Rooftop Films’ 30th Summer Series returns to NYC with a packed schedule of features, shorts, free screenings, and Pier 17 Pride events.

As New York City edges toward warmer nights, Rooftop Films is lighting up the cultural calendar again, and this year’s Rooftop Films 2026 Summer Series lineup is shaping up to be its biggest one yet.

The beloved annual festival is back for a landmark 30th season of screenings. with the 2026 lineup being introduced as the festival heads into another stretch of outdoor cinema and community-focused programming.. The run is set from May 15 through August 21. and the schedule will feature more than 40 events. including new independent feature films. shorts programming. free community screenings. live performances. and additional enhanced events that are still set to be announced.

A major highlight is a special New York premiere of Daniel Roher’s “Tuner.” The film’s screening will include the attendance of star Leo Woodall. known for “The White Lotus. ” along with Academy Award-winning sound designer Johnnie Burn.. The appearance of both film talent and an award-winning craft figure signals a festival moment aimed not just at moviegoers. but at the broader ecosystem of indie filmmaking.

Rooftop is also turning its attention to the entertainment world beyond the screen by pairing festivalgoers with pop-culture momentum.. Presented by NewFest and HBO Max. “Heated Rivalry” is getting a special open-air debut at Pier 17 on May 31. with Crave’s hit original series slated to bring audiences together to experience “Heated Rivalry Comes Out(side).” The event is specifically timed around the “triumphant highs” of Episode 5. “I’ll Believe In Anything. ” a programming choice that aligns with the lead-in to Pride month.

The festival’s roots go back to the late ‘90s, when Rooftop began as a grassroots screening series.. Over three decades. it has evolved into an important launching pad for emerging artists and a defining presence in independent cinema. repeatedly spotlighting early work from filmmakers who would later influence contemporary film.. That history is reflected in how Rooftop is approaching its 30th annual Summer Series.

Short-form storytelling is taking center stage this year, with renewed emphasis beginning right at the start of the season.. Opening Night is marked by “This is What We Mean By Short Films” on May 15 at Green-Wood Cemetery. continuing through a set of curated showcases that include a special “best-of” edition of Rooftop’s New York Non-Fiction program.

In a statement about the programming direction. Saidah Russell. the organization’s head of programming. pointed to Rooftop’s identity as a place for discovery—bold new voices. adventurous storytelling. and the kind of communal moviegoing that makes a screening feel like an event. not just a watch.. She also framed the 30th anniversary as an opportunity to reflect the breadth of independent filmmaking while staying connected to the curiosity and risk-taking that shaped the festival from the beginning.

Alongside the lineup for features and shorts, the Summer Series continues a long-standing commitment to access.. Rooftop will again include a wide-ranging slate of free community screenings across the five boroughs. bringing independent cinema directly into neighborhoods rather than limiting it to a single cultural district.. Low-cost tickets. expanded discounts. and exclusive benefits through Rooftop’s newly redesigned membership program also underline the festival’s broader push toward cultural inclusion.

For feature-film audiences, the selected program includes “Tuner,” “The Brittney Griner Story,” “Gorilla Gorilla,” “Jaripeo,” and “Sour Minnows.” The schedule also features “Shaolin Soccer” as a 25th-anniversary screening, plus additional details tied to each film’s venue and date.

“Tuner” lands on Monday, May 18 at Pier 57, with free RSVP ticketing listed for the New York premiere.. The synopsis follows a gifted piano tuner whose meticulous skills lead him to an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes. upending his life in the process.. The film is described as a Black Bear Pictures release.

The series also spotlights international cinema with “Shaolin Soccer,” set for Thursday, May 28 at Fort Greene Park.. The 2001 Stephen Chow film arrives as part of World Cinema Nights. a program of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy co-presented and co-curated with Rooftop Films.. The screening is free with RSVP. and the story centers on a down-and-out ex-soccer player joining forces with a former monk to assemble an unlikely team aimed at winning the China Super Cup tournament.

Meanwhile, “Jaripeo” continues the World Cinema Nights partnership, scheduled for Thursday, June 4 at Fort Greene Park.. Listed as free with RSVP. the 2026 Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig film traces a journey to Michoacán’s hypermasculine rodeos that descends into the subconscious of memory. queer desire. and longing—ultimately leading to a reckoning with the wounds and beauty of a home left behind.

“Gorilla Gorilla” is positioned as a New York premiere as well, with the date and venue marked as TBA.. The film’s story follows Anne after a divisive directorial debut. as her efforts to make a sophomore film collide with slipping scenes. actors dropping out. and a friendship with her lead actress that grows increasingly toxic.. With her career flashing before her eyes, Anne begins using questionable tactics to save the project.

“Sour Minnows” is listed with its date and venue also TBA, and will screen as a U.S.. premiere at The Old American Can Factory.. The synopsis follows Ricky. who sees something on an empty LA street and soon finds himself watching his life from impossible angles—only to discover the angles are watching back.

“Im Auto Tapes Und Butterbrot” is among the short-form offerings, with Kiana Naghshineh’s short featured as part of the Rooftop Films 2026 shorts programming. The Summer Series shorts lineup stretches across multiple weeks and venues, each designed around distinct themes and formats.

The short program begins with “This is What We Mean By Short Films: Opening Night 2026” on Friday. May 15 at Green-Wood Cemetery.. Described as a celebration of the 30th season. it pairs new short films with an outdoor setting under the stars. plus an afterparty sponsored by Decoy Wines. Rosaluna Mezcal. SingleCut Beersmiths. and Fort Hamilton Distillery.. Tickets for this opening-night event are listed as available now.

