By Coral Gables Gazette staff
Coral Gables Art Cinema is once again turning its screen over to the internet’s favorite subject.
CatVideoFest 2026, a feature-length compilation of cat videos, returns to the Aragon Avenue theater for a three-day run this weekend, continuing a partnership in which a portion of local ticket sales benefits The Cat Network, a South Florida nonprofit devoted to reducing cat overpopulation.
What’s screening
The 74-minute program, distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories, mixes viral clips, animated shorts, cat-themed music videos and what organizers call “classic internet powerhouses” into a single theatrical compilation, drawn from countless hours of submissions and material sourced from across the internet.
The Wall Street Journal has summed up the underlying premise succinctly: “Watching silly cat videos is good for you.”
The film is not rated, but the cinema describes it as appropriate for general audiences. It is presented in English.
From a Minneapolis art museum to theaters around the world
CatVideoFest’s roots stretch to 2012, when Seattle filmmaker Will Braden won the Golden Kitty Award at the inaugural Internet Cat Video Festival at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for “Henri 2, Paw de Deux,” part of his existentially gloomy “Henri, le Chat Noir” series. Braden became increasingly involved with the festival and, after the Walker ended its version, launched CatVideoFest in its current touring form in 2016.
Each year, Braden combs through thousands of submissions and online clips, choosing the videos, music, pacing and tone himself. Oscilloscope Laboratories, the independent film company co-founded by the late Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch, began distributing CatVideoFest in 2019, helping turn the compilation into an annual attraction at independent theaters in the United States and abroad.
The audience has grown considerably. The 2024 edition became the first CatVideoFest to surpass $1 million at the box office, and the 2025 version did it again, ultimately grossing more than $1 million domestically.
This year’s cats are off to an even faster start. CatVideoFest 2026 opened Aug. 7 in 255 theaters and earned $568,414 over its first weekend, enough for 10th place at the domestic box office. Through its second weekend, it had grossed nearly $800,000.
Cat videos with a local beneficiary
The charitable component is built into the festival’s model. Rather than directing proceeds to a single national organization, participating theaters partner with nearby shelters, rescues and animal-welfare groups, allowing part of the money generated by screenings to remain in the communities where the films are shown.
In Coral Gables, the beneficiary is The Cat Network.
The Florida-based 501(c)(3) has worked since 1995 to reduce cat overpopulation in South Florida through education, low-cost sterilization, adoption and advocacy. The organization says its network includes more than 2,500 volunteers and donors and that its members have sterilized more than 115,000 stray and abandoned cats and helped find homes for more than 20,000 others.
The group advocates for non-lethal population-control methods such as trap-neuter-return and says its broader goal is a South Florida where no healthy or treatable cat is euthanized simply because shelters lack space.
If you go…
CatVideoFest 2026 screens Friday, Aug. 21, at 3 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 22, at noon; and Sunday, Aug. 23, at noon at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave. A portion of ticket sales benefits The Cat Network.
