October 5, 2026

What's a festival without awards?  

The River + Redwoods Film Festival (RRFF) is pleased today to announce the winners of its 2026 awards, honoring eight short films selected by a jury of industry professionals and by festival audiences. 

Kyle Chu's BETTY ST. CLAIR received the festival's top honor, Best Short Film. The awards follow our second annual festival, held September 25-27, 2026, at the historic Monte Rio Theater in Sonoma County's Russian River region.

2026 Jury Awards

Best Short Film
BETTY ST. CLAIR, directed by Kyle Chu (San Francisco)

Best Cinematography
ANWAR -- directed by Fawaz Al-Matrouk (San Francisco)

Best On-Screen Performances
HE WON'T BELONG, directed by Dominic Mercurio (San Francisco)

Breakout Voice Award
WHAT'CHU MIXED WITH?, directed by Maya Cameron-Gordon (San Francisco)

Community Rising Award
OSCAR'S RETURN, directed by Steven Liang (Berkeley)

Spirit of the Forest Award*

MONDEGREEN, directed by Linda Mai Green (San Francisco)

* This award is for a film that weaves together humans and nature and also captures the current zeitgeist.

2026 Festival Awards

Audience Award
BIG RHONDA, directed by Donna Mae Foronda (San Francisco)

Community Spotlight Award*
SPOTLIGHT: CHIEF STEVE BAXMAN, directed by John Behrens (Sebastopol)

* Starting this year, RRFF is proud to celebrate local communities and leaders through our Community Spotlight award and to create and present an original film to honor them..

About the Jury

The 2026 RRFF jury included these industry professionals:

• Betsy Tsai, Director/Producer & Selected Filmmaker of the Inaugural RRFF

• Damian Burford, Founder, Smart Mouth: Sonoma/Napa Arts & Entertainment

• Joshua Moore, Manager of Doc Programs, SFFILM

• Sapana Sakya, Talent Development & Special Projects Director, Center for Asian American Media (CAAM)

"We the jury were impressed by the creativity, diversity and daringness by all of the filmmakers. It was so hard to choose winners. After watching these films, we are inspired by the future of filmmaking in the Bay Area.” - Festival Jury