The 5th Annual Vashon Island Film Festival returns Thursday, August 13, for four days of independent cinema, bringing an eclectic collection of narrative features, documentaries, short films, and special presentations to Vashon Island.

Running August 13-16, 2026, this year's festival includes eight narrative features and five feature-length documentaries, along with an extensive collection of narrative, documentary, and animated shorts.

Should I See It is thrilled to be documenting the festival's feature selections for those heading over to the iconic island getaway, located a few miles south of West Seattle in the Kitsap Peninsula. Each day, I will be sharing capsule reviews of what I have seen and highlighting some of the films worth keeping an eye on as VIFF gets underway.

Opening Day offers an intriguing mix, including the highly anticipated Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony, a documentary about a most unusual family reunion, and a celebration of one of Seattle's most influential voices in music.

A24 has awards buzz growing and high hopes for Tony, a fascinating, against-the-grain biopic about Anthony Bourdain as he struggled to find his place in the world and stumbled into a job cooking and helping run a kitchen in a small Provincetown restaurant at the age of 19.

Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) dials deeply into the sarcastic, cynical nature of Bourdain, weaponizing quips, generating half-truths and lies, and otherwise finding enjoyment in seeing just how far his words and fast thinking can take him. He's wickedly smart, if not fully aware of how damaging he can be to those closest to him.

Director Matt Johnson (Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie) has no concerns about giving us an unlikable Tony. In fact, he relishes in the unsavory nature of the cocksure 19-year-old, while Sessa's tall stature and unkempt look prove captivating.

In an interview, screenwriter Todd Bartels tells the story that when Bourdain's estate had to sign off on the rights to make Tony, his former agent asked the filmmakers to make him meaner. "He was kind of an asshole," she reportedly remarked. And so, as Bartels tells it, the writing team took another pass at crafting its script to better match Bourdain's snarling personality.

Sessa's performance is a strong one, with Emilia Jones (CODA) playing a love interest Tony pursues to the Cape Cod seaside community, only to land a job with "Chef" (a terrific, award-worthy Antonio Banderas). Tony is initially rejected by his co-workers but ends up making friends with the self-destructive sous chef Sal (Leo Woodall).

Tony does contain some of those familiar biopic tendencies we all come to expect, but resists giving audiences a highlight reel of moments and experiences. Johnson attempts to dig into what these formative years meant to Bourdain. While we know he would eventually become an acclaimed New York City chef, best-selling author, and, perhaps most notably, host of CNN's long-running travelogue series “Parts Unknown,” here we see a pained, anxious, skittish young man, desperately afraid of failure.

Bourdain's life ended tragically in 2018 when he died by suicide, but Tony gives us something of an origin story. To Johnson's credit, it becomes fascinating in seeing how much the film feels like a product of the 1970s, from its groovy, slightly scuzzy aesthetic to the way Johnson trusts his actors with improvisation and allows them to feed off one another.

For all the throwback costumes, wigs, and makeup on display, Tony feels authentic and surprisingly relatable. While Bourdain's personal life seemed to always find and embrace turmoil on some level, within Sessa's performance we see a man trying to fight his way through obstacles he cannot help but put up for himself.

A good, kind heart beats in Tony's chest. And occasionally, we find it - peeking out from below the surface of a guarded, brilliant young man who always seems ready to boil over at any given moment.

Dad Genes offers one whopper of a premise: A sperm donor reconnects with his "children" and attempts to establish relationships with them over time.

While Netflix told the story of a prolific Dutch sperm donor in 2024's The Man With 1000 Kids, director Craig Downing settles in with a normal, everyday guy named Aaron Long and follows him as he establishes his own unusual family dynamic and makes connections with children born from his donations.

Needing money in the mid-1990s, Long donated sperm for approximately a year or so and then moved on with his life. It was not until years later that he began wondering how many children may have been born from those donations. The film theorizes it could be dozens, but Downing never judges anyone involved in Dad Genes. He presents things as matter-of-factly as possible.

The film's scant running time of 65 minutes does make you wonder whether this might have worked better as a documentary short. Without much conflict to explore or fractured or damaged relationships to unpack, Dad Genes largely observes a collection of relatively uncomplicated interactions.

I hoped for more insight and depth. We occasionally hear candid discussions about Long's life, but everyone seems to be accepting of everyone.

Oddly, I think Downing may play things a bit too safely. And yet, I was intrigued because you don't see a personal, human-interest story quite like this.

Dad Genes has an almost quiet defiance in how much it respects its subjects and refuses to sensationalize a most unusual set of circumstances.

For anyone familiar with DJ Kevin Cole on Seattle's "listener-powered" radio station KEXP, RADIOHEART: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole is a film that will make you smile, warm you to his tender and caring personality, and offer insight into the drive and desire Cole has brought to more than five decades in the music business.

From his origins in the Minnesota club and funk scene and early gigs at Minneapolis' First Avenue nightclub, to eventually serving as Prince's personal DJ at house parties, Cole's championing of music from across the musical spectrum has changed lives.

After launching REV 105, a short-lived Minneapolis/St. Paul radio station that proved to be revolutionary both in name and programming, Cole's eventual relocation to Seattle and partnership with KEXP, after working on the launch of Amazon's streaming music service, helps underscore the reality that Cole has become such an understated staple of the Seattle music scene.

Directed by Peter Hilgendorf and Andrew Franks, the film’s production quality is top-notch, with an impressive collection of musicians and dignitaries discussing the impact Cole has made on their careers. His travels to Iceland and insistence on spotlighting music from Of Monsters and Men helped break the band in America, while local artists like Deep Sea Diver's Jessica Dobson and alt-rock legends like Kristin Hersh and Bob Mould further champion his passion for music and artistry.

Cole seems somewhat uneasy with all the attention but seems to have reached some level of acceptance of his legacy; that after 50 years of DJ'ing and discovering new music to share with everyone else, perhaps the spotlight should turn and shine brightly on him for a moment.

As a subject, Cole is a kind and giving soul. He's also an open book - candid and forthright about his struggles with drugs and alcohol and about essentially being a workaholic. Sober since 1988, music seems to feed those impulses. And as his longtime partner Shawn Stewart indicates, and he agrees, Cole never really ever stops working.

It’s his authenticity that radiates throughout RADIOHEART, and the film is an absolute crowd-pleaser of a documentary. Co-produced by Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, Northwest superstar Brandi Carlile, their spouses, and many others, RADIOHEART may find its most immediate audience among music fans in Minneapolis and Seattle. But Kevin Cole's imprint on the music business should be felt far and wide.

The film offers a long-overdue celebration of one of the most influential music personalities of the last half-century. In Seattle, we are blessed to have in our own backyard. Cole feels the genuine power of music and has devoted his life to sharing that power with the world and it’s a beautiful thing to see.

THE FESTIVAL

The 2026 Vashon Island Film Festival runs August 13-16 on Vashon Island, Washington. Additional information on films, screening times, tickets, and festival events is available through the Vashon Island Film Festival website.