🎬 San Francisco International Film Festival hosted by SFFILM. Be part of film festival history. In this vibrant city surrounded by stunning natural beauty—where imagination and tenacity creates the latest technology alongside boundary pushing art—SFFILM has hosted the San Francisco International Film Festival for nearly 70 years. And yes, we are the longest-running film festival in the Americas!

"Few festivals are more suited to their city than the San Francisco International Film Festival. It’s clearly a festival programmed by those who love film for people who love film.” — Variety

📅 Save the Date • Apr 24 –May 4, 2026
In 2026, we celebrate the 69th San Francisco International Film Festival with 11 days of film screenings, world-class talent, parties and receptions, captivating talks, a film industry summit, college days, and a schools program exclusively for local students and educators.

🌟 Why the San Francisco Int’l Film Festival? We show what film can do.
• World-class talent from the past seven decades including Akira Kurosawa, Steven Soderbergh, Ousmane Sembène, Greta Gerwig, Celine Song, Spike Lee, Michelle Yeoh, Francis Ford Coppola, Christopher Nolan, Shah Rukh Khan, Charlize Theron, and so many more
• Engaged, eager, film‑savvy audiences, and a vibrant local film community
• Expertise all around—thoughtful on stage moderation, strong presence of film industry veterans, and notable annual juries
• Industry talks and pitch sessions to discuss future projects and funding resources through SFFILM Programming and Artist Development
• School visits, student screenings, and hands-on workshops through SFFILM Education
• College visits through our College Days program, bringing films and filmmakers to classrooms
• Exclusive experiences for attending filmmakers to unwind, connect, and explore with curated events featuring gorgeous San Francisco as the backdrop: Filmmaker Brunch, parties, happy hours, city walks, talks, and so much more

âś… Premiere Requirements & Eligibility
• California premiere for competition features
• Bay Area premiere for shorts and mid-lengths. Please note the Bay Area includes all nine counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma).
• Films are only eligible if the film premiered after June 1, 2025
• Films previously shown theatrically, on VOD, web, or broadcast are not eligible. Films shown in festivals in other states are eligible.

📝 Full submission details under RULES & TERMS below.

“As a Bay Area native, the work that SFFILM has supported and shepherded into the world has inspired me long before I even knew I wanted to be a filmmaker. My feature debut, DÌDI (弟弟), opened the 2024 San Francisco International Film Festival. It was nothing short of a proper homecoming. 10/10 festival experience!!” — Sean Wang

Awards & Prizes

Golden Gate Awards: Juried Competitions and Audience Awards

The San Francisco International Film Festival is proud to be:
• An Academy Awards® Qualifying Festival for short films in Live Action, Documentary, and Animation.
• A Cinema Eye Honors Qualifying Festival for nonfiction filmmaking.

🏆Golden Gate Awards (GGA)
First awarded at our very first festival in 1957, the Golden Gate Awards have nearly 70 years of honoring the best in international and independent cinema, celebrating excellence and innovation across narrative features, documentaries, mid-lengths, shorts, animation, and youth-produced work.

Our festival juries, composed of influential industry professionals, will recognize winners in Documentary, New Directors, Global Visions, Cine Latino, and several shorts categories.

💰 Cash Prizes — 2026
• $5,000 Kirby Walker Documentary Award — Best Documentary Feature
• $5,000 Global Vision Award — Best Feature in the Global Vision section
• $5,000 New Directors Award — Best Feature in the New Directors section

Additional cash prizes will be awarded for Cine Latino, Mid-Length, and Short categories.

🏅 Recognition
All finalists receive official festival laurels and inclusion in our dedicated Awards press release. Audience Awards for Best Narrative Feature and Best Documentary Feature are determined by audience ballot.

đź“© Questions about eligibility? Contact gga@sffilm.org.

Rules & Terms

🎯 Premiere Requirements
• California premiere required for competition features
• Bay Area premiere required for shorts and mid-lengths. Please note the Bay Area includes all nine counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, SF, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma)

âś… Eligibility
• Films are only eligible if the film premiered after June 1, 2025
• Films previously shown theatrically, on VOD, web, or broadcast are not eligible. Films shown in festivals in other states are eligible.

🌉 Bay Area Discounts
Directors or producers (only) who are current residents of the San Francisco Bay Area (from Monterey to Mendocino: ZIP codes 93901 to 95457) are eligible to receive an entry-fee discount and are eligible for our Bay Area awards, presented to a documentary feature film and a short film.

