We’re excited to announce our in-competition programme for our 16th edition! The 2026 ESFF opens on Friday 6th November Filmhouse Edinburgh and continues until 21st November at the Filmhouse and Summerhall. FULL PROGRAMME With 7 nights of in competition short films competing for our 2026 awards, ranging from Chinese neo-noir to Finnish stop motion and from Kurdish documentary to Australian horror!

On the evening of 24 December, somewhere in a On the evening of 24 December, somewhere in a drab suburb, young Abdou –a dreamy pizza delivery boy –meets the real Santa Claus, whose name is Marcel. The old man is worn out and weary, and a silly scooter accident threatens to derail his delivery run. Thanks to Abdou, who enlists the help of a few eccentric characters from the neighbourhood, the deliveries go ahead after all. Amidst the chaotic mayhem, Christmas is saved through music and song!

As cities around the world modernise, enclosing As cities around the world modernise, enclosing open-air dumps and outlawing waste-picking have become key strategies of urban reform. The Waste Commons explores the dramatic transformations surrounding the impending closure of Dakar’s city waste dump in Senegal and the lives that hang in the balance. The film follows charismatic Zidane, trailblazing Adja, and their community of waste pickers as they defend their carefully crafted worlds and their right to waste.

Agnès Varda’s tender evocation of the childhood Jacques Demy is a wonder-filled portrait of the artist as a young man and an enchanting ode to the magic of cinema. Shot in Demy’s hometown of Nantes (including the house he grew up in), this imaginative blend of narrative and documentary traces his coming of age as he finds escape from the tumult of the Second World War in puppet shows, fairy tales, opera, and, above all, movies – the formative experiences that would fuel his vivid Technicolor imagination and find unforgettable expression in his exuberant New Wave masterworks.

Part of I Like It Here: A New Season Celebrating Community, Human Connection and Love, a series of 8 screenings presented by Grassmarket Community Picturehouse and the Edinburgh Film Guild. Bill Forsyth's Local Hero is a film that needs little introduction. It is the ultimate celebration of small town, country life, as Peter Riegert's Mac can't help but be charmed by the small highlands town he is sent to on a work mission from America. Peter Capaldi, Burrt Lancaster, Jenny Seagrove and Denis Lawson round out a wonderful ensemble. Watch and you too will be unable to resist a move to the highlands! Tickets £3/£5/£7 on a sliding scale, with free entry for Grassmarket Community Project Members, open door meal attendees, and anyone else in need of a free ticket. Please select the ticket price that feels right to you; all income from tickets will be directly used to support the continued running of our cinema screenings. Supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funding on behalf of Screen Scotland and the BFI National Lottery. Notes Duration: 111 minutes Certificate 12A - implied strong language, moderate sex references The film will screen with English descriptive subtitles, transcribing both dialogue and key audio information from the film. The screening will start promptly at 2pm without trailers The Grassmarket Community Project is a wheelchair accessible venue

When she released this trailblazing debut feature - one of the first feature-length films directed by a woman in Hungary - Marta Mészáros was already a known figure, with over 30 acclaimed short films under her belt in both fiction and documentary. The Girl establishes the key themes that would come to define Mészáros’s work: complex family relationships(especially between a child and parent), tensions between traditional rural and urban spaces, and the search for a grounded existence in an ever-changing world. The film introduces Mészáros’s first female lead Erzsi, portrayed by singer Kati Kovács, who embodies the spirit of a modern, strong-willed woman. Raised in a state orphanage in Budapest and working in a factory, Erzsi decides to travel to the countryside to meet her birth mother. On her journey of self-discovery she encounters a world at odds with her independence. Hungarian with English subtitles. Screening as part of the Glasgow Film Theatre CineMasters: Marta Mészáros season, urated by Invisible Women in collaboration with curator Maggi Hurt.

