Lone Pine Film Festival 2026 Preview
It’s hard to believe it, but it’s time for a preview of the 36th Lone Pine Film Festival!
This year’s festival takes place in Lone Pine, California, from October 8th through 11th, 2026.
Countless movies were filmed in the Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine, and Lone Pine is also the home of the Museum of Western Film History.
The 2026 festival theme is “Mixing the Herd – A Corral of Movie Genres.” There’s a little bit of everything on the schedule at this year’s festival!
As always, the festival celebrates Westerns in general and movies filmed in Lone Pine in particular; as hinted by the festival theme, this year also features a particularly diverse lineup, including sci-fi and crime films, silents, and comedies along with traditional Westerns.
Classic Westerns filmed in Lone Pine’s Alabama Hills which will be shown at this year’s festival include:
*A restoration of Frontier Days (1934) starring Bill Cody
*The Hopalong Cassidy film Renegade Trail (1939), which includes a glimpse of the “Hoppy Cabin” outside Lone Pine
*Rawhide (1951) starring Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward
*7 Men From Now (1956) starring Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, and Lee Marvin
Additional classic-era Westerns to be screened include:
*The silent Hoot Gibson film The Texas Streak (1926), with live musical accompaniment by J.C. Munns
*Spoilers of the Forest (1957), starring Rod Cameron; his son Tony will be on hand to introduce a restoration of the film.
*The Proud Rebel (1956) with costar David Ladd on hand to discuss the film and his father, the movie’s star, Alan Ladd
Another very interesting restoration to be shown this year is Army Girl (1938), which filmed in several Lone Pine locations. The movie, which stars Preston Foster and Madge Evans, was Republic Pictures’ most expensive film to that point in company history. It received three Oscar nominations, including for Best Cinematography.
One of the most notable scenes in Army Girl involves a tank going over a stone wall. That wall, seen in this photo, still exists in the Alabama Hills and can be seen on one of this year’s movie location tours.
“Newer” movies to be shown this year include Sunset (1988), which will be introduced by costar Mariel Hemingway. Sunset features Bruce Willis and James Garner as cowboy star Tom Mix and real-life law enforcement legend Wyatt Earp.
Also on the schedule will be Road House (1989), introduced by costar Kelly Lynch. Lynch will also be presenting The Oyler House (2014), a documentary about her Lone Pine home, which was designed by famed architect Richard Neutra. It’s a wonderful chance to learn about a unique piece of Lone Pine history.
Films with unusual Western settings screening at this year’s festival include:
*7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) with Tony Randall
*Valley of the Gwangi (1969) with James Franciscus
*Shanghai Noon (2000) starring Jackie Chan.
These fun films help illustrate the expansive nature of the Western genre.
As always, there will be location tours for some of the films listed above, including Rawhide. Below is a shot of Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward filming Rawhide in the Alabama Hills.
Additional 2026 location tour themes will include a sunrise photography tour, a tour of the Bar 20 ranch, Gene Autry and Lone Ranger locations, the serial Jungle Raiders (1945), and unique Lone Pine locations such as the Mobius Ravine and Owens River.
There are also tours focused on photographer Ansel Adams’ legendary work in Lone Pine and at Manzanar. The Manzanar National Historic Site is approximately 10 miles north of Lone Pine on Highway 395.
There are also three horseback movie location tours guided by my husband Doug. Below is a photo from one of his past tours.
Additional festival activities include the annual opening night barbecue and closing campfire, the Sunday afternoon celebrity parade on Main Street, and a nondenominational “Cowboy Church” service at Spainhower Anchor Ranch.
Scheduled 2026 festival guests not already mentioned above include Patrick Wayne, Diamond Farnsworth, Wyatt McCrea, Rudy Ramos, Darby Hinton, Marc Wanamaker, C. Courtney Joyner, Jay Dee Witney, and Julia Pomilia, granddaughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.
It’s going to be another wonderful year at the Lone Pine Film Festival, and I hope some of my readers will join us!
I invite anyone interested in visiting the film festival – or learning more about Lone Pine’s significant movie history — to check out my past Western RoundUp columns on this subject which are linked below.
Lone Pine movie locations: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Lone Pine Film Festival: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
For more information, please visit the Museum of Western Film History and Lone Pine Film Festival websites.
The Lone Pine photographs accompanying this article are from the author’s personal collection.
…
– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
