The 27th Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) revealed its 2026 Awards winners, with Audience Awards going to Wild Horse Nine for Best Narrative Feature, 4000 Days winning Best Documentary Feature, and La Bola Negra took Best International Feature.
Jury awards went to A Talent For Murder by Anton Corbijn for Best Feature Narrative, and Best Documentary went to All American Girls directed by Andrea Berman and Christy Wegener.
The festival celebrated outstanding achievements in film with its slate of 2026 honorees including Miles Teller (Artist of Distinction Award), Jessica Lange (Icon Award), Taraji P. Henson (Artist of Distinction Award), Justin Hartley (Artist of Distinction Award), Sarah Finn (Casting Visionary Award), Mckenna Grace (Spotlight Award), KJ Apa (Spotlight Award), Jack O’Connell (Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award), Gemma Chan (Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award), Emmy Rossum (Outstanding Performance in Television Award), and Sosie Bacon (Breakout Award).
The 27th edition of the Festival was held from October 15-22, 2026, showcasing over 300 films from around the world.
2026 Newport Beach Film Festival Winners
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Best Narrative Feature: Wild Horse Nine
Best International Feature: La Bola Negra
Best Documentary Feature: 4000 Days
Best Animated Feature: In Waves
Best Music Documentary Feature: Frampton
Best Thriller Feature: Better
Best Action Sports Feature: Stern Fever
Best Art, Architecture + Design Feature: Heroic: Sabin Howard Sculpts the National WWI Memorial and Leica – A Century of Vision (tie)
Best Environmental Feature: The Sludge War
Best Culinary Feature: How To Feed a Dictator
Best Family Feature: Whale Shark Jack
Best Irish Feature: You’ll Never Believe Who’s Dead
Best Narrative Short: The 65th
Best Documentary Short: Guardians of Anatolia
Best International Short: To Save a Life
Best Animated Short: The Whistle
Best Action Sports Short: Hunter’s Moon
Best Art, Architecture + Design Short: Women Laughing
Best Irish Short: Listen and FAT (tie)
JURY AWARDS
Best Feature Narrative: A Talent For Murder, Anton Corbijn
Best Feature Narrative Screenplay: A Talent For Murder, Joanna Murray-Smith
Best Feature Narrative Director: Paweł Pawlikowski, Fatherland
Best Feature Narrative Cinematography: Fatherland, Łukasz Żal
Best Feature Narrative Actor: Alden Ehrenreich, A Talent For Murder
Best Feature Narrative Actress: Sandra Hüller, Fatherland
Best Feature Narrative Ensemble: …And Out Comes the Wolf
Best Documentary: All American Girls, Andrea Berman and Christy Wegener
Best Documentary Short: The Baddest Speechwriter of All
Best Narrative Short: Every Time I See a Yellow Car
Best Animated Short: That Night
Best Irish Short: A Vinyl Goodbye
FESTIVAL HONORS
Outstanding Achievement in Directing: Paper Tiger
Outstanding Achievement in Narrative Filmmaking: Jimmy and Ink
Outstanding Achievement in International Filmmaking: The Body is Water, Sisa and What A Way To Go
Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking: Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff, As Far Back As I Can Remember…The Story of Goodfellas and Avedon
Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Julián
Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Action Sports: Beyond Borders Patagonia
Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Art, Architecture + Design: The Last Inventor: Chuck Hull & The Hope of 3D Printing
Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Culinary: Noor: Eating History
Outstanding Achievement in Editing: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, Wild Horse Nine
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Gris Jordana, La Bola Negra
Outstanding Achievement in Narrative Short Filmmaking: Fire Lily
Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Short Filmmaking: Bright Harvest: Powering Earth From Space
Outstanding Achievement in International Short Filmmaking: Submitting Tigers
Outstanding Achievement in Short Filmmaking – Animation: Wait!
Outstanding Achievement in Short Filmmaking – Action Sports: On Flying
Outstanding Achievement in Short Filmmaking – Art, Architecture + Design: Curating Modernism
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