The weather is, slowly, starting to get warmer in New York City, which can only mean one thing: Another season of the Rooftop Films Summer Series.

The beloved annual festival is back for its landmark 30th season of screenings, with IndieWire exclusively debuting the 2026 lineup. This year’s festival will run from May 15 through August 21, and will include over 40 events, featuring new independent feature films, short film programs, free community screenings, live performances, and special enhanced events still to be announced.

The series will include a special New York premiere of Daniel Roher’s “Tuner,” with star Leo Woodall (“The White Lotus”) and Academy Award-winning sound designer Johnnie Burn in attendance.

It will also throw a bone to those gutted by the end of the NHL playoffs and/or yearning for Season 2 of “Heated Rivalry.” Presented by NewFest and HBO Max, Rooftop is presenting “Heated Rivalry” Comes Out(side) on the top of Pier 17 on May 31. The open-air debut of Crave’s hit original series, specifically the triumphant highs of Episode 5, “I’ll Believe In Anything,” is maybe the way to usher in Pride month.

Rooftop Films began in the late ‘90s as a grassroots screening series and has grown into a vital launching pad for emerging artists and a defining institution within the landscape of independent cinema. Across three decades, Rooftop has presented early work from filmmakers who would go on to help shape contemporary cinema, establishing the series as a trusted platform for discovery and artistic risk-taking.

In recognition of that history, the 30th Annual Summer Series places renewed emphasis on short-form storytelling, beginning with its Opening Night celebration, This is What We Mean By Short Films, on May 15th at Green-Wood Cemetery and continuing through an expansive lineup of curated showcases—including a special “best-of” edition of Rooftop’s beloved New York Non-Fiction program.

“Rooftop Films has always been a place for discovery — for bold new voices, adventurous storytelling, and unforgettable communal experiences around cinema,” said Saidah Russell, the organization’s head of programming. “As we celebrate our 30th anniversary season, we wanted to reflect not only the breadth of independent filmmaking today, but the spirit that has defined Rooftop from the very beginning: curiosity, risk-taking, and the thrill of encountering something unexpected alongside an audience.”

The selected features include “The Brittney Griner Story,” “Gorrilla Gorrilla,” “Jaripeo,” “Sour Minnows,” and “Tuner.” Alongside its ticketed programming, the Summer Series will once again include a wide-ranging lineup of free community screenings, continuing Rooftop’s mission of bringing independent cinema directly into neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs. Low-cost tickets, expanded discounts, and exclusive benefits through Rooftop’s newly redesigned membership program further reflect the organization’s ongoing commitment to audience access and cultural inclusion.

Check out the full lineup below, with all synopses provided by the festival. Additional programming, dates, venues, and partnerships will be announced throughout the summer.

Feature Film Program

“Tuner“
2026 | Daniel Roher | US, Canada | 107 mins | New York Premiere
Monday, May 18th  @ Pier 57 | Free with RSVP
A gifted piano tuner’s meticulous skills for tuning pianos lead him to discover an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes, turning his life upside down. A Black Bear Pictures release.

“Shaolin Soccer” — 25th Anniversary Screening
2001 | Stephen Chow | Hong Kong | 112 mins
Thursday, May 28th @ Fort Greene Park | Free with RSVP
A down-and-out ex-soccer player joins forces with a former monk to assemble an unlikely team of players to win the China Super Cup soccer tournament. Shaolin Soccer is part of World Cinema Nights, a program of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, co-presented and co-curated with Rooftop Films.

“Jaripeo“
2026 | Efraín Mojica & Rebecca Zweig | US, France, Mexico | 70 mins
Thursday, June 4th  @ Fort Greene Park | Free with RSVP
A journey to Michoacán’s hypermasculine rodeos descends into the subconscious of memory, queer desire, and longing, leading to a reckoning with the wounds and beauty of a home left behind. Jaripeo is part of World Cinema Nights, a program of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, co-presented and co-curated with Rooftop Films.

“Gorilla Gorilla“
2026 | Tij D’oyen & Michael Calciano | US | 87 mins | New York Premiere
Date & Venue TBA
After her divisive directorial debut, Anne struggles to make her sophomore film, In Memory of Anne Heche–scenes go awry, actors drop out, and Anne’s prickly friendship with her lead actress becomes increasingly toxic. With her career flashing before her eyes, Anne begins using questionable tactics to save her film.   

“Sour Minnows“
2026 | Harrison Atkins | US | 83 mins | US Premiere
Date TBA @ The Old American Can Factory
Ricky sees something on an empty LA street. Soon, he’s watching his life from impossible angles. The angles are watching back. 

