The Sedona International Airport 2026 Film Festival has announced the complete list of winners across competition categories.
Jeremy Sid’s “Sons of Detroit” won best documentary, Marc Evan’s “Mr. Burton” won best American narrative feature, and Emmanuel Courcol’s “The March Band” won best international narrative feature.
Sid wrote, directed, and starred in Sons of Detroit, a film about the complex upbringing of Detroit in the 1970s. The film premiered at DOC NYC in 2025.
Sid said he was contacted by the SIFF programming team during the film’s screening at DOC NYC and asked to do a screening.
“In less than 24 hours, I got the most remarkable, insightful, and incisive email back from them about ‘Sons of Detroit.’ They obviously loved the movie, but they also felt very strongly that the Sedona audience would respond to it,” Sid told Variety. We were all overwhelmed by the enthusiasm. Sedona wasn’t on our radar at the time, but their unwavering belief kept us going. SIFF is a beloved festival. We’ve talked about SIFF with friends and colleagues, and across the board they say it’s one of their favorite festivals in the country. So here we are. And we couldn’t be happier. ”
“Sons of Detroit” was one of 36 feature-length documentaries shown at SIFF, which began on February 21st.
2025 Tribeca Festival Best Documentary Feature winner “Natchez” won SIFF’s Best Nonfiction Storytelling Award. Directed by Susannah Herbert’s Natchez, the film captures the disturbing collision between history and memory in a small Mississippi town. Last summer, Oscilloscope Laboratories acquired the U.S. distribution rights to “Natchez,” which will air on Independent Lens this spring.
Another documentary that debuted at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, Alexander Hammer’s “Room to Move,” won SIFF’s Nonfiction New Visions Award. Hammer’s intimate doc follows Jen Freeman, an acclaimed New York choreographer and dancer, as she struggles through a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder at the age of 33.
CREEDE USA, directed by Kahane Cohn Cooperman, won the award for Best Indie Spirit Documentary. The film, in which a remote mountain mining town in Colorado becomes an unexpected model for public discussion, debuted at last year’s South by Southwest Film Festival.
“This year, we received over 1,700 film submissions and nearly 500 script competition entries,” said Patrick Schweiss, SIFF Executive Director. I’m extremely proud of all of us. It’s all because of the filmmakers and the stories they tell. We always put the filmmakers first, and the results each year make SIFF a truly special event for everyone involved.”
Jan Kravitz first attended SIFF in 2005 with the feature-length documentary Big Enough. This year, she’s back with a 17-minute short documentary, Nice Girls Don’t Ask. The film uses 1950s “social instruction” films as a wake-up call for the modern era.
“I recognized that[SIFF]was passionate about humanistic documentary and fiction films that told compelling stories,” Krawitz said. Because Nice Girls Don’t Ask is based entirely on 1950s “social coaching” films, it appeals to the type of moviegoers who patronize the festival avidly. ”
Director Matt Hames was at SIFF with his documentary “A Life Outside: American Mountain Guides.” The film follows modern-day mountain guides in the Tetons who risk their lives to bring their clients home safely.
“SIFF felt like a natural home (for the film) because Sedona has a lot of avid hikers,” Hames said. “We hope that SIFF helps our film start a conversation about the physical and mental health benefits of going to wild places, and that that enthusiasm will inform its PBS premiere later this year.”
SIFF was held from February 21st to March 1st. In addition to screening 36 full-length docs, the lineup included 32 short docs, 36 full-length narrative films, and 42 animated and narrative shorts.
SIFF 2026 winners:
Documentary winners:
Best Documentary Feature: Sons of Detroit
Nonfiction New Visions Award: Room to Move
Best Indie Spirit Documentary: Creede USA
Best Nonfiction Storytelling: Natchez
Most Inspiring Documentary: Dream Touch Believe
Best Documentary Short: Sacred Pause
Best Indie Spirit Short Documentary: Exodus
Best Short Humanitarian Documentary: Lovina’s Choice
Best Short Nonfiction Storytelling: Healing Land, Bird Perch
Narrative film winners:
Best Picture – Drama: Mr. Burton
Best Picture – Comedy: Ethan Bloom
Best International Film: Marching Band
Best Humanitarian Feature: Muganga
Best Indie Spirit Feature: The Fallow Few
Most Shocking Movie: The Tales of Shambala
Movie that moved me the most: Mistake
Best Family Film: “The Secret Floor”
Short winner:
Best Short Story – Comedy: Daniel Van den Bergh is Dead
Best Short Story – Drama: The Art of Inflation
Best International Short Story: The Reach
Best Humanitarian Short Story: Donation Box – Love Story
Best Student Short Film: The Demon Core
Best Animated Short: WildKind
Best Indie Spirit Short Story: Two people exchanging saliva
Programmer’s Choice for Best Short Story: Emergency Situation
Best screenplay winner:
Feature-length screenplay: “Burgery” by Evan Laughlin
Short story script: “Burning Hammer” by Dylan Wilson
TV Pilot: “Sally White” by Katrina Jackson
