The 2026 Anti-Communist Film Festival will take place October 1-4 at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington, D.C. The headline film will be The Lives of Others, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. Other films will be announced shortly.
I’m hard at work promoting the festival, corresponding with filmmakers, and talking to would-be donors and friends.
I would, however, like to take a brief moment to acknowledge the ground troops and Hot Air readers who helped get this thing off the ground. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to tell you a story about it.
Over a year ago I was taking a shower (as we all know this is where ideas happen) when I was hit with a thunderbolt: the Anti-Communist Film Festival. I worked in a movie theater in college and have long been a fan of film festivals (although maybe not all of them). Over the course of time, I began to accumulate a mental list of great anti-communist movies - On the Waterfront, Trial, Night People. Then God gave it to me: Why not show these great films all together? Why not have a film festival?
This is where grassroots people, many of them reading these words, helped make this happen. I launched a GoFundMe for the festival with the idea that if it did not gain traction, I would shut it down. It gained traction, and quickly. A major breakthrough came last November when I got a call from Eric Patterson at the Victims of Communism Foundation. They were offering to host the event. It was the breakthrough I needed. There can be no better people and no better place to have this party.
People might not understand how much work goes into putting on a film festival. There is negotiating with Hollywood for licensing fees, keeping the promotional ball rolling, doing logistics, and dealing with movie people. A couple years ago the director of the Irish Film Festival told me, “It’s a year-round job, and the world starts the day after the last movie is shown.” She’s right. My dream is to find the proper funding to allow me to do this full time. We will soon launch a campaign to do just that. I leave the result up to God.
I want to offer my gratitude to people in the media who have helped get us to this point. Ed Morrissey, my Catholic brother and the Top Gun at Hot Air, has generously allowed me space here for over a year to promote the festival, leak the celebrity invite list, and generally spread the word. John Fund at National Review wrote a fine piece about the festival and, in private, has been a champion of this effort. The Washington Times did a great piece. Grover Norquist invited me to present at his famous Wednesday meeting. I was very nervous, but I conveyed the message and the people there got it right away.
Now, we have dates - and the rights to screen The Lives of Others, one of the great films of the last 50 years. Film is a great way to inoculate young people against the rising tide of Marxism we are witnessing in the West. As I know from working at that theater in the 1980s, movies are sexy, glamorous, and get into the subconscious more effectively than any art form.
Thanks, all. See you in October!!
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