This September, the historic Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts in Menomonie will once again fill with the sights, sounds, and stories of independent cinema from around the globe. The 8th Annual Red Cedar Film Festival (RCFF) runs September 24–27, and we’re proud to have supported this event with a $1,445 grant in our August 2025 cycle.
4 Days. 60 Films. 12 Countries.
This year’s festival arrives on the heels of a record number of submissions for 2026, giving RCFF’s selection committee an unusually deep pool of films to choose from. The result is one of the most diverse and compelling lineups in the festival’s history, featuring independent filmmakers from across the United States and around the world.
To make room for it all, RCFF has expanded its screening schedule on Thursday and Friday this year — meaning more chances than ever for festivalgoers to discover something new.
How the Festival Unfolds
Thursday, September 24 kicks things off with the festival’s popular free Community Night screening at 7 PM. No ticket required — just a chance for anyone in the community to experience independent film and celebrate the craft together.
Throughout the weekend, festivalgoers can also visit the returning Director’s Lounge, a relaxed space between film blocks where audiences can talk directly with the filmmakers behind the work on screen. It’s one of the things that sets RCFF apart: a festival built not just around watching films, but around connecting with the people who make them.
Special Feature: Broken English
A major highlight of this year’s festival is a special feature-film presentation of Broken English on Saturday, September 26 at 7 PM.
Directed by BAFTA-nominated filmmakers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard — the team behind the Sundance award-winning 20,000 Days on Earth — Broken English is an intimate, unconventional portrait of legendary singer, songwriter, and actor Marianne Faithfull. The documentary traces Faithfull’s six-decade career, from her arrival as a teenager in the 1960s through decades of reinvention and artistic exploration. Made with Faithfull’s full involvement before her death in January 2025, the film features appearances from friends and collaborators including Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, Courtney Love, Suki Waterhouse, Tilda Swinton, and George MacKay.
Broken English premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2025 before making its U.S. debut at Sundance earlier this year.
Independent Film, Close to Home
RCFF’s mission has always been about bringing exceptional independent cinema to western Wisconsin — and creating a space where audiences and filmmakers can meet in person, not just on screen. Whether visitors come for a single film or spend all four days exploring the full lineup, the festival offers a rare chance to see stories that might never otherwise reach a local theater, all within the beautiful, historic setting of the Mabel Tainter.
Supporting events like RCFF is exactly the kind of community investment we love making. Grants like this one help sustain the infrastructure of local arts programming that brings culture, connection, and creative opportunity directly to our neighbors.
The 8th Annual Red Cedar Film Festival runs September 24–27, 2026, at the Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
For the complete schedule, film lineup, and tickets, visit redcedarfilm.org.