Short Film Program

This is What We Mean by Short Films: Opening Night 2026
Friday, May 15th @ Green-Wood Cemetery
Celebrate the start of Rooftop’s landmark 30th season with a dazzling night of new short films under the stars, three decades in the making. Featuring an afterparty sponsored by Decoy Wines, Rosaluna Mezcal, SingleCut Beersmiths, and Fort Hamilton Distillery!
Tickets Available Now

Cemetery Shorts
Friday, June 5th @ Green-Wood Cemetery
As daylight fades, settle in for a spellbinding program of short films that wander through grief, memory, and the strange, beautiful terrain between presence and absence. Presented as part of the Alfred P. Sloan Science on Screen® series.

Vidas Vibrantes: Shorts en Español
Thursday, June 11th @ Fort Greene Park | Free with RSVP
A vibrant collection of Spanish-language shorts exploring adolescence and desire, strained relationships, and the blurred line between lived experience and inherited myth. Vidas Vibrantes is part of World Cinema Nights, a program of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, co-presented and co-curated with Rooftop Films.

Queerly Beloved: Pride Shorts in the Park
Wednesday, June 24th @ Fort Greene Park | Free with RSVP
NYC Pride takes center stage in this radiant program of LGBTQIA+ short films from around the world, pulsing with self-invention, resistance, and the intimate acts of becoming and belonging. Queerly Beloved is a program of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, co-presented and co-curated with Rooftop Films.

Trapped: Mind-Altering Shorts
Friday, June 26th @ Industry City
A thrilling program of surprising, surreal, and even sinister shorts featuring some of our favorite off-kilter genre films of the year.

Farm-to-Screen Shorts
Tuesday, June 30th @ Brooklyn Grange Sunset Park
Through documentaries, narratives, and formally adventurous shorts, this program examines humanity’s complicated stewardship of land, animals, food systems, and one another.

Dark Toons
Wednesday, July 8th @ The Old American Can Factory
A mind-bending program of animated shorts exploring worlds on the edge of coherence, where reality fractures, blurring the line between dream logic and waking nightmare. 

URL IRL: Internet Shorts
Friday, July 24th @ Industry City
From brainrot to belonging, these shorts dive into how the internet and digital technologies shape identity, connection, delusion, and discovery.

New York Non-Fiction
Friday, July 31st @ Green-Wood Cemetery
A restless collection of New York City folklore drawn from lived moments, local histories, and the myths that circulate through its streets and boroughs.

Love is Strange: Romance Shorts
Friday, August 7th @ Industry City
Romance, in all its mess and magic, takes shape in this program of short films tracing the surprising, imperfect ways people fall in (and out of) love—or almost do.

Rooftop Shots: Closing Night 2026
Friday, August 21st @ Green-Wood Cemetery
Close out Rooftop’s landmark 30th season with a standout program of new short films after a summer of screenings across the city.

Dangerous Docs: States of Emergency
Date & Venue TBA
An evocative program of docu-shorts exploring catastrophe not as spectacle, but as lived experience—charting the emotional and physical aftermath of a world in constant upheaval.

Partner Events

HBO Max Presents: Heated Rivalry Comes Out(side)
Sunday, May 31st  @ Pier 17 | Free with RSVP
The smash hit Crave Original series, available to stream on HBO Max, will have its open-air debut at Pier 17 with an outdoor screening event, inviting audiences to relive the triumphant highs of episode five to usher in Pride month. Presented by NewFest and HBO Max, with production support by Rooftop Films.

The Brittney Griner Story
2026 | Alexandria Stapleton | US | 107 mins | New York Premiere
Monday, June 1st  @ Gansevoort Plaza, Meatpacking District | Free with RSVP
This personal and profound odyssey follows basketball star Brittney Griner from her playing career and harrowing imprisonment in Russia through the extraordinary geopolitical battle to secure her freedom. An ESPN Films release. Presented in partnership with NewFest and the Meatpacking District Business Improvement District.

2:1 by 2/3: Computer Chess, sitrep, and the Sony tube camera 
2013 / 2025 | Andrew Bujalski / Blair Barnes | US | 110 mins
Friday, June 12th @ The Old American Can Factory
A special presentation of Andrew Bujalski’s “Computer Chess” (winner of the Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Sundance Film Festival), an off-kilter comedy set during a weekend tournament for chess software programmers in the early 1980s.

Preceded by “sitrep,” a short film by Blair Barnes. Within a single conversation on April 13th, 2025, in tandem with collaborators James Parker, Dylan M. Howe, and Ethan Loafman, Barnes assumes the framing of a situation report via tape loops, reamping, and a Sony apparatus. Presented as part of the Alfred P. Sloan Science on Screen® series.

“Community Joy” Free Movie Night on Staten Island
Film TBA
Thursday, September 3rd @ Snug Harbor | Free with RSVP
Free community film screening and performances presented by The Legal Aid Society and Rooftop Films at Snug Harbor. The event is part of a series of “Community Joy” events in every borough, in honor of The Legal Aid Society’s 150th Anniversary, honoring its enduring commitment to protecting, defending, and advancing the rights of New Yorkers.