We’re living in a world awash with videos, but it is hard to find high quality and meaningful storytelling. That is, unless you go to the 2026 Cinetopia, which will showcase some of the best indie film making being created right now from May 13 to 17.
“You might meet your best friend at a film festival – because I have done that before!” Jo Rochelle, the director of the Michigan-made film Dead Deer High, which will be at this year’s Cinetopia, said. “I’ve met so many incredible artists and film lovers, and there’s something very special about being seated in your community with people who love film, independent film, and see projects that they might not otherwise see.”
This film festival take place as usual between Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater and State Theatre. There will be 18 features and a number of short films to see; many of which will be exclusive for the festival. Nick Aldernick, the Cinema Program Director at Marquee Arts, said that there’ll be ten Michigan-made short films and 13 from outside of the state. It is a deliberately eclectic festival according to Aldernick “we want there to be something for everybody” and indeed this year’s lineup is strikingly varied.
The Michigan Made shorts are:
- Boiling Point
- Cyanotype
- He’s Definitely Dead
- If You Die I’ll Kill you
- Kids Like Us
- Les Amateurs
- No Time of Deep Time
- Parallel
- Shoot Shovel and Shut Up
- Three Divided By Zero
The Midwest and Beyond shorts are:
- Ape Shit
- Babble Of The Brook
- Body
- Can This Be Reel?
- Dobrina
- Puquio
- Flower Bot
- HORSE
- I Wanted To Hear Your Voice
- Mise En Place
- Space Rock
- The Bridge
- Toons by Steve
Marquee Arts says that opening night will kick off with the film Sons of Detroit on May 14. According to a press release, the film was directed by Jeremy Xido who “turns to Detroit after 20 years to reconnect with the Black family who raised him, only to find their shared past fractured by time, silence and systemic forces. Reuniting with his cousin Boo, recently released from prison, the two begin to unravel a deeply personal story shaped by race, belonging, violence, and love. Blending memoir, performance, and journalism, Sons of Detroit opens urgent and rarely seen conversations about identity and whiteness in America.”
May 15 will center around Power Ballad – a drama that pits the realities of the cutthroat music industry between Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas. Jonas is an aging boy band singer while Rudd is a struggling singer-songwriter. This will be the only main feature to not have a Q&A.
Saturday’s main film isn’t for children. According to the press release from Tara Calligan, the film Fucktoys is “a wild, unfiltered debut, writer, director, and star Annapurna Sriram introduces AP, a part-time sex worker and self-proclaimed chaos magnet convinced the universe has it out for her. After a swamp tarot reading sends her on a quest for a cosmic reset, she and her long-lost kindred spirit set off on a bizarre, neon-soaked journey through a dystopian ‘Trashtown USA.’ Packed with offbeat characters and irreverent humor, Fucktoys is a bold, unhinged comedy and a breakout calling card.”
The final night will center around Aanikoobijigan – a documentary directed by Adam and Zack Khalil. That word means “ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild.” This documentary has already been screened at the Sundance festival, and centers around the Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance. How successful is the Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance actually proving to be in, as Calligan put it, “Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance” and what are the stakes for one of Michigan’s oldest, and most marginalized and oppressed communities? Watch the documentary on May 17 and find out.
Passes go from $125 to $250. But you can get into seeing a single film ticket to see what you’re really looking forward to. And if you really schedule yourself strictly, Aldernick points out, you can turn a three figure pass into an amazing deal on a film-per-time basis.
“We received so many great documentaries—and we try to have half-documentary and half-narrative in this festiva—and we were really having a hard time paring down what documentaries to show,” Aldernicks said. “There were some really great documentaries that we didn’t select for the festival, and I hope we have a chance to bring them back at some point to the theater, later in the year. But that’s what’s most striking to me – so many great documentaries are being made today. We saw a lot of great narrative films too, but there seems to be a trend right now of so many film makers wanting to make documentaries.”
Bear in mind though, that festival goers with passes will be given priority. It is possible to buy a ticket and not be able to see the film if there are too many pass-carrying festival goers.
And it is more than just a chance to see cool, creative and truly unique independent film that provides a break from the stayed and formulaic Hollywood spiel; it’s a chance to meet some of the most creative artists in the Midwest and from beyond. It is also a great networking opportunity for the artistically inclined who aren’t really impacted by the ongoing structural problems that the major studios are currently going through.
“It’s kind of everything right now. It’s building the community, making it bigger and finding as many avenues that you can to show the movie to as many people as possible, and then from there, the snowball of different connections you make while you’re there [is] why going to film festivals are so important for film making; especially at a smaller scale,” Aubrey Kennedy Kozlow, who plays Sara in Dead Deer High, explains. “[Unlike] independent film, when you’re at the big studios, you don’t get to see people; you just see suits; but these are the real film makers.”
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