đź“Ą How to Submit
We accept entries only through FilmFreeway. Projects sent by email, post or social media will not be considered. SFFILM may, but is not required to, disqualify or reject any film that is not submitted in this manner and cannot promise a response to inquiries if the project has not been officially entered via FilmFreeway.

Incomplete application / entry forms will not be accepted and will need to be re-submitted.

All applicants must complete a brief survey. By tracking responses each year, SFFILM is able to measure and improve upon our commitment to supporting artists from diverse backgrounds around the world.

đź’µ Entry Fees
• Entry fees are non-refundable .
• Submit by the early deadline (Sep 26) to lock in the lowest fee.
• The Festival is unable to waive entry fees or provide discounts.

🎬 Multiple Titles
You may submit any number of titles; however, a separate entry form, preview copy, and entry fee are required for each title. If the Festival determines a work is entered in the wrong category and needs to reassign it, any discrepancy in entry fees between the categories must be paid by the filmmaker.

đź‘Ş Family Films Program
Narrative, documentary, and animated shorts under 30 min that suit ages 7+ may be considered in our popular Family Films program. Note “Family Films” on your application. This program traditionally mixes emerging talent with established filmmakers such as Domee Shi, Glen Keane, Aaron Blaise, Bill Plympton, Cartoon Saloon, Aardman Animations, and Tonko House. Please indicate on your application to be considered for the Family Films program.

🔧 Works-in-Progress
Rough cuts or WIP are accepted and reviewed. However, filmmakers are urged to submit the most finished version possible. We cannot guarantee review of updated links once a project is submitted .

All entrants will be notified of the Festival’s decision by March 19, 2026.
23 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Gabriel Motta

    We had an amazing time at SFFILM. The programming was outstading! Such good films, both features and shorts. The team is really great, they create a great environment for networking and connecting with fellow filmmakers.

    Thank you, SFFILM!

    May 2026
    Helpful
  • Di Zhang

    A fantastic film festival—well worth the journey.

    May 2026
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  • Dahee Kim

    I left this years edition of the SFFILM festival with a renewed sense of purpose and pride as a filmmaker. The programming was very thoughtful and considered. I felt a very genuine passion about the films from the programming team through their comments and questions. Even as a big festival it felt very local and community driven. They did a lot to bring filmmakers together with mixers, tours around the city, industry events. I left the festival with a full heart, many new friendships, and creative inspiration as I embark on my next endeavor.

    May 2026
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  • Erin Ramirez

    SFFILM is by far one of my favorite film festivals to date. With its thoughtful and organized programming, filmmakers feel very taken care of and a part of a unique, tight-knit community that functions almost like a fellowship in its own right. Through meet-and-greets, filmmaker and industry events and tours around the city, filmmakers get the chance to experience being a part of a thriving international filmmaking community and discover the wonders of Bay area filmmaking. SFFILM is always a festival I am happy to return to. Thank you for the generosity!

    August 2025
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  • Jess X. Snow

    On a rare occasion, a festival will remind you why embarking on the path of independent filmmaking was actually worth all the uncertainty and hard work. SFFilm did that for me. A gem of a festival. 💎 I was moved by their excellent programming from emerging and established voices from all over the world, and how community-oriented their spirit was. They are deeply committed to uplifting the fabric of independent filmmaking. SFFilm is truly embedded into the Bay Area community, and you feel it at every screening. Through their artist development program they nurture indie filmmakers as they embark on the transition from shorts to features; one of the most difficult moments of a filmmakers career; where a little bit of support can make all the difference. They programmed the North American premiere of Roots That Reach Toward The Sky and the California premiere of We Were The Scenery in the same block last year and did a very good job in working with our team to ensure the theater was filled. They also included Roots in their schools to the festival shorts program where a crowd of middle school students who asked me the most imaginative and exciting questions. Jordan Klein is one of the most thoughtful programmers and q&a moderators I’ve ever worked with. Once in a while the labor of love that you put into making a film comes back to you in the form of a screening with a live audience; and I felt that here. I made some friends here with programmers, filmmakers and producers here that will last a lifetime. You really feel the work and love that gets put into this festival each year. It was the best festival experience I had in 2025.

    August 2025
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