New Hampshire Film Festival Unveils the 2026 Film Juries
PORTSMOUTH, NH (September 23, 2026) – The New Hampshire Film Festival is excited to unveil the prestigious juries of its upcoming 24th Annual edition, taking place October 15-18 throughout downtown Portsmouth, NH. Independent Spirit Award nominated actor Josh Hamilton (Eighth Grade, Jay Kelly, Maestro), renowned film critic Odie Henderson, and actor Sawyer Spielberg (Apple TV’s Masters of the Air, Materialists, Merry Good Enough) lead the way as members of the festival’s Narrative Grand Jury.
The New Hampshire Film Festival (NHFF) recognizes the best works in several categories by presenting its infamous granite awards to the winners. The bricks, weighing in at over 20 pounds of granite, are a celebration of the amazing artists and pay homage to the beloved “Granite State.” Surely it is the most physically significant award in the film industry. Of all of the NHFF Awards bestowed over the four-day event, seven are chosen by distinguished juries.
The Grand Jury Awards, one for narrative feature films and one for documentary feature films, are chosen by juries from the top nominees among undistributed films as selected by the festival’s programming team. This year’s Documentary Grand Jury features RogerEbert.com editor and critic Robert Daniels, Filmmaker Magazine’s editorial director Mike Hogan, and award-winning documentary filmmaker Crystal Moselle (The Wolfpack, My Robot Sophia, Our Dream of Water).
Highlighting NHFF’s love of the short-subject medium since its inception are three juried short film awards for live action shorts, documentary shorts and animation shorts. Beginning with its 20th edition, the New Hampshire Film Festival was named an Academy Award® qualifying festival for the Short Film Awards by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Short films that receive the festival’s Live Action, Documentary and Animation Shorts Jury Awards now qualify to submit for Oscar consideration, provided the films otherwise comply with the Academy rules.
To spotlight the creative talent that is alive and well in New Hampshire, NHFF also hands out several awards specifically to local filmmakers. One such award, the New Hampshire Short Film of the Year, is presided over by a jury of prominent creatives from the state.
Rounding out the festival’s 2026 juried awards is the Best Screenplay Award. NHFF’s annual screenplay competition is for feature-length scripts and is decided upon by a single special guest judge. This year’s judge is Shelby Gaines, writer of The Weight starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe as well as co-writer of Wildcat with its director Ethan Hawke. Shelby and his brother Latham Gaines also scored both films.
Below is the full list of juries for the 24th Annual New Hampshire Film Festival:
Narrative Grand Jury
- Actor Josh Hamilton
- Film critic Odie Henderson
- Actor Sawyer Spielberg
Documentary Grand Jury
- RogerEbert.com editor and critic Robert Daniels
- Filmmaker Magazine editorial director Mike Hogan
- Filmmaker Crystal Moselle
Live Action Shorts Jury
- Telluride Film Festival associate curator Fiona Armour
- Academy Award® winning filmmaker Luke Matheny
- Film Threat editor-in-chief and critic Alan Ng
Documentary Shorts Jury
- Academy Award® nominated documentary filmmaker Kahane Cooperman
- Documentary filmmaker Winslow Crane-Murdoch
- American Documentary executive director and documentary producer Erika Dilday
Animation Shorts Jury
- GKIDS director of content Erica Chon
- Filmmaker Lilian T. Mehrel
- Academy Award® winning filmmaker and animator Patrick Osborne
New Hampshire Jury (New Hampshire Short Film of the Year)
- Radio host Crozby
- Filmmaker Alex Mallis
- Filmmaker Matthew Scheffler
Screenplay Judge
- Writer and composer Shelby Gaines
For additional information on the 2026 Juries, please visit the New Hampshire Film Festival website: https://nhfilmfestival.com/2026-juries/.