12th Annual Top Shorts 2026 Nominations Announced

Exceptional storytelling requires immense courage, vision, and relentless dedication. As we celebrate the 12th Annual Top Shorts Awards, we are proud to spotlight the creators who redefined what is possible in short cinema this year.

Standing at the peak of this year's competitive lineup are two phenomenal films tied with 9 nominations: Come Out, Wherever You Are (written by Dan Burns, directed by Caitlin Presberg, and starring Blake De Pastino and Marilyn Bass) and O.C.D. (written by Conor Patrick Walsh, directed by Luca Pizzoleo, and starring Raz Fritz), alongside Tommy Jay Dwyer's brilliantly executed Solus with 8 nominations. They lead a breathtaking field of nominees whose work represents the vanguard of independent filmmaking. We are honored to present the projects that made it to the very top.

Best of Fest

I Have a Voice - Barbara Ramos, Juliana Albuquerque

Come Out, Wherever You Are - Dan Burns, Caitlin Presberg

O.C.D. - Luca Pizzoleo, Conor Patrick Walsh

A Brief Mental Lapse With Mallory Kane - Andrew Frescas

Cameron was a Red Wings fan - Gabriel Veenendaal

How We Hamsters Die - Phoebe Burdick, Mio Gribskov

Best Narrative Film of the Year

Detour - Demian Alan Mancino, Beth Ann Hinde

Come Out, Wherever You Are - Dan Burns, Caitlin Presberg

O.C.D. - Luca Pizzoleo, Conor Patrick Walsh

Los Angeles - Tucker Johnson, William Rouse

Poolboy - Haoran Ma, Ben Keeshin

Work Flow - Fatima Isse

Best Indie Film of the Year

Stemma - Logan Zervakos

Lev Berger - Jan Fabris

Mushroom - Ziyan He

Score - Noah Kean

Cohousing - Leah Gouin, Robin Wyllie-Scholz

The Pocket Watch - Sreejith Jayadevan

Best Drama of the Year

Little Boy Blue - Liam Natirboff

The Rhythm Of Silence - Juan David Villar Steffens, Rodrigo Alfaro Garcia Granados

