On her left triceps, Australian-born filmmaker Bryanna Reynolds sports a pirate ship tattoo. On her right arm, a rose.
The pirate ship signifies her fascination with treasure hunts. The rose represents her favorite aunt’s garden.
Reynolds’ two loves came together in an unusual way last fall when she met Terri Coomes, a board member on the Burbank Tournament of Roses.
The pair – a generation apart – were seated at adjacent tables at a game night in North Hollywood. Reynolds was with her mom. Coomes with her daughter. They struck up a conversation.
Reynolds shared her experience working on television shows with a treasure hunt theme.
“Oh, my god,” said Coomes, at the time. “We’re building a treasure hunt float for the Rose Parade!”
That chance meeting eventually blossomed into the award-winning documentary “The Last Eight,” which chronicles the final eight stressful, but joy-filled hours volunteers spend before a Rose Parade float’s debut.
The 17-minute self-produced film recently took home the Best Woman Documentary award in the Angeles Documentary Film Festival and is making its way across the U.S. and Canada on the festival circuit.
In the film, Reynolds captures the emotional rollercoaster Burbank volunteers experience as they scurry to finish their 2026 entry “All Paws on Deck” before final judging.
It’s an unfiltered glimpse behind the scenes of America’s favorite New Year’s Day tradition.
Frantic volunteers race against the clock to cover two 45-foot sections of waves on the float with blue flowers.
“All right guys!,” yells someone off camera. “Thirty minutes until judging. Move, move, move, move!”
And then Coomes, the float’s decorations chair, shouts:
“Hydrangeas, hydrangeas, hydrangeas, hydrangeas!”
In the film, we see the consternation on Burbank Tournament president Linda Cozakos’ face as she confers with vice-president Steven Edward about strategy to present to the judges.
The stakes are high. Burbank, one of six floats not built by professionals, has won awards in 17 of the last 20 Rose Parades, according to the Tournament of Roses.
As Edward says in the documentary, you get one shot at the Rose Parade:
“This is not a movie. This is not a TV show,” Edward explains as he tours the viewer around the innards of the float. “It’s a live broadcast, a live production. And so, failure is not an option.”
At the documentary’s climax, as Tournament of Roses float judges walk around “All Paws on Deck,” the music changes to light and uplifting.
Judges point. They inspect.
On-edge volunteers take photos with their cell phones.
Then, suddenly, a little gold bell rings. It’s time for judges to move on to the next float.
Coomes, in white overalls, double fist-pumps and thanks her workers. Everyone applauds. There are tears of relief.
Burbank float designer Dave Lowe visibly cries on film.
“It’s amazing,” he says, “To transfer from a doodle to something so grand, so spectacular as a float … with people with amazing skills you’d never know. There are florists here, painters, carpenters.”
What did the judges think?
Burbank’s “All Paws on Deck” took home the Theme award for most outstanding presentation of the Rose Parade’s 2026 theme: The Magic in Teamwork.
For many of the nearly 2,000 people who come out each year to paint, glue, seed and flower the city-sponsored, self-built Burbank entry, decorating a float nears avocation-level commitment.
These dedicated volunteers, said Cozakos, have no idea what a New Year’s Eve party is. Year after year, they’re working in the float barn, she said.
But, for filmmaker Reynolds and, apparently, other Millennials and Gen Zer’s, the Rose Parade, despite its 134-year history, is a novelty.
Before meeting Coomes, Reynolds had little knowledge about the Rose Parade. She remembered a scene in Jerry Seinfeld’s 2007 “Bee Movie,” where bees sneak into the Rose Parade to collect pollen, but that was the extent of it, she said recently.
“I talk to people nowadays in California,” Reynolds said. “It’s astounding how many people don’t even know what the Rose Parade is.”
Consummate volunteers such as Coomes, Cozakos and Edward hope independent projects like “The Last Eight” succeed in spreading the word about the Rose Parade to a younger and more social media savvy audience.
Reynolds’ project has also caught the eye of the Tournament of Roses itself.
“We’re thrilled to see ‘The Last Eight’ recognized and that a wider audience can learn about Burbank’s incredible volunteers,” said Terry Madigan, 2027 Tournament of Roses president.
The film really shows what makes the parade special, he added. It’s all about “creativity, community, tradition,” and the people.
Afterall, said Coomes, volunteers put an extraordinary amount of time and hard work into float building. Reynolds aptly depicts all of that in “The Last Eight,” she added.
“Most importantly, she truly captured the essence of a community—locals and out-of-state volunteers alike—coming together to create something special,” Coomes said.
“The Last Eight” will screen Sept. 23 at the Lunenburg Doc Fest in Nova Scotia, Canada and between Sept. 30-Oct. 4 at the Highland Park Independent Film Festival.