Now in its 14th season, the Watsonville Film Festival (WFF) returns with a bold  and timely theme: Art As Resistance. This year’s Festival will feature more than 50 films and 20 cultural events, bringing together award-winning films, local premieres, filmmaker meet-ups, live performances, and community celebrations across the region. 

For Festival dates, tickets, and full program, visit: https://2026wff.eventive.org/welcome 

“What distinguishes the Watsonville Film Festival is our commitment to creating a local eco-system that supports artists and creators from our community and the Central Coast region,” says Consuelo Alba, Director of the Watsonville Film Festival. 

“For the past 14 years, we have been investing in local filmmakers, providing opportunities to screen their work and helping them with grants and mentorships. At a time when immigrants and communities of color are under attack, independent films told through the lens of filmmakers who come from impacted communities are a powerful tool to reclaim agency, share stories, and inspire positive change.” 

Audiences can expect an exciting lineup of films that premiered and won awards at major festivals including South by Southwest, Tribeca, New York Documentary Film Festival, the LA Latino International Film Festival, the SF Latino Film Festival, and the NY Latino Film Festival. 

In addition to acclaimed national selections, the Watsonville Film Festival continues its longstanding commitment to uplifting local productions.  Under the title “Historias de Vida y Amor”, Opening Night will feature seven local shorts and post-screening Q&A with the filmmakers.

On Friday March 13,  WFF will offer a free community program “Where We Belong”  featuring three shorts about immigrant activism, sanctuary, radical hospitality and homelessness. 

A film program exploring the themes of home, land, sanctuary and activism. Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers and special guests. This is a free event, open to the community. Reserve your ticket here. Sponsored by FoodWhat!?

A program featuring a selection of six local films, a mix of stories about family, fear and resilience. Come for the films, stay for the post-screening Q&A with filmmakers.

From a Native American origin tale to local Chinese-American history and gentrification in the coast of Mexico, there’s poetry and power in our stories from the past, present and future. Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers and special guests.

In commemoration of Women’s Month, this year’s program includes highly praised local shorts that premiered at the New York Film Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival — Libertad and The Long Labor — both powerful documentaries featuring local changemakers. Post-screening panel with filmmakers and the protagonists of the films. 

The Sueños de Pertenencia – Dreams of Belonging shorts program is rooted in cultural traditions, highlighting stories that reflect what holds us together, belonging, in the face of uncertainty. Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers.

Award-winning “ASCO: Without Permission” is a genre-defying film that profiles the extraordinary, Los Angeles based, Chicano art group of the 70’s-80’s. ASCO merged activism and art as they challenged representation in the art world, Hollywood and the news media. Unrecognized in their time, they are now being considered amongst the most important artists of the 20th century. Utilizing a wholly original approach to filmmaking where nonfiction and fiction are interconnected through collaborative film works made with the next generation of Latinx artists, “ASCO: Without Permission” reimagines what is possible today in cinema and art while celebrating an iconoclastic group that was far ahead of its time.

Youth also have stories to tell… The public is invited to this flm program highlighting youth voices in our community Sunday March 15, at 1 pm. This is a free event, reserve your ticket here. Post-screening Q&A with student filmmakers. Co-sponsored by Santa Cruz County Office of Education and CSUMB Department of Cinematic Arts and Technology. 

Commemorating Women’s Month: She Still Rises: Power Through Generation shorts film program presents intimate portraits of mothers, a grandmother, and a teacher who embody resilience, toughness, tenderness, and healing.  Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers.

This timely documentary film follows Harry Belafonte during the last twelve years of his life, as he embarks on a deeply personal and reflective journey, while mentoring an emerging group of artists and activists committed to following in his footsteps and disrupting injustice to implement impactful change. Co-presented by Barrios Unidos. Special guest Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez.

This is a bold mix of local shorts films that move between dreams, nightmares and goodbyes, from interior solitude to a night out with friends. Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers.

Nuestra Resistencia film Program films invite us to look at our own resistance, through everyday acts of care, strength and storytelling. Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers.

This film follows fiercely dedicated young Latino political organizers, including Watsonville own Christian Garcia, leading a team of new recruits to mobilize their community to support a sugary drink tax. When the state government passes a stealth law to ban all local soda taxes until 2030, these young activists fearlessly battle the corporate lobbying efforts to block them.

Closing Film: Traces of Home Flyer. In attempts to discover her own roots, filmmaker Colette Ghunim embarks on a journey with her parents to find their ancestral homes in Mexico and Palestine, after they were forced to leave decades ago. While navigating physical borders in both lands, her family’s internal barriers break down, exposing the traumas that forced them to leave and continue to challenge dynamics together.

Along with the film screenings, WFF will host a regional filmmaker summit, lively after-parties with local bands and DJs, including Flor de Caña, Ole Mano and The Mothership Connection from Santa Cruz, and Kaefan and QienSave from Salinas. 

The Festival will also showcase a vibrant lineup of local artists, including Watsonville’s Poet Laureate Vicky Bañales, Senderos Musical Ensemble of Santa Cruz; artist Josefina Rocha and UCSC Sesnon Gallery Director Valeria Miranda, as well as its own signature beer crafted in collaboration with the local family-owned Buena Vista Brewing Company. 

Founded in 2012, the Watsonville Film Festival is a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to celebrating Latine and Indigenous stories and building a thriving creative ecosystem on California’s Central Coast. Through year-round programming, grants, and mentorship opportunities, WFF creates spaces where art, culture, joy and community converge. 

For 2026 Festival dates, tickets, and full program, visit: https://2026wff.eventive.org/welcome