest 2026 from Austin with reviews, interviews and red-carpet coverage throughout the festival.
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