Farewell to the Film Festival
It’s hard to believe that the 2026 Maine International Film Festival is almost over. It feels as if it has just begun. But fret not. There is still plenty to see in the festival’s closing days, including the premières of three made-in-Maine feature films, two compilations of made-in-Maine shorts, a festival within the festival celebrating Maine’s youngest filmmakers, a salute to our neighbors to the north, and an energetic closing film with awards presentations.
All quotes are taken from the festival’s website. Screening days and times are noted parenthetically; all screenings described below take place in either the Waterville Opera House (OH, 800 seats) or Cinema 1 (C1, 115 seats) on the second floor of the Schupf Center.
Maine Features and Shorts
The first of the three Maine features to screen is In Transit (Thurs., 1:00, OH & Sat., 3:00, C1), in which a young woman, seemingly content with her small-town life, agrees to model for an older woman, an angsty painter who takes up temporary residence. Their burgeoning friendship forces “both women must confront their preconceptions of what makes a good life.”
In the second film, Mallory’s Ghost (Fri., 1:00, OH & Sat., 6:00, C1), Mallory and Sam attend a retreat on the Maine coast, where Mallory, timid and insecure, believes she’s being haunted by Sam’s glamorous former girlfriend, Louise, who is very much alive. Nevertheless, becoming ever more envious and obsessed, she “is forced to confront the truth of Sam and Louise’s bond, her own insecurities, and, ultimately, her sense of self.”
The third new Maine feature is a documentary. Downeast Hardcore: Stories from the Kave (Sat., 9:00, C1 & Sun., 4:00, OH) profiles an unlikely punk rock club in a converted Bucksport barn, where for its fifteen years in the early 2000s, alienated teens could find acceptance and belonging.
If you prefer shorter documentaries, check out the Maine Documentary Shorts (Sat., 4:00, OH & Sun., 1:00, OH). In this compilation of seven short films, six to 22 minutes each, you can meet a variety of Mainers. They include a female lobsterman from a seventh-generation lobstering family who becomes a scallop farmer, a man who live alone in tent atop a remote frozen lake, an artist who has been creating a “magical property” on a coastal island for three decades, and teachers in Lewiston “working to rebuild a sense of safety and community in their classrooms while navigating their own trauma” after a mass shooting in 2023.
If you prefer fictional people (and creatures), try the Maine Narrative Shorts (Fri., 4:00, OH & Sat., 1:00, OH). In the seven shorts totaling 101 minutes, you can meet, among other characters, four young men returning to their boyhood summer camp in Maine to scatter the ashes of the recently deceased fifth member of their group, a different group of friends who have drifted apart but now seek to reconnect through exploring abandoned buildings together, a young woman running away from a tragedy who has magical powers she doesn’t understand and can’t control, and a lonely mouse who plays a game with the wind. This last, whimsical offering comes from animator Gordon LePage, a frequent past MIFF contributor.
On Saturday, you can watch shorts, both fiction and nonfiction, by Maine’s up-and-coming cinéastes. The 46th Maine Student Film + Video Festival will be held at noon Saturday in Cinema 1. Maine students in grades K-12 were able to submit short films, up to 10 minutes long, in any of three categories (Narrative, Documentary, and Creative) to be judged by a panel of educators, media arts professionals, and past entrants. Winners get filmmaking equipment or a grand prize of $500. Admission to the student festival is free.
New Québecois Cinema
As a special treat this year, MIFF will present two feature films and a program of seven shorts in collaboration with Québec’s Festival du Film de Knowlton. (For those who aren’t fluent in French, don’t worry, the films will be subtitled in English.) In the first feature, Kairos (Fri., 6:00, C1), an actor, returning to his native Montreal after a long sojourn abroad, tries to relaunch his career but after several failed auditions instead gets a job as a nighttime radio call-in show host, becoming a philosopher and therapist to his lonely listeners.
The second is I Lost Sight of the Landscape (Sun., 3:00, C1), is very meta, a film about filmmaking. According to the festival’s website, “Intrigued by a theatre artist’s creative process, a filmmaker tries — over 16 attempts — to make the film she wants. As the years go by, unexpected turns of events blur the boundaries between art and life.…I Lost Sight of the Landscape is an improbable comedy that reveals the uncontrollable nature of life, with honesty — and a good dose of humor.”
The shorts (Fri., 3:00, C1) are mixture of fiction and nonfiction. Four have no spoken words, giving them a meditative aspect. The shorts include “People Live Here,” an experimental, animated documentary about the architecture of Montreal; “Between Thoughts,” the tale of a seemingly ordinary evening that turns extraordinary when three friends join to celebrate one of their birthdays; and “The Magician,” the story of a nightclub illusionist who possess actual magical powers but is reluctant to use them due to the pain they cause.
Closing Night
The festival ends with the smash of a ball against a racket as MIFF with the East Coast première of Give Me the Ball!, documentary about tennis great and women’s equality advocate Billie Jean King. A world-ranked, No. 1 player, the American athlete won 39 Grand Slam (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open) titles from 1965 to 1980 and famously defeated Bobby Riggs in their “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match in 1973. In his program notes, senior festival programmer Ken Eisen writes, “There’s an exclamation mark in this energizing and empowering movie’s title because its subject…did everything she did on the tennis court as if her life — and those of other women! — depended on it.…This is a film about a tennis player that’s not as much about tennis as it is about changing the world.”
The screening, which will take place at 7:00 Sunday in the Opera House, will also include the presentation of MIFF’s Tourmaline Awards. Each year since 2022, MIFF has honored one made-in-Maine short and one made-in-Maine feature at its closing ceremony. A three-member jury of film industry professionals will select the winners from the three Maine features described above (Downeast Hardcore, In Transit, and Mallory’s Ghost) and sixteen shorts. The features winner will receive a$5000 prize; the shorts winner will get $2500.
At the same time, MIFF will also present its Audience Favorite Award. For this award, any new feature film shown at the festival — not just those made in Maine — is eligible. After watching the film, attendees may rate it, and the film with the highest average rating wins. The winning filmmaker receives neither a trophy nor cash, just bragging rights.
Except the student video festival, tickets to any festival screening cost $15. Passholders may reserve a seat for any screening until three hours before it starts. You can reserve seats online at www.miff.org, over the phone at 873‑ 7000, or in person at the box office. Even with a reservation, it’s best to come at least 20 minutes early, lest your seat be released to another patron.
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