The Edmonton International Film Festival was established in 1986, and its 40th edition ran September 24 to October 3, 2026. Forty years of Alberta audiences sitting in the dark together is a milestone worth a salute from Calgary.
The festival screens at two Edmonton rooms. One is Landmark Cinemas 9 at Edmonton City Centre, at 10200 102 Avenue NW. The other is Metro Cinema at the Garneau, at 8712 109 Street NW. The festival site describes Edmonton as the largest northern city in North America, with more than 1.2 million people, and a ten day run gives them plenty of chances to buy a ticket. The festival says its lineup runs to more than 120 films, mixing shorts and features, dramas and documentaries, studio releases and independent work.
Here’s the detail that matters most if you make short films. EIFF is an Oscar qualifying festival for shorts in three categories, Live Action, Documentary and Animation, and it describes itself as one of the final qualifying festivals each calendar year. For a filmmaker watching the awards calendar, that is a big reason to pay attention to a prairie festival in the fall.
The rules tell you a lot about the programming. Films must be produced within 20 months of the festival, and every one has to be an Edmonton premiere. Selection is based on story, quality and originality. The festival also adds filmmaker chats, Q&As, gala screenings, a local filmmaker spotlight, buzzy films travelling the festival circuit, and a series called shorts with lunch, which might be the best name in Alberta film.
Calgary films have been on the Edmonton festival circuit too. A documentary landed a spot in this lineup, as we covered in Not In My City joins the Edmonton International Film Festival lineup, and a Calgary horror short headed north to a different Edmonton festival, as in Never Seen heading to Edmonton for NorthwestFEARFest. If you like how our own big festival started, the CIFF story makes a good companion read.
Submissions for the 2027 festival open in November, according to the EIFF site. Bookmark the festival website now, and if you have a short that premiered recently, check the 20 month window before you apply.
Keep going with One Yellow Rabbit Turned Calgary January Into a Rodeo and Shanghai Noon Turned Drumheller Into Nevada.
Also from the archive: The Edmonton Short Film Festival Started With 18 Films.
Quick answers
The Edmonton International Film Festival was established in 1986, according to its website. Its 40th edition ran from September 24 to October 3, 2026, with screenings at Landmark Cinemas 9 Edmonton City Centre and Metro Cinema at the Garneau.
Yes. EIFF is an Oscar qualifying festival for short films in three categories, Live Action, Documentary and Animation. The festival also says it is among the final qualifying festivals each calendar year.
Films must be produced within 20 months of the festival, and every film must be an Edmonton premiere. Selection is based on story, quality and originality. Submissions for the 2027 festival open in November.
Sources: Edmonton International Film Festival, About; Edmonton International Film Festival.
