The 35th annual Florida Film Festival ended last night with a 75th-anniversary screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. It was an eventful, inspiring and exhausting 10 days. Including the advance press screenings, I watched 21 features and nearly 70 shorts, out of the 161 total films shown from April 10 through 19.

To those filmmakers I met and interviewed, best of luck in the future. Don’t be a stranger (on a train).

My top features (other than Strangers) were Seized (4 ¼ stars), Chopin, Chopin! (4 stars) and I Swear (4 stars). And my favorite shorts were The Baddest Speechwriter of All, I Gaze at the Sky and Trading Cards (all 5 stars). 

And now we sleep, much like Lola the Dog, pictured here, who couldn’t wait for the festival to end before she took a much-needed catnap on the Enzian Theater’s outdoor couch yesterday evening. Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets.

See below for all my coverage of the 2026 festival:

Festival preview
Feature reviews
Opening-night film review
Shorts reviews
Awards