Tirana International Film Festival

Overview

TIRANA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL is the first international film festival in Albania, created in 2003 and now is one of the most important cinematic events in Europe. We are thrilled and honored to be approved as an official Academy Awards® and European Film Awards qualifying festival, it’s truly a tremendous opportunity for our filmmakers and future Best Short Film Award winners also for Student Academy Awards (SAA). TIFF aims to create in Albania, as well as in the region, a cultural center of worldwide alternative and independent cinema. Albania is a solar, enthusiastic and friendly country and besides the “strong competition” TIFF aims at the same time to be a meeting point of cultures, where people of Tirana, the guests and all those who love films will have a cinema-language-communication week. TIFF aims to create a friendly space for film artists and cinema enthusiasts from Albania, Europe and the entire world to come together and share their linked passion and knowledge of the motion picture art form. The intention of TIFF is to bring filmmakers, producers and distributors from all around the world to Tirana, in hopes of fostering future co-operation in this interesting scenic area. By bringing together these distinct voices and their work, TIFF commits itself to introducing audiences to alternative visions of extraordinary diversity. "Think Different, Watch Alike" is the slogan and motto of TIFF. TIFF aims to demonstrate strong efficiency in audience development (especially toward young audience) by implementing activities before, during and after the event, including year-long activities and traveling to other cities with various smaller partner and smaller festivals in the country. Partnering with small organizations and youth centers around the country in order to use the existing facilities in each city will not only give to TIFF a large national impact, but will enhance on the other side the increase of values of small events in each respective city in which TIFF will be present. The festival gets thousands of submissions a year from over 120 countries around the world that of submitted online through online platforms, which are then considered for selection. TIFF is an international cinema event whose main objective is to enlarge the number of venues and time of screening of European and non-European films of all genres and durations in Albania as well as it is considered to be an event to develop new audiences around the country, combining film screenings with public debates and thematic debates approaching new and an increased Film Audience and focusing also on Film Literacy. The daily program of TIFF combines more than 200 premieres of feature and short films in competition in all formats and genres: fiction, documentary, animation, experimental and video art. Open to any filmmaker from around the world, TIFF showcases new cinematic work by established directors with international reputations as well as movies by talented students and young artists. A. COMPETITION PROGRAM 1. FULL LENGTH FILMS • PerspecTIFF • Documentary 2. SHORT FILMS • Fiction/Live Action (Oscar® & European Film Awards qualifying) • Animation (Oscar® & European Film Awards qualifying) • Documentary (European Film Awards qualifying) • Video Art & Experimental (European Film Awards qualifying) • Student films (all genres) (Academy Awards® qualifying) • Balkan Films (all genres) • In Albanian (all genres) 3. PANORAMA has some thematic sections dedicated to the most sensitive social topics and problematic social groups as for children, women, immigration, integration of persons with disabilities, LGBT, etc. with those sections: • KIDs • TEENs • GENERATIONs • NEW WORLD • DIVERGENT MINDS • PARADE • AI program 4. SCREENPLAY ContesTIFF Consists in the application of original live-action and animated short film scripts and other short form scripts of all genres (max. 20 pages). The said competition did not aim to evaluate only the best script, but to evaluate from our partners, producers and distributors, the best and most possible script to be produced by them and with the greatest chances to be successfully distributed in the most popular international festivals for short films. B. SPECIAL PROGRAM & SCREENINGS Besides the competition program TIFF reserves a large space to the special programs and screenings. 1. FOCUS is a special program, which is based on tribute or homage to the cinema author and/or the filmography of a given country. 2. RetrospecTIFF and TIFF Classics brings to the new audience the most prominent national or international authors of the film history. 3. PICTURE YOUR LIFE, CREATE THE FUTURE TIFF will continue to have a large space to the special program KIDs & TEENs, an exclusive program for children from 5-15 age average. This initiative comes as a long-term investment to raise and educate future cinematic audiences with artistic films through acquired projects in Creative Europe for the distribution and promotion of European films. 4. REFLECTING ALBANIA is the oldest program of the festival, dedicated to the foreign filmmakers who have produced their films in Albania or in Albanian speaking territory. 5. Oscar® Nominated Short Films & European Film Awards Shorts Tour 6. FesTIFFal is a special program with selected films by festival partners. 7. Industry Event: Masterclasses, Talk Events, Discussion Panels. Q&A Video sessions. C. NEW FEATURES – PARALLEL SCREENINGS TIRANA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL has the pleasure to announce four major services available for the applicants. Since its inception in 2003, TIFF received over 60,000 short and feature films from over 120 countries around the world. Out of all these applications more than 200 films can be chosen each year for the competition program. With these four new services, TIFF offers the opportunity to many films to be shown in alternative ways (TV, online, market, special programs) in a wider audience and experts. The applicants must optionally apply clearly for each one of these new services. • TIFF.TV Competition With our media TV partners we offer the possibility to directors screening their films (selected for the official competitive program or not) to the Albanian audience and win the TV juries and audience awards. • TIFF on Tour TIFF will act as ambassador for the submitted films and will travel with a selection to other Albanian cities during the year. TIFF will also propose special screenings to other regional festivals in accordance to a specific subject or theme of each collaborative festival. • TIFF Online Library TIFF offer the online presentation of each film, in a dedicated page, as a part of a film library, with all related information and with the possibility to receive comments from the international internet audience and industry. The screening of films is open to anyone without charges. The films will be available for viewing in the film library as long as director/producer wishes. • TIFF Market Corner TIFF will create a market corner, where potential buyers can watch all films and make their selection. TIFF will also act as a festival promoter and distributor. In case of financial contract with a distributor, TIFF will receive a fee of 5%. Find us: info@tiranafilmfest.org | www.tiranafilmfest.org | facebook.com/TiranaFilmFest | instagram.com/tiranafilmfest | X@TiranaFilmFest | youtube.com/user/TiranaFilmFestival1 | vimeo.com/ tiranafilmfest | linkedin.com/ company/1796049/admin/ | tiktok.com/@tiranafilmfest

