On Wednesday, the Ivy Film Festival announced its 2026 lineup, which includes a diverse array of guest speakers — including intimacy coordinators, screenwriters, a producer and a cinematographer — representing many facets of the film industry.
The weeklong event — which is the “largest student-run film festival in the world” according to the IFF website — is slated to run from April 13 to 19, and will include guest speakers, film screenings and showcases of student works.
This year marks the organization’s 25th anniversary, according to IFF Co-Director Zoe Ehrenkranz ’26. The festival originally began with two Brown students and has since evolved into an organization of over 120 students, according to Ehrenkranz.
The festival will kick off on Monday, April 13, with a screening of “Escape” by Japanese director Masao Adachi at 7 p.m. Most of the week’s screenings will be held at the Martinos Auditorium in the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts.
On April 14, there will be a conversation with filmmaker Shomi Patwary at 4 p.m. at Kassar House. Later that day, IFF is hosting a panel at the Martinos Auditorium featuring four intimacy coordinators.
In collaboration with the Comparative Literature Departmental Undergraduate Group, the IFF will host a conversation with author Ben Shattuck on April 15 at 5 p.m. in the Martinos Auditorium. The day before the event, the DUG will host a screening of the 2025 film “The History of Sound,” which Shattuck wrote the screenplay for.
Later that day, IFF will hold an advanced screening of the first two episodes of the second season of the anthology series “Beef,” which follows two feuding couples at a country club.
On April 16, there will be a 7 p.m. screening of the upcoming horror film “Leviticus,” which is set for release in June.
The next day, IFF is hosting a Zoom conversation with film executive and Brown alum Nina Jacobson ’87 P’23. Through her production company, Color Force, Jacobson produced films in the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series and the “Hunger Games” series, including the upcoming film “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.”
At 7 p.m., there will be a screening of the film “Union County” at Avon Cinema. The film, directed by Adam Meeks, centers on the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio.
On April 18, IFF is hosting cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth at 2 p.m. over Zoom. Cronenweth has earned two Academy Award nominations for his cinematographic work in “The Social Network” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” On the same day at 7 p.m., the festival will host an advance screening of the film “I Love Boosters” followed by a talkback with the film’s director, Boots Riley.
Saturday will also feature a live reading of the official selection screenplays at noon in the Kooper Studio. An all-day exhibition hosted by the IFF’s New Media Committee will also be held in Studio 4 of the Granoff Center.
At noon on Sunday, IFF is hosting a Zoom conversation with filmmaker Robert Hiltzik — best known for his 1983 slasher film “Sleepaway Camp.”
Over the course of the weekend, 19 student films — selected from over 170 submissions from 40 countries — will be screened, according to IFF Programming Co-Coordinator Lynn Nguyen ’26, a former post- and Herald staff writer.
IFF Programming Co-Coordinator Isabel Hahn ’26, a former Herald arts and culture editor, added that there will be more local filmmakers represented at the festival this year, including students from the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown alums.
Hahn explained that the student films were split into three official selection blocks centered on loose thematic connections among the works.
The first block, “Entanglement,” will be screened at 4 p.m. on April 17 at the Stephen Robert ’62 Hall. The second block, “Perception,” will be screened at 5 p.m. in the Granoff Center on April 18.
The festival will conclude with a screening of the third block, “Ephemeral,” and an awards ceremony for the student films in the List Art Building on April 19.
Manav is a senior from Indiana, concentrating in International and Public Affairs. In his free time, he likes attempting the daily Connections puzzle or falling down Wikipedia rabbit holes.
