Did you know the Palm Springs International Film Festival starts immedialety in 2026? Well, it does and here our some top picks if you want to start off the new year in lovely Palm Springs.
The Plague
A group of boys at summer camp believe an inexplicable disease is spreading among them in this psychological thriller that instinctively captures the combustible nature of adolescence.
* Now, this one, this one looks like a really messed up time. I remember it having special showings in LA, Patton Oswalt praising it, because people knew it would be a 2026 big one.
Long misunderstood as one of Hollywood’s most catastrophic failures, director John Boorman’s Exorcist II: The Heretic receives a second look in this fascinating chronicle of its journey to the big screen.
*Oddly, in other screenings the usually get the film Exorcist II: The Heretic to watch after the doc, so you watch it with a sense of the work put into it. Watching it on its own, Heretic is gonna be a very silly movie.
GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIESam Rockwell leads an all-star cast in this gonzo time-traveling adventure to save the world from AI-driven apocalypse, as directed by visionary populist filmmaker Gore Verbinski.
After being laid off and struggling to secure employment, a desperate family man decides that the only way to land a new job is to take out the competition—literally. Winner: International People’s Choice Award, TIFF.
*You can just say the Parasite of 2026.
A young girl’s inexplicable newfound telepathy dumbfounds her middle-class parents in this darkly comic and often blistering portrait of the nuclear family.
Featuring captivating performances from Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Colman Domingo, and Al Pacino, Gus Van Sant’s latest recreates the strange, fascinating true story of the 1977 kidnapping that made aspiring Indianapolis entrepreneur Tony Kiritsis into an eccentric outlaw folk hero.
A professor and his mysterious gardener commit a startling act of vengeance in this hypnotic and haunting meditation on family, masculine fragility, and mirroring identities.
In this endearing documentary, global porridge-makers descend upon the Scottish Highlands to compete in a legendary tournament to determine who can cook the best bowl of slow-cooked oats in the world.
*Oh, easy watching on a Sunday. One of those docs you just chill out on Netflix. Sadly, the showtimes for this one blow.
In 1990s Iraq, two children tasked by their tyrannical teacher with providing desserts to celebrate Saddam Hussein’s birthday set out on a chaotic quest to source the ingredients.
