Beyond Fest has locked in the full program for its 2026 edition, setting an 81-film slate that will run across Los Angeles from September 23 to October 6. The genre-focused festival will open with Lance Oppenheim's Primetime and close with Bassam Tariq's Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, organizers announced Wednesday.
The lineup includes 10 world premieres and four North American premieres, reinforcing Beyond Fest's role as a launchpad for horror, thriller, and cult-leaning cinema. Among the titles joining the program are Victorian Psycho and Wicker, alongside the previously announced V/H/S/Mixtape, which continues the long-running found-footage anthology series.
Beyond Fest is also leaning into star power and filmmaker appearances. M. Night Shyamalan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dolph Lundgren, Danny DeVito, Al Pacino, and Fede Álvarez are all set to attend, while Robert Eggers will appear for a special event. The mix of established auteurs and genre favorites reflects the festival's dual identity as both a discovery platform and a celebration of mainstream horror and suspense.
The festival's Los Angeles footprint remains central to its identity. Beyond Fest has built a reputation for pairing high-profile premieres with repertory screenings and deep-cut programming, drawing local audiences and industry attendees who treat the October window as an early indicator of awards-season and cult buzz. Running from late September into early October places it squarely in the fall festival corridor, after Venice and Toronto and alongside Fantastic Fest, giving genre titles another high-visibility stop on the circuit.
For the films themselves, a Beyond Fest slot can shape how a project is received before wider release. World premieres in particular generate early reviews, social-media reactions, and distributor interest, while North American premieres give titles that debuted overseas a second chance at press attention and audience momentum. The 10 world premieres suggest programmers are betting on a mix of unknown quantities and anticipated returns from filmmakers with established followings.
The opening and closing night selections set the tone. Oppenheim, known for documentary work that blurs into performance and spectacle, brings Primetime as the curtain-raiser, while Tariq, whose background spans narrative and documentary filmmaking, closes with the provocatively titled Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. Both choices signal a festival interested in filmmakers who move between genres and formats rather than sticking to a single lane.
With 81 features across roughly two weeks, Beyond Fest 2026 is shaping up as a dense, citywide event that will test how much genre programming Los Angeles audiences can absorb in a single stretch. The full schedule and ticketing details are expected to follow as the September start date approaches.