The Full Programme for the 2026 Tampere Film Festival Has Been Released

Tampere Film Festival will be held for the 56th time on 4–8 March, and the full programme has now been published. Tampere Film Festival is one of Europe’s most significant short film festivals, bringing together thousands of film lovers and industry professionals in Tampere every year.

The festival kicks off on Wednesday, 4 March, with the Opening Screening at Finnkino Cine Atlas, featuring a selection of short films from various festival screenings. The festival week continues with more than one hundred film screenings at Finnkino Cine Atlas and Arthouse Cinema Niagara until Sunday, 8 March. In addition to film screenings, the festival also hosts events open to the general public as well as events aimed at film industry professionals.

At the heart of the programme are the competition screenings in the festival’s prestigious competition categories: the International Competition, the National Competition, and the Generation XYZ Competition dedicated to genre films. The competitions culminate in the Awards and After Party on Saturday, 7 March, at the atmospheric Comedy Theatre Palace. Alongside the competition screenings, the festival presents an extensive thematic programme and several intriguing special screenings.

Two Star Guests and Emerging Talents

The 2026 festival will welcome both a Finnish and an international guest of honour: Ulla Heikkilä and Rúnar Rúnarsson. In the Spotlight: Ulla Heikkilä programme presents a retrospective of short films by director and screenwriter Ulla Heikkilä, as well as a Carte blanche screening curated by Heikkilä herself, featuring films that are important to her.

Heikkilä is known for her feature films Eden (Finland, 2020) and Life Is a Party (Elämä on juhla, Finland, 2025), and her short films have been screened at numerous festivals around the world. At Tampere Film Festival, the following short films from her body of work will be shown: #barewithme (#sovitus, Finland, 2016), Waste Land (Joutomaa, Finland, 2016), Let Her Speak (Sweden, Finland, 2019), and Golgatha (Finland, 2016). Heikkilä will be present at the screenings and will also serve on the jury of the National Competition.

Rúnar Rúnarsson is an Icelandic film director and the founder of the production company HALIBUT. His films have received international acclaim for over two decades. In the Spotlight: Rúnar Rúnarsson screenings present a selection of his short films as well as the feature-length fiction film Echo (Bergmál, Iceland, 2019). Rúnarsson will also attend the festival in connection with the screenings, and audiences will have the opportunity to explore his career and work in a free, open-to-the-public Masterclass discussion.

Rising stars will also be given a platform in several screenings, including the student film showcases Kino-TAMK and ELO: New Student Films, as well as the PITCH screenings, which consist of award-winning graduate thesis films from a joint pitching event between five Finnish film schools. In addition, audiences can once again discover films created within 48 hours in the Nordic region’s largest short film challenge in the Uneton48 screening, as well as the work of Euphoria Borealis ry’s short film workshops in the Kino Euphoria screening, held for the 15th time.

Films on Faith, Southeast Asia, and Gems of the Archives

As part of the festival’s thematic programme, the Faith programme presents films from the 1960s to the present day that examine Christianity sharply yet respectfully and with open curiosity. The programme includes a public discussion titled Faith and Democracy, organised in collaboration with Tampere University’s Democracy Research Network.

Geographically, the 2026 programme turns its focus to Southeast Asia in the screenings 20 Years of Capturing Reality in Southeast Asia. The films shed light on the film industry of a multicultural, rapidly changing, and deeply conflicted region, documenting real life in the area. The programme also includes a discussion event that requires advance registration, where invited guests will talk about what it is like to make films in a politically unstable region.

Gems from the Archives are showcased in the National Audiovisual Institute’s (KAVI) Finnish Film Archive screenings. The first screening, 100 Years of Radio in Finland, celebrates the centenary of the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle with documentaries about Finnish radio. The second screening, Tampere in Short, presents atmospheric films depicting Tampere in the 20th century, and the third, Young and Restless, features films about Finnish youth culture from the 1940s to the 1980s.

Following the tradition of the late festival legend Raimo “Rake” Silius’s Rake Special, this year’s successor is Films Worth Kisses, a programme curated by Festival Director Jukka-Pekka Laakso, consisting of memorable films from the history of Tampere Film Festival.

Special Screenings and Activities for Children

The special screenings include the traditional free live-accompanied screening at Tampere Cathedral, featuring the silent film classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Germany, 1920). A world premiere will be held for the feature-length Vastavirta Documentary (Finland, 2026), which delves into the history of a legendary punk club in Tampere. To mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, the festival will screen the documentary The Day Iceland Stood Still (Iceland, 2024), about the women’s general strike that transformed Iceland in 1975, as well as Force of Habit (Finland, 2019) in collaboration with Yle Teema.

Free events combining discussion and film include Böhle Studios: Animations, showcasing all three animated films by Böhle Studios, and Witness: Arctic Indigenous Voices III, presenting a documentary programme by filmmakers from Indigenous peoples of the Arctic region.

For younger audiences, free screenings Minikino 1 and 2 are offered: the first features short films suitable for children aged 3 and over, and the second for children aged 7 and over.

Explore the Full Programme on Our Website:

Screenings

Events

Industry Programme

Screening tickets and Serial Cards will be available in our online shop starting on 10 February at 13:00. The festival’s own ticket outlets will open on 2 March. More information about tickets can be found on the Tickets page of our website.