On Friday, June 5 at Green-Wood Cemetery, “Cemetery Shorts” is slated to run as daylight fades, with a program described as moving through grief, memory, and the space between presence and absence. It is presented as part of the Alfred P. Sloan Science on Screen® series.

For audiences looking for Spanish-language selections. “Vidas Vibrantes: Shorts en Español” is scheduled for Thursday. June 11 at Fort Greene Park as free with RSVP.. The program is described as a vibrant collection exploring adolescence and desire. strained relationships. and the blurry line between lived experience and inherited myth.. It is part of World Cinema Nights, co-presented and co-curated with the Fort Greene Park Conservancy.

Pride programming arrives with “Queerly Beloved: Pride Shorts in the Park. ” set for Wednesday. June 24 at Fort Greene Park as free with RSVP.. The LGBTQIA+ short film lineup is described as coming from around the world. with themes that highlight self-invention. resistance. and the intimate acts of becoming and belonging.

A more off-kilter energy follows with “Trapped: Mind-Altering Shorts” on Friday, June 26 at Industry City. This is presented as a thrilling program of surprising, surreal, and even sinister shorts drawn from off-kilter genre film favorites.

Later in the summer, “Farm-to-Screen Shorts” lands on Tuesday, June 30 at Brooklyn Grange Sunset Park, where documentaries, narratives, and formally adventurous shorts examine humanity’s complicated stewardship of land, animals, food systems, and one another.

Animated shorts take over on Wednesday, July 8 at The Old American Can Factory with “Dark Toons,” a mind-bending program exploring worlds on the edge of coherence, where reality fractures and the line between dream logic and waking nightmare blurs.

The lineup also includes internet-focused storytelling with “URL IRL: Internet Shorts” on Friday, July 24 at Industry City.. The synopsis frames the short films as moving from “brainrot to belonging. ” examining how the internet and digital technologies shape identity. connection. delusion. and discovery.

New York City folklore becomes its own destination with “New York Non-Fiction” on Friday, July 31 at Green-Wood Cemetery.. Described as a restless collection of local myths drawn from lived moments. local histories. and the stories that circulate through the streets and boroughs. the programming continues Rooftop’s focus on discovery through place-based storytelling.

Romance returns in “Love is Strange: Romance Shorts” on Friday, August 7 at Industry City, described as tracing the surprising, imperfect ways people fall in—and out of—love, or nearly do.

Closing night for shorts is scheduled for Friday, August 21 at Green-Wood Cemetery with “Rooftop Shots: Closing Night 2026,” billed as a standout program of new short films following a summer-long run across the city.

Rounding out the shorts schedule is “Dangerous Docs: States of Emergency,” with the date and venue listed as TBA.. It’s described as an evocative program of docu-shorts treating catastrophe not as spectacle. but as lived experience—mapping the emotional and physical aftermath of a world in constant upheaval.

Beyond the core Rooftop screenings. the festival calendar also includes partner events that extend the entertainment reach into major cultural spaces.. “HBO Max Presents: Heated Rivalry Comes Out(side)” is scheduled for Sunday. May 31 at Pier 17 as a free-with-RSVP outdoor screening that invites audiences to relive the “triumphant highs” of episode five as Pride month approaches.. The event is presented by NewFest and HBO Max, with production support by Rooftop Films.

The Brittney Griner Story arrives next with “The Brittney Griner Story. ” a 2026 New York premiere screening on Monday. June 1 at Gansevoort Plaza in the Meatpacking District.. It is free with RSVP and is presented in partnership with NewFest and the Meatpacking District Business Improvement District.. The film is described as a personal and profound odyssey following Brittney Griner from her playing career through harrowing imprisonment in Russia. and into a wider geopolitical battle to secure her freedom. released by ESPN Films.

Also on the partner slate is “2:1 by 2/3: Computer Chess. sitrep. and the Sony tube camera” on Friday. June 12 at The Old American Can Factory.. This special presentation centers Andrew Bujalski’s “Computer Chess. ” which the listing notes as the winner of the Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance. with the feature described as an off-kilter comedy set during a weekend tournament for chess software programmers in the early 1980s.. The program is preceded by “sitrep. ” a short by Blair Barnes. described as a single-conversation situation report built with tape loops. reamping. and a Sony apparatus. created within a framework involving collaborators James Parker. Dylan M.. Howe, and Ethan Loafman during April 13, 2025.. The presentation is listed as part of the Alfred P.. Sloan Science on Screen® series.

One more community moment is scheduled for Staten Island: “Community Joy” Free Movie Night on Staten Island is set for Thursday. September 3 at Snug Harbor. also free with RSVP. with the film title listed as TBA.. The event is described as a free community film screening and performances presented by The Legal Aid Society and Rooftop Films. part of a series of “Community Joy” events in every borough honoring The Legal Aid Society’s 150th Anniversary and its commitment to protecting. defending. and advancing the rights of New Yorkers.

With the schedule stretching from mid-May through late August—and with additional programming. dates. venues. and partnerships set to be announced throughout the summer—Rooftop Films’ 30th Summer Series looks ready to keep delivering what it has always promised: a citywide invitation to meet new voices. take artistic risks. and share the kind of cinematic moments that linger long after the credits roll.. Misryoum

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