Tacoma Film Festival

Tacoma Film Festival Named "one of the 25 coolest film festivals in the world" by MovieMaker Magazine "The programming at TFF had such a progressive vision of cinema.

The festival had a definite voice and created a warm atmosphere for filmmakers and cultural workers. This was the first film festival I attended where the acknowledgment and recognition of Indigenous people and their land was made visible. I appreciated that intentionality." — Masami Kawai, TFF alum

Submissions are open for the 20th annual Tacoma Film Festival, running October 22-25 at The Grand Cinema! Get your film ...
04/16/2026

Submissions are open for the 20th annual Tacoma Film Festival, running October 22-25 at The Grand Cinema! Get your film in by our Spring Deadline next Monday, April 20 and save on the price of submission. We offer fee waivers for ALL TFF alumni, as well as any filmmakers based in Tacoma OR any films made in Tacoma, and we’ve also got student discounts!

As a Pacific Northwest festival, we will give special preference to films with a strong connection to the PNW, but we WILL be featuring films from all over the world this year!

Learn more and submit online on our FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/tff

03/18/2026

Submissions are NOW OPEN for the 20th annual Tacoma Film Festival, running October 22-25 at The Grand Cinema! Get your film in by our Early Bird Deadline this Friday, March 20 and save on the price of submission. We offer fee waivers for ALL TFF alumni, as well as any filmmakers based in Tacoma OR any films made in Tacoma, and we’ve also got student discounts!

As a Pacific Northwest festival, we will give special preference to films with a strong connection to the PNW, but we WILL be featuring films from all over the world this year!

Learn more and submit online on our FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/tff

Catch the best of the fest, split into three screenings of short films! Programs will feature the 19th TFF Juror awarded...
10/16/2025

Catch the best of the fest, split into three screenings of short films! Programs will feature the 19th TFF Juror awarded films, audience favorites, and some programming team’s picks.

Best of Fest #1, 2pm
1. GIVE ME THE MONEY | Vida Behar
2. Songs of Black Folk | Justin Emeka & Haley Watson *Award Winner*
3. kou aloha [⋆˚⟡ ࣪ ˖here⋆˚⟡ ࣪ ˖] | Rachel Makana’aloha O Kauikeolani Nakawatase
4. A Bird Came Down | Heather von Rohr
5. ADO | Sam Henderson *Award Winner*
6. DAY 3 | Emanuel Foucault
7. Cabaret Spectacular | Thomas Meyer

Best of Fest #2, 4:15pm
1. Hooyo Macaan (Sweet Mother) | Mawahib Ismail
2. Color Theories | Devin Jane Febbroriello *Award Winner*
3. Style: A Seattle Basketball Story | Bryan Tucker *Award Winner*
4. Anadarko | Jeffrey Kodaseet
5. Dandelion | Fiona Obertinca
6. Freeride in C | Edmunds Jansons
7. Are You Fu***ng Kidding Me?! | Zen Pace *Award Winner*

Best of Fest #3, 7pm
1. The Return | Jeremy S. Levine
2. Georgie | Jennie Butler *Award Winner*
3. The Truck | Elizabeth Rao *Award Winner*
4. Sans Voix (Voiceless) | Samuel Patthey *Award Winner*
5. Softboy | Tommy Meisel
6. Prom Party Massacre | Jordan Gustafson *Award Winner*

Get tickets: https://grandcinema.com/tacomafilmfestival

Congratulations to our PNW Jury Award Winners!🏆Best PNW Feature Documentary : WTO/99 by Ian Bell🏆Best PNW Short Document...
10/16/2025

Congratulations to our PNW Jury Award Winners!

🏆Best PNW Feature Documentary : WTO/99 by Ian Bell

🏆Best PNW Short Documentary: Style - A Seattle Basketball story by Bryan Tucker
Honorable Mention: Anadarko by Jeffrey Kodaseet
Honorable Mention: Give Me the Money by Vida Behar

🏆Best PNW Narrative Short Film: Color Theories by Devin Jane Febbroriello
Honorable Mention: Hooyo Macaan by Mawahib Ismail

You can catch some of our award-winners at tomorrow’s Best of Fest screening.

THE WINNERS ARE IN!! Congratulations to our Jury Award winners:Best Feature Documentary: B.F. Skinner Plays Himself by T...
10/15/2025

THE WINNERS ARE IN!! Congratulations to our Jury Award winners:

Best Feature Documentary: B.F. Skinner Plays Himself by Ted Kennedy
Honorable Mention: To Use a Mountain by Casey Carter

Best Narrative Short Film: The Truck by Elizabeth Rao
Honorable Mention: Dandelion by Fiona Obertinca

Best Short Documentary: Georgie by Jennie Butler
Honorable Mention: kou aloha [⋆˚⟡ ࣪ ˖here⋆˚⟡ ࣪ ˖] By Rachel Makana'aloha O Kauikeolani Nakawatase

Best Animated Film: Sans Voix (Voiceless) by Samuel Patthey
Honorable Mention: Freeride in C by Edmunds Jansons

Best Late Night Short Film: Are You Fu***ng Kidding me?! By Zen Pace
Honorable Mention: Day 3 by Emanuel Foucault

Best Comedic Short Film: Prom Party Massacre by Jordan Gustafson
Honorable Mention: Cabaret Spectacular by Thomas Meyer
Honorable Mention: Softboy by Tommy Meisel

Thank you to our amazing Festival Jurors:
Animation: Rhys Iliakis - graphic designer, illustrator, and creative director of Sea Slug Animation Festival.