No Left Turns - Douglas Ryan

Come Out, Wherever You Are - Dan Burns, Caitlin Presberg

Cold Blue - Jan Fabris

At the Mercy of Faith - Samuel Lee Taylor, Andrew Arguello

Best Comedy of the Year

Inflight Inflatables - John Mac Menamie

Slow Draw - Jordan Rader

Stalk This Way - Zachary Boulton, Winnie Mzembe

A Brief Mental Lapse With Mallory Kane - Andrew Frescas

Mid-lennial Life Crisis - Carlie Mantilla-Jordan, John Eliot Jordan

The Independent - John Kestner

Best Thriller of the Year

Ornamental Bird - Craig Lief, Ana K. Cruz

Solus - Tommy Jay Dwyer

Wreckless - Tim Troy, Jennifer A. Goodman

Thirty Seven Dollars - Ashish Sharma

Across the Blue Line - Dominic Goodie

Mumbai X - Rahul Dhiman

Best Horror of the Year

Work Flow - Fatima Isse

Dawn - Hayden Devlin

The Experiment - Rachel Hitt

Overtime - Steven James Kilper

Do You See Her? - Matthew Villescas, Caridad Polee

Solus - Tommy Jay Dwyer

Best Experimental Film of the Year

Lost in Translation - Yachan Yuan

Woman in the Mirror - Luis Oliveira

Blood Father - Christopher McGuinness

Bob - Alberto Martín-Aragón

Continuum Window Beasties - Timothy LaPointe

Mushroom - Ziyan He

Best Inspirational Film of the Year

I Have a Voice - Barbara Ramos, Juliana Albuquerque

To the Stars - Joe Porter

Cross Examination - John Kestner

Faith Healing - Branton McMahan, De'ja McCray

Tibetan Ballads - Jiawei Lin

Little Boy Blue - Liam Natirboff

Best Dark Comedy of the Year

John Death: Dying for a job - Juan Rivera

O.C.D. - Luca Pizzoleo, Conor Patrick Walsh

The Funeral - Nick Casal

Escape Artist - Sergine Dumais

Mother/Daughter² - Vanessa Miller, Mike Stutz

Bob - Alberto Martín-Aragón

Best AI Film of the Year

2125 - Eric Hamilton

Crazy Lonely Journey - Mojli

ClaireB - Jeff Hinz

The Butterfly Dream - Suhyeon Scholastica Jin, Aria Suhyun Kim

Monster Jr. - Tim Schauer

The Last President - Bin He

Best Documentary of the Year

To the Stars - Joe Porter

Food Lies - Luis Luyando, Willy Martin

Forgotten Dogs 4 Forgotten Vets - Shanz Dev, Whiskin' Dad, Producer Marc

Lisa Dahl: Blessed By Grace - Eric Wolfinger

Then & Now - Raymond J Reiss

Voices of Rett - Jose Francisco Malave

Best Animation of the Year

Tigre - Maria Victoria Sanchez

The Aunt's House - Paul Charisse

Pushing Up Daisies - Morgan Notari

Alyssum - Alex King

Roast apple¿ - Lei Chengrui

How We Hamsters Die - Phoebe Burdick, Mio Gribskov

Best Music Video of the Year

Ava Della Pietra - Single for Life - Luke Orlando

Sky-Sky - Ilya Noyabrev, Anna Khanina

Country Couture - Cali Tucker, Dustin J Robison

My Love - Anna Khanina, Ilia Noyabrov

Marionette - Ava Della Pietra, Nathan Levine-Heaney

VICTORIA - We don't get along - Victoria Karakoleva

Best Student Film of the Year

Bravo Zulu - Jessica Roach

Last Night - Xinran Gu

Scar - Wang Heran

Work Flow - Fatima Isse

Time Tells - Bai Zhiheng

Paper Warriors - Aisa Uchimura, Brianna Salazar

Best Microfilm of the Year

Whistling Cloud: Spinnin - Mun Chee Yong

Take it, then leave me - Nox Nackman

Break the Silence - Dax Phelan

The Experiment - Rachel Hitt

Eternity - Jeremiah Kipp

Caveman Crunchies - Finise Avery, Trevor Wolfson

Best Director of the Year

O.C.D. - Luca Pizzoleo

Solus - Tommy Jay Dwyer

Poolboy - Haoran Ma, Ben Keeshin

Come Out, Wherever You Are - Caitlin Presberg

HURT - Jeremy Kunkle

The Cage - Zhuo Qian

Best First-Time Director of the Year

Willow Pass - Christian Cooper

The Pen - Li Xiaoyi

Billy Somethin - Brandon Scales

The Funeral - Nick Casal

Who will take care of you when you're old? - Sašo Dudić

Une Petite Lune de Miel - Dana Protsyshak

Best Young Filmmaker of the Year

Audition - Yiyi Wang

Tiny Moving Parts - Michaela Friedlander

Light in The Dark - Jaythan Sutrisno, David Tahir Setiawan, Dylan Gunadi

The Funeral - Alexander Bello

Healing - Ian Kirk

MAX - Ace Shu

Best Actor of the Year

Shadows Of The Past - Mateo Lopez

Come Out, Wherever You Are - Blake De Pastino

O.C.D. - Raz Fritz

Solus - Tommy Jay Dwyer

Poolboy - Dan Wicksman

Across the Blue Line - Bryant Walter

Best Actress of the Year

Ornamental Bird - Ana K. Cruz

Detour - Cheyenne Goode

No Left Turns - Alexandra Grace

Solus - Jordan Tofalo

jAImes - Cathy Fiorillo

A Brief Mental Lapse With Mallory Kane - Nikko Austen Smith

Best Young Actor of the Year

Sideline - Allen Deng

Up, Up and Away - Jarvis Chan

Finding Ava - Giovanni Siciliano

HURT - Antonio Dean

Little Boy Blue - Ryan Stieff

Best Young Actress of the Year

Beyond the Book - Raquel Vaught

Acting Out - Mellony Ledo

Oh Child - Savannah Burke

Captive - Jiahui Jiang (Rachel)

