2026 FESTIVALApril 8-18, 2026Lansing, MI

Updates

You heard it here first! Check out the latest Capital City Film Festival announcements below.
POSTED: Mar 29, 2016

He Named Me Malala (FREE)

*FREE, PANEL DISCUSSION* He Named Me Malala is an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The then 15-year-old was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls’ education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry from supporters around the world.

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The Blackcoat’s Daughter

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* Beautiful and haunted Joan makes a bloody and determined pilgrimage across a frozen landscape toward a prestigious all girls prep school where Rose and Kat find themselves stranded after their parents mysteriously fail to retrieve them for winter break.

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Embers

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE, TRIGGER WARNING* After a global neurological epidemic, those who remain search for meaning and connection in a world without memory. Five interwoven stories explore how we might learn, love and communicate in a future that has no past.

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Documentary Shorts Block featuring Skips Stones For Fudge

*FILMMAKERS IN ATTENDANCE* A curated compilation of documentary short films. Selections include: Keeping Balance, Kim Madrid, We Would End the Paintings, The Champion, A Passion of Gold and Fire, Skips Stones for Fudge

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Sunset Song

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* With World War I brewing and her family scattered across the countryside, a Scottish farm girl struggles to find her way.

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Science of Cinema at Impression 5 (FREE)

*FREE* Dress up like your favorite movie character and join us as we explore the art and science of cinema!

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Destroy All Cinema LIVE – Top Gun

Sometimes you want to watch the world burn! Our star comedians will be channeling that spirit as we riff, trash and scorch part of the very fabric of our society by making fun of the classic 80s film, Top Gun.

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Holy Hell

*MICHIGAN PREMIERE* Just out of college, Will Allen, a young idealist filmmaker, joined a secretive spiritualist community led by a charismatic guru. With his camera in hand, he documented 20 years of living inside a cult that changed how he would see the world forever.

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Animated & Experimental Shorts Block

A curated compilation of animated and experimental short films. Selections include: Madama Butterfly, POP, SRY BSY, Eye For An Eye, Scent of Geranium, 2.57k, The Cabinet Decision, Baggage Man, Anima Radix, B., The Beach Boy, Natural Attraction, Umbra (*NOTE: Despite animation, these films are not suitable for children.)

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American Film Institute Shorts Showcase (FREE)

*FREE, DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE* The American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) is a hands-on film training program. All of the short films in this block are directed by DWW alumnae.