At 5 p.m. on Friday, November 13, the doors at 604 Clinton Street will already have been open for half an hour. The Ridgway Independent Film Festival begins with a block called "Begin Where You Are." Every film after that, through Sunday afternoon, runs on the same screen in the same room.
That alone is a change. Last October RIFF filled four venues and four days. This year it runs three days at the historic Sherbino Theater, programmed as six "chapters" of one story with a campfire running through it. The tagline is "The fire is only the beginning." The Sherbino's festival page says RIFF "returns to its longtime home in November" with "a refreshed structure designed to create deeper connection and conversation."
A smaller festival changes how you plan the weekend. It now works best watched in order, and the pass pricing assumes you'll want most of it.
What Last October Looked Like
When the Ouray County Plaindealer previewed the 2025 festival, it described a fest that had "exploded into a four-day event." That edition ran Thursday through Sunday in mid-October with 101 films. Screenings were spread across the Sherbino Theater, the Decker Room at Space to Create, the Old Firehouse and the Kiva Room at the Chipeta Lodge. Around the films came a dark-sky camping night at Top of the Pines, a Friday after-party at the Sherbino with DJ Béeso, free stargazing at Frontier Field and a Sunday community 5K that ended at Hartwell Park.
The 2026 edition, the festival's 12th, looks like this by comparison:
2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
Dates | Mid-October, Thursday to Sunday | November 13–15, Friday to Sunday |
Films | 101 | 36, across six blocks |
Screening venues | Sherbino, Decker Room, Old Firehouse, Chipeta Lodge's Kiva Room | The Sherbino |
All-event pass | $120 | $75 |
Single ticket | $20 for a featured screening | $15 per block |
The 2026 program is presented by the Sherbino and the Town of Ridgway, and Drew Berger is the festival director. The Sherbino describes RIFF as a volunteer-driven, grassroots effort that started shortly after Ridgway became one of Colorado's first Certified Creative Districts. Volunteer signups are open for this year.
Six Chapters, Shown in Order
"Three days of independent film. Six chapters. One unfolding story." That is how the digital program opens, and it describes the weekend as campfire stories, "beginning where we are, gathering around the fire, and eventually wandering beyond it." Since nothing overlaps, you never have to pick between two screenings. You only decide which chapters to skip, if any.
- Friday, 5 p.m. · "Begin Where You Are", doors 4:30. Opening-night shorts, including Don Hertzfeldt's Paper Trail, Busy Bodies by Kate Renshaw-Lewis, The Time My Grandmother Was Held Hostage by Bank Robbers by Rosella Tursi, and Mountain Guides: Barometers of Change, about mountain guide Angela Hawse and the climate change she has seen over a 35-year career.
- Saturday, 10 a.m. · "Something Was Calling Us", doors 9:45. Eight films, among them Water Girl, Ramón Who Speaks to Ghosts, Mamie by Pedro Tamames and Victoria Cerrada, and Tin Can by Pat Battistini.
- Saturday, 1 p.m. · "The Mountains Knew Our Names", doors 12:45. The Colorado block, covered in the next section.
- Saturday, 6:30 p.m. · "We Gathered Around the Fire", doors 6:15. I Care About Your Mailbox, Expanding Sanctuary by Kristal Sotomayor, Bridging Our Stories by Rafael Bitanga, PLAY-OFF by Gaël Truc and Despite It All.
- Sunday, 10 a.m. · "We Invited the Monsters In", doors 9:45. The genre-leaning block, with Everhand, Crazy For You by Greta Díaz Moreau, Dead Grandma by Rachel Kempf and Nick Toti, The Meat by Aravind Prabha and Pickup by Viktoriia Lapushkina.
- Sunday, 2 p.m. · "We Wandered Beyond the Firelight", doors 1:45. The closing block, including A Young Sofiane by Fabien Ara, Tradwife and Legend of Fry-Roti: Rise of the Dough by Sabrina Saleha.
Saturday has three blocks with long breaks between them. You can step out onto Clinton Street for lunch after the morning block and still be back in your seat by 12:45.
The Saturday Block With Your Neighbors in It
The 1 p.m. Saturday block is the one most likely to show places you know. "The Mountains Knew Our Names" has four films, and three are set within a few hours' drive of Ridgway:
- Reedy's Service, directed by Jay Canode, documents a four-generation family garage and gas station in Paonia.
- Entrada follows Montrose skateboarders Ollie and Tristan Graves as they skate the Southwest's sandstone.
- Rooted: A short film on Indigenous Land Access in Southwest Colorado centers on members of the Ute Mountain Tribe and their traditional homelands.
- The Meloneers, by filmmaker Brendan Young, completes the block.
This block follows a thread from last year. The 2025 lineup included local work like Anna, by local director Kael Van Buskirk, about ice climber Anna Pfaff, and Built with HeART, which featured Ridgway's Creative Main Street. With 101 films across four buildings, local titles were scattered through the weekend. This year they share one afternoon slot.
The Sherbino says to "expect filmmaker Q&As, meaningful discussion, and opportunities to engage with artists, musicians, adventurers, athletes, and changemakers who call this creative mountain town home." In a block about Paonia, Montrose and Southwest Colorado land, that conversation may involve people you see around town.
The Pass Math
The pricing makes more sense now that there are fewer blocks. Single block tickets are $15 and the All Access Festival Pass is $75. The six blocks at full price add up to $90, so the pass costs the same as five single tickets. If you're going to five chapters, the sixth is free. At four or fewer, single tickets are cheaper.
Passes are sold through the Sherbino's All Access Festival Pass page. Single block tickets and the full program are on the RIFF digital program. Every block shows in the same room, and the room only holds so many people. If there's a block you know you want, buy ahead.
The Rest of the Month Around It
The screenings last three days, but the festival's imagery stays up most of November. A RIFF stills exhibit hangs in the Decker Room from November 6 to 30. It opens with a reception on First Friday, November 6, from 5 to 8 p.m., a week before the first screening. That same evening, the First Friday Art Walk goes through downtown, and the Ouray County Performing Arts Guild's Heather & Doug show is listed at the Sherbino from 6 to 8 p.m. You can walk from the stills to the gallery stops and on to the theater without moving the car.
On Friday, December 4, the theater and the Ouray County Performing Arts Guild host a Noel Night free show by The Hip Snacks, with doors at 8 p.m., music at 8:30 and donations accepted. Down Clinton Street, the 23rd Annual Holiday Art & Gift Sale fills the Decker Community Room at 675 Clinton Street from 7 to 10 p.m. that Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 5.
Put together, the dates follow the same idea as the festival. The exhibit opens the month, the screenings sit in the middle, and the Decker Room and the Sherbino trade off events all the way to December. All of it is within a few blocks of Clinton Street.
The full schedule runs Friday, November 13 at 5pm through the Sunday 2pm block on November 15, at the Sherbino, 604 Clinton St., Ridgway.
Ridgway's creative calendar is a big part of what makes this town home, and Amanda F. Swain has spent more than two decades helping people find their place in it. If RIFF weekend has you or your out-of-town guests thinking about a home near Clinton Street, or a quieter spot on the mesa with downtown a short drive away, Amanda would be glad to talk it through. Explore My Properties.
