AIFF 2026: Your guide to a week of cinema

Halifax is about to hand over its keys to cinema for a week. The 46th Atlantic International Film Festival runs from September 16 to 23, and if you're planning to make the most of it, there's a bit of homework to do before the first reel rolls. The main hub is Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane downtown, at 5657 Spring Garden Road, which is where the bulk of the screenings, Q&As, receptions, panels and industry events land. The festival is an eight-day run with more than 100 films, and it's built around championing emerging and established voices from Atlantic Canada and beyond.

The lineup is split into Atlantic Canadian, national and international selections, so there's a path whether you want something from home or something from halfway across the world. The Gala presentations are the headline acts: '111 Echoes from Halifax' by Mauro Mueller, 'The Snake' by Jenna MacMillan for the Atlantic Gala, and 'Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!' by Josef Kubota Wladyka, which closes things out. The Reel East Coast Shorts are the place to see local work, with titles like 'Billy Gauthier: Carving the Future', 'The Bookstore That Never Sleeps', 'Burnt Toast', 'A Cape Breton Storyteller', 'Dough Man', 'The Flames of Me', 'Homeless to Home' and 'Margot'. Beyond that, the World Cinema section pulls from a wide range of international filmmakers, and there are strands for Narrative New Waves, Late Night Visions, In Focus, Documentaries and Shorts.

Tickets are where you'll want to be decisive. The Festival Pass is the all-in option, giving you unlimited access to in-cinema screenings, panels and talks, plus AIFF Online, and it covers everything except the Opening Night Gala, though the second screening of that film is open to passholders. For a lighter touch, there's The Weekender, a 4 Ticket Pack, a 6 Ticket Pack, a 12 Ticket Pack and a Family 4 Pack. Ticket packs can't be used for Gala presentations or that second Opening Night screening, so plan your must-sees around them. Students under 25 and seniors get discounted pricing, and the AIFF Insider Membership adds two complimentary general admission tickets, 15% off passes and extra tickets, 20% off merchandise and free AIFF Online access.

There's a bit of a reward for committing early. The full program was announced on August 12, and the in-person box office at Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane opens on September 14, two days before the first screening. The festival itself runs from the 16th to the 23rd, with the AIFF Partners Industry Conference taking place over the first three days, and a week of AIFF Online that carries on until the 27th. The awards are part of the draw too: the Gordon Parsons Award for Best Atlantic Feature, the Michael Weir Award for Best Atlantic Screenwriter and the Joan Orenstein and David Renton Awards for outstanding acting.

It's worth remembering where this all comes from. The festival started as a grassroots effort in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1981 before moving to Halifax in 1982, and it's grown into a registered charity that keeps programming year-round, with AIFF Kids and National Canadian Film Day among it. That history is a nice backdrop to a week that's really about seeing what's new on screen, whether it's a short from down the road or a feature from the other side of the ocean.