Ojai Film Festival 2026 Winners — Full List

As Ojai Film Festival wraps up its 27th year, the winners of this year’s awards have been announced.

The opening night title, Grant Gee’s Everybody Digs Bill Evans, won Best Dramatic Feature, while tonight’s closing night film, Rob Burnett’s In Memoriam, won Best Comedic Feature during Sunday’s awards ceremony.

In Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Anders Danielsen Lie stars as the eponymous jazz piano legend in the 10 days after bassist Scott LaFaro’s sudden death, as grief, addiction and creative paralysis threaten to silence one of jazz’s great innovators. The film won the Silver Bear at Berlin.

In Memoriam stars Marc Maron as a dying, aging actor who becomes obsessed with landing a spot in the “In Memoriam” reel at the Oscars.

Other honorees at this year’s Ojai Film Festival include Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, Bill Pullman, Paul Schrader and more.

See the full winner’s list below.

Distinguished Artist Awards
Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone
Randall Einhorn, DP

The Luminary Award
Bill Pullman

The Storyteller Award
Paul Schrader

Best Original Screenplay
Anchor Baby
by Eduardo Moral Escudero

Social Impact and Vision Award
Honorable Mention:
BEN’IMANA
Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Winner:
It All Comes Back
Jeremy Seifert and Evan-Marie Petit

PANAVISION Limelight Award-Best Student Film
Jake
Addison Melfi

Best Documentary Short
To Write Love
Owen Dubeck

Best Documentary Feature
Papertown
Jeremy Seifert

The Sergio Aragonés Award for Best Animated Short
Pillowzzz
Benavram Akal

Best Narrative Short
Arlene
Elizabeth Dement

The Bill Paxton Award for Best Gold Coast Film
In Spite of Ourselves
Josh Loeb

Festival Theme Award
(the Festival Theme Award honors the film that most powerfully embodies our guiding mission: enriching the human spirit through cinema)
The Ballad of Lieutenant Dan
Steve Beebe

Best Comedic Feature
In Memoriam
Rob Burnett

Best Dramatic Feature
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Grant Gee