Last updated Sep 4, 2026

Legitimacy Analysis

Trust Signals

Festival Details

FilmFreeway communityGold festival

• Filmmaker

  Very pleased and proud to have been selected by the TIFF.

• Filmmaker

  It was a big deal to be selected by Tirana as it stands for excellence and I know the festival organizers travel to other film festivals to participate as judges or audience, so I feel it was an honour to have my stopmotion short TIN TUNE as one of their selections!

• Filmmaker

  Thank you for the official selection of our film THE PROFESSIONAL PARENT. I’m truly glad that our film had its Balkan Premiere at the Tirana International Film Festival! The atmosphere at the festival was wonderful and offered many great networking opportunities. The film is currently For Your Consideration in category Best Live Action Short Film, and I believe that participating in this festival has also helped increase its visibility. I’m grateful that my film could be part of your festival. Wishing you all the best!

• Filmmaker

  I am honored to have been selected by TIFF for the AI short film "Honor History, Create History" that I co created and directed for the Paris Olympics in collaboration with Alibaba Cloud. This project combines technology and art. Thanks！

• Filmmaker

  We are truly delighted that All That Belongs to Us had its World Premiere at the Tirana International Film Festival. It was an unforgettable experience for us. The festival itself, its selection, and its overall atmosphere were truly impressive. The festival team was both highly professional and wonderfully welcoming — every detail was thoughtfully planned and perfectly organized. We spent an inspiring week, deeply feeling the beauty of cinema and meeting so many passionate and talented people. Tirana and its people made us feel completely at home. We’re sincerely grateful to the entire festival team for this beautiful experience.

FilmFreeway reviews are filmmaker opinions, not our score. Cross-check red flags before paying fees.

Related Festivals in Albania