Closing the 2026 Season at the Brannon Center, November 6–7

Two nights of surf films, authors, filmmakers and The Grit, in the heart of New Smyrna Beach.

After a year of screenings, we’re closing the 2026 competition year right where it belongs: downtown in our classic surf town. On Friday and Saturday, November 6–7, the Florida Surf Film Festival takes over the Brannon Center in New Smyrna Beach for the first time ever. It’s our Q4 event and the season finale, and we’ve saved some of our best programming for last.

The Grit

Chas Smith and David Lee Scales are coming to town to record The Grit, their weekly podcast and a staple of the Surf Splendor Podcast Network. They’ll be around all weekend to dish surf gossip with fans. Chas — BeachGrit co-founder, gonzo surf journalist, and author of Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell and Cocaine + Surfing — will also continue his eternal apology campaign for years as surfing’s most notorious troublemaker.

Luke Cederman returns from Raglan

Luke Cederman, creator of The Raglan Surf Report, is flying in from New Zealand. His cult Instagram and YouTube series serves up parody and surf commentary with a sarcasm so dry that fans are never sure where the joke ends. Every program opens with one of his short films, and we can’t wait to see what he makes of a possible Florida swell.

Friday: Nearshore, Killer Dana and the swell czar

Friday opens with a reading and conversation with Steve Hawk, former editor of SURFER and longtime Surfer’s Journal contributor. His debut novel, Nearshore (Viking, 2026), is a coastal-noir thriller. It follows Northern California surfer and lifeguard Jamie Palmer as he’s pulled into a nuclear terrorism plot tied to a Silicon Valley tech giant. Copies will be for sale and Steve will sign them — or grab yours now and come ready with questions.

Point Taken: The Legend of Killer Dana revisits the Dana Point right-hander that drew Phil Edwards, Hobie Alter and Bruce Brown. Dana Point Harbor buried the wave in 1966, sparking one of surfing’s earliest acts of coastal activism.

The night closes with Surfline’s Maps to Nowhere – In the Current, then a Q&A with forecaster Charlie Hutcherson. Raised in Orlando tracking Atlantic hurricane swells, Charlie is the self-described “swell czar” who sends surfers to remote, undisclosed coastlines on nothing more than a forecast. Come hear what it takes to predict blissful waves.

Saturday: the filmmakers’ night

Jack Coleman brings his new film ProCasual, starring 2024 WSL World Champion Caitlin Simmers, among others. Florida’s own Oliver Kurtz joins him with Desert Mirror, and both take the stage for a Q&A after the screenings.

We close the season with Beyond Borders: Patagonia. Byron Bay filmmaker Jed Fasso and a crew of adventurers pick a remote stretch of Chilean coast off a map. They spend months working south from Arica, near the Peruvian border, through storms and heavy seas in search of an unridden wave.

A literary weekend

This is one of the most literary lineups in festival history. Surfing’s preeminent historian Matt Warshaw, author of The History of Surfing and The Encyclopedia of Surfing, joins us. So does Matt Shaw with his new book, The Sea in Every Sound: Chasing the Influence of Surf Music in America, on how surf music shaped the country’s sound well beyond the beach.

And as always, we’ll raffle off products from our longtime festival supporters after every program.

The Weekend at a Glance

Dates: Friday, November 6 and Saturday, November 7, 2026 Venue: Brannon Center, 105 S. Riverside Dr., New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168 Doors open: 5:00 PM both nights

Friday, November 6

6:30 PM

•          Short film by Luke Cederman

•          Learning to Fly (Short) — Tim Mauger (14 min)

•          Kinder (Short) — Nate Laverty (6 min)

•          Buoyancy – A Surf Story from Taiwan (Short) — Jonathan Carl Stromberg (12 min)

•          Dancing with Gravity (Short) — Cole Sheldon (11 min)

•          Steve Hawk reading and chat — Nearshore (20 min)

•          Raffle

9:00 PM

•          Short film by Luke Cederman

•          Point Taken: The Legend of Killer Dana (Feature) — Dan Krolczyk (30 min)

•          Maps to Nowhere – In the Current (Short) — Nick Liotta (21 min)

•          Q&A with Surfline forecaster Charlie Hutcherson (10 min)

•          Raffle

Saturday, November 7

6:15 PM

•          Short film by Luke Cederman

•          Demo (Short) — Noah Beschen (15 min)

•          Desert Mirror (Short) — Oliver Kurtz and Marco Areclin (14 min)

•          ProCasual (Feature) — Jack Coleman (35 min)

•          Q&A with Oliver Kurtz and Jack Coleman (15 min)

•          Raffle

8:45 PM

•          Short film by Luke Cederman

•          Roark (Short) — to be confirmed (11 min)

•          Beyond Borders: Patagonia (Feature) — Jed James Fasso (65 min)

•          Raffle

Screen times may shift — check our website for the latest.

Get Your Tickets

This is the last FSFF event of 2026, and the first in the heart of New Smyrna Beach. We’d love to see you there.

•          Tickets: floridasurffilmfestival.com

•          Go all year: the Green Room Annual Membership gets you into every event for the next twelve months, plus drinks, food, swag and more.

The Florida Surf Film Festival is presented by Monster Energy and the Surfing’s Evolution and Preservation Foundation (the “Endless Summer” Florida license plate). Meet the rest of our supporters and sponsors. Questions? Email info@floridasurffilmfestival.com.