Chania Film Festival opens 14th edition on October 21
The Chania Film Festival opens its 14th edition on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, with an opening ceremony at 7:30 p.m. at the Chania Cultural Center (Pnevmatiko Kentro Chanion). Organizers describe the program as spanning roughly 12 days, with around 300 films, 32 premieres and more than 250 guests from Greece and abroad.
Festival director Matthaios Frantzeskakis said the event focuses on “intangible” values rather than material goods, citing ideas, experiences and human stories as its central themes. “Our gaze remains fixed on people. Relationships and stories form our perspective,” Frantzeskakis said, adding that the festival seeks to showcase both historical films and works engaging with current social conditions, while offering a platform for new filmmakers.
Opening night tributes
This year’s opening ceremony will highlight Crete and its creative figures, honoring two people from the worlds of cinema and theatre who live and work in Chania: Marinella Vlachaki and Dimitris Kalogerakis. As part of a special tribute to the late director Nikos Kountouros, his family will receive an honorary award, and the festival will open with his film “O Drakos” (The Ogre).
The festival has expanded its competition sections this year to include Greek and International Short Fiction, Greek and International Short Documentary, Greek and International Feature Documentary, Greek and International Animation, Podcast, and Greek and International Student Film categories, alongside a Youth Award decided by a jury of teenagers who have taken part in a dedicated educational program. An Audience Award and special prizes from partner organizations will also be presented.
Film highlights and special screenings
On October 28, the festival will hold a special screening of the award-winning documentary “Naza” by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. In partnership with the Podilatreis cycling group, the program will include films inspired by bicycles, alongside a panorama of Cypriot films. On Thursday, October 29, the Fournos bar in Chalepa will host a selection of short films accompanied by live music from Melentini, with the venue hosting a separate Melentini concert the following evening.
The festival’s traditional midnight screening on Saturday, October 24, will feature “Vilma: The Last Goodbye” by Kostas Bakirtzis and Kostis Stamoulis. On October 22, Yannis Soldatos’s documentary portrait of Nikos Kountouros, built from decades of material the director collected, will be followed by a discussion with his friends and collaborators. Marianna Economou’s new film “Where Shadows Rest” screens on October 23, while Loukas Paleokrassas’s “Bugboy,” awarded at the 28th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, arrives in Chania on October 31. Vicky Anastasiadou’s “Wheel to Live,” recently honored at the 49th Drama International Short Film Festival, screens on October 27.
The program also includes Angelos Kovotsos’s “When I Went to America,” along with the premieres of Dimitris Vernikos’s “Manos Hadjidakis – The Mirror and the Knife – The Sequel” and Nikos Kavoukidis’s “Mikis, the Lambrakides and Peace.” The international selection includes Alexander Lind’s “Trine on Fire,” Anton Shtuka’s “The Last Prometheus of Donbas,” and Marta Duran Lozano’s “Les culpables.”
Accessibility and education programs
The festival has organized a special screening and film workshop for elderly participants, visits to elder-care facilities, and a dedicated screening and animation workshops for people with disabilities. For the first time, the program includes a VR Screenings section, developed with support from the Thessaloniki Film Festival and the Technical University of Crete, and a daily podcast room will operate throughout the event.
School-focused activities include daily morning screenings for students, visits to rural schools, radio programs and podcasts, mobile-phone filmmaking, the digital shadow-theatre project eShadow, augmented-reality art books, animation sessions, a Manga Lab character-design workshop, and cyanotype printing. On the weekend of October 24–25, the festival will present CineMathimata 2025–2026, a collection of 23 films made by students and teachers through its annual education program. On October 31, the “Stories to Be Heard” program will share award-winning audiovisual works from schools across Greece, and Chania’s 4th Lyceum will stage Bernhard Schlink’s play “20th of July” at the Venizeleio Conservatory. The Hellenic Open University will also present student films from across the country in three parts.
Alongside academic partners including EKKOMED and ASIFA Hellas, the festival has organized a series of international-level workshops and masterclasses covering documentary interview techniques, film music, Chinese ink animation, shadow theatre made from recycled materials, podcast production and sand-art filmmaking. Details are available on the festival’s masterclass page.
Discussions, tributes and exhibitions
Several talks accompany the screenings, including a discussion on sex and disability following Siamak Etemadi’s film “What We Are Made Of,” and a conversation between journalist Alexandra Christakaki, film critic Panagiotis Timogiannakis and actor Yannis Kokiasmenos, who appeared in Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” Psychiatrist Giorgos Nikolaidis, director at the Institute of Child Health, will speak on culture, schools and mental health, and take part in a discussion tied to the comic book “Rock, Paper, Scissors: Children’s Rights in Comics,” illustrated by Giorgos Botsos. A separate panel will address media literacy, while a screening of Eva Libertad’s “Silent Love,” winner of the 2026 LUX Audience Award, will be followed by a discussion with European institution representatives on art and personal testimony. On October 30, the festival will host the Festival Animation Network networking event with support from Animasyros.
A retrospective titled “Between the Lines: A Duet of Chinese Animation” will honor Canada-based independent animator Joe Chang, pairing his work with selected pieces by students of professor Yu Jin from Chinese art schools, alongside related workshops and discussions. The festival will also pay tribute to Hungarian composer, musician and actor Mihály Víg, a longtime collaborator of the late director Béla Tar. On October 26, Víg will perform a 45-minute concert and speak on stage with festival director Frantzeskakis, with screenings of Tar’s films featuring Víg’s music, including “Werckmeister Harmonies” and “Damnation.” On October 25, the festival will hold a morning workshop analyzing the political and aesthetic logic of Tar’s later films, followed in the afternoon by András Kécza’s documentary “There Was a Tower: A Portrait of Mihaly Vig.”
A dedicated tribute to composer Manos Hadjidakis and his ties to Crete will culminate on October 24 at the Venizeleio Conservatory, marking 101 years and one day since his birth on October 23, 1925, in Xanthi. Participants include Giorgos Allamanis, Dimitris Vernikos, Yannis Grosdanis, Nikos Grosdanis, Konstantinos Zorbas, Nikos Kopidakis, Loudovikos ton Anogeion, Giorgos Mitropoulos, Kostas Schizakis, Panagiotis Timogiannakis, Lefteris Charonitis and Zacharenia Kefalogianni, with Frantzeskakis moderating and Giorgos Saltaris providing musical commentary.
Exhibitions tied to the festival will run at the Chania Cultural Center, the ground floor of the Chania Chamber of Commerce (EVE Chanion) and the Venizeleio Conservatory. These include a showcase of work by comic artist Giorgos Botsos, who designed this year’s festival poster, and the exhibition “Manos’s Passage through Crete,” tracing Hadjidakis’s presence in Heraklion, Anogeia and Chania through photographs and documents. A digital exhibition on composer Mikis Theodorakis, produced with the Lilian Voudouri Music Library, the Friends of Music Society and the Pancretan Mikis Theodorakis Association, will also be on display.
Further information on the full festival program is available on the organizers’ website. The Chania Film Festival joins a wider calendar of cultural gatherings on the island this autumn, following events such as Heraklion’s “Summer 2026” festival, and comes shortly after Chania’s Traditional Strata wrapped up its own 2026 season at the Venetian Harbour. Visitors planning to attend can find more cultural listings on the Events in Crete page, as well as workshop and activity ideas through Experiences in Crete.
