From September 11 to 18, Split will once again become a meeting point for contemporary auteur cinema, emerging filmmaking voices and audiences looking for something more from the cinema. The 31st edition of Split Film Festival brings eight days of films and programmes dedicated to work that does not always play by the rules.
September traditionally marks a change of pace in Split. After months in which the city is dominated by the intensity of the tourist season, its cultural scene moves back into focus-including Split Film Festival, an event that has spent more than three decades building a distinctive presence on Croatia’s and the international film scene.
Taking place from September 11 to 18, 2026, the 31st edition of Split Film Festival continues its commitment to contemporary auteur cinema and film practices that challenge conventions, raise new questions and offer different perspectives.
For more than thirty years, the festival has been dedicated to discovering emerging filmmakers, presenting contemporary cinema and creating a space where film can exist beyond predetermined formats. This year’s programme will once again bring audiences films that often exist outside major distribution networks, established genre categories and familiar festival formulas. Instead, the focus remains on filmmakers, new cinematic languages and stories that expand our understanding of what cinema can be. At a time when the way we watch films is changing almost as quickly as cinema itself, the festival experience takes on a renewed value. The big screen, a shared screening, conversations after the film and direct encounters with filmmakers create a context that streaming platforms cannot reproduce. The festival therefore remains a space where film is not simply consumed as content, but experienced as a shared artistic and social event.
Details of the 2026 programme will be announced in the coming weeks. For eight days this September, Split Film Festival will once again offer a different perspective on where cinema stands today-and where it might go next.