RIDGWAY INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL · NOVEMBER 13–15, 2026
PRESENTED BY THE SHERBINO THEATER AND THE TOWN OF RIDGWAY
The fire is only the beginning.
Three days of independent film. Six chapters. One unfolding story.
THREE DAYS AT THE SHERBINO THEATER
Six chapters.
One unfolding story.
A weekend of campfire stories—beginning where we are, gathering around the fire, and eventually wandering beyond it.
THE 2026 PROGRAM
Follow the stories.
Experience the whole story with a festival pass, or buy individual block tickets below.
Friday · November 13 · 5 PM
Begin Where You Are
The Sherbino Theater · 604 Clinton St, Ridgway, CO
7 filmsTotal film runtime: 91 min 27 sec
Get block ticketsEvery story begins before we know where it will lead.
Opening night gathers threads from across the weekend—animated and lived, local and far-flung, strange and familiar. A little taste of where we are and everywhere we might go.
Paper Trail
Don Hertzfeldt
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Ms. Rossi 3: Ms. Rossi Meets the Mob
Pat Battistini
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What Happens in Vegas
Jewell Karinen
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The Orange at the Seder
Jacob Combs
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The Time My Grandmother Was Held Hostage by Bank Robbers
Rosella Tursi
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Mountain Guides: Barometers of Change
Chris Shane
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Busy Bodies
Kate Renshaw-Lewis
Explore the filmSaturday · November 14 · 10 AM
Something Was Calling Us
The Sherbino Theater · 604 Clinton St, Ridgway, CO
8 filmsTotal film runtime: 87 min 12 sec
Get block ticketsSooner or later, a voice asks us to listen.
It may carry a memory, a lost love, an echo of someone gone, or the hope of finding our way back. Wistful, tender, and occasionally strange, these stories follow the quiet pull of love, loss, identity, and change—and the unexpected paths we take toward what is missing.
Water Girl
Sandra Desmazières
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Ramón Who Speaks to Ghosts
Shervin Kermani
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A Paper Coffee Cup Story
Igor Gusev
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Mamie
Pedro Tamames · Victoria Cerrada
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You, Rock
Daniel Maggio
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A Grieving Heart
Wendy Cong Zhao
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Okay
Andrew Kightlinger
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Tin Can
Pat Battistini
Explore the filmSaturday · November 14 · 1 PM
The Mountains Knew Our Names
The Sherbino Theater · 604 Clinton St, Ridgway, CO
4 filmsTotal film runtime: 91 min 26 sec
Get block ticketsThe places we pass through remember more than we do.
Rooted across Colorado, these documentaries explore the ties between people and place—the histories we inherit, the traditions we carry, the communities that raise us, and the paths we choose for ourselves.
Saturday · November 14 · 6:30 PM
We Gathered Around the Fire
The Sherbino Theater · 604 Clinton St, Ridgway, CO
5 filmsScheduled film runtime: 90 min 45 sec
Expanding Sanctuary is listed as 20 minutes in the schedule and 21 minutes in its press kit.
Get block ticketsSo we sit together and share what we have carried.
Look closely enough, and even a mailbox has a story. These films find community in the ordinary places where lives intersect—in neighbors, shared spaces, small gestures, and the things we build together. Come gather for a while. You may leave dancing.
Sunday · November 15 · 10 AM
We Invited the Monsters In
The Sherbino Theater · 604 Clinton St, Ridgway, CO
6 filmsTotal film runtime: 85 min 52 sec
Get block ticketsUp close, it becomes harder to tell the monsters from the rest of us.
Gothic, gruesome, funny, and occasionally sweet, these stories pair tenderness with terror and vengeance with very dark humor. Come for the weird. Stay for the dark. And maybe don’t ask what’s for dinner.
Sunday · November 15 · 2 PM
We Wandered Beyond the Firelight
The Sherbino Theater · 604 Clinton St, Ridgway, CO
7 filmsTotal film runtime: 88 min 45 sec
Get block ticketsBy morning, the world is no simpler—only larger.
These stories move between truth and memory, expectation and identity, the lives we’re given and the ones we make for ourselves. Tender, tense, funny, and quietly unsettling, they inhabit the gray areas—where things get complicated and perhaps a little more human.
A Young Sofiane
Fabien Ara
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_____ in Paris
Mark Elijah Rosenberg
Explore the filmOne, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six
Yingdan Lai
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Paul’s Portrait
Andrea Gonzalez Mereles
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Tradwife
Jacob Combs · Laura Hunter Drago
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Legend of Fry-Roti: Rise of the Dough
Sabrina Saleha
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Under the Spanish Sun
Carla Álvarez · Roc Gussinyer
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Special Programs
SPECIAL PROGRAM 01
Experimental / Arthouse
Saturday · November 14, 2026 · 3 PMDecker Room · Free admission675 Clinton St, Ridgway, CO 81432
3 filmsTotal film runtime: 52 min 14 sec
SPECIAL PROGRAM 02
Iranian Film
Sunday · November 15, 2026 · 1 PMDecker Room · Free admission675 Clinton St, Ridgway, CO 81432
2 filmsTotal film runtime: 34 min 40 sec
ONE MORE STORY
And we carried
the fire home.Stay for one last story
The screen goes dark. The room grows quiet. Outside, the mountains are still there.
But something comes with us. A face. A question. A moment we will find ourselves telling someone about.
We arrived with stories of our own. We leave carrying a few more.
Thank you for gathering here.
Until the next fire.Festival Supporters
Presented by
The Sherbino Theater and Town of Ridgway
With generous support from
Donna Jaffe
Morgan and Steven Silverman
Television and Media
Other partners
Citizens State Bank 
Telluride Foundation 
Ridgway FUSE 
Colorado Creative Industries / OEDIT 
Ouray County Community Fund 
National Endowment for the Arts
Jurors
Jordan Campell
Documentary
Carrol Cartwright
Narrative
John Clark
Mayor's Choice
Peter O'Fallon
Narrative
Taylor Rees
Arthouse/Experimental
TBD
Animation
Director's Choice
Drew Berger
People's Choice
Viewers