Big Bad Film Fest celebrates its 2026 edition with a program of premieres, classics, and never-seen oddities, along with an art gallery dedicated to the work of the late great poster artist Tony Stella. This celebration of action filmmaking takes place at the Look Dine-In Cinema in Glendale, California, featuring a lineup of 11 feature films, 6 of which are North American Premieres, along with 20 short films.

Opening night features the North American Premiere of Ashton Chen and Qin Pengfei’s raucous, mile-high jolt of adrenaline Wings of Dread. The film stars Ashton Chen as air police officer Gu Chaoyang, who encounters a hijacking crisis on his return flight to China. He must desperately fight to stop the hijacker, played by The Raid’s Iko Uwais, as a life and death struggle unravels.

Big Bad Film Fest also partnered with the estate of poster artist Tony Stella to present a gallery of Tony’s work throughout the weekend. The displays include full-sized finalized work of Stella’s provided by Arrow Video, BWDR, and private collectors, alongside original artwork and sketches collected from the artist’s studio. Archivists are in the process of sorting through over 30,000 works of art and this gallery gives attendees the chance to glimpse Tony’s process and studio, as well as give the opportunity to donate to Tony’s estate as they continue to ensure his family and art are taken care of.

The weekend also includes a series of special Q&As. In the spotlight is Ikatan Darah’s producer, Ryan Santoso, and star, Livi Ciananta, who celebrate their hard-hitting Indonesian action film from Uwais Pictures. What follows is a celebration of Michael Jai White’s career hosted by the Action 4 Everyone Podcast with the action star and martial artist in person. Additionally, director John Hyams brings his action masterpiece Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning for a screening, followed by a discussion with writer and friend of the festival Brandon Streussnig. Original Match Mondo manga creator Shogo Horiuchi also joins the lineup of events.

As was the case in previous years, Big Bad Film Fest also features original pieces of writing from film journalists. The 2026 edition showcases original work from Jen Yamato, Valerie Complex, Brandon Streussnig and Frankie Balboa.

Closing out the weekend is the North American premiere of Yang Bingja’s (Eye for an Eye 2) Fight Against Evil 3, starring the Furious’s Xie Miao. The action-comedy centers on Li Hongqi (Miao), who’s needs to travel for his wedding, where he’s forced to team up with a local cop in order to rescue a girl from human traffickers. The film will be paired with Martial Club’s short film Shaolin Avengers starring Brian Le, Andy Le and DY Sao.

The lineup also includes Eiji Uchida’s spin-off of the popular Round-Up series, Tokyo Burst: Crime City, Li Bingyuan’s Drunken Blade, Isaac Florentine’s Undisputed II, Sidharta Tata’s Ikatan Darah, Ryusuke Kurahashi’s Match Monde, and a special presentation of Toei’s Crime Hunter Trilogy.

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