Top 10 Films to Watch at CIFF 2026 (Calgary International Film Festival)

Top 10 Films to Watch at CIFF 2026

(Calgary International Film Festival)

The Calgary International Film Festival returns from September 24 to October 4, 2026, with more than 200 films, and there is a tremendous amount of overlap between this list and the festivals I have been covering all year. Downbeat was my favourite film at SXSW. Jim Queen showed up on my Fantasia list. A Long Winter, Smudge the Blades, Club Kid, and Once Upon a Time in Harlem were all already on my radar heading into TIFF.

One of the nice things about CIFF is getting another shot at films that can become almost impossible to fit into a TIFF schedule, while also having plenty of room for Alberta films, Canadian work, and titles that have not spent the previous six months accumulating festival hype.

There are some particularly appropriate bookends this year. Andrew Haigh‘s A Long Winter, which was shot in Southern Alberta, opens the festival as the Day One Spotlight+ presentation at The GRAND. Cody Lightning, meanwhile, returns to CIFF three years after Hey, Viktor! closed the festival, with Smudge the Blades taking the Closing Night slot.

So, here are 10 of the top films to watch at the 2026 Calgary International Film Festival.

Also worth knowing: Servus Credit Union is making 1,000 tickets available for free on Monday, September 28, as part of CIFF’s Free Movie Monday.

10. Smudge the Blades

Premiere Status: Calgary Premiere

Section: Alberta Features, Canadian Narrative Features, Spotlight+

Notable Festivals: Toronto International Film Festival 2026

The Treaty 6 Blades are a struggling U-18 team of teen boys — and one girl — in their last year of eligibility. When their team is kicked out of the league, the local arena’s Zamboni driver offers to coach. His intentions aren’t totally pure, as he has his sights set on wooing hockey mom Chanelle Okimâw, but despite his shortcomings the underdog team begins to come together.

The second feature from Cody Lightning (HEY, VIKTOR!, CIFF 2023 Closing Night) is a raucous coming-of-age sports comedy brimming with heart. Riffing off teen sports classics like THE MIGHTY DUCKS, Cody brings the genre into the 21st century with grit and charm. RESERVATION DOGS stars Paulina Alexis (BONES OF CROWS, CIFF 2022) and Jana Schmieding turn in fantastic performances alongside a stellar Ed Helms (THE STUNT DRIVER, CIFF 2026). Cody Lightning’s charm looks effortless as he shines onscreen making SMUDGE THE BLADES a must-see entry in the Canadian sports film genre.

Director: Cody Lightning

Cinematography: Liam Mitchell

Cast: Cody Lightning, Jana Schmieding, Ed Helms, Paulina Alexis, Treycen Wuttunee, Isaiah Kakepetum, River Rayne Thomas, Elijah James Lee Moar, Ezekiel Mekanak, David McNally

Why Smudge the Blades Is Worth a Watch

I loved Cody Lightning‘s Hey, Viktor!, and Smudge the Blades is another very specific Indigenous story from him, this time through rez hockey.

Lightning has talked about casting hockey players he could teach to act, but what really helps is having young Indigenous performers who understand the communities, humour, relationships, and pressures the film draws from. That gives Smudge the Blades a specificity that separates it from the usual underdog sports movie.

TIFF gave Lightning and the film the Best Canadian Discovery Award after its world premiere, and now it comes back to Alberta as CIFF’s Closing Night film, three years after Hey, Viktor! closed the festival.

When is Smudge the Blades Playing at CIFF 2026?

• October 4, 2026 — 6:30 PM — The Grand, Flanagan Theatre — Closing Night Spotlight+

Guest(s) are expected to attend the October 4 screening.

9. A Long Winter

Premiere Status: Alberta Premiere

Section: Special Presentations, Spotlight+

Notable Festivals: Toronto International Film Festival 2026

With a screenplay adapted by Andrew Haigh (45 YEARS, CIFF 2015; ALL OF US STRANGERS) from Irish novelist Colm Tóibín’s celebrated short story, A LONG WINTER follows Mike (Fred Hechinger, THE WHITE LOTUS; THELMA), a young man on the cusp of adulthood whose world is upended when his mother disappears during the season’s first blizzard. As the search stretches from days into weeks, the relentless winter becomes inseparable from the family’s slow, painful reckoning with the possibility that she may never return.

