The 2026 Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) runs from Sept. 24 to Oct. 6. It is the 27th year for the annual festival. The event will feature over 200 films that includes films from Alberta along with short and international films.
With Calgary’s film industry becoming more established and recognized, major productions continue to bring awareness and visibility to the city. Adam Keresztes, CIFF’s Canadian features and shorts programmer, says Calgary’s interest in film festivals has increased over the years.
“Calgary has been on a push to become at that level of Toronto and Vancouver and be a hub where you can actually come shoot and make films and television here and you don’t leave to go do other things on your projects. We have a lot of really big productions that have been coming here recently, like The Last of Us and Ghostbusters.” Keresztes said.
Keresztes would like Calgarians to be encouraged by the CIFF’s efforts to recognize local talent, skills and the filmmaking created every year.
“If we really want Calgary films, Alberta films to be highlighted on the national, international stage, we need to support them at the ground level. I’d love to encourage audiences to go and look on our website, take a chance at some of those Alberta-made films. I still know there are people in Calgary who don’t even know this festival exists.”
He notes that when local filmmakers are involved with the festival it can lead to future opportunities when their work share the same screen as other notable films.
“Let’s say you make a local Alberta film and it gets into CIFF. You’re in the lineup alongside the film that won the Palm d’Or at Cannes or won the Sundance Film Festival, or is going to go and win Oscars. And that really elevates sort of the visibility of your film because then people are coming.”
When selecting films for the festival, one of Keresztes’ priorities is understanding audience and knowing what their interests are.
“One thing I always say as a programmer, you’re not just choosing the films that you love, that you want to see. You have to kind of step outside of yourself and look at your audience. You do get to kind of know what the Calgary, the CIFF audience is and what they like to see. You’re really trying to find films that you think will resonate with the people that come to the festival.”
Another objective for the festival is to highlight a wide cross-section of countries, languages and cultures.
“We’re trying to bring films that we think people will like, but we’re also trying to showcase diverse and representative filmmakers, countries, international films and different languages to have a big representation of what we see in the world. To showcase a more diverse viewpoint from all over the world.”
Keresztes hopes Calgarians will continue to support the 11-day festival and get involved early on to map out your experience.
“I would love to see Calgarians come and engage with the festival as much as possible. Get engaged, follow us on social media, sign up for our newsletters, because you’re going to be the first people that know when films are announced, when tickets go on sale, because these big films are going to sell out very quickly.”
Single tickets go on sale at Aug. 28 at 10 a.m. To find out more information about the festival, here is the link: CIFF Website