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★ Staff pick
Mill Valley Film Festival 49 - DATES TBD
Running annually since the 70s, 2026 is the 49th run of this high-profile but friendly festival. The event shows hundreds of films from both new filmmakers and established artists across a number of beautiful venues. Exact 2026 dates TBA but expect early - mid October.
Date
Thursday, October 1
Time
12:00 AM – 12:00 AMPDT
Tickets
See link for pricing
Get tickets →via mvff.com
ost events of the MVFF can feel homey in a way that might make you miss that some of the films being screened are A Big Deal. Of course, you'll definitely figure it out if you see Chloé Zhao or Spike Lee on a red carpet, as you may have in 2025.
The festival is presented by the non-profit California Film Institute. The connected education program sends festival filmmakers out into Bay Area schools, and the festival dedicates programming space to women and non-binary filmmakers as well as underrepresented cultural groups.
Tickets for the buzziest events can be hard to grab, while smaller films will sell out but with less of a mad rush. Your strategy for attending might take a different shape depending on how much you want to prioritize specific features and events.
Early Bird passes & ticket packs go on sale early August. Check this page in August. It's important to note that the general public ticket packs (in 2025, 6 movies for $92.50) do not give you earlier access to reservations. For that, there are tiers of CA Film Institute membership + ticket pack (starting at Director's Circle 6-pack plus membership at $400 in 2025) that let you purchase at the members pre-sale dates. Or for the all-in all-out experience, passes (starting with Bronze at $2750 pp in 2025) come with access to pretty much everything at the festival including opening & closing nights.
Early/mid September program is released. This is when you'll want to check the site to ID anything you've really got your heart set on seeing.
CA Film Institute member pre-sale by tier. Right after the program release, pre-sales begin based on membership level.
General public ticket sales open about 2 weeks before opening day. Highly encouraged to reserve in advance if you have certain films in mind. Groups of 10+ that are associated with a school, nonprofit, film club, community group, etc can get a discount but must book at least 10 days in advance.
During the event, browse by availability or try for rush tickets. Not everything sells out in advance, plus the festival releases last minute tickets at noon daily. Bookmark the Available Films page to take a que sera approach to the festival.
Each year the festival welcomes more than 200 filmmakers, representing more than 50 countries. Screening sections include World Cinema; US Cinema; Docs; Family Films; Shorts; and Active Cinema, MVFF’s activist films initiative. Festival guests also enjoy Tributes, Spotlights and Galas throughout. The relaxed and non-competitive atmosphere surrounding MVFF, gives filmmakers and audiences alike the opportunity to share their work and experiences in a collaborative and convivial setting.