Hechinger is joined by a remarkable ensemble, including Ebon Moss-Bachrach (THE BEAR) as a father struggling to express his grief, and Caitríona Balfe (Oscar-nominated for BELFAST) as a wife increasingly isolated by the rugged landscape around her. Kit Connor (HEARTSTOPPER) and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (RESERVATION DOGS) round out the cast.

Filmed against the stark, natural grandeur of Southern Alberta, A LONG WINTER is a hauntingly beautiful portrait of loss, family, and endurance from one of contemporary cinema’s most profound filmmakers.

Director: Andrew Haigh

Cinematography: André Turpin

Cast: Fred Hechinger, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Caitríona Balfe, Kit Connor, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai

Why A Long Winter Is Worth a Watch

Andrew Haigh directed All of Us Strangers, one of my favourite films of the last decade, and A Long Winter returns to a lot of the territory he handles so well: grief, loneliness, desire, repression, masculinity, and families that are not particularly good at talking to one another. The film is much stranger and less conventional than its missing-mother premise initially suggests.

There is also the obvious Alberta connection. André Turpin shot the film on celluloid in Southern Alberta, roughly an hour outside Calgary, with Fred Hechinger, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Caitríona Balfe, Kit Connor, and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai making up an excellent ensemble. After having it so high on both my overall TIFF list and Canadian TIFF list, I am very happy it is getting an Alberta premiere as CIFF’s Opening Night film.

When is A Long Winter Playing at CIFF 2026?

• September 24, 2026 — 7:00 PM — The Grand, Flanagan Theatre — Opening Night Spotlight+
• October 3, 2026 — 3:30 PM — Globe Down

8. X-Communicado

Premiere Status: North American Premiere

Section: Alberta Features

In a world where demons roam and souls are currency in an ethereal arms race, Jael (Jocelyn Chugg, THE PREDUTCHIAN, CIFF 2026) – a mute emissary scarred by her past – must protect a damaged soul and shepherd it to safety for purification. Unfolding on an otherworldly wasteland dotted with futuristic cities, a high-octane cat-and-mouse chase ensues, with the sinister mercenary, Papa Limbo, fiercely on her trail. The fiendish Limbo has designs on the soul in question, and he will stop at nothing to claim his mark. Unable to escape and outwit her nemesis when the pursuit escalates, Jael will have to enlist old allies to discover who sold her out.

Director: Brian King

Cinematography: Daniel Horch

Cast: Jocelyn Chugg, Rico Pfeiffer, David M.F. Baran, Jeff Schnell, Charlie Gould, Emily Howard, Scott Roberts

Why X-Communicado Is Worth a Watch

There is an obvious Calgary reason for having X-Communicado this high. We get plenty of productions shooting in Alberta, but genuinely independent Calgary features made by people working in the local film community have a much harder time reaching an audience.

Jocelyn Chugg has been part of that community for years, not just as an actor, but as somebody regularly involved with local filmmakers, organizations, events, and emerging artists. Seeing her lead a Calgary-made genre feature at CIFF is exactly the sort of thing I want a local festival to make room for.

I also like the ambition of Brian King going this big with an independent feature. Demons, futuristic cities, action, stunt work, and an entire supernatural mythology are not exactly the easiest route into independent filmmaking.

When is X-Communicado Playing at CIFF 2026?

• September 26, 2026 — 6:00 PM — Globe Down

Guest(s) are expected to attend the September 26 screening.

7. The Snake

Premiere Status: Alberta Premiere

Section: Canadian Narrative Features

Notable Festivals: SXSW Film & TV Festival 2026

When Jamie collides with her venomous mother, her life blows up spectacularly, leaving her unhoused and newly single. This sets her off on a pig-in-a-hurricane journey for “home”: breaking into her Nana’s house, a rejected bid to move in with her van-dwelling ex, and crashing at her best friend’s pied-à-terre, which ends disastrously after Jamie sleeps with her friend’s husband. This all lands her in the worst home of all, jail.

Jenna MacMillan’s debut feature showcases a Prince Edward Island story seldomly captured on film. Susan Kent, who also wrote the film, perfectly embodies Jamie, poor decision-making and all, as she was awarded a Special Jury Mention for her performance at the SXSW Film Festival. THE SNAKE is a raucous late-in-life coming-of-age film that’s sure to have you cheering for Jamie through it all.

