FAV SENIOR SHOW 2026 Debuts New Cinematic Worlds by Graduating RISD Artists

As the lights dimmed in the RISD Auditorium on a rainy evening in early May, students hurried to their seats for this year’s Film/Animation/Video Senior Show. The annual rite of passage invites graduating Film/Animation/Video students to premiere their final films. This year’s screenings offered a diverse array of live-action and animated pieces exploring everything from contemporary farm life to romance, self-acceptance, and what it means to be an artist. 

“Each project reflects the vision, creativity, discipline, and dedication of its maker,” notes Department Head Amy Kravitz. “These works have been sparked into being through the galvanic convergence of joy and doubt that makes us make things. Each piece is an affirmation of the importance, value, and necessity of art.”

The FAV Class of 2026 was invited to the stage to take a collective bow before the show began, and the students at the podium paid tribute to late FAV Department Head Sheri Wills, who passed away during the fall semester. The department is gathering contributions for a scholarship in Wills’ name to ensure that the “spirit of generosity, curiosity, and care she brought to campus will continue to touch future generations.”

That spirit of curiosity was evident in the work by this year’s 42 graduating filmmakers. It spurred Open Media concentrator WengLam Kou 26 FAV to create an installation called Almost Here exploring the paradox of preservation. It inspired Kevin Du 26 FAV to produce Ode to Earth, a live-action film about Japanese ceramicist Masahiko Ichino, who is redefining the 800-year-old tradition of Tamba ware.

Not surprisingly, many of the young filmmakers are using their skills to explore personal issues of identity, childhood, and self-discovery. The animated protagonist in Wolf Shadow by Bora Haan 26 FAV, for example, fights with his own inner darkness before coming to terms with it. And characters with estranged, hostile parents appear in multiple emotional pieces, including Burn Scar by Paloma Gonzales 26 FAV and The Hermit Crab by Beaux Salix BRDD 26 FAV, which transitions gracefully from hand-drawn animation to a live-action underwater scene filmed while scuba diving.

Other works focus on the future of Earth and the need for better stewardship among the humans who inhabit it. Turnings, a mesmerizing piece by Riddhi Sarker 26 FAV, reflects on natural and built environments, creating and then shattering a sense of calm with traffic, noise, and chaotic urban scenes. The documentary-style A Kinder Way to Live by Kyle Stockman 26 FAV introduces two contemporary dairy farmers who discuss the ills of industrial farming and the lives they have chosen to lead.

With Commencement rapidly approaching, students are thinking about their future careers and grappling with the notion of becoming practicing artists. Artie McBangBang, the outspoken, blue-haired main character in the hilarious Artie McBangBang and the Fuss with Gus by Jon Eke 26 FAV, is infuriated by the success of the laid-back Gus. Eke says that “capturing 21st-century absurdity through stylized cartooning and CG animation has become his life’s mission.” 

The protagonist in The Exhibition of Luca DeBeppo by Jean Lee 26 FAV also wrestles with self-doubt and his creative process, dumpster-diving for found objects to use in his art and then becoming entangled with an art collector who secretly leads a cult. Lee says that the goal of her work is to connect people by “bridging her experiences in conceptual painting and sculpture and the language of cinematic narrative.”

Many of these films will go on to be screened at festivals around the world. And all of them will be live-streamed on YouTube this Friday and Saturday, May 15 and 16, beginning at 7 pm.

Simone Solondz / top image: still from “Man, I wish I was a fish” by Sagian Shaw
May 14, 2026