CIFF Calgary

The Calgary International Film Festival's mission is “to entertain and engage audiences by curating the most innovative and compelling films, and creating remarkable festival experiences.”CIFF operates on the traditional territories of the Treaty 7 region, which includes the Blackfoot First Nation tribes of Siksika, Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley and the Region 3 Metis Nation of Alberta.

The first Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) was held in 2000 for six days, and was attended by 8,000 people. Now, attendance had more than quadrupled to over 35,000 for the expanded 11-day festival.

In 2020, CIFF celebrated its 21st year, September 24 - October 4. The 11-day showcase of 180 multi-genre feature and short films from Canada and around the world also hosted a Behind the Screen series that emphasized unique and exciting ways for filmmakers and fans to interact. For the first time, our virtual cinema program was available for audiences across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

Calgary International Film Festival is now the largest film festival in Alberta and is the sixth-largest in Canada. It is also an Oscar-qualifying festival for short films, a Canadian Screen Award Qualifying festival, and was named one of "50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee" in 2009, 2016, 2017, 2019 & 2020 by MovieMaker Magazine.

In addition to Calgary International Film Festival, we present three-film series year-round: MoS Docs, a series dedicated to showcasing the year's most talked and compelling music documentaries from around the world, Top Docs, a six-month screening series of award-winning and critically acclaimed documentary film and our third series introduced in 2019, Global Perspectives, a new contemporary world cinema series. We also host an Oscar-Nominated Shorts Weekend every February.