Director: Jenna MacMillan

Cinematography: Kevin A. Fraser

Cast: Susan Kent, Jonathan Torrens, Robin Duke, Emma Hunter, Kim Roberts, Dan Petronijevic

Why The Snake Is Worth a Watch

I caught The Snake at SXSW, where it was one of the more purely entertaining Canadian films I saw. It is messy, ridiculous, very funny, and completely committed to its East Coast perspective rather than smoothing that regional identity into something more generic.

Susan Kent is a huge part of the appeal, and her performance earned the SXSW Special Jury Award for Performance. There are also some strong emerging performances around her, which helps the film keep its energy even when it is pushing pretty hard into absurdity.

This is not especially grounded filmmaking, and I do not think it is trying to be. If you are willing to go along with its sense of humour and its increasingly chaotic choices, The Snake is a lot of fun, with enough heart underneath it to keep the whole thing from becoming disposable.

When is The Snake Playing at CIFF 2026?

• September 26, 2026 — 8:30 PM — The Plaza
• September 30, 2026 — 4:00 PM — Cineplex Chinook 13

Guest(s) are expected to attend the September 26 screening. For each individual ticket purchased to the September 30 screening, CIFF will donate $2 to the Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth.

6. Jim Queen

Premiere Status: Alberta Premiere

Section: After Dark Features

Notable Festivals: Cannes Film Festival 2026, Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2026, Fantasia International Film Festival 2026

Jim, sexy icon of the Parisian gay scene, sees his life turned upside down when he contracts Heterosis, a strange virus that transforms gay men… as heterosexuals! It’s then everyone turns their backs on him except for his last follower (and first admirer), Lucien, a young man who struggles to assume himself. Together, they will leave in search of a mysterious remedy capable of healing Jim and preventing the extinction of homosexuality…

Directors: Nicolas Athané, Marco Nguyen

Cast: Jérémy Gillet, Alex Ramirès

Why Jim Queen Is Worth a Watch

I saw Jim Queen at Fantasia, and I am very happy it has found its way to Calgary. I wanted at least one animated film on this list, and this was a pretty easy choice.

A queer adult comedy about a virus that turns gay men straight should give you a decent idea of the wavelength Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané are working on. It is ridiculous, extremely specific, and completely uninterested in making itself more respectable for a broader audience. Underneath all of that are ideas around desirability, body hierarchy, HIV/AIDS anxiety, gay nightlife, and the pressure to perform a particular kind of identity.

Mostly, though, Jim Queen is a wild and very fun movie that does not look or feel much like anything else at CIFF.

When is Jim Queen Playing at CIFF 2026?

• September 26, 2026 — 9:30 PM — Globe Up
• September 29, 2026 — 9:30 PM — The Plaza

5. Once Upon a Time in Harlem

Premiere Status: Alberta Premiere

Section: International Documentary Competition

Notable Festivals: Sundance Film Festival 2026, Cannes Film Festival 2026

A decade after his death, genre-defying filmmaker William Greaves has one last trick up his sleeve with what he considered the most important event he captured on film: a 1972 party he engineered with the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. For four hours, this extraordinary group – many of whom had not seen each other in fifty years – reminisced, critiqued, argued, laughed and drank while wrestling with their place in a rapidly shifting cultural landscape. Shot on 16mm film, newly restored and now directed by Greaves’ son David, this landmark film is at once a self-exploration and an inquiry into the heart of the critical mass of energy called the Harlem Renaissance. William Greaves’ intent was not only to document these artists and intellectuals as they spoke about their lives and work but also to plumb the meaning of the extraordinary creative period in which they lived to help us better understand how culture has been passed on from one generation to another and the role that the artist plays in keeping it alive.

Directors: William Greaves, David Greaves, Liani Greaves

Cinematography: David Greaves, Doug Harris, David Hoffman, Jerry Pantzer

Featuring: Arna Bontemps, Ida Mae Cullen, James Van Der Zee

Why Once Upon a Time in Harlem Is Worth a Watch

The history behind Once Upon a Time in Harlem is almost enough on its own. William Greaves filmed a 1972 gathering of artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals who had actually lived through the Harlem Renaissance, leaving roughly 60,000 feet of 16mm footage that remained largely unseen for decades.

After Greaves died, his family kept the project alive, eventually bringing together footage and audio that had been separated across different collections. His son David Greaves, who had operated a camera at the original gathering, ultimately helped complete the film more than 50 years later.

