Cambridge Film Festival tickets are on sale for 22 October to 1 November at the Arts Picturehouse. Wild Horse Nine closes it; seven family films are free.

The 45th Cambridge Film Festival runs for eleven days, from Thursday 22 October to Sunday 1 November 2026. The Cambridge Film Trust, the charity behind it, has published the first programme on its website, and every screening listed so far is at the Arts Picturehouse.

The quick answer

  • When: Thursday 22 October to Sunday 1 November 2026.
  • Opening film: Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Thursday 22 October at 8.20pm, Arts Picturehouse.
  • Closing film: Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, Sunday 1 November at 8.45pm.
  • Free for families: seven Family Film Festival screenings at 11am, all free.
  • Booking: open. Each film page on the festival site now links to the Arts Picturehouse’s own booking pages.

Updated 5 October: booking has opened, the closing film and the remaining galas have screening times, and three more free family films are scheduled. The Voice of Hind Rajab is no longer on the gala list.

The festival site does not print ticket prices; they appear when you pick a seat on the Picturehouse booking page.

Opening and closing

The festival opens with I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Clio Barnard’s adaptation of Keiran Goddard’s novel about five Birmingham friends who grow apart after their council estate is demolished. It stars Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole, Jay Lycurgo, Daryl McCormack and Lola Petticrew, runs 109 minutes and is rated 15. It screens twice: Thursday 22 October at 8.20pm and Friday 23 October at 6pm. Barnard is also this year’s recipient of the festival’s Outstanding Contribution Award, and her earlier film Ali & Ava is showing on Saturday 31 October at 1.45pm.

The only other film in the festival’s Opening and Closing strand is Wild Horse Nine, Martin McDonagh’s 1973-set CIA comedy with John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey. It closes the festival on Sunday 1 November at 8.45pm, its only listed screening.

The gala screenings

The festival’s gala page lists nine films, all at the Arts Picturehouse:

Film First screening Second screening
Fatherland Fri 23 Oct, 8.30pm
A Long Winter Sat 24 Oct, 8pm Sun 25 Oct, 6pm
I Love Boosters Sun 25 Oct, 8.30pm Tue 27 Oct, 6.35pm
Minotaur Mon 26 Oct, 9.05pm Sun 1 Nov, 6pm
Coward Tue 27 Oct, 8.50pm Wed 28 Oct, 6.20pm
Fjord Wed 28 Oct, 8.50pm Fri 30 Oct, 6pm
The Dreamed Adventure Thu 29 Oct, 8.20pm Sat 31 Oct, 3.55pm
The Debut Fri 30 Oct, 8.50pm Sat 31 Oct, 6.15pm
The Blood Countess Sat 31 Oct, 8.20pm Sun 1 Nov, 6.40pm

When we first wrote this page on 28 September, the gala page said The Voice of Hind Rajab, the Venice Grand Jury Prize winner, would headline the selection. By 5 October it had gone from the gala list and its film page returned “page not found”. The festival has not said why.

Free films for families over half term

The Family Film Festival is back for October half term, and the festival says all its screenings and activities are free. Screenings are relaxed, with the house lights low and the volume reduced, and there are arts and crafts in the cinema restaurant an hour before each one. The family strand lists these times so far:

  • Beauty and the Beast, Saturday 24 October, 11am
  • The Secret Garden, Sunday 25 October, 11am
  • Wicked, a sing-a-long screening (PG, 160 minutes), Tuesday 27 October, 11am
  • Ron’s Gone Wrong, Wednesday 28 October, 11am
  • Little Women, Thursday 29 October, 11am
  • Freakier Friday, Friday 30 October, 11am
  • Addams Family Values, Saturday 31 October, 11am For everything else on that week, see our Cambridge October half term page.

Anniversary screenings

This is the festival’s 45th year. As part of that, Portrait of a Lady on Fire has a 45th-anniversary screening on Sunday 25 October at 3.20pm, and 24 Hour Party People shows on Saturday 31 October at 7.05pm. The trust’s anniversary page describes the festival as eleven days of independent and international cinema “at the Arts Picturehouse and partner venues across Cambridge”, with BAFTA and BIFA qualifying screenings. No partner venue has any screenings listed yet: all 103 screenings on the programme on 5 October were at the Arts Picturehouse.

2026 compared with 2025

2025 2026
Dates Thu 23 Oct to Sun 2 Nov Thu 22 Oct to Sun 1 Nov
Length Eleven days Eleven days
Edition 44th 45th

The festival moved to eleven days running across two weekends in 2025, its announcement said, a format it had not used since 2015. The 2025 audience awards went to Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day (fiction), Shades of Survival (documentary) and Monsters (short), from more than 2,300 votes.

Getting there

The Arts Picturehouse is in the city centre, so evening screenings are easiest on foot, by bike or by bus. If you are driving in, our parking in Cambridge page covers the multi-storeys and Park and Ride, and Cambridge roadworks and travel lists anything dug up on the way. Note that Fireworks Night on Midsummer Common falls four days after the festival ends: see our Cambridge Fireworks Night page.

What is still to be confirmed

  • Ticket prices, which the festival site does not publish; they show on the Picturehouse booking pages.
  • Partner venues beyond the Arts Picturehouse.

This page will be updated again in festival week.

Sources