Buffalo International Film Festival Unveils 200-Film Lineup for 20th Edition

The Buffalo International Film Festival will screen more than 200 films from over 40 countries across eight days, October 8-15, marking its 20th annual edition.

The festival has announced a program crowned by three galas. Michael Mailer's "Little Audrey," a Vatican-investigation drama filmed in Buffalo and starring Emily VanCamp, Jennifer Esposito, Aidan Quinn and Josh Bowman, opens the festival. Chris Levitus and Zane Rubin's "Doc Meets World," which follows "Boy Meets World" stars Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong through their rewatch podcast and national tour, closes it. A Legacy Gala will present a 4K restoration of Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man," followed by a discussion and audience Q&A with star Gary Farmer, who receives the festival's 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Farmer, born on Six Nations of the Grand River in Ohsweken, Ontario, and raised partly in Buffalo, is widely recognized as a forerunner in the development of Indigenous media in Canada. He founded the Aboriginal Voices Radio Network and published Aboriginal Voices Magazine from 1993 to 2003.

"We're so excited to welcome everyone to our 2026 festival, the centerpiece of our 20th anniversary celebration, which includes additional events and programming beyond the scope of our flagship festival," Executive Director Anna Scime said in the announcement. "We can't wait to once again be in community with our filmmakers and audiences and to deliver an incredible eight-day cinematic experience to the city of Buffalo."

Scime leads the festival's curatorial efforts alongside Artistic Director John J. Fink, working with a committee of board members, staff, community participants and industry professionals. Screenings take place at the historic North Park Theatre, Scene One Market Arcade 8 Cinemas, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center and Buffalo Toronto Public Media (WNED Studios).

The arthouse centerpiece is Lynne Sachs' "Every Contact Leaves a Trace," an essay film built from the roughly 600 business cards the filmmaker has saved over 40 years, entwining personal memory with geopolitical history. Sachs will attend. The documentary centerpiece, Christy Wegener's "All American Girls," examines the American Girl brand's cultural footprint; Wegener, producer Andrea Berman and Connie Porter, author of the Addy series, will be present.

A Decolonial Spotlight section features Zack Khalil and Adam Khalil's "Aanikoobijigan [Ancestor/Great-Grandparent/Great-Grandchild]," in which ancestors trapped in museum archives bend time and space as tribal repatriation specialists fight to return and rebury Indigenous human remains. Zack Khalil will attend.

The documentary slate runs wide. Alex Gibney's "Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie" draws on Rushdie's memoir and never-before-seen footage by his wife, poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Marc Levin's "Workers of Art" examines a New York statewide experiment treating artists as essential workers after COVID. Jeffrey Schwarz's "Mineshaft: The Cruising Murders" revisits the controversy around William Friedkin's 1980 thriller "Cruising." Chris Sessions' "Partners: How Starbucks Baristas Started a Labor Revolution" documents the Buffalo union drive with on-the-ground footage from workers and organizers.

Two Humboldt-titled documentaries bookend local and national themes. G. Anthony Svatek's "Humboldt USA" traces the legacy of Alexander von Humboldt through American places bearing his name; Jillian Hanesworth, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Stephen W. Rosenthal's "Humboldt" charts the fight to restore Buffalo's Olmsted-designed Humboldt Parkway, bulldozed in the 1960s for an expressway that has become a health hazard for surrounding residents.

Other documentary highlights include Leah Galant's Holocaust-memory work "Landscapes of Memory," Shalini Kantayya's dating-app investigation "Love Apptually," Boaz Dvir's hostage-rescue thriller "To Kill a Nazi," William and David Greaves' long-gestating "Once Upon a Time in Harlem" — completed by the director's son more than 50 years after it was shot in 1972 — and Elspeth Victoria Fitzgerald's "The Long Hope," told through Seneca and Mohawk activists.

The narrative features competition brings international names to Western New York. Lee Chang-dong's "Possible Love" connects two married couples through a documentary shoot, exploring hidden desires and class. Hosam Abu Dan's "Thirteen in Gaza" follows a 13-year-old girl, played by Mary Ziyara, living with her father (Firas Al-Masri) in a displacement camp. Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's "Human Resource" watches an HR employee, one month pregnant, interviewing young hires at an unjust Thai company. Travis Hodgkins' "Line of Control" adapts Mirza Waheed's novel "The Collaborator" to 1993 Kashmir.

American indie narratives include Beth de Araújo's "Josephine," about a child who witnesses an assault in Golden Gate Park; Alice Maio Mackay's intergalactic horror "Our Effed Up World"; Kaylin Allshouse's time-loop thriller "Still Ohio"; Joseph Zentil's Rust Belt drama "Born to Lose"; and Liz Sargent's "Take Me Home," centered on a middle-aged Korean adoptee with a cognitive disability caring for her aging parents.

The shorts programs fill out the schedule with 22 themed sections, from "Saturday Morning Cartoons" and "Danger Zone" to "Justice in View" and the experimental "BIFF X0" strands. A "Next Gen" program, curated with Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center, presents youth-made work. Local programming includes "WNY Stories" and Buffalo-shot shorts playing before features.

Tickets and passes are on sale now at buffalofilm.org. Beyond the flagship festival, the 20th anniversary celebration includes additional events and programming, with a growing list of attending guests posted on the festival site.