lm Mountain movies, keynotes, panels, parties and outdoor meetups take over Grand County Sept. 10-13.
The Winter Park Film Festival returns Sept. 10-13 with four days of independent cinema, filmmaker conversations and mountain-town gatherings spread across Winter Park and Fraser.
The festival bills itself as a place where high-end filmmaking and community can meet, and its 2026 program leans hard into that combination. Screenings range from action sports and outdoor adventures to narrative shorts, international stories and films about resilience, while the schedule around them includes hikes, fly fishing, morning coffee, panels, parties and two filmmaking masterclasses.
With multiple screenings running simultaneously much of the weekend, seeing everything is impossible. Here are some of the best places to start building a schedule.
Friday: Snowboarding, outdoor films and women behind the camera
Thursday, Sept. 10, serves as an opening-night kickoff before the full program gets rolling Friday morning.
Early risers can start Sept. 11 with coffee at Grand County Roastery at 8 a.m. or join a hike with Dreama Walton at 8:30 a.m. Screenings begin at 10 a.m. with two choices that immediately establish the festival’s outdoorsy identity: the Getting Outside Block, featuring short films about the outdoors, and Opening Day Action Sports Block, featuring shorts about sports.
One of Friday’s biggest titles arrives at 3 p.m. with the documentary WAYWARD: The Women Who Changed Snowboarding. Anyone who misses it gets another chance Sunday morning at 9:30.
At 5:30 p.m., the Women in Filmmaking Block adds a panel discussion to its screenings, while Bonding plays simultaneously on the festival’s second screen.
Friday closes with Film Trivia at Fraser Valley Distilling beginning at 8 p.m.
Saturday: Keynotes, mountain stories and plenty of choices
Saturday is the most crowded day on the schedule.
The morning begins with coffee at 8 a.m., plus choices between fly fishing with Luke Nutting and a run with Parks Thomson and Thomas Bull at 8:30. Films start at 9 a.m. with the Your Best Friends and Stories Without Borders blocks.
Narrative Shorts with a Spin and The Bend in the River follow at 11:30 a.m.
Then comes one of the weekend’s marquee conversations. At 2 p.m., filmmaker Josh Berman leads Behind the Frame, a WPFF masterclass keynote. The Level 1 Productions founder has spent more than two decades documenting the evolution of freeskiing and more recently moved into feature documentary filmmaking with Full Circle.
The afternoon returns to the mountains with the Western Block and Big Day in the Mountains Block at 3:30 p.m. At 6 p.m., audiences can choose between Nuisance Bear and The Weight of Snow Block..
Pepe Osaka’s hosts the 8:30 p.m. Saturday-night gathering, giving filmmakers and moviegoers somewhere to continue conversations after the credits roll.
Sunday: Local filmmakers and one last masterclass
Sunday offers another morning coffee gathering before a walk with Peggy at 8:30 a.m.
The final day puts Colorado-area filmmaking in the spotlight with the Local Roots Block at noon. Nuisance Bear also receives a second screening at the same time.
At 2:30 p.m., cinematographer Igor Meglic leads another Behind the Frame masterclass keynote before the festival heads uphill for its finale: the awards ceremony at Sunspot Mountain Lodge at 5 p.m.
What to know before you go
Single-screening tickets, three-day festival passes and Red Carpet Passes are on sale. Three-day and Red Carpet passholders do not need to reserve separate tickets for individual screening blocks. Most screenings are first come, first served, however, so festival organizers recommend arriving early for popular programs. Red Carpet Passes include priority seating.
Individual ticket buyers can select a screening block through the festival’s online program and purchase admission from that event page. The three-day pass is sold out, but you can purchase single tickets (starting at $22) or the Red Carpet Pass ($2,376).
For anyone overwhelmed by the lineup, a simple strategy works: choose one or two must-see films or keynotes, then build outward. With snowboarding documentaries, narrative work, filmmaker panels, outdoor adventures and parties competing for attention, WPFF is designed as much around the weekend between the movies as the movies themselves.