The 26th annual Phoenix Film Festival is almost here! Just two days left! It starts on April 9 and goes until April 19, 2026.
The Phoenix Film Festival is held at the wonderful Harkins Scottsdale 101 and will feature over 200 films. There are also plenty of special events for you. Find more information HERE about this year’s events.
Many of us in Arizona, who love to cram in 100 movies (I exaggerate a touch) in one week, look forward to The Phoenix Film Festival, for the fun of it, the joy, the companionship and the friends we make along the way.
The movies on the streaming services aren’t new very often, and certainly not as new as what you find at a film festival. Most of them have yet to get distribution and you, with your opinions, can help that happen. Film festivals are important, as are those who attend them. YOU.
Here in Phoenix, not only do they have the best people running the festival, but you get out of the heat and have a chance to run into Camerahead. He’s a lovely mascot, always friendly and available. You’ll see him running around from start to finish.
During this eleven-day event, you’ll also have opportunities to see and possibly chat with filmmakers about their projects. Their short films, feature films, or documentaries. Listen to what they are proud to present to you, one-on-one or hear them during panels. By the way, I can’t recommend this festival enough. If you’ve gone to others, this will be at the top of your list.
HERE is the schedule so you can organize everything and have the most fun possible… Directly below is the trailer for the closing-night film.
*Continue beyond the trailer for my conversation with Jason Carney, the Director of the Phoenix Film Festival.
CLOSING NIGHT FILM!
Spotlight
After last year, the anniversary being the primary focus and all, what can we tell people the theme is for 2026?
We never really shoot for a theme. We just want to show movies we think are cool. Even for the 25th Anniversary, it just boiled down to showing the best films we could get. I feel like we have a few extra bank robbery movies this year (and they’re great), but otherwise we just want to show movies we think people will like.
Have you seen an improvement since we’ve moved further from COVID?
Our attendance got back to the pre-COVID level last year. I think that’s attributed to us continuing to program a huge variety of films that hopefully opens the festival to more potential audience members, but also gives our diehard fans more to choose from.
How long does it take to program your best each year?
We start accepting films in June, so roughly ten months before the film festival. That call for entries run until early December, and we select films from mid-January until mid to late February.
Who does most of the curating, or is it a team effort?
We have 18 different programmers who are selecting films for us. Everyone has their own sections and programs them autonomously. They are all very different personalities with different tastes. And I think that makes a big difference in giving us a variety of films.
Who handles the volunteers and paid positions in your Festival?
I oversee the team as a whole but we have volunteer department leaders that manage their departments and fellow volunteers. We have two full-time employees and 72 volunteer leadership staff with a combined 448 years of PFF experience. So our folks have been with us an average of nine years. We don’t have a ton of turnover. Mostly we just continue to add to our team as we grow our programming.
Kids Day is a big deal every year. Anything new and fun for the kids this year?
Kids’ Day continues to be something we love doing and a great way to give back to the community. This year, we have four different family-friendly shorts programs. We have Big Kid Flicks, Little Kid Flicks, Girls POV, and Hola Cine!
What do you do to make sure you have equity and inclusion in this, the best, festival?
It’s just something we’re mindful of each year. However, the creation of our Community Spotlight categories really helps us ensure we’re not slipping. Additionally, we make a concentrated effort to market our call for entries to a diverse group of filmmakers. And frankly, we count on word of mouth from filmmakers who have been in the festival and see the effort we’re making to be an inclusive event rather than exclusive.
If you get a chance, give Jason a thumbs up and a smile to let him know what a good job he has once again done in ensuring us that Phoenix is special and in entertaining you. See you there and HAVE FUN!!!
What's your take?
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