Every major film festival's open dates, close dates, and event window — month by month. Plan your 2026 submission run from one page.
Dates below are approximate based on each festival's historical patterns. Always confirm exact deadlines on FilmFreeway or the festival's own site before submitting — they shift by a week or two each edition.
January 2026
Submissions open
· Cannes Film Festival — features & shorts open (closes March)
· Tribeca Film Festival — late deadline runs through February
· SXSW Shorts — final late deadline
Deadlines closing
· Berlinale — final deadlines for features and Generation
Festivals happening
· Sundance Film Festival (Park City, USA)
February 2026
Submissions open
· Locarno Film Festival — early deadlines
Deadlines closing
· Cannes Film Festival — feature submissions
Festivals happening
· Berlinale (Berlin)
· Rotterdam (Netherlands)
· If Istanbul Independent (Istanbul)
March 2026
Submissions open
· Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) — submissions open mid-month
Deadlines closing
· Cannes Film Festival — final short film deadline
Festivals happening
· SXSW (Austin)
· Akbank Short Film Festival (Istanbul)
· Cinéma du Réel (Paris)
April 2026
Submissions open
· Venice Film Festival — features open early–mid month
· LikyaFF — submissions open on FilmFreeway
Deadlines closing
· Locarno — regular deadlines
· Tribeca — earliest late deadlines
Festivals happening
· Tribeca Film Festival (New York)
· Istanbul Film Festival
May 2026
Submissions open
· Sundance — submissions open for 2027 edition (late May)
Deadlines closing
· TIFF — earliest deadlines
· Venice — short film final deadline
Festivals happening
· Cannes Film Festival
· Telluride Mountainfilm
June 2026
Submissions open
· Sundance Shorts — open
· Slamdance — opens for 2027
Deadlines closing
· Venice — feature final deadline
· TIFF Short Cuts — regular deadline
· LikyaFF — early-bird deadline
Festivals happening
· Sydney Film Festival
· Annecy Animation (France)
· Palm Springs ShortFest
· Documentarist (Istanbul)
July 2026
Submissions open
· SXSW — opens for 2027 edition (late July / early August)
· Lycian Way International Film Festival (LikyaFF) — 11–13 September, Antalya
· Venice
· Toronto (TIFF)
· Adana Golden Boll
October 2026
Submissions open
· Cannes 2027 — submissions open late October
Deadlines closing
· Sundance Shorts — final late deadline
· SXSW — regular deadlines
Festivals happening
· BFI London Film Festival
· Busan International Film Festival
· Bosphorus Film Festival (Istanbul)
November 2026
Submissions open
· Locarno 2027 — early opens
· Tribeca 2027 — opens
Deadlines closing
· SXSW — late deadlines
· Berlinale — earliest deadlines
Festivals happening
· AFI Fest (Los Angeles)
· Kendal Mountain Festival
· Banff Mountainfilm
· Malatya International Film Festival
December 2026
Submissions open
· SXSW 2027 — late deadlines
Deadlines closing
· SXSW — final late deadline
· Berlinale — regular deadlines
Festivals happening
· Marrakech International Film Festival
· International Film Festival of Kerala (India)
How to use this calendar
Submit at the early-bird deadline, always
Early-bird saves 30–50% on fees and — more importantly — gets your screener watched while programmers' slates are still open. Late deadline submissions face a slate that's already half-filled.
Plan your festival run in tiers
Pick 3 tier-1 dream festivals (Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, TIFF) and target their earliest deadlines. Then 10–15 mid-tier (LikyaFF, Locarno, Tribeca, Palm Springs) at regular deadlines. Then regional festivals at whatever's affordable.
Watch premiere rules across the calendar
Top festivals require world or international premieres. If your top target is in May (Cannes), don't submit to any January–April festival until you've heard back — or you'll burn the eligibility.
Set 4 calendar reminders per festival
Open date, early-bird close, regular deadline, late close. Most missed submissions are missed because the early-bird deadline passed quietly. A simple calendar with all four dates per target festival prevents this.
LikyaFF 2026
11–13 September 2026 · Antalya
Submissions for the 2026 edition of the Lycian Way International Film Festival are open on FilmFreeway. Early-bird deadlines save 40%.