Cannes Palme D’Or Winner, Major Previews And City-Wide Screenings Announced For 2026 Inverness Film Festival

The Inverness Film Festival will be returning for its 24^th year (13-19 November) with an ambitious programme spanning international cinema, highly anticipated new releases, documentaries, and Scottish filmmaking.

As part of Eden Court’s 50^th anniversary celebrations, the festival will take cinema beyond its usual screens with IFF: On Location – three classic films shown in distinctive Inverness venues. Audiences can enjoy Ghostbusters at Inverness Library, Kidnapped at Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre and Little Shop of Horrors at Inverness Botanic Gardens. The special screenings offer a fresh way to experience much-loved films in memorable settings ahead of the festival’s official opening.

This year’s festival officially opens with Ink, Danny Boyle’s gripping new film about Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of The Sun, starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy. The festival closes with The Debut, Jesse Eisenberg’s funny and heartfelt love letter to community theatre, featuring Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Eisenberg and Halle Bailey.

Among the programme’s preview titles is Fjord, the latest film from acclaimed Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu and winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Starring Renate Reinsve, Sebastian Stan and Lisa Carlehed, this high-stakes courtroom drama centres on a profound moral dilemma. The festival also previews Prima Facie, an adaptation of Suzie Miller’s globally acclaimed play, starring Oscar-nominee Cynthia Erivo as a successful barrister whose experience of sexual assault forces her to confront the shortcomings of the legal system she has devoted her career to.

This year’s programme brings together a compelling range of stories about power, identity, family and belonging. In Mārama, set in 1859, a young Māori woman travels from New Zealand to North Yorkshire, where she uncovers the horrific truth of her colonial heritage and sets out to confront the Englishman who devastated her family. Mike Leigh returns with what is rumoured to be his final film, Tender Loving Care, an astute and often funny portrait of a devoted social service worker navigating the challenges of caring for her ageing father, alongside the changing rhythms of middle age and the sustaining friendship of a lifelong companion.

In James Gray’s Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, two brothers pursuing the American dream become entangled with the Russian mafia, setting off a dangerous spiral of fear, violence and betrayal. I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, directed by Clio Barnard, follows five friends who grew up together on a Birmingham estate. Now in their thirties, they must confront the distance between their youthful dreams and the realities of their lives.

Andrew Haigh’s A Long Winter, adapted from a story by Colm Tóibín, moves to the Colorado Rockies in 1951. When a mother disappears into the wilderness, her son and complicated father join their small mountain community in the search, finding themselves on an unexpected journey through grief, self-discovery and belonging.

The programme features films exploring some of the tensions shaping our world. Bunker, starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Stephen Graham and Paul Dano, follows an ambitious architect tasked with building a luxury survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire, prompting questions about morality, money and the foundations of a marriage. The Education of Jane Cumming, a period drama set in Edinburgh in 1810, explores the lives of pioneering teachers Jane Pirie and Marianne Woods, whose dream of running a boarding school is transformed by an unexpected arrival and a scandalous accusation. Meanwhile in Elsinore, Andrew Scott stars as actor Ian Charleson in the deeply moving true story of his performance as Hamlet while dying of AIDS.

World cinema remains at the heart of the festival. Two new films from acclaimed Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda feature in the programme: Sheep in the Box, in which a grieving couple adopt a humanoid android modelled on their deceased son, and Look Back, a live-action adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s celebrated manga about two young artists whose shared passion for drawing shapes a friendship over 13 years.

Silent Friend, directed by Ildikó Enyedi, traces the lives of three people across different eras, each drawn into the orbit of a remarkable ginkgo tree in a university botanical garden. Calle Málaga, starring Carmen Maura as a Spanish woman living in Tangier, offers a warm, sensual and humorous story of a woman determined to keep her home who unexpectedly rediscovers love and freedom.

Documentary highlights offer equally powerful perspectives on people, place and the world we inhabit. We, The Hated takes audiences inside the climate protest movement Just Stop Oil, as director Rich Felgate documents activists planning controversial acts of civil disobedience amid growing government repression. Nuisance Bear follows a polar bear whose ancient migration brings it into conflict with tourists, wildlife officers and hunters, exploring the uneasy relationship between human communities and the wildlife with which they share their landscape.

In To Hold a Mountain, a mother and daughter return each summer to their ancestral pastures in Montenegro, where their way of life is threatened by plans for a military training ground. As the mother emerges as a leader in the fight to protect the landscape, her daughter begins to question her own past and future. The Best Summer takes audiences back to the 1995 Summersault music tour, using director Tamra Davis’s personal footage to capture the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Bikini Kill and others on the road and at a formative moment in their careers.

Inverness Film Festival will also be celebrating the breadth of filmmaking talent closer to home. The Filmlands Network’s Inverness Shorts Showcase brings together recently produced short films from across the Highlands and Islands, followed by a Q&A with filmmakers, networking drinks and an audience vote for a favourite film. Supported by Screen Scotland, the event offers audiences a chance to discover emerging regional talent and meet the people making films across the area.

The programme features Trad Treasures: Jimmy Hutchison, a documentary celebrating the life and work of the celebrated Scots and Gaelic singer and traditional weaver. Born in South Uist, Hutchison learned from some of Scotland’s great traditional singers and has crossed paths with many leading figures in the Scottish folk revival. He will attend the screening to talk about his life and perform traditional songs.

The festival is delighted to partner with local bakehouse and coffee shop XOKO this year, reflecting a shared commitment to bringing people together through film, food and community.

Festival Director Paul MacDonald-Taylor said:

“There’s plenty in this year’s festival to spark conversation, from films tackling conflict, politics and climate to stories exploring identity, belonging and the ties that bind us. And, as part of Eden Court’s 50th anniversary, we’re taking cinema beyond our usual screens with three classic films in some very special locations around Inverness.

“From major new releases and international discoveries to documentaries, restored classics and emerging Highland filmmakers, Inverness Film Festival offers audiences the chance to experience cinema in all its variety – and discover films they might not otherwise encounter on the big screen.”

Tickets for this year’s Inverness Film Festival are available now at Inverness Film Festival | Eden Court