Belfast Film Festival

Belfast Film Festival is back for its 26th edition from 29 October – 7 November 2026! This year's festival brings together an exciting programme of cinema, with screenings taking place at venues across the city. Experience a diverse selection of films, discover new voices and celebrate contemporary cinema.

Réalta Award: Stephen Rea

Belfast Film Festival is proud to honour one of Ireland's most cherished and enduring actors, Stephen…

Oct 29

BFF: How to Divorce During the War

One of two films in this year's programme set at the advent of the full-scale Russian invasion of…

Oct 29

Lost City

Belfast Film Festival is pleased to present the World Premiere of Lost City, the first feature drama from…

Oct 29

BFF: Wild Horse Nine

Martin McDonagh returns with another tragi-comic two-hander with a razor-sharp script…

Oct 30

Damian McCarthy Masterclass

Belfast Film Festival are thrilled to welcome Damian McCarthy, the twisted mind…

Oct 30

Aliens

This tour of this ancient and atmospheric graveyard will introduce you to many…

Oct 23

HOKUM Live Commentary

Belfast Film Festival are very excited to welcome director Damian McCarthy and editor…

Oct 30

BFF: Competition Shorts Programme 1

Belfast Film Festival is proud to support the medium of short film, and this annual competition is made…

Oct 31

Student Archive Showcase: Past Scenes, Future Screens.

This showcase brings together a selection of short films from students at Ulster University and…

Oct 31

BFF: Competition Shorts Programme 2

Belfast Film Festival is proud to support the medium of short film, and this annual competition is made…

Oct 31

Spider Baby

Spider Baby, otherwise known as The Maddest Story Ever Told, features horror stars Lon Chaney Jr. and Sid…

Oct 31

BFF: Competition Shorts Programme 3

Belfast Film Festival is proud to support the medium of short film, and this annual competition is made…

Oct 31

BFF: Competition Shorts Programme 4

Belfast Film Festival is proud to support the medium of short film, and this annual competition is made…

Oct 31

New Irish Shorts: Programme One

New Irish Shorts – Programme #1 This selection of shorts reflects on rough…

Nov 01

New Irish Shorts: Programme Three

It's not just you. There's something wrong these days. You can't go for a…

Nov 01

BFF: A Prayer for the Dying + Q&A

This sparse and spiky western set in 1870s Wisconsin is the story of a sheriff's…

Nov 01

Bagpuss and Beyond - The History of Smallfilms

Of all the programming from the "golden age of children's television…

Nov 01

BFF: Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep

This extraordinary debut from filmmaker Rakan Mayasi follows the story of two sisters…

Nov 01

New Irish Shorts: Programme Four

How do you define yourself? What makes a self? And what happens when elements out of…

Nov 01

BFF: Master

In forested rural Bangladesh, Jahir is a popular and idealistic teacher making a…

Nov 01

20 Cigarettes

In director Will McConnell's latest lo-fi experiment, the concept of the…

Nov 01

The Lough Speaks

If we could hear Lough Neagh speak, what would she say? The widely publicised…

Nov 01

BFF: The Dreamed Adventure

An archaeologist gets ever more intertwined in the dealings of local gangsters in…

Nov 01

XR Festival: The Baby Factory is Closed

What if the menopause wasn't an ending, but the beginning of a rebellion? The Baby Factory Is Closed…

Nov 02

Our House

Three siblings return to the family home after the death of their mother. Practically estranged…

Nov 02

Nov 2, 2026 - Nov 3, 2026

Escape the Internet

A massive multiplayer game, where you and over a hundred strangers are trapped on a mysterious island and…

Nov 02

A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing

Whilst recovering from a car accident, Michael (played by Funboys' Ryan Dylan) falls down an internet…

Nov 02

BFF: A Man of His Time

Swann Arlaud (Anatomy of A Fall) gives an effectively inexplicit performance as a man making his way up…