Late Night and Comedic Short films: Trevor Brandt - lead programmer, Grand Illusion Cinema

Narrative Short Films: Ryan Saunders - film programmer and managing director of the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY)

PNW Documentary Short Films: Ellen Ito - artist and programmer; curator of collections and special projects at Tacoma Art Museum

Documentary Short Films: Rajee Samarasinghe - Artist and Filmmaker

Feature Documentaries: Jay Kuehner - independent film critic (Cinema Scope, Mubi, Desist, Senses of Cinema) and curator based in Seattle

Catch our award-winning shorts playing TOMORROW at our Best of Fest screenings!

Announcing the Audience Award winners for the 2025 Tacoma Film Festival! Our audiences favorite films of the fest were: ...
10/15/2025

Announcing the Audience Award winners for the 2025 Tacoma Film Festival! Our audiences favorite films of the fest were:

🏆 Best Documentary Feature: Never Perfect, Never Over: An Unauthorized History of Harm Reduction by Paul Boyer

🏆 Best Narrative Feature: Little, Big, & Far by Jem Cohen

🏆 Best Documentary Short: Songs of Black Folk by Justin Emeka & Haley Watson

🏆 Best Narrative Short: ADO by Sam Henderson

Catch Songs of Black Folk & ADO playing in our Best of Fest #1 screening tomorrow at 2pm! Songs of Black Folk can also be seen in our encore screening of Bang the Drum: PNW Music Docs, playing at 12pm tomorrow!

Get tickets: https://grandcinema.com/tacomafilmfestival

Today is Indigenous People's Day and we've got two AMAZING features by indigenous filmmakers playing as part of the Taco...
10/13/2025

Today is Indigenous People's Day and we've got two AMAZING features by indigenous filmmakers playing as part of the Tacoma Film Festival today!

Free Leonard Peltier, 2pm – In FREE LEONARD PELTIER, acclaimed directors Jesse Short Bull and David France revisit one of the most discredited convictions in modern America—the double life sentences handed down to Indian rights activist Leonard Peltier for the 1975 murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota.

Sweet Summer Pow Wow, 5:45pm – Directed by Darrell Dennis, a comedian, actor, screenwriter and radio personality from the Secwepemc Nation in the interior of British Columbia, Sweet Summer Pow Wow follows a young Indigenous couple, who get a break from their troubled lives when they find each other through a summer of love on the Pow-Wow circuit.

We'd like to thank Jerry and Susan Ford of the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe for sponsoring today's films!

Get tickets: https://grandcinema.com/

We heard from MANY school librarians about how all our scheduled screenings of The Librarians were during school hours… ...
10/13/2025

We heard from MANY school librarians about how all our scheduled screenings of The Librarians were during school hours… D’oh!

We hope this bonus screening, tomorrow at 5:45pm, can make it up to you ❤️

Get tickets: https://grandcinema.com/movie/the-librarians

Join us at 5:45pm in The Grand Cinema Lounge for the announcement of the 19th TFF awarded films selected by this year's ...
10/12/2025

Join us at 5:45pm in The Grand Cinema Lounge for the announcement of the 19th TFF awarded films selected by this year's jurors, with awards made by the amazing Elysa Saito at FabLab!

Attendance is FREE and complimentary beverages and light snacks will be provided! No ticket required!

Forget everything you already know about America’s most notorious dead person.A mockumentary from the team at “America’s...
10/11/2025

Forget everything you already know about America’s most notorious dead person.

A mockumentary from the team at “America’s Finest News Source” The Onion, which chronicles the life and crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and associates (such as Donald Trump, who promised to release the Epstein Files until he was told he was in them).

We've got a *ahem* CONTROVERSIAL last minute addition to our repeat showings of Comedic Shorts 1 & 2 on Wednesday & Thursday next week: The Onion's new short mockumentary, Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pe*****le!

With the sensitive topic of this mockumentary, we're playing it first in the block so that audience members who wish not to see it can come into the theater a bit late (about 20 minutes) and still see the rest of the shorts! OR if you've already seen the shorts block, you can come and JUST see The Onion's Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pe*****le!

Get tickets: https://grandcinema.com/tff-comedic-shorts

Did you know that students can see films for FREE at the Tacoma Film Festival?For all the student cinephiles out there, ...
10/10/2025

Did you know that students can see films for FREE at the Tacoma Film Festival?

For all the student cinephiles out there, we are excited to announce an extraordinary bargain: FREE access to Tacoma Film Festival screenings and events, courtesy of Tacoma Creates!

Students can obtain tickets at The Grand Cinema Box Office for any Tacoma Film Festival screenings. To qualify, students must attend a Tacoma K-12, college, or technical school and provide a valid student ID or other proof; Tacoma residents who attend a school outside city limits must provide proof of address in addition to school ID.

And for our week of Encore Screenings, October 13-17, Tacoma Creates is also offering free tickets through the Box Office for Tacoma residents with EBT/Quest cards!

See the full schedule: https://grandcinema.com/tacomafilmfestival

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