The Refocus Film Festival in Iowa City, Iowa, celebrated its fifth year in 2026. From October 22 to October 25, thousands gathered in the literary heart of the Midwest. Home of the acclaimed Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the college town is also known for a thriving film scene, making it the picture-perfect setting for a film festival dedicated to the art of adaptation. In collaboration with the Iowa City Book Festival, Refocus shows over 30 films at both locations of the town’s independent nonprofit cinema, FilmScene.

Opening Night: A Long Winter

This year, Opening Night kicked off with a screening of the new film A Long Winter, directed by Andrew Haigh, who was in attendance and presented with this year’s Cinema Savant award – previously awarded to Werner Herzog and Charles Burnett, among others. After the film, Haigh joined FilmScene Programming Director Ben Delgado for a Q&A to discuss his process of adapting the 2006 short story by Colm Tóibín. Haigh explained how the story first took shape twenty years ago in the Pyrenees Mountains, when he somehow persuaded Tóibín to give him the rights to the story, even though he had never made a feature film.

Tóibín’s story follows Miquel, is set in the Spanish Pyrenees, and takes place sometime after the Spanish Civil War; Haigh sets the film in 1951, high up in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, and follows a young man named Mikey (Fred Hechinger). After returning home from military service to his family’s remote cabin, Mikey’s mother goes missing, and he and his father, Lester (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), are left to fend for themselves. Despite the treacherous mountain setting, Hechinger stands on surprisingly solid ground as the leading man in this quiet story of grief. He’s bolstered by strong supporting performances, a sturdy script, and Haigh’s distinct lingering eye in this haunting, intimate family drama.

FilmScene’s Ben Delgado (L) with Andrew Haigh (R)

While various small changes were made, Haigh’s work shows how the most effective adaptations co-exist with their source material. They take shape as their own while preserving a vital essence that links back to the original story. No stranger to adaptation, Haigh spoke on the subject at Refocus:

“I sort of love this idea that [Tóibín’s] story existed as one, and still exists as one thing; and then my film exists somewhere else, in a different time, in a different place, but still there is a sort of beautiful connection between the two stories.”

A testament to its programmers, Refocus Film Festival has the lofty responsibility of sourcing, curating, and acquiring the year’s best new film adaptations. A Long Winter is another successful celebration of the art of on-screen adaptations. Still, the festival takes time to honor past adaptations with several repertory screenings, alongside the myriad other ways adaptations take shape across art forms.

2026 Adaptations at Refocus Film Festival

This year’s Refocus slate featured over 20 new films that fall under the category of adaptation. Some of the biggest titles were out of Cannes, including: All of a Sudden, La Bola Negra, La Gradiva, and Minotaur. All of a Sudden, which won the 2026 Refocus Film Festival Audience Award, is loosely based on the non-fiction book “You and I – The Illness Suddenly Get Worse” by Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono; La Bola Negra rewrites the story of an unfinished play from Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca; La Gradiva is based on a poem, titled “Novel,” by Aruthr Rimbaud; and Minotaur is a modern take on the Claude Chabrol film The Unfaithful Wife (1969).

While some of the films may not be eligible for Best Adapted Screenplay at this year’s Oscars, the folks at Refocus Film Festival know that adapted art doesn’t have to fit in certain boxes or within strict boundaries set by a voting body. Adaptation is a fluid art, and trying to define it isn’t what’s at the heart of this festival. It’s about redefining what we think of as adaptation and refocusing our perspectives on the art and world around us. A germ of an idea that subconsciously forms within you while reading a story or poem could be the beginning of a great adaptation, without even realizing it. After leaving the art-filled streets of Iowa City during this weekend in October, ideas were undoubtedly buzzing around nearly all of the festival-goers.

Repertory Screenings, Interactive Art, and Talks with Artists

Alongside 2026 films, Refocus featured older film adaptations, talks with writers and filmmakers, interactive art installations and more. A few of the featured repertory screenings this year included: the 2000 anime Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, which was adapted from the 1985 novel, “Vampire Hunter D: Demon Deathchase” by Hideyuki Kikuchi; Michael Mann’s newly restored, final cut version of Manhunter (1986), adapted from Thomas Harris’s 1981 novel “Red Dragon;” and Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin, adapted from the novel of the same name by Scott Heim, who was in attendance at the festival for a featured talk.

My most anticipated event of the festival featured someone who is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today and is now a published novelist! Jane Schoenbrun kicked off their book tour with Iowa City as the first stop. Schoenbrun’s book “Public Access Afterworld” was released on October 27, 2026, giving festivalgoers the very first look at their epic debut novel, coming in at over 600 pages.

Rachel Yoder (L) with Jane Schoenbrun (R)

Schoenbrun sat down with fellow novelist Rachel Yoder – who headlined Refocus in 2024 for the film adaptation of her novel “Nightbitch” – to discuss the behind-the-cover details of the book. “Public Access Afterworld” is about a mysterious realm on the other side of our screens. There is a dark force that draws victims into its static, featuring an unlikely hero who is called to save them and herself from this electric hell. Schoenbrun’s novel seems to feature similar themes, motifs, and pop cultural obsession as their filmography.

Elaborating on layers used in their storytelling, Schoenbrun admits how hard it is for them to just make a singular movie: “I’ve got to, like, make a TV show within the movie,” adding, “I think a lot of this language I’ve developed from film to film, and now in this novel, is about creating these different levels of un-reality… the way you oscillate in and out of them, and between them, allows you to play complicated games, shock people in unexpected ways with what doesn’t feel real. This was like a big part of the pleasure of [Teenage Sex and Death at Camp] Miasma to me.” 

Linking their 2026 novel back to their 2026 film, Schoenbrun’s talk encapsulated the exact type of excitement. Only in Iowa City can you find this rare pleasure of one weekend full of reading, watching, and exploring how one art transforms into another.

Recap Courtesy of and Feature Image Designed by Kasey Dunifer