Lethbridge International Film Festival Returns Even Bigger in its Fourth Year
- Lane Anderson
- 15 minutes ago
- 4 min read
The Lethbridge International Film Festival (LIFF) is back for its fourth year from April 17th to the 20th, featuring 77 films from 18 countries, including 13 local productions and 54 premieres, presented by The Friends of the Galt Museum and Archives Akaisamitohkanao'pa.
For the eagle-eyed among you, you may notice that this is a slightly revised name from prior years’ Lethbridge Independent Film Festival.
It’s the name the organizers had always hoped to go by, given their international lineup, but it was already in use by a society at the library that had begun in 1985 (the Lethbridge International Film Festival Society). It had gone dormant in recent years and they approached the LIFF team last year, graciously offering the last of their funds and the name for their use.
For that reason, you will find the LIFF Legacy Awards in the program this year presented by the original society, offering cash prizes for films across five categories.
The film festival has shown incredible growth in the prior three years, doubling its attendance each year. The debut festival saw approximately 300 people attend, about 600 the following year, and around 1,200 last year. While that’s a difficult trajectory to maintain, there are hopes for continued growth again for 2026.
LIFF has also grown in duration, with this iteration covering four main festival days as well as two further “Encore” days in May and June. “We had such a high submission rate this year that we decided to do encore screenings…because there’s just too many amazing films,” explained Tess Mitchell, Director of LIFF.
The blend of international film (18 countries represented) with local film (13 local productions) is a very intentional move—it’s a balance that is important to Tess as she develops the programming.
“They both are so important to have. To have international films give that bigger scale of things and sort of where things can go, and then loving to support the local film industry and putting them on the same stage together,” Tess explained. “People have been coming from all over the world for this festival, so everybody’s in the room together, they meet each other…it’s a real symbiotic relationship, putting them in the room together to lift them both up.”
The budding Lethbridge film festival has its own, unique character within the larger film festival scene. As Tess describes it, “Our angle with LIFF is a lot of underrepresented voices, a lot of collaborations with community organizations, and we can capture bigger names at a reflective point in their careers. So we do a lot of retrospectives of people’s bodies of work, maybe when they’re between their bigger projects.”
This year, Scottish filmmaker Ruth Paxton, who’s currently writing her next feature, is coming to Lethbridge for a screening of five of her shorts, followed by a Q&A. She’s an award-winning director with a career spanning 20 years that includes shorts, feature films, theatre, and television. You can catch the retrospective Sunday, April 19th, at 5:30pm at The Movie Mill.
“There is something for everyone,” Tess promised. “I would guarantee there’s some film in the festival that everybody’s gonna just fall in love with.” And her advice is to take chances. “Take a chance in seeing something you maybe never would before.”
The festival program includes everything from environmental documentaries to late-night queer horror—from hardening dramas to local music videos. There’s feminist pieces, BIPOC films, dramadies, and the Sunday morning collection of animated shorts is even suitable for kids (though still entirely rewarding for all audiences).
Friday evening and Saturday of the festival take place at Galt Museum. The Movie Mill hosts Sunday’s screenings. And the closing films and wrap-up party will be at Sterndale Bennett Theatre on Monday. Watch for the encore screening days on May 5th and June 16th for a few extra selections, both at Galt Museum.
This will be a great opportunity for people in Lethbridge to experience a top-quality film festival, gathering to watch local, national, and international art on the big screen.
“Films need an audience,” Tess shared. “You make a film and you want people to see them. The idea of communing together—watching film together—is something I’m very passionate about. It’s so special to all be in a packed cinema watching a film and talking about it afterwards, and being together and hearing the room’s reaction.”
So what does Tess hope festival-goers get out of the four-day event?
“You know that feeling when you watch an amazing film and you’re just, like, almost lost for breath at the end? I hope that happens. And I hope they laugh and I hope they meet people and I hope they just feel community.”
Visit the Galt Museum website to get more info about LIFF 2026, download the program, and buy tickets.
