Crossroads San Francisco Experimental Film Festival

Overview

Crossroads is San Francisco Cinematheque's annual film festival, dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary avant-garde film, video, and performance work. The 17th edition (CROSSROADS 2026) runs September 4-6, 2026, at Gray Area in San Francisco, featuring 49 works by 52 artists representing 22 countries and territories across 8 curated programs. The festival was inaugurated in 2010 and has been presented annually at Gray Area since 2022.

Crossroads is a curated, non-competitive festival. There are no jury prizes, no competition categories, and no awards. The festival pays rental fees to all works screened, which is uncommon for experimental film festivals. The curatorial process is open to submissions but selection is based on curatorial judgment, not competition.

The festival programs work across a wide range of experimental forms: avant-garde film, video art, personal cinema, abstract film, expanded cinema (multi-projector works, live performance with film/video), and formally innovative narrative and documentary work. The festival is less interested in traditionally-formatted narrative films or topically-oriented documentary films. CROSSROADS has been described as "the most expansive showcase for experimental media in the United States" (Alex Fields, In Review Online).

Since 2022, CROSSROADS has been followed by an online "echo" featuring works included in the theatrical presentations, presented at sfcinematheque.org. The 2026 online echo is pending funding confirmation.

History

Crossroads was inaugurated in 2010 by San Francisco Cinematheque as an annual festival dedicated to contemporary experimental film, video, and performance cinema. The festival was founded to provide a dedicated exhibition platform for avant-garde moving image work within the broader San Francisco Bay Area arts ecosystem.

San Francisco Cinematheque itself was founded in 1961 by filmmaker Bruce Baillie, making it one of the oldest continuously operating experimental media arts organizations in the United States. Cinematheque's year-round programming includes screenings, performances, exhibitions, and publications dedicated to artist-made cinema. CROSSROADS functions as the organization's flagship annual festival event, consolidating its curatorial work into a three-day public program. The 2026 edition coincides with Cinematheque's 65th anniversary celebration.

From its inaugural edition in 2010 through 2021, CROSSROADS was presented at various San Francisco venues. Since 2022, the festival has been held annually at Gray Area. The 16th edition (CROSSROADS 2025, August 29-31) featured 47 works by 47 artists from 19 countries. The 15th edition (CROSSROADS 2024) was larger, with 75 works by 70 artists in 10 programs. The festival has maintained its commitment to presenting work across the full range of experimental moving image practices, from single-projector 16mm film to multi-projector expanded cinema performances.

The online "echo" program was introduced in 2022 as a way to extend the festival's reach beyond physical attendance. The echo presents digital video versions of works included in the theatrical program on the Cinematheque website, subject to filmmaker agreement and funding availability.

Submission Details

Crossroads accepts submissions through an online submission form (Google Forms) posted on the CROSSROADS 2026 call for entries page. The festival does not use FilmFreeway.

CROSSROADS 2026 Deadlines and Fees:

Payments are accepted via PayPal, Venmo (@sfcinematheque), or check/money order (payable to San Francisco Cinematheque, mailed to 55 Taylor Street, San Francisco CA 94102). Entry fees are waived for Cinematheque members with no limit on number of entries.

Completion date preference: CROSSROADS prefers to preview film/video work completed 2024-2026. Work completed prior to 2024 may be submitted if the filmmaker feels it is right for the festival, keeping the curatorial preference in mind.

Premiere policy: CROSSROADS has no premiere requirement. The festival is open to all works regardless of premiere status. World, national, and local premieres are honored and referenced in promotional materials, but premiere status has little bearing on selection decisions.

Submission format: The strong preference is streaming online video. If physical media is necessary (DVD, Blu-ray, film print, hard drive), filmmakers should contact festival@sfcinematheque.org to discuss.

Exhibition formats: Viable formats for cinema space exhibition include 8mm, Super-8mm, 16mm, QuickTime/ProRes, and Blu-ray. CROSSROADS cannot present work as DCP or 35mm. The festival also presents multi-projector ("expanded cinema") works, performance cinema, and works involving live music or other live components. Installation work or work intended for gallery presentation cannot be accommodated. Online echo screenings use digital video (QuickTime ProRes preferred).

Notification: Entrants of films selected for CROSSROADS 2026 will be informed via email approximately late-June 2026. Final information on the work and the artist(s) (film note, bio, images, etc.) will be requested at that time. Exhibition copies must be provided by July 31, 2026. All physical exhibition media will be returned at the conclusion of the festival.

