Maine International Film Festival announces complete 29th program
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 5, 2026
Contact: Chris Melville, [email protected]
WATERVILLE, MAINE—The Maine Film Center has confirmed the full program for the 29th edition of the Maine International Film Festival, held in Waterville, Maine July 10–19, 2026. In what festival director Mike Perreault describes as the “broadest MIFF program yet,” this year’s festival will screen 112 movies, including new American indie, classic rediscoveries, international premieres from over 40 countries, and 21 made-in-Maine productions.
The festival will open on July 10 at the Waterville Opera House with Katie Aselton and Mark Duplass’ touching new coming-of-age film Their Town, about two high school students who run in different circles unexpectedly brought together in a production of Our Town. The festival will conclude on July 19 with an Opera House screening of the new ESPN documentary Give Me the Ball!, about trailblazing tennis star Billie Jean King.
Among the international highlights is a curated program of Québécois films, including two features and seven shorts, presented in partnership with Québec’s Festival du Film de Knowlton.
Knowlton’s Executive and Artistic Director Julie Bradet will, alongside Maine Playweek founder and publisher Julia Dunlavey and Mashariki African Film Festival founder and CEO Trésor Senga, jury MIFF29’s annual Tourmaline competition. The two Tourmaline Prizes honor the best feature-length and short Maine-made films of the year. Nineteen films—three features and 16 shorts—will compete for this year’s Tourmalines.
As previously announced, the Maine Film Center will present three MIFF Moose Awards this year, honoring prolific Oscar-nominated producer Christine Vachon, writer/director Alan Rudolph, and producer and longtime MIFF supporter Mike Kaplan. The full lineup includes five of Vachon’s films (Late Fame, Past Lives, I’m Not There, Far from Heaven, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch), four of Rudolph’s (The Moderns, Trouble in Mind, Choose Me, and Remember My Name), and two of Kaplan’s (The Whales of August and Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country).
The Maine Film Center is also excited to screen the world premiere of Ikawa: Coffee That Connects for free at the Waterville Opera House Sunday, July 12, at 1pm. Ikawa is a student-made Maine-Rwanda documentary coproduction illustrating how something as simple as a cup of coffee orchestrates surprising and unlikely connections between Waterville and Kigali. Student filmmakers from the Mid-Maine Technical Center will be present for a Q+A. The film is the latest chapter in a years-long collaboration between MIFF and Rwanda’s Mashariki African Film Festival.
Visit MIFF.org for the full festival lineup and to reserve passes. Those who have already purchased their passes can now enjoy a full week of advance access to ticket reservations for individual screenings before individual tickets become publicly available June 12.
About the Maine Film Center
The Maine Film Center (MFC) brings world-class independent film and filmmakers to Maine through year-round independent film screenings, the annual Maine International Film Festival, and by delivering impactful, accessible exhibitions and education programs. Founded in 1978 as Railroad Square Cinema, MFC is now a division of Waterville Creates and a member of the Art House Convergence and Film Festival Alliance. For more information visit MaineFilmCenter.org.
About MIFF
Founded in 1998, the Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) is a project of the Maine Film Center. The 10 days of the festival showcase nearly 100 films, representing the best of American independent and international cinema, and spotlight some of Maine and New England’s most exciting and innovative filmmakers.