ALZA Festival Names Its First Winners as Vertical Storytelling Takes Center Stage

New York City just hosted a festival dedicated to stories made for the screen most of us stare at all day. The inaugural ALZA Festival took place October 16–18, 2026, celebrating vertical series, microdramas and the filmmakers experimenting with entertainment designed to be watched on a phone. After 35 world premieres, the event announced its first group of award winners.

The biggest award, Best Vertical Series, went to RelationShiTs, directed by Carlos Cardona and Lacy Marie Meyer. Best Vertical Short went to Voicemails From My Neighbor, directed by Sydni Beaudoin. Those awards recognize two different approaches to telling stories in the same tall, narrow frame, one through a series and the other through a short-form piece.

Salvador Pakowitz won Best Director for Layover, while Gregory Alan Williams received Best Performance for NOTED: Table For Two – A Vertical Series Anthology. Acting and directing in a vertical frame present their own creative challenges. You’re asking performers and filmmakers to deliver a complete emotional experience without relying on the wide compositions audiences have spent a century getting used to.

The festival’s Innovation in Vertical Storytelling award went to Jan Latto and Hannah Rose Doherty for Newborn. Meanwhile, The Count, created by Gary Entin and Edmund Entin, earned the One More Episode Award, a category that gets right to the point: did the story leave you wanting another installment? For a format often built around rapid episodes and cliffhangers, that’s a pretty fitting honor.

One of the standout local stories came from the “Made in NY” Award. Bronx filmmaker Romel Rodriguez won for The Super NYC through a public campaign held in partnership with the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. I love seeing a New York creator recognized at a New York event, especially in a category that gives the community a say in who gets the spotlight.

ALZA was founded to bring attention to a form of storytelling that’s growing fast but still fighting for recognition as its own creative discipline. The event was led by founder and CEO Pete Torres alongside cofounders Rita Vinnik and Katie Korfhage. With premieres, industry conversations and an inaugural awards program, the festival is trying to build a home for filmmakers who think beyond traditional widescreen formats.

Does every story belong in a vertical frame? Of course not. The exciting part is watching creators figure out what actually works there instead of treating the format as a chopped-up version of television. The screen is smaller, the storytelling possibilities are still being explored, and ALZA’s first winners are helping shape what comes next.