The real draw is getting these people talking among themselves rather than having their history explained retrospectively. They remember, disagree, joke, correct one another, and argue about what the Harlem Renaissance meant while many of its central figures were still alive. There are not many documentaries where the archival material is this genuinely irreplaceable.

When is Once Upon a Time in Harlem Playing at CIFF 2026?

• September 26, 2026 — 12:30 PM — Globe Down
• October 2, 2026 — 9:00 PM — Cineplex Chinook 10

4. Filipiñana

Premiere Status: Alberta Premiere

Section: Contemporary World Cinema

Notable Festivals: Sundance Film Festival 2026: Special Jury Award for Creative Vision; Berlin International Film Festival 2026

Isabel, a 17-year-old from the rural north of the Philippines, works at a posh country club outside Manila. Amid stifling heat and pervasive drought, she lines up golf balls for powerful men to drive into the carefully manicured horizon. But something is rotting beneath the pristine fairways of the elite resort. The deeper she journeys into its most exclusive corners, the closer she gets to the violent truths of the club, her native Philippines, and her own past.

FILIPIÑANA is the feature debut of writer-director Rafael Manuel, expanding on his Silver Bear-winning 2020 short film of the same name. The film premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision, before going on to screen at the 2026 Berlinale.

Director: Rafael Manuel

Cinematography: Xenia Patricia

Cast: Jorrybell Agoto, Angeli Bayani, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman

Why Filipiñana Is Worth a Watch

Filipiñana is probably one of the riskier recommendations on this list. It has been fairly divisive on the festival circuit, but the people who connect with Rafael Manuel‘s feature debut tend to connect with it very strongly.

Sundance certainly did, giving the film the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. Manuel takes a golf resort and uses its rigid hierarchy — wealthy members playing while workers quietly serve them — as a much broader look at class, land, labour, and power in the Philippines.

The formal approach is just as specific: Academy-ratio compositions, long takes, minimal camera movement, and characters repeatedly dwarfed by the resort around them. If slower, more formally controlled filmmaking is your thing, this could easily end up much higher on your own CIFF list than it is on mine.

When is Filipiñana Playing at CIFF 2026?

• September 26, 2026 — 2:45 PM — The Plaza
• September 28, 2026 — 3:15 PM — Cineplex Chinook 13
• October 1, 2026 — 1:00 PM — Cineplex Chinook 13
• October 4, 2026 — 7:00 PM — Cineplex Chinook 14

3. Club Kid

Premiere Status: Alberta Premiere

Section: Special Presentations

Notable Festivals: Cannes Film Festival 2026: Un Certain Regard, Toronto International Film Festival 2026

Washed-up thirtysomething New York scenester Peter (Jordan Firstman, I LOVE LA), awakening from a decade-long hangover, receives an unexpected visitor: the 10-year-old British son (Reggie Absolom) he never knew he had. The result of a lone, long-forgotten sexual encounter, the boy is in desperate need of care following his mother’s death. Though Peter has never put his heart into anything other than promoting massive parties, becoming an insta-dad prompts him to reconsider his hedonistic, drug-fueled lifestyle.

Swerving from irreverent satire to genuine pathos, this wildly funny and remarkably assured feature debut from writer-director-actor Firstman is an unusual and satisfying take on the challenges and pleasures of queer millennial life—and a loving reminder that it’s never too late to come of age.

Director: Jordan Firstman

Cinematography: Adam Newport-Berra

Cast: Jordan Firstman, Reggie Absolom, Diego Calva, Cara Delevingne, Colleen Camp, Kirby Howell-Baptiste

Why Club Kid Is Worth a Watch

Jordan Firstman went into Cannes with plenty of people wondering what his internet persona would look like stretched into a feature, and came out with one of the festival’s major breakout titles. A24 eventually paid a reported $17 million for worldwide rights.

Firstman also appears to have made something much more sincere than the obvious version of this premise. The New York nightlife, queer community, comedy, and excess are still central, but so is the relationship between Peter and his son, without treating growing up as a simple rejection of the life he already has.

There is some serious craft behind it too. Adam Newport-Berra shot the film on 35mm, and Firstman has cited filmmakers ranging from Scorsese and Andrew Haigh to Olivier Assayas and Agnès Varda. That is considerably more interesting to me than simply seeing whether a comedian can carry a feature.

When is Club Kid Playing at CIFF 2026?

