11 of the Best Movies and Film Festivals to See This Summer

After 10 years of unbridled lunacy on a national scale, I am reminded of a pleasurable childhood lesson: Movies are a fantastic means of escape. I confess I have sniffed, scoffed and sneered at mainstream flicks — an occupational hazard — for a good long while, but now I comprehend the need to tune out the news for (at least) a couple hours. I suspect you have reached that point as well.

So you have my blessing to submerge yourself in any of the blithering, blubbering, eardrum-blasting flicks that Hollywood has lined up for our summer entertainment. Nerve-plucking horror, adolescent superhero shtick, impossible action-adventure, implausible romantic fantasy — live it up, friends.

Now, if you’re looking for a deep dive into the shlock de la saison, you walked into the wrong bistro, er, soapbox. Although I’ve included a few tentpoles below, if you own a television the studios will make sure you see the menu. So here are suggestions for lower-profile, higher-order escapism.

DocFest

May 28–June 7, 2026
Roxie Theater, San Francisco

Nonfiction is the pathway to vicariously living other lives — some more precarious – for a little while. The expansive 25th edition of DocFest hosts the world premieres of a pair of prison-themed films by Oakland filmmakers, The Surrender of Waymond Hall and The End of Isolation. Hitting a lighter musical note, the festival opens with the NOFX doc 40 Years of Fuckin’ Up and debuts Anarchy in High Heels: The Story of Les Nickelettes. DocFest revisits its roots, and the immortal Atomic Ed and Cynthia Plaster Caster, with a trio of films from the festival’s inaugural 2001 year (with tickets at 2001 prices!).

‘Pressure’

Opens May 29, 2026

Anthony Maras’s behind-the-scenes World War II drama is of particular interest to history buffs and tech workers. Meteorologists Scottish (a splendid Andrew Scott) and American (Chris Messina, as the erstwhile villain of the piece) square off in a high-stakes, digital v. analog debate over the optimal date for D-Day. Brendan Fraser and Kerry Condon (as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and his personal secretary Kay Summersby) round out the cast.

Sundown Cinema

June 12–Oct. 16, 2026
Various San Francisco locations

Following last year’s truncated schedule, the free outdoor screening series returns with a full slate. The lineup won’t get your pulse racing — it’s geared toward families rather than the date crowd — which is what it takes sometimes to spend a summer evening in the elements hereabouts. The late Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride is the curtain-raiser, with Pixar’s Inside Out, The Parent Trap, School of Rock and Beetlejuice in the wings. Bundle up, kiddos!

A Complete Stanley Kubrick

June 12–Aug. 30, 2026
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Coincidentally, Steven Spielberg’s latest hunk of speculative pulp fiction, Disclosure Day, opens the same day this monumental retrospective begins. The directors are inextricably linked by A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Aug. 20) which Kubrick developed and Spielberg directed in 2001. Resist the tempting timeliness of that title and catch up instead with the former photojournalist’s black-and-white masterpieces The Killing, Paths of Glory and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Actually, see everything on the big screen that the brilliant perfectionist made.

Frameline50

June 17–27, 2026
Various locations

Queer summer launches in theaters with the campy disaster comedy Stop! That! Train! (opening June 12) and Hayley Kiyoko’s coming-of-age saga Girls Like Girls (June 19). Then the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival rolls out the gold carpet with a massive celebration of the present and past of gay and lesbian cinema. Local multihyphenate D’Arcy Drollinger kick-starts the festivities with the hoot-and-holler drag comedy Lady Champagne, while documentary ace Jennifer M. Kroot launches Pride weekend with Hunky Jesus, a profile of San Francisco’s altogether wonderful Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. (If you’ve somehow never seen the landmark doc The Times of Harvey Milk, BAMPFA shows it July 10.)

‘Toy Story 5’

Opens June 19, 2026

Emeryville’s Disney House has already scored one hit this year with Hoppers. This Buzz and Woody and Bonnie and Jessie sequel to the sequel to the sequel, etc., arriving seven years to the weekend after the last installment, will rake in even more moolah. First, because it’s good, and second because it really might mark the end of the beloved animated franchise.

Fraenkel Film Festival 2026

July 8–18, 2026
Roxie Theater, San Francisco

Curated by visual artists represented by San Francisco’s Fraenkel Gallery, this now-annual program is refreshingly unpredictable and eclectic. Brian De Palma’s timeless shocker Carrie, chosen by Christian Marclay, kicks off the series with a scream while Jim Jarmusch’s haunted Mystery Train (Alec Soth’s pick) wraps things up with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Sandwiched in between you’ll find savory treats like Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (selected by Robert Adams), Claude Chabrol’s La Cérémonie (Katy Grannan) and Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (Lee Friedlander).

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

July 16–Aug. 2, 2026
Various locations

One of the gutsiest film festivals in this time zone — by mission, by choice and by the circumstances of current events — SFJFF cultivates a space for discussion, debate and, yes, co-existence. It’s trickier to predict the program this year with Israeli filmmakers dealing with unprecedented levels of government opposition, but we can still expect a couple gut-punching documentaries along with French rom-coms and American explorations of identity.

‘The Odyssey’

Opens July 17, 2026

Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), the self-anointed Philosopher King of Blockbuster Cinema, spent a quarter of a billion dollars of Universal’s money to adapt Homer’s epic. Bland-as-beans Matt Damon plays the Greek king Odysseus with an American accent and a natural beard. Anne Hathaway portrays Queen Penelope with an American accent and (presumably) no musical numbers. I’m rooting for Nolan’s turgid sword-and-sandal saga to resolve the historical mystery of how and where beach volleyball was invented, but I fear my hopes shall be dashed.

‘I Want Your Sex’

Opens July 31, 2026

Its come-hither title notwithstanding, Gregg Araki’s return to the big screen isn’t destined to be a multiplex phenomenon. Or maybe I’m completely off base, for LA’s gutter-glorious punk provocateur of the ’90s describes his new film as “a sex-positive love letter for Gen Z.” Cooper Hoffman plays a newbie hired by artist Olivia Wilde to be her quote-unquote sexual muse. Our hero embarks on an odyssey that presumably encompasses the siren call of lust, the rocky shoals of love, the green-eyed beast of jealousy and other mythic creatures. Daveed Diggs, Margaret Cho and Charli xcx join the tongue-in-cheek fun.

Made in Berkeley: The House That Zaentz Built

Aug. 1–30, 2026
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Back in the 1980s, Creedence Clearwater Revival leader John Fogerty wrote a song called “Zanz Kant Danz” inspired by his furious legal battles with Fantasy Records owner Saul Zaentz. You may remember Zaentz as the Oscar-winning producer of Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The countless local documentary filmmakers with offices in the Fantasy Building saw Zaentz as a generally beneficent figure. This succinct series, co-presented with the Berkeley Film Foundation and featuring Marlon Riggs’ Tongues Untied, Steven Okazaki’s White Light/Black Rain and Vivian Kleiman’s No Straight Lines, honors the legacies of an erstwhile patron and singular artists.