Film Screening - Edinburgh - The Queen and the Smokehouse / Bałtyk, dir. Iga Lis Out Of The Blue Arts & Education Trust, Edinburgh, EH6 8RG Sunday 15th November 2026 The Queen and the Smokehouse / Bałtyk, dir. Iga Lis present: The Queen and the Smokehouse / Bałtyk, dir. Iga Lis Poland, 2025, 77 min. Scottish premiere Sunday, November 15th 7:00 p.m. (Doors: 6:45 p.m.) Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Edinburgh 30–38 Dalmeny St, EH6 8RG PWYC (£6, £8, £10) Language: Polish with English subtitles Rating: 15+ Tickets: With a prerecorded introduction from film critic and film scholar Karolina Kosińska. The Queen and the Smokehouse is a cinematic journey to the Polish Baltic coast, where the wind, salt and smoke shape everyday life. The film opened the 65th Krakow Film Festival, transporting audiences into the world of Miecia, the legendary figure behind Łeba’s iconic seaside smokehouse. For forty years she has built a place defined not only by craft, but by character. Her fish, her humour and her presence have become part of the town’s folklore, remembered long after the holiday crowds return home. The film portrays the last pockets of authenticity in places increasingly transformed by tourism. It reflects on disappearing traditions, the passage of time and the strength of women who build their lives around ambition and care for others. The Queen and the Smokehouse is an intimate, vivid portrait of resilience, humour and the fragile moment between what has been and what might still come. The Baltic coast becomes a character of its own: its rhythms, its stubborn charm, its people. The film captures a passing era, where independent seaside smokehouses and spirited female entrepreneurs are slowly giving way to uniform corporate competition. Iga Lis’s debut documentary has received significant acclaim, including an ORŁY Polish Film Awards (known as Polish Oscars) nomination for Discovery of the Year, a triumphant Opening Night premiere at Krakow Film Festival, the Jantar Award for Best Cinematography at Młodzi i Film, and the Audience Award at Sopot Film Festival’s DOK.PL Competition. The screening is enriched by a programme of short films presented in collaboration with Scottish Documentary Institute, including Community Theatre, dir. L. Baillie nominated for this year’s BAFTA Awards. Presented by Borscht Film, in collaboration with Scottish Documentary Institute. Borscht Film - Polish Film in Scotland is a Scotland‑based project dedicated to showcasing bold, imaginative cinema from Poland, with a focus on contemporary film, documentary, emerging voices, Polish classics, and films for young audiences. All screenings are presented with English subtitles. Supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, funded by Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding from the BFI. Borscht Film Polish Cinema Season 2026/27 is supported by the Screen Scotland National Lottery Film Festival & Screening Programme Fund and by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Edinburgh.

On November 15th, we observe the anniversary of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, written by beloved poet Mahmoud Darwish, with 3 films focused on Palestinian life and living. We first present two shorts: Sorry (2024) by John Greyzone and A Message (2026) by Mama Ganuush, before the documentary film Bye Bye Tiberias (2025, 82 mins) by Lina Soualem. Inspired by Toronto Palestine Film Festival’s Gaza Lives tribute to artists lost in the genocide, Sorry employs a dark satirical voice to deepen solidarity with the boycott of Eurovision and the Dump Elbit campaign. Mama Ganuush's A Message, posits Palestinian Futurism: where Palestinians in exile are the architects of their own freedom. Finally, Soualem's Bye Bye Tiberias traces the intimate memories of 4 generations of Palestinian women in her family, moving between family footage, historical archives and present day images, to seize and preserve what stands as proof of a denied existence. All tickets £6. We have also allocated a number of free tickets (available on our Tickelab site) for those not in a position to pay. If you would like to help support our free ticket initiative, you can pay it forward (also available on our Ticketlab site). The films are presented with English subtitles. Leith Kino! A weekly community cinema night based at Leith Depot. Join us for weekly screenings, celebrating films that are international, experimental, arthouse, trash, cult, a little bit strange, and maybe otherwise hard to see on the big screen. There will be free (vegan) popcorn. Drinks and refreshments are available to purchase at the Depot bar, alongside our monthly posters, each designed by a different Leith-based artist. Leith Kino Access Information English subtitles will be onscreen for every screening, including descriptive subtitles where possible. The screening room is on ground level and is wheelchair accessible from the Leith Depot bar with flexible seating to accommodate specific requirements. There are accessible toilets in both the screening room and the bar. If you have any questions about access or if you need to reserve a specific seat, please email us at leithkino@gmail.com Leith Depot is well-served by public transport. It's a short walk from the Foot of the Walk tram stop, and there is a bus stop outside the venue for services: 7, 14, 16, 25, and 49

A fascinating documentary about the renovation A fascinating documentary about the renovation of a legendary cinema in Paris (Gaumont now Pathé Palace) led by architect Renzo Piano . Filmed over three years, it presents a microcosm of society, examining the realities of the work that goes into creating the magic of cinema, with all its roles and hierarchies. The project synthesises themes Swiss director Jean-Stéphane Bron has long explored, this time through the specific lens of a construction site. It follows the relationships among architects, owners, contractors, engineers, workers, and cleaning staff. Fascinated by the site, he sees it as a metaphor for a post Covid-19 society rebuilding itself.

A journey through the war memorials of the First A A journey through the war memorials of the First World War scattered throughout France. These statues, present in almost every town, embody the memory of the missing soldiers, often forgotten in modern daily life. By revisiting these works of stone and bronze, director Jérôme Prieur invites us to look beyond the simple monument, to perceive the personal and collective stories they represent.