Montclair Film unveiled the campaign artwork for its 15th annual film festival Monday, introducing a symbolic image by visual artist and Columbia University professor Adama Delphine Fawundu while naming Volvo Car USA as the event’s title sponsor. The dual announcement gives the Oct. 16-25 festival both its public-facing visual identity and a major commercial partner ahead of the full program release in late September.

Montclair Film characterized Fawundu’s design as powerful and optimistic. The work centers on a figure that appears firmly rooted in the earth while reaching outward toward the cosmos, a composition intended to connect the institution’s established foundation with its ambitions for the future. The organization said the image reflects the growth it has experienced over 15 festival editions and its excitement about what comes next.

Fawundu said the piece draws on ideas of courage, flourishing and abundance. She conceived the central figure as grounded but expansive, representing an inner capacity shared by individuals and communities. In the artist’s account, the figure also conveys the possibility of using collective power to create new realities for the broader good.

That language makes the campaign more than a commemorative anniversary mark. Rather than relying primarily on filmmaking equipment, theater marquees or other familiar cinema imagery, the work frames the festival through themes of human connection and shared possibility. The approach mirrors Montclair Film’s broader presentation of film as a means of bringing audiences together for storytelling, discussion and civic engagement.

Fawundu is a Brooklyn-born visual artist with family roots in Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea. She serves as an assistant professor of visual arts at Columbia University, where she is also director of undergraduate studies and concentration head for photography. Her practice has included photography, public installations, performance and interdisciplinary work addressing ancestral memory, identity, geography and shared humanity.

Her work has appeared at institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum of Art, Princeton University, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Museum of the African Diaspora. She has also presented public installations in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and at Federal Hall in New York. Her selection gives the festival campaign a direct connection to an artist whose career spans museums, universities, public spaces and publishing.

Montclair Film Marketing Director Jill Montague said the symbolism captured the organization’s emotions as it approaches the anniversary. According to Montague, the artwork looks back at the institution’s growth while also directing attention toward work still to be accomplished. That balance between commemoration and forward momentum is central to the festival’s messaging for 2026.

The milestone traces back to 2011, when the festival organization was formed, with the first Montclair Film Festival held in May 2012. That inaugural edition drew more than 7,500 patrons to over 45 screenings and events, according to the organization’s institutional history. The festival expanded to 10 days in 2015, the same year Montclair Film began offering year-round filmmaking education for high school students.

The organization established a permanent headquarters at 505 Bloomfield Avenue in 2017, creating a base for classes, public screenings and other programs beyond the annual festival. It later assumed operation of The Clairidge, renovating the six-screen cinema, and reopened the Bellevue theater in Upper Montclair during the 2025 festival. Those developments transformed the nonprofit from the producer of a once-a-year event into a year-round cultural operator with multiple exhibition spaces.

The scale of that evolution helps explain the anniversary campaign’s emphasis on roots. Montclair Film says the 2025 festival attracted more than 23,000 attendees and presented more than 140 films, events and conversations with support from over 200 volunteers. The figures position the festival as a significant regional gathering within reach of both New Jersey audiences and the wider New York film community.

Volvo Car USA’s addition as title sponsor brings another New Jersey connection to the event. The automaker’s U.S. headquarters is in Mahwah. Montclair Film Executive Director Tricia Haggerty Wenz said the company’s focus on safety and design aligned with an arts organization that places creativity, excellence and people at the center of its work.

In its statement, Volvo connected the sponsorship to storytelling, describing film as a medium that brings people together while recognizing the creative teams responsible for work shown on screen. Montclair Film did not disclose financial terms of the agreement. The title sponsorship nevertheless represents a prominent commitment at a time when nonprofit cultural organizations continue to rely on a mix of memberships, donations, ticket revenue and corporate support.

Other festival support listed by Montclair Film includes Audible, Ketel One Vodka, Craig Newmark Philanthropies and the Montclair Center Business Improvement District. The combination of national brands, philanthropy and local business participation illustrates the funding network behind a festival that must support screenings, guest appearances, panels, staff, volunteers and venue operations across 10 days.

The 2026 program is expected to encompass independent and international cinema, documentaries, narrative features, shorts, episodic projects, family programming and work connected to New Jersey. The festival also traditionally combines screenings with filmmaker conversations, panels and special appearances, allowing audiences to engage directly with creators and industry figures.

Specific films, honorees and guests were not included in Monday’s announcement. Montclair Film said the full schedule will be released in late September. Tickets are scheduled to go on sale to members Monday, Sept. 28, and to the general public Thursday, Oct. 1. Until then, the campaign artwork will serve as the principal visual introduction to the anniversary edition.

Board of Trustees President Mary Anne Vaughn described the festival as a collective achievement involving sponsors, members, volunteers and moviegoers. She said Fawundu’s artwork captured the spirit of the milestone and welcomed Volvo as an important partner. Her statement also emphasized the combination of cinema, conversation and community that the organization plans to bring together again in October.

The timing of the reveal, roughly two months before opening night, begins a staged rollout rather than disclosing the entire festival at once. The artwork establishes an emotional theme, the title sponsorship signals institutional support, and the forthcoming lineup will provide the programming substance. For Montclair Film, the image’s rooted figure offers a concise statement of where the organization believes it stands after 15 festivals: grounded in a local community, but reaching toward a larger cultural future.