[Courtesy of LandmarkTheatres.com]
The screening is a stop on the 10th Annual NY Dog Film Festival’s national tour, which is visiting approximately 30 cities across the United States in 2026 after premiering in New York City in October 2025. The festival donates a share of ticket revenue to a local animal welfare organization in each city.
In Pasadena, those proceeds go to Pasadena Humane, the independent nonprofit that has provided animal care and control services to Pasadena, Altadena, and nine other communities since 1903, according to a Pasadena Humane event listing. In 2024, the organization helped more than 55,000 animals through adoptions, wildlife rehabilitation, veterinary services, and other programs, according to Pasadena Humane.
The festival was founded by Tracie Hotchner, a pet wellness advocate, author, and host of the NPR radio show “DOG TALK (and Kitties, Too!),” according to a press release from Pet Media Inc. Hotchner selects all the films herself, drawing this year’s program from 64 submissions from filmmakers in the United States and 13 other countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Germany, and South Africa, according to the festival’s website.
The two-hour program mixes formats. Among the 15 films are animated shorts, observational documentaries, and scripted narratives, according to the festival’s website. Two entries won the Purina Dog Chow Service Dog Salute, a category recognizing films about veterans with PTSD whose lives have been changed by specially trained service dogs, according to the festival’s website.
“It can be philosophical, it can be fanciful, it can be silly and fun, it can be tongue-in-cheek, it can be serious — but it has to have an intention,” Hotchner said of her selection criteria, according to the pet publication Fetch Pet.
Hotchner has said the philanthropic component is central to the festival’s mission. She said shelters that receive the donation share have told her even modest amounts make a difference.
The Pasadena screening is one show only, starting at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 25. Landmark Theatres Pasadena is at 673 East Colorado Boulevard. Tickets are available through Landmark Theatres’ website. Free loyalty members receive a minimum 15% discount on ticket purchases, and paid loyalty members receive a minimum 30% discount, according to Landmark Theatres. No passes are accepted for this screening.
Pasadena Humane is located at 361 South Raymond Avenue. and serves the communities of Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia, Bradbury, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta-Montrose, Monrovia, San Marino, Sierra Madre, and South Pasadena, according to the organization.
A companion program, the NY Cat Film Festival, screens at the same Pasadena venue on February 18.
“If you’re making short films, you never made them to get rich, and you never made them to make money or get famous,” Hotchner said, according to Fetch Pet. “The only place that that movie that you made about a cat or a dog is ever going to get the appreciation it deserves is in my festivals.”
