Win Tickets ($24): 2026 Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology @ OMSI | 170 Films, Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal, Festival Parties & More

We are giving away a pair of tickets to see Sender + a director Q&A @ Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology @ OMSI on August 22. To win, comment below on this post why you’d like to attend. Winner will be drawn and emailed August 17.

———————————————

From our sponsors:
Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology
August 18-23, 2026
Festival Pass for screenings/panels $75
Festival Pass for screenings/panels/parties $110
Individual Screening $12 Adult, $10 Senior, $9 Youth
All Ages Before 5pm
More info: pdxfestofcinema.com
Tickets: omsi.edu

Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (OMSI)
1945 SE Water Ave, Portland, OR 97214

A full list of films and animations along with trailers and descriptions can be found at www.pdxfestofcinema.com. All screenings and events before 5pm are designed to be a good fit for all ages. Films include live action features, animation for kids, animation for adults, sci-fi, comedies and documentaries.

In addition to screenings of films and animations by visionary filmmakers and animators, the festival also includes dome film screenings in the Kendall Planetarium, Virtual Reality showcases, Q&A sessions with 100+ filmmakers, parties, and panel discussions on topics ranging from adapting books into films to making stop-motion animation.

2026 festival by the numbers

  • 170 films from 31 countries
  • 100+ animated films, including 30+ stop-motion works and two stop-motion
    features
  • 30+ world premieres and over 120 U.S., West Coast, Pacific Northwest &
    Oregon premieres
  • 100+ filmmakers attending to represent their films
  • 4 OMSI venues, 3 official festival parties, 1 Creator Expo

Special guests include:

  • Doug Jones (Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, Hellboy) attends Opening Night for the Oregon premiere of Pretty Boys, screening in the 6pm shorts block “Fathers Across Space and Time.”
  • Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, gives a keynote presentation followed by the Pacific Northwest festival premiere of My Dog: The Paradox, an animated short based on his viral webcomic.
  • Eleven-time Emmy-winning producer Brian A. Miller (Samurai Jack, Adventure Time, Star Wars: The Clone Wars) joins a fireside conversation on his career and the evolving animation industry.
  • Authors and filmmakers Abigail Hing Wen (the Loveboat Taipei franchise) and Debra Williams (Church Hat) present “From Short Story to Screen,” a panel and book signing on adapting children’s books into films.

——-

About Sender (2026, USA)

After receiving a series of unnervingly personal packages she never ordered, a woman, newly sober and starting over, spirals into paranoia, convinced someone is watching her. As the online retailer denies responsibility, her search for the anonymous sender sends her down a dangerous rabbit hole, forcing her to confront her past and the fragile reality she’s trying to rebuild. A tense psychological descent into surveillance, recovery, and self-doubt.

Starring Britt Lower (Severance), Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul), Urtkarsh Umbudkar (Ghosts, Pitch Perfect), Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once, Halloween), David Dastmalchian (Last Night with the Devil), Anna Baryshnikov (Love Lies Bleeding)

Director Bio – Russell Goldman

Russell Goldman is a filmmaker from Virginia. His genre-defying body of work follows particularly obsessed characters to nightmarish ends. His short films, including BURN OUT, CLOSING TIME and RETURN TO SENDER, have played at hundreds of film festivals across the world, including Fantastic Fest, Fantaspoa, Frameline, New/Next, Rooftop Films, Sidewalk, Uppsala, and Woodstock. His first feature film SENDER premiered in competition at SXSW in March 2026.

Categories

Tags

29 Comments

  1. Brian on August 3, 2026 at 7:18 pm

    The Oatmeal!

  2. Jamie Lillethun on August 4, 2026 at 5:25 am

    Love seeing the creativity of others as I’m a creative watcher and not a creative maker.

  3. Steven Ross on August 4, 2026 at 12:21 pm

    We would love to go…never have…have always meant to check it out…seems like such a cool festival. 🤞

  4. Jefferson McClure on August 4, 2026 at 12:59 pm

    Seems like a great niche festival!

  5. John on August 4, 2026 at 1:06 pm

    My partner and I would love to go to this!

  6. melanie on August 4, 2026 at 1:14 pm

    what a fun event!

  7. Shirley on August 4, 2026 at 2:58 pm

    This sounds awesome. I would love to go.

  8. Vivian Tauer on August 4, 2026 at 6:16 pm

    I love film festivals and animation, this looks so fun!

  9. Shayna Veile Shikora on August 4, 2026 at 9:47 pm

    This is so cool!! I would love to go :))

  10. Levi on August 4, 2026 at 10:23 pm

    I would love to go, as I’m just starting to work in animation and TV, but I can’t afford tickets otherwise.

  11. Jennifer on August 6, 2026 at 3:50 pm

    This sounds fascinating!

  12. Kelsey Monger on August 6, 2026 at 3:57 pm

    The 18th is my birthday!!

  13. Rose on August 7, 2026 at 11:04 am

    Sounds interesting, I’d love to check it out!

  14. Kelsey on August 7, 2026 at 11:25 pm

    Sounds like a good time!

  15. Terry lewis on August 9, 2026 at 10:10 pm

    My boyfriend would absolutely love to go to an event he would enjoy!

  16. Esther on August 10, 2026 at 11:22 am

    Looks like a really interesting movie to watch!

  17. maddy nico on August 10, 2026 at 1:38 pm

    sign me up! would be amazing to attend

  18. I-Yun on August 11, 2026 at 1:46 pm

    Sounds like such a fun event!

  19. J.N. on August 11, 2026 at 2:06 pm

    Fun!!

  20. Calin Benson on August 11, 2026 at 2:30 pm

    Would love to be considered . Looks like so much fun!

  21. Heather on August 13, 2026 at 8:40 pm

    Pick me! Pick me!

  22. Molli Taylor on August 18, 2026 at 12:36 pm

    I would love to go to this with my son to connect before school starts!

  23. Helena on August 18, 2026 at 1:04 pm

    My film loving husband would love this!

  24. Jamie on August 18, 2026 at 1:07 pm

    Interested!!!

  25. Jenn on August 18, 2026 at 1:22 pm

    at the risk of getting nauseas this looks like so much fun!

  26. steadyfilm on August 18, 2026 at 1:24 pm

    thanks for the chance at tix!

  27. Lisa on August 18, 2026 at 4:19 pm

    This would be a fun way to spend the day! Keeping my fingers crossed that we get the opportunity to attend.

  28. Anne Meadows on August 19, 2026 at 2:17 pm

    I would love to take my film loving son to this.

  29. Marlena on August 19, 2026 at 2:57 pm

    I just moved to Portland a couple of weeks ago and found out about this festival a couple of days ago. I enjoy watching movies, and always make time to catch the Oscar animated shorts every year. Would love to attend and explore more of this city which is now my home.

Leave a Comment