Nov 02

Nov 2, 2026 - Nov 3, 2026

Escape the Internet

A massive multiplayer game, where you and over a hundred strangers are trapped on a mysterious island and…

Nov 02

BFF: A Long Winter

A firm favourite of the festival team, Andrew Haigh returns with this patient, elegiac period piece based…

Nov 03

Our Share of Sand

When twelve year old Maya returns to rural India with her mother, she reconnects with her estranged…

Nov 03

Maddie's Secret w/ Normal Cinema Club

Normal Cinema Club is excited to return to Belfast Film Festival with one of the funniest and most…

Nov 03

You'll Never Believe Who's Dead

It's Christmas time, but the Cosgrove family aren't having a very merry one. The family has…

Nov 03

BFF: Minotaur

Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Loveless) returns once again to cast his critical gaze on Russia in our…

Nov 03

Dry Leaf

Filmed entirely on a Sony Ericsson phone - yes, an old one - this is a stylistic…

Nov 04

NI Independents: Sea of Glass, Bubble, Dark Disquiet

Sea of Glass – dir. Mervyn Marshall – 23 mins Julia, played with quiet…

Nov 04

Skintown

Jack Rowan and Chris Walley give class A performances as Vinny and Jonty, two…

Nov 04

Enjoy Your Stay

The experience of undocumented Filipino women in Europe is captured with urgency and…

Nov 04

Acceptable Levels at Divis

Screening at St Comgall's Ionad Eileen Howell, in the area where it was…

Nov 04

Rozkvet

Set in occupied Czechoslovakia during WW2, Rozkvet shines a light on the lesser known…

Nov 04

BFF: Coward

Another delicate two-hander about young men finding each other and exploring their…

Nov 04

Faraway Home

Karl and Rose are two young Jewish children who escape Nazi-occupied Vienna via kindertransport. They are…

Nov 05

BFF: Star Nhá Presents: The Inseminator

In this magical‑realist portrait of patriarchy, a father living in rural Vietnam grows increasingly…

Nov 05

Prosecution

The flaws and power structures of the German legal system are revealed to a young prosecutor after she…

Nov 05

Thursday Night Quiz 2026 w/ Best Boy Magazine & Normal Cinema Club

Can you guess how they filmed the big Cyclops guy in The Odyssey? Can you guess how they filmed the…

Nov 05

Star of the Sea

In 1969, Star of the Sea from North Belfast were the best youth football team in Ireland. The team is…

Nov 05

BFF: The Story of Documentary Film - The 1980s + Q&A

After premiering his widely anticipated long-form documentary at various international festivals…

Nov 06

Mississippi Records Presents: A People's History of Music

Presented by Moving On Music They are delighted to welcome Mississippi Records founder Eric Isaacson for…

Nov 06

BFF: The Peril at Pincer Point + Q&A

Crustaceans... Corman... Cardioid microphones, The Peril at Pincer Point has it all! Plucky young Jim…

Nov 06

The Orange and The Green

Sixty years ago, Ulster Television produced this documentary in what was the 50th…

Nov 07

BFF: Nuisance Bear

The plight of the polar bear is captured with style and grace in this documentary…

Nov 07

Films by Helena Gouveia Monteiro

Helena Gouveia Monteiro is an experimental filmmaker and visual artist from Portugal…

Nov 07

BFF: All of a Sudden

The peerless director of Drive My Car and Evil Does Not Exist, Ryusuke Hamaguchi…

Nov 07

How Can Cinema Be a Tool for Anti-Racism?

In 2005, the Belfast Film Festival curated a series of screenings and commissioned a…

Nov 07

The People Under the Stairs & Walking Tour

Wes Craven's People Under the Stairs (1991) is a razor‐sharp horror satire on…

Nov 07

BFF: Mouse

A beautifully-acted story of teenaged girl Minnie finding solace in her best…

Nov 07

I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

With an incredible ensemble cast including Belfast actors, Lola Petticrew and Anthony…

Nov 07

BFF: Rose

There's another incredible performance from one of the greatest actors of our…

Nov 07

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