Rental fees: Cinematheque pays rental fees for all works screened in CROSSROADS. This is a significant benefit for experimental filmmakers, as many comparable festivals do not pay screening fees.

Key Sections

Crossroads does not organize its program into named competitive sections. The festival is curated as a series of screening programs, typically grouped by thematic, formal, or durational relationships among the selected works. The 2026 edition runs across three days (September 4-6) at Gray Area in 8 programs.

Programming includes:

• Avant-garde film and video - single-projector experimental film and video works
• Expanded cinema - multi-projector works, live performance with film/video
• Performance cinema - works involving dance, motion performance, live music, or other live components
• Experimental animation - formally innovative animated work
• Personal and diary film - first-person and autobiographical cinema
• Abstract and graphic cinema - non-representational film and video
• Conceptual work - idea-driven cinematic forms
• Formally innovative narrative and documentary - work that challenges conventional narrative or documentary structure

Past CROSSROADS editions have included work by artists such as Nathaniel Dorsky, Kevin Jerome Everson, Sky Hopinka, Cauleen Smith, Deborah Stratman, Jodie Mack, Simon Liu, Daichi Saito, Jerome Hiler, Saul Levine, Ken Jacobs, Janie Geiser, TT Takemoto, and many others. The festival's curatorial history is documented on the CROSSROADS history page.

Past Winners

CROSSROADS is a non-competitive festival. There are no jury prizes, no competition categories, and no awards. Selection is based entirely on curatorial judgment by Artistic Director Steve Polta. Instead of winners, the festival highlights notable featured artists each year.

CROSSROADS 2026 notable featured artists: Kevin Jerome Everson, Cauleen Smith, Charlotte Pryce, Richard Tuohy, Friedl vom Groller, TT Takemoto, Onyeka Igwe, Camilo Restrepo, Rajee Samarasinghe, and JG Thirlwell (performing live to Harry Smith's Heaven and Earth Magic). Of 52 featured artists, 20 are making their CROSSROADS debut.

CROSSROADS 2025 notable featured artists: Ken Jacobs (presented in memory of Flo Jacobs), Kevin Jerome Everson, Janie Geiser, Jodie Mack, Cauleen Smith, Karl Lemieux, Daniel Menche, Scott Stark, Zachary Epcar, and Sofia Theodore-Pierce. Of 47 featured artists, 16 were making their CROSSROADS debut.

Notable Alumni Films and Where They Ended Up

• Cauleen Smith - CROSSROADS featured artist across multiple editions. Her 1998 feature Drylongso was restored in 4K by the Criterion Collection (Spine #1190) and released on Blu-ray/DVD by Janus Films in 2024, with a theatrical run at Anthology Film Archives. Her short films are distributed through the Criterion Channel. She continues to screen new work at CROSSROADS, including pieces in both the 2025 and 2026 editions.
• Deborah Stratman - CROSSROADS featured artist. Her 2023 film Last Things premiered at Sundance (New Frontiers), played Berlin and NYFF, won prizes at Dokufest Kosovo and Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, and was acquired for US distribution by Cinema Guild. It opened theatrically at Anthology Film Archives in January 2024 on 35mm.
• Sky Hopinka - CROSSROADS featured artist. His feature debut malni - towards the ocean, towards the shore premiered at Sundance 2020 and was distributed by Grasshopper Film. It screened at MoMA and the Maysles Documentary Center. Hopinka's short films are distributed through Video Data Bank.
• Kevin Jerome Everson - CROSSROADS featured artist across multiple editions (2024, 2025, 2026). His work has been featured at the Whitney Biennial (2008, 2012, 2017), Carnegie International (2018), and Thailand Biennale (2024). He has had retrospectives at the Whitney Museum, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and Harvard Film Archive. His films are distributed through Video Data Bank and Picture Palace Pictures.
• Simon Liu - CROSSROADS featured artist. His film Signal 8 (2019) screened at IFFR Rotterdam, Toronto, New York, and New Orleans film festivals, and is available on MUBI. His film Devil's Peak (2022) screened at IDFA.

Submission Tips Specific to This Festival

CROSSROADS is curated annually by Steve Polta, Cinematheque's Artistic Director. The curatorial taste leans strongly toward works that engage with the histories and traditions of avant-garde, experimental, underground, personal, graphic, abstract, expanded, and "visionary" cinema. The festival explicitly states there are "no hard and fast genre restrictions" but the programming consistently favors formally challenging work over conventional narrative or documentary.

