The Philadelphia Film Festival is in the middle of its 35th edition, which opened on Thursday, October 15 and runs through Sunday, October 25, with more than a week of screenings spread across Center City and Old City. If you have not yet committed to a plan, there is still plenty left to catch before the closing night.
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The festival opened at F1 Arcade at 1333 Chestnut Street with Noah Segan's The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, starring John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Will Price, Tatiana Maslany and Steve Buscemi. The closing night is set for Sunday, October 25 at 9:30 p.m. at Stratus Lounge at 433 Chestnut Street, where Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut plays, starring Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti and Halle Bailey, with Eisenberg having written the original songs. That night also includes a ticketed Fresh Air Live event with Terry Gross and Eisenberg.
Between those bookends, the screenings live at three Philadelphia Film Society venues: Film Society Center at 1412 Chestnut Street, Film Society Bourse at 400 Ranstead Street and Film Society East at 125 S. 2nd Street. The lineup is deep, with Paper Tiger by James Gray screened in 35mm, Ava DuVernay's 14th, Jordan Firstman's Club Kid, Brad Bird's animated Ray Gunn, Tony Gilroy's Behemoth! with Pedro Pascal, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden, Simon Stone's Elsinore, Cristian Mungiu's Fjord, Beth de Araújo's Josephine, La Bola Negra by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, Martin McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine and Pedro Almodóvar's Bitter Christmas.
There is a strong local and premiere presence as well. The Filmadelphia strand carries four world premieres: Big Phan by Hoag Kepner, Gentle by Birth by Doree Simon Hatfield, I Don't Want to Drink Your Blood Anymore by Andrew Sullivan and Joy Will Prevail by Max Korman. Other premieres include the world premiere of The Haunting of Pennhurst, the East Coast premiere of Jay Silverman's Yale, the world premiere of Justin Crowell's Philly Pretzels and the North American premiere of Vadim Egoul's Casualty.
Beyond the main features, the festival is built on themed programs. From the Vaults brings 70mm prints of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, plus 4K restorations of Kwaidan and Raise the Red Lantern. Masters of Cinema features work by Radu Jude, Paweł Pawlikowski, Danny Boyle, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Julia Loktev, David Greaves, Lee Chang-dong, Mike Leigh and Andrew Haigh. State of the Union centers on 14th, Made in USA includes Being Heumann and Bedford Park, Cinema de France rounds up French titles, Non/Fiction covers documentaries, Sight & Soundtrack pairs film with music, After Hours leans into horror and thrillers, and This Animated Life runs animation shorts alongside Ray Gunn.
There are also dedicated shorts programs: a Documentary Shorts strand with Eructation, Escalation, Jimmy's Custom Coffin and Still Standing, and a Narrative Shorts program with A Crime Across Four Landscapes, Crisis Actor and the US premieres of Nobody Said Anything and Spiritus Sanctus. Community Screenings add Elephants in the Fog, Flies, Kikuyu Land, The Oldest Person in the World and Sentient. Special presentations include Tony Gilroy introducing Behemoth! and Karina Longworth presenting a 35mm screening of Douglas Sirk's 1956 Written on the Wind.
Tickets are the one thing to handle early. Member advance sales opened on Wednesday, October 7 at 2:00 p.m., and general admission followed on Friday, October 9 at 10:00 a.m. For the first time, individual tickets are available for the opening and closing parties, so you can pick a single night rather than committing to a full pass.
Published Date
17 October 2026
