The SCAD Savannah Film Festival will return for its 29th year Saturday, Oct. 24 through Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026 filled with cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Each year, the university-led festival is one of the largest in the Southeast US with more than 74,000 people in attendance at the eight-day festival. 

 

The SCAD Savannah Film Festival has become a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, hosting exclusive screenings, competition films, feature films, documentaries, shorts, animated films, panel discussions, and workshops at SCAD's historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces. The SCAD Savannah Film Festival brings visiting creative talents face-to-face with students from SCAD's School of Film and Acting and School of Animation and Motion Media. Through master classes, coffee talks, portfolio reviews, and other engagements, guests share their expertise directly with the next generation of filmmakers, animators, and actors.

 

Returning programs include The “Docs to Watch” series, hosted by Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter, spotlighting the ten best documentaries of the year; Variety returns with its “Artisans to Watch” hosted by Jazz Tangcay and “Pixels and Pencils” hosted by Clayton Davis; and Entertainment Weekly’s “Breaking Big” panel recognizes the next generation of Hollywood talent. Deadline is also set to return with its “TV Sidebar” highlighting some of the hottest new series on television.

 

At last year’s event, SCAD screened 26 Oscar-nominated films, including eight of the Best Picture nominees. 17 of the festival’s honorees and panelists went on to receive Oscar nominations with 8 going on to win. Among the nominees in attendance were Best Actress Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Best Supporting Actress Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value), Best Casting winner Cassandra Kulukundis (One Battle After Another), Best Cinematography winner Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Sinners), and Best Animated Feature winner Kpop Demon Hunters (Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans). Over 200 SCAD alumni also worked on 21 of the films nominated for Oscars including seven of the 10 Best Picture Nominees, three nominees for Best Animated Feature, and every nominee for Best Visual Effects.

Additional guests and honorees in 2025 included Will Arnett, Craig Brewer, Miles Caton, Park Chan-wook, Jon M. Chu, Zoey Deutch, Joel Edgerton, Dakota Fanning, Brendan Fraser, Regina Hall, Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Rian Johnson, Spike Lee, Dylan O'Brien, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Benny Safdie, Amanda Seyfried, Kristen Stewart, Sydney Sweeney, Miles Teller, Tessa Thompson, and many more.

 

Festival passes for 2026 are available now. Individual event tickets will go on sale October 2 online at filmfest.scad.edu  or in person at the SCAD Box Office  at 216 E. Broughton St. in Savannah.

 

Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok @savfilmfest. For additional information and tickets, visit filmfest.scad.edu.