Voicemail - Isabella González

Bridged Together - Olivia Scales

Best Duo of the Year

Escape Artist - Bruno Pelletier & Émilie Josset

The Fishbowl - Eshaana Sheth & Jasper Ross

Solus - Tommy Jay Dwyer & Jordan Tofalo

Une Petite Lune de Miel - Lev Protsyshak & Montassar Gaceur

Who will take care of you when you're old? - Gojmir Lešnjak & Vid Klemenc

Come Out, Wherever You Are - Blake De Pastino & Marilyn Bass

Best Ensemble of the Year

Solus - Tommy Jay Dwyer, Jordan Tofalo, Devin Petry, James Labonte, Louise Mara

Cameron was a Red Wings fan - Matt Whittaker, Camrey Fox, Aaron Woodall

Mother/Daughter² - Suzy Hunt, Vanessa Miller, Erik Gratton, Katherine Maldonado

Prism - Tyler Bickel, Obiora Okoye, Diriest Crowell-Buffington, Rana Sobh, Michaela Schundelmier, Joseph TenBroek, Brittni Miller

Come Out, Wherever You Are - Blake De Pastino, Marilyn Bass, Amber Rose Mason, Douglas "Hurricane" Hall

O.C.D. - Raz Fritz, Steven Ogg, Ariel Martin

Best Cinematography of the Year

Ornamental Bird - Eris Zhao

VICTORIA - We don't get along - Krum Rodriguez

O.C.D. - Jeremy Basset

Solus - Steven Schloss

Come Out, Wherever You Are - Anh Vo

Mushroom - Peng "Aaron" Wang

Best Editing of the Year

A List of Towns - Matt Carpenter

Work Flow - Hollie Dodman

All Cats Are Grey In The Dark - Joseph Patrick Conroy, Shannon Denise Evans

A Brief Mental Lapse With Mallory Kane - Andrew Frescas

Poolboy - Poppy Yu Sun

O.C.D. - Luca Pizzoleo

Best Score of the Year

Tigre - Jhonatan Faria

The Family Photo - John Norris Ray, Maria Victoria Sanchez, Jhonatan Faria

The Boy Toy - Ros Gilman

Cohousing - Joey Karz

How We Hamsters Die - Luis Enrique Saldívar, Serena Lucatero

O.C.D. - Alexander Arntzen

Best Original Story of the Year

Prism - Kara M. Canton

For: LiLa - Kaitron Bryant

How We Hamsters Die - Phoebe Burdick, Mio Gribskov

Cameron was a Red Wings fan - Gabriel Veenendaal

St. Marks - Donna Augustin-Quinn

Come Out, Wherever You Are - Dan Burns

Best Screenplay of the Year

It's Open - Doug Maguire

The Boy Toy - Chris Harboldt

Bud Burkett Was All Set To Die - Jeff Reese

Norman: The Dog Who Didn't Mean To - Paul Millward

Hidden Replies - Joseph Paul D'Amico

Babylon Beyond! - John Joyce Baker

Jury Award for Outstanding Film

The Higher-up Says - Deng Weixiong

Great Minds - Alice Marks, Lauren Guglielmello, Kara Overlien

Red Clay - Tian Zeng

Bang! - Zhiyang Hu

Detour - Beth Ann Hinde

Everyday - John Pentassuglia

Jury Award for Outstanding Screenplay

Instinct - Michael Craig

Oorah... - Lori Daliposon

Awake - Julia Judith Bottarelli

The Chance - Terry Luke Podnar

Silent Screams - Jiayi Ouyang

Talk with Shadows - Junyan Li

A massive congratulations to all of our incredible 2026 nominees! Your vision, passion, and dedication keep the spirit of independent cinema alive, and we cannot wait to celebrate your success.

Inspired to share your own story on the global stage? Submissions for the next edition of Top Shorts are officially open. Submit your film today and join the legacy: https://filmfreeway.com/ts