The San Jose International Short Film Festival (SJSFF) has announced its Opening Night lineup: six short films from five countries that will launch the festival’s 18th edition on Thursday, October 22, at Cinemark CinéArts Santana Row. Leading the program are Panther Pat, the Slamdance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary about the first woman to play professional football, and I Will Be Alright, the new film from Academy Award nominee Cyrus Neshvad (The Red Suitcase). They are joined by Signal (UK), We Were Here (India), Aftertouch (Netherlands) and The Piano (USA). Opening Night begins with a red carpet at 6 p.m., followed by the 7 p.m. screening, a Q&A with visiting filmmakers and a 9 p.m. after-party. The Bay Area’s only festival dedicated exclusively to short films then continues through October 25 with more than 150 shorts from around the world. The festival also named its 2026 juries, led by Academy Award-winning producer Andrew Carlberg, Disney Legend Andreas Deja and director-actor Carlson Young (Scream: The TV Series), whose feature debut The Blazing World premiered at Sundance.

“Opening Night sets the tone for the whole festival, and this year we’re opening with a Slamdance prize-winner, the newest film from an Oscar nominee and four more stories from around the world that audiences will be talking about all weekend,” Bill Hargreaves, SJSFF Co-Founder and Festival Director commented. “Eighteen years in, San Jose has become a place where filmmakers from all over the world want their work to be seen, and being an Oscar-qualifying festival means our winning filmmakers have a real shot at Academy consideration, and we’re proud to offer that here in Silicon Valley.”

OPENING NIGHT FILMS

The six shorts on the 80-minute Opening Night program come from five countries and run from a true sports story and a refugee drama to a rescue on the railway tracks, a comic protest against automation and a family story told through music.

• Panther Pat (USA, 12 min.), directed by Ashley Brandon. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Short at the 2026 Slamdance Film Festival and an official selection of the 2026 Tribeca Festival, the documentary mixes archival footage with stop-motion animation to tell the true story of Pat Palinkas, a schoolteacher who in 1970 became the first woman to play professional football when she took the field for the Orlando Panthers.
• I Will Be Alright (Luxembourg, 18 min.), directed by Academy Award nominee Cyrus Neshvad (The Red Suitcase). A young woman who has fled Iran’s regime disguises herself as the Statue of Liberty to earn a few coins.
• Signal (UK, 13 min.), directed by Zak Jarvis. A railway signalman’s routine night shift becomes a race to save a life when he spots Billy, a distressed young man trespassing on the tracks.
• We Were Here (India, 14 min.), directed by Pranav Bhasin. In a crumbling Indian town, three retired men protest machines replacing human jobs by pretending to be household appliances.
• Aftertouch (Netherlands, 15 min.), directed by Levi Verspeek. When a man asks his girlfriend to hit him, with consent, their ordinary movie night takes a dangerous turn.
• The Piano (USA, 8 min.), directed by Avery Kroll. A young girl sneaks out of bed to find her father playing the piano late at night. The bond they build through music lasts her lifetime, and after his death she passes their song on to her own son.
• Filmmakers and guests will walk the red carpet beginning at 6 pm and join a Q&A following the screening, with the celebration continuing at the Opening Night After-Party at 9 pm.