If your work is in 16mm, Super-8mm, or involves multi-projector presentation, live performance, or expanded cinema forms, CROSSROADS is one of the few US festivals that can properly accommodate these formats. The inability to screen DCP or 35mm is a defining constraint - if your work exists only in those formats, it cannot be programmed here.

Recent completion dates matter. CROSSROADS 2026 prefers work completed 2024-2026. Older work is accepted if the filmmaker feels it fits, but the curatorial preference for contemporary work is clear.

The submission fee ($25-30) is waived entirely for Cinematheque members. If you plan to submit regularly, membership pays for itself quickly. Membership information is at sfcinematheque.org/supportmembership.

Streaming video is the preferred submission format. Do not send DCPs or 35mm prints as preview media. The festival cannot accommodate installation work or gallery-oriented pieces.

Industry Reputation Notes

CROSSROADS is not an industry festival. There are no distributors, sales agents, or acquisition executives attending in a buying capacity. The festival's value is exhibition, peer recognition within the experimental film community, and rental fees. It is not a pathway to commercial distribution in the way narrative festival premieres can be.

However, CROSSROADS has significant reputational weight within the experimental film world. Being programmed at CROSSROADS signals curatorial validation from one of the oldest and most respected experimental media organizations in the United States. Artists who screen at CROSSROADS regularly also appear at Ann Arbor Film Festival, Media City Film Festival (Windsor, Ontario), Images Festival (Toronto), and the New York Film Festival's Projections section. These festivals form the core circuit for experimental film exhibition in North America.

Compared to peer experimental festivals, CROSSROADS is more expansive in its international reach (22 countries in 2026) and more committed to expanded cinema and performance work than Ann Arbor, which has a somewhat broader mandate including experimental narrative. Media City and Images are similarly focused but smaller in scale. CROSSROADS' rental fee policy sets it apart from most comparable festivals, which typically do not pay screening fees.

The festival is programmed by a single curator (Steve Polta), which means the curatorial sensibility is consistent year to year. This is both a strength (clear artistic vision) and a limitation (one person's taste determines all selection).

Awards / Accreditation

CROSSROADS is non-competitive and non-accredited. There are no prizes, no jury, and no awards. The festival is not FIAPF-accredited and not Academy Award-qualifying.

The festival's financial benefit to filmmakers comes through rental fees paid for all selected works, rather than prize money. This policy is consistent with San Francisco Cinematheque's organizational ethos as a nonprofit experimental media arts center that treats filmmakers as artists rather than content providers.

What Filmmakers Should Know

Crossroads is a non-competitive festival. There are no prizes, no jury, and no awards. The festival's value for filmmakers is exhibition, rental fees, and inclusion in a curated program alongside other experimental work. For avant-garde and experimental filmmakers, CROSSROADS is one of the most important US exhibition opportunities, particularly for work in 16mm, Super-8mm, and expanded cinema formats that cannot be presented at festivals requiring DCP.

The festival's inability to present DCP or 35mm is a defining constraint. Filmmakers whose work exists only in DCP or 35mm cannot be programmed. The accepted exhibition formats (8mm, Super-8mm, 16mm, QuickTime/ProRes, Blu-ray) align with the material practices of experimental cinema but exclude standard digital cinema packages.

The rental fee policy is a concrete financial benefit. Unlike most festivals that do not pay screening fees, CROSSROADS pays rental fees for all selected works, treating filmmakers as artists rather than content providers. This is consistent with San Francisco Cinematheque's broader organizational ethos as a nonprofit experimental media arts center.

The festival's venue, Gray Area, is a San Francisco arts organization focused on creative technology and digital culture. The venue provides a cinema space suitable for expanded cinema and live performance work, which is a specific curatorial priority for CROSSROADS. The 2026 edition also celebrates Cinematheque's 65th anniversary with a pre-festival reception on September 3.

For filmmakers whose work is selected, the festival requests film notes, bios, and images for the program. The online echo (when it occurs) provides additional exposure beyond the physical festival dates.

Watch

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Cauleen Smith's Drylongso (1998) 4K restoration trailer - CROSSROADS featured artist, now in the Criterion Collection

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Made of Air by Paul Clipson. Clipson was a San Francisco-based experimental filmmaker whose work has screened at CROSSROADS. The film represents the type of experimental cinema the festival programs.

See Also

For festival submission strategy and budgeting, use the Festival Entry Fee ROI Calculator. For experimental filmmaking approaches, see Experimental Filmmaking Guide. For festival strategy, see Film Festival Strategy.