Welcome to the NukhuFest 2026 tracker. This page will be updated all year as new projects are selected, the finalist slate is locked, and the Best Nuvee winner is announced.
NukhuFest is Nukhu’s annual, audience powered festival: projects premiere online as Semi Finalists, viewers vote throughout the year, the top voted Semi Finalists become Finalists for the in person screening, and the top voted Finalist is crowned Best Nuvee.
NukhuFest 2026 key dates
Festival day (NYC): Saturday, September 19, 2026.
Program reveal: August 29, 2026.
Award ceremony + reception: 8 PM (festival day).
What “winning” means
The Best Nuvee title is decided by popular vote, and the winner receives Nukhu’s Development to Distribution Grant (3,000 USD) to help launch their next project.
How to watch and vote
Nuvees live on nukhu.com. Viewers create an account, add Nukhu Points (purchased or earned), watch, and vote. Filmmakers set their price and earn 50 percent of each sale.
Current Semi Finalists (Season start)
Riverberi (Short)
Logline
A young woman to reconnect with her recently dead father’s life, but as unexpected memories start to break through she realizes some things are better left forgotten.
Watch on Nukhu
Instagram trailer post
https://www.instagram.com/p/DU8vSkJjs5e/
Quick facts
Format: Short
Runtime: 20 minutes
Country: Australia (filmed in Australia)
Language: English
Camera: Digital (BMPCC4K)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Completion date: April 2, 2025
Budget: 5,000 AUD
Director
Emma Jaay (Australian filmmaker based between Sydney and Italy). Her work explores the connection of landscape to memory and community.
Key team and featured talent
Director, Writer: Emma Jaay
Producers: Emma Jaay, Pete Ireland
Key cast: Rosangela Fasano (Isa), Lucas Fatches (Lewis), Hugh Raper (Dad)
Cinematography: Jamie Gray
Festival recognition (selected highlights)
CinefestOZ (World Premiere, Official Selection)
Screen Producers Australia Awards (Nominated: Best Short Film)
Rochester International Film Festival (Winner: Certificate of Merit for Cinematography)
Made in the West Film Festival (Nominated: Best Cinematographer, Best Production Design)
Why it’s one to watch
Riverberi plays like a memory you cannot fully control: homecoming as excavation, grief as an unreliable projector, and a landscape that seems to store what people try to bury.
Half A Life (Short)
Logline
An immigration documents counterfeiter is being exposed by local film students looking for clout.
Watch on Nukhu
Instagram trailer post
https://www.instagram.com/p/DUn3cAajjYs/
Watch our Nuvee Club Q&A with the filmmakers here.
Quick facts
Format: Short
Runtime: 4 minutes 18 seconds
Genres: Crime, Drama
Country: United States (filmed in the United States)
Language: English
Camera: Arri Alexa 35 (4K, HD)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Completion date: March 7, 2024
Budget: 3,000 USD
Directors and background
Identical twins Ranju and Sanjit Majumdar began directing at 16, later participated in Berlinale Talent Campus, and have since built careers spanning editing and color work on acclaimed independent features and documentary series.
Creative lens (from the filmmakers)
Half A Life frames the immigrant experience through the logic of an amnesia thriller: a life split in two, an identity rebuilt under pressure, and a past that refuses to stay buried. The story is rooted in Jackson Heights, Queens and the shadow economies that grow wherever opportunity is rationed.
Featured talent
Key cast: Finn Wittrock (as Ivo Terzic)
Why it’s one to watch
In under five minutes, it compresses a whole thesis: how “becoming American” can feel like waking up in a life you did not fully consent to, then being asked to prove it is yours.
The Red Rob Roy Show (Series, 6 episodes)
Series snapshot
The Red Rob Roy Show is an unhinged sketch comedy series, in the lineage of I Think You Should Leave and The Kids in the Hall, built around a troupe story that keeps escalating between sketches.
A continuity plot threads through the chaos: the troupe tries to sell their show while dealing with brutal online reviews, shrinking time and money, and the return of a lost love, all while a mystery nemesis threatens to destroy the project and their lives.
Watch on Nukhu
Instagram trailer post
https://www.instagram.com/p/DPohgewjmTa/
Watch our Q&A with the creators here.
Format and release context
The project began as sketches on YouTube, then expanded into a compiled pilot that streamed on major platforms, and later grew into a completed six episode season.
Episode guide (Season 1)
Let’s Make a Television Show
A Terrible Review
Gape Cast
What It Was Like
This Show Is a Drama Now
No More Burp Jokes
Creators and key cast
P.K. Simone (Pat, Executive Producer)
Rob Pugliese (Rob, Executive Producer)
Richard Roy (Rich, Executive Producer)
Public platform listings describe the series as a TV MA comedy starring the trio.
Festival circuit notes (early sketches)
The troupe’s shorts have already traveled through comedy festival programming, including wins and official selections for individual sketches like The Interview and Quarry.
Why it’s one to watch
It is sketch comedy that understands the modern internet feedback loop, then weaponizes it: the show is about trying to make a show while being psychologically dismantled by the idea of an audience.
Finalists (Top 10)
This section will be updated once the top voted Semi Finalists are confirmed for the in person screening.
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Best Nuvee
Winner: TBD
Grant awarded: Development to Distribution
Update log
March 1st, 2026: Semi Finalists updated.