• September 29, 2026 — 8:45 PM — Globe Up
• October 2, 2026 — 2:45 PM — Cineplex Chinook 10

2. I Play Rocky

Premiere Status: Alberta Premiere

Section: Special Presentations

Notable Festivals: Toronto International Film Festival 2026

Before ROCKY made Sylvester Stallone a star, he was a struggling actor with little more than a dream and a screenplay. Inspired by Muhammad Ali’s legendary bout with Chuck Wepner, Stallone wrote a story about an underdog boxer who refuses to give up. When a studio wants the script but not its unknown writer-star, Stallone refuses to let anyone else play the hero.

Directed by Oscar-winner Peter Farrelly, and featuring a breakout performance from Anthony Ippolito as the young Stallone, I PLAY ROCKY chronicles the improbable journey from poverty and obscurity to one of Hollywood’s most iconic success stories. As Stallone fights to get his deeply personal project made, the production itself becomes an unlikely underdog tale, filled with setbacks, impossible odds, and sheer determination.

With sweat, humour and plenty of heart, I PLAY ROCKY captures the making of a movie that changed Hollywood and the extraordinary man who refused to let anyone else tell his story.

Director: Peter Farrelly

Cinematography: Sean Porter

Cast: Anthony Ippolito, AnnaSophia Robb, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Matt Dillon, Jay Duplass

Why I Play Rocky Is Worth a Watch

If you want the straightforward crowd-pleaser on this list, I Play Rocky is probably the safest bet. It finished as the first runner-up for TIFF’s People’s Choice Award, which is a fairly strong endorsement from an audience that had hundreds of films to choose from.

The story behind Rocky is also almost tailor-made for this kind of movie. Everybody knows Stallone eventually gets the film made and becomes a star, but the actual process of an unknown actor refusing to sell his script unless he could play the lead is a pretty remarkable underdog story in its own right.

Anthony Ippolito has also been one of the major talking points coming out of TIFF, while Jay Duplass playing Rocky director John G. Avildsen gives anyone still riding the Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie high another reason to pay attention. This is exactly the sort of big, accessible festival movie that should play very well with a CIFF crowd.

When is I Play Rocky Playing at CIFF 2026?

• October 2, 2026 — 9:15 PM — The Grand, Flanagan Theatre
• October 4, 2026 — 11:00 AM — Cineplex Chinook 10

1. Downbeat

Premiere Status: Canadian Premiere

Section: New American Cinema

Notable Festivals: SXSW Film & TV Festival 2026

Down-on-his-luck drummer Mauro flees a trail of bad decisions and lands on his sister Isa’s couch in Boston. With no money and nowhere to go, he begins busking as a bucket drummer. As playing on the streets brings small wins, he falls back in love with the freedom and pounding momentum that made him chase music in the first place.

From Danny Madden, director of 2020’s highly acclaimed Sundance entry, BEAST BEAST (CIFF 2020), DOWNBEAT is set to the rhythms of the street, resulting in a raw, relentlessly high-energy portrait of an artist using music as escape, and the collateral damage left behind when movement replaces growth.

Director: Danny Madden

Cinematography: Danny Madden

Cast: Daniel Rashid, Addie Weyrich, Arkira Chantaratananond

Why Downbeat Is Worth a Watch

I saw Downbeat at SXSW, where it was my favourite film of the festival, and now, into September, remains one of my favourite films of all of 2026.

There is a raw electricity to Downbeat that feels inseparable from the way it was made. Danny Madden, working within the self-described “American Broke Wave” ethos he has developed alongside Pete Ohs, shot the film on a used $900 camcorder without a traditional crew. The result feels scrappy, deeply alive, and completely suited to a story about an artist trying to make something out of whatever is around him.

Daniel Rashid actually busked and interacted with real people during production, while the sound design folds drums into cars, bikes, skateboards, birds, and the noise of Boston until the city itself becomes percussive. There is also a brother-sister relationship at the centre that gives the film a different emotional texture than the usual romantic or parent-child dynamic.

More than anything, Downbeat is the kind of film that makes you want to go out and make something yourself. That was true when I saw it at SXSW, and it is still the easiest reason I can give for having it at number one here.

When is Downbeat Playing at CIFF 2026?

• October 1, 2026 — 5:45 PM — Cineplex Chinook 12
• October 3, 2026 — 12:00 PM — Globe Up