Autumn 2026 Film Festivals to Follow From Home

Seven autumn film festivals have published 2026 dates on their own sites or press pages, and this calendar follows those pages only. It runs from the 64th New York Film Festival, already under way, through the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival in early November. Opening and closing titles appear below only when the festival has named them. A blank is left blank.

The BFI London Film Festival is outside this list. Dates, cities, and gala titles below come from each festival’s official site or an official press release, read for this page on 6 October 2026. Nothing here is a same-night home release.

The dates, in order

New York Film Festival

Film at Lincoln Center’s site for the 64th New York Film Festival dates the edition from 25 September through 12 October 2026, in New York. The same organisation’s opening-night announcement names James Gray’s Paper Tiger as the Opening Night selection, with a North American premiere at Alice Tully Hall on Friday 25 September. Its closing-night announcement names Ava DuVernay’s 14th as the Closing Night selection, with a world premiere at Alice Tully Hall on Friday 9 October. The festival run continues through 12 October, so closing night and the last day of the edition are different dates on those pages.

Film at Lincoln Center describes 14th as a Netflix release. Its film page for Paper Tiger describes that title as a NEON release. Neither of those pages, as read for this article, prints a home date.

Busan International Film Festival

The 31st Busan International Film Festival’s official English site and its 2026 submission rules both place the festival from 6 to 15 October 2026 in Busan. The English programme lists The Table: Day and Night, directed by Kim Jong-kwan, as the opening film, with the opening ceremony and the film on 6 October at the Busan Cinema Center Roof Theater. The festival’s English closing page sets the closing ceremony for 15 October at the same Roof Theater, and says the film that wins the Busan Award for Best Film will be screened as the closing film. That page does not name the winner in advance, so this calendar does not invent one.

Sitges

The Sitges Film Festival’s own submission FAQ says the 59th Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia runs from 8 to 18 October 2026. The festival’s English news page on the 2026 edition says Carlota Pereda’s Found Alive opens the festival, and that Wicker, directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, closes it. Sitges is the host city; the festival’s contact address is in Sitges, in the province of Barcelona. Those pages do not attach a home-video date to either gala title.

Festival Lumière, Lyon

The Institut Lumière’s 2026 festivalgoer’s guide calls this the 18th edition and dates it from Saturday 10 to Sunday 18 October. The Festival Lumière site places the opening evening on Saturday 10 October at 18:00 at the Halle Tony Garnier in Lyon, followed by Ettore Scola’s Une journée particulière (Una giornata particolare, 1977). The same site’s page for Sunday 18 October lists the closing screening as Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Big Lebowski at 15:00 at the Halle Tony Garnier, in the presence of the Coens. The programme also awards the Prix Lumière to Joel and Ethan Coen.

Both of those films are repertory titles. A home viewing, if you want one, is an existing edition, on a schedule set by whoever holds the copy you can rent or buy. This page does not name a shop or a streaming service for them.

Rome Film Fest

The Fondazione Cinema per Roma’s English date page, including its 4 September 2026 update, says the 21st Rome Film Fest opens on Tuesday 13 October and closes on Sunday 25 October 2026. The Fondazione’s page on the opening film places the edition at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone in Rome, and names Paolo Genovese’s Il rumore delle cose nuove as the opening film, in the Grand Public section, on the evening of the inaugural ceremony.

That same opening-film page says the film will be released in Italian theatres on Thursday 12 November 2026, distributed by 01 Distribution. It also lists Rai Cinema in collaboration with Disney+ among the producers. A production credit is not a streaming date, and the page does not give one. The date announcement says the Fest closes on Sunday 25 October and does not name a closing film, so none is printed here.

AFI FEST

The American Film Institute’s 20 January 2026 press release says the 40th AFI FEST, presented by Canva, takes place 21–25 October 2026 at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood. A 9 September 2026 AFI press release says the U.S. premiere of LAIKA’s Wildwood, directed by Travis Knight, opens the festival on Wednesday 21 October. A 16 September 2026 AFI press release says Siân Heder’s Being Heumann, an Apple Original Film, closes the festival on Sunday 25 October. Those releases name the distributors and the festival dates. They do not print a later home date, so this page does not add one.

Tokyo International Film Festival

The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival’s official outline dates the festival from Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November 2026, ten days, with venues in Tokyo’s Hibiya–Yurakucho–Marunouchi–Ginza area. A 2 September 2026 announcement on the festival’s news pages names Sukiyaki, directed by Zeze Takahisa, as the opening film, and Colony, directed by Yeon Sang-ho, as the closing film. The same announcement names Godzilla Minus Zero, directed by Yamazaki Takashi, as the centerpiece. The outline and that announcement give the festival window. They do not give a home date for any of the three.

How a festival title usually reaches a home screen

A festival date is a cinema date. For a new feature, the path home usually has four stages, and the gaps between them are set by the distributor, country by country.

1. The film plays at a festival, often as a premiere. That screening is in a theatre, for the audience that festival is hosting.
2. A theatrical release follows in one or more countries. The only theatrical date this article prints is the one the Fondazione Cinema per Roma states for Il rumore delle cose nuove: Italian cinemas on Thursday 12 November 2026, through 01 Distribution.
3. Renting or buying online tends to come after that theatrical window. The length of the window is a distribution decision. It is not printed on the festival pages used above, so it is not guessed here.
4. A subscription service can come later, or it can be the main release when the film is commissioned for that service. Film at Lincoln Center calls 14th a Netflix release. The American Film Institute calls Being Heumann an Apple Original Film. Both are distributor labels from those announcements. A date still has to come from Netflix, Apple, or the local storefront, on the day you look.

Classics at Festival Lumière sit outside that first-run path. Une journée particulière and The Big Lebowski already had their original theatrical lives. Following them from home means finding a legitimate copy that is already on sale or on a service you use.

A practical check, while the festivals are on:

1. Copy the title and the director from the festival’s own page, spelling included.
2. Write down any distributor that page already names, and leave the home-date cell empty until that distributor fills it.
3. Re-open the festival page before you travel or before you plan an evening around a title. Ceremonies and awards can move a closing film, as Busan’s own closing page does by design.
4. Keep theatrical, rental, and subscription dates in separate lines. A production logo, including the Disney+ credit on the Rome opening film, stays in the credit line.

WorldIPTV is a separate subscription, with plan length and screen count on pricing and compare. This calendar is a public festival list. It does not place any of these films in that library. A wider look at how live television and on-demand apps sit next to each other is in IPTV vs cable vs streaming.

If the remaining question is which plan length fits the television you already use, message +44 7307 410512.