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!

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.

That Summer in Paris is less a postcard from the That Summer in Paris is less a postcard from the Olympic Games than a snapshot of the City of Light at a very particular moment in time. The focus is on 30-year-old Blandine who travels from Normandy to watch the swimming competitions. Overwhelmed by the city’s chaos and a streak of misfortune, she navigates the bustling streets and an unexpected reunion with her half-sister Julie whom she hasn’t seen for ten years.

We are back with a double bill of early 90s trash, projected live from VHS!Some people will explode! Rutger Hauer will wear cool shades! We will see dystopian visions of future years 2017 and 2008! Old horizons in audio-visual entertainment, completely free! Split Second is a buddy cop dystopian future sci-fi horror jam set in a climate-change-flooded London starting Rutger Hauer as a hardass Peeler trying to bring down a monster. Kim Cattrall and a surprising bunch of British character actors co-star. Fortress is a Stuart Gordon film in which Christopher Lambert gets sent to a future-prison run by Clarence Boddicker from Robocop where they monitor your dreams and if you do wrong, they blow up your guts with a bomb called an intestinator. It's just as dumb as it sounds but it's loads of fun with it.

Wed 11 Nov at 14 and 18 The narrative revolves around a mystery writer caught unawares by his cousin, a vicar, who shows up unannounced for a visit. Since the servants have just walked out, the writer’s wife hides from the vicar, taking care of the cooking, cleaning and other household chores. To explain his wife’s absence as hostess, the writer concocts an excuse which only makes the vicar convinced that he has done away with his spouse. Things go from bad to worse and eventually Scotland Yard is called in to clear things up.

Márta Mészáros broke new ground as the first woman to win the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 1975 with Adoption. Kata (Katalin Berek), an unmarried factory worker in her forties, is caught in a secret affair with Joska (László Szabó), a married man with two children. Longing for motherhood, Kata faces heartbreak when Joska refuses to give her the family she so desperately wants. Meanwhile Anna (Gyöngyvér Vigh), a spirited ward of the state, is fighting for her independence so she can marry her boyfriend. As their lives intertwine, Kata and Anna forge a powerful connection which highlights the shared experience of women’s daily struggles, and the political and social forces that define them. 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.

Chloe Moretz stars in this action film about a female WW2 pilot on a top secret mission who meets an evil presence on board her flight 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. Notes Duration: 83 minutes Certificate 15 - strong language, sex references, bloody images, threat, racist terms The film will screen with English descriptive subtitles, transcribing both dialogue and key audio information from the film. The film will start promptly at 7pm without trailers The Grassmarket Community Project is a wheelchair accessible venue

With the Tour de France due to start off from Lucio, Lucio, 26, suffers from dystonia, a condition that causes speech and movement disorders. However, he has embarked on a crazy challenge: to walk and cycle around France in less than 99 days. Accompanied by his mother, he will discover France, his country that he only knows through television, and prove that with enough determination, you can make your dreams come true.

This Autumn, Glasgow Women's Library is delighted to present Collections On Camera: a series of film screenings and activities celebrating feminist cinema related to our collections. From much-beloved classics of DIY filmmaking to captivating documentaries, join us to celebrate women’s stories of joy and resilience. Archival documentary Sisters with Transistors, directed by Lisa Rovner, traces the forgotten history of women’s role in the rise of electronic music. Featuring pioneers such as Clara Rockwell and Laurie Spiegel, the film reveals how musical experimentation can give way to social liberation. Following the screening, join us for a panel discussion with Arusa Qureshi, music journalist and programmer, and Suzi Cook, GLOSS (Glasgow Library of Synthesized Sound) Co-Founder and one-half of Free Love. The film will be screened with subtitles and the panel discussion will be live captioned. 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.

Exploring the challenges of modern family Exploring the challenges of modern family structures, the film follows a single father, a feminist bookshop owner, and a child seeking a place to belong as they navigate love, desires, and redefining what it means to be a family. By revealing their aspirations, their fears, their choices, writer/director Carine Tardieu depicts different ways in which humans create families. Based on the novel L’Intimité by Alice Ferney, the title scooped a César for best film.