Every November, Thessaloniki quietly becomes one of Europe's best cities to watch films, and most travellers have no idea it's happening until they stumble into a queue outside a converted port warehouse. The Thessaloniki International Film Festival isn't a red-carpet spectacle for tourists — it's a working festival built for a local audience, which is exactly why it's worth timing a trip around if you care about cinema. Here's how the 67th edition actually runs.
TIFF at a glance
We checked this against the festival's own site and our Thessaloniki events guide before publishing — dates and prices below reflect both.
| Detail | |
|---|---|
| Edition | 67th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) |
| Dates | 5–15 November 2026 |
| Main venue | Olympion building, Aristotelous Square |
| Other venues | Pavlos Zannas (inside Olympion), Warehouse 1 at the port (John Cassavetes & Stavros Tornes screens), Warehouse D box office |
| Ticket price | €7 single; €5 per screening with the €50 ten-ticket package (2025 rates) |
| Refunds | Up to the day before the screening |
| Where to buy | filmfestival.gr, more.com, box offices at Aristotelous Square, Warehouses D and 1, and Makedonikon |
When is the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2026?
The 67th TIFF runs 5–15 November 2026, eleven days deep into the city's busiest cultural stretch of the year — it follows directly on from the Dimitria arts festival and the Ohi Day parade in late October. That timing isn't an accident: autumn is when Thessaloniki's cultural calendar peaks, and TIFF is the anchor at the end of it. If you're building a trip around cinema specifically, block out the full window — the festival programmes well over 200 films across features, shorts and retrospectives, and the schedule shifts daily.
Where to watch: the two-venue split
TIFF's screenings split across two very different parts of the city, and knowing the geography helps you plan an evening without a lot of backtracking.
Olympion, on Aristotelous Square, is the festival's historic home — a grand 1950s cinema building that also houses a second screen, Pavlos Zannas, named for the festival's founding artistic director. This is the venue with the atmosphere: opening and closing ceremonies, the biggest premieres, and the box office that most first-time visitors default to. It sits directly on the city's main square, a five-minute walk from the waterfront and most central hotels.
The Warehouses, at the old port a short walk northwest along the water, are a different experience entirely — repurposed industrial buildings turned into festival hub, with Warehouse 1 housing two more screens (John Cassavetes and Stavros Tornes) plus bars, talks and the arthouse crowd. If Olympion is TIFF's grand stage, the Warehouses are its working heart. We'd recommend at least one evening down there — it's where the festival feels least like a tourist event and most like the real thing.
How much do tickets cost?
TIFF keeps its pricing refreshingly cheap. At the most recent edition a single ticket was €7, but the smarter buy is the €50 package of ten screenings — €5 each — if you plan to watch in any volume; online screenings, since TIFF streams part of its programme, run about €4. There's also a genuinely free option worth knowing: students, the unemployed, parents of large families, over-65s and people with disabilities can claim a free five-ticket package for screenings starting before 15:30, on presentation of the right ID. Prices are confirmed nearer the November festival, so treat these 2025 figures as the guide rather than the final word. Tickets go on sale online through filmfestival.gr and more.com, and can also be bought in person at box offices set up at Aristotelous Square, Warehouses D and 1, and Makedonikon. If your plans change, tickets are refundable up to the day before the screening — a rare bit of flexibility for a festival this size, and one that makes it easy to book ambitiously and trim later.
We'd flag one practical point from watching this play out in past editions: popular slots, especially opening weekend and anything with a director in attendance, sell out fast even at these prices. If there's a specific film or session you want, buy the moment tickets open rather than waiting until you're in the city.
Is it worth planning a trip around?
If you already love film, yes — decisively. TIFF has run since 1960 and has grown into one of southeast Europe's most significant festivals, with a genuine industry presence (the TIFF Agora market) alongside the public programme, so the quality bar on what gets selected is high. It's also refreshingly unpretentious for a festival its size: no red-carpet gauntlet to fight through, low ticket prices, and a local audience that fills the seats rather than industry badges. Pair a festival trip with a proper look at the city's autumn season — the Fair and Dimitria festival both land in the weeks before, so a late-October to mid-November trip can catch all three.
If cinema isn't the draw, it's still worth knowing about: the festival fills hotels and restaurant tables around Aristotelous Square and the port for the full eleven days, so if you're visiting Thessaloniki in November for other reasons, book accommodation and dinner reservations earlier than usual.
A festival with real history
TIFF has been running since 1960 — first as a national showcase, the "Week of Greek Cinema," before it opened to the world and became a fully international festival in 1992 — which makes it one of the older film festivals in Europe still going, and it shows in how the programme is put together — this isn't a festival chasing celebrity appearances, it's one built around genuine curatorial taste, with a strong track record of platforming Balkan, Mediterranean and independent world cinema well before those films reach wider distribution. Its top prize is the Golden Alexander, and alongside the main competition it runs a dedicated Newcomers strand — TIFF has long been a launchpad for emerging directors rather than a stage for established stars. The TIFF Agora, a parallel industry market for co-productions and funding, runs alongside the public programme and draws working filmmakers and sales agents from across Europe, which is part of why the selection stays sharp rather than crowd-pleasing.
The festival also runs sister events worth knowing if you're building a longer stay around Thessaloniki's film calendar: the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (TiDF) takes over the same venues in early March, and a dedicated podcast section has been added to recent editions, reflecting how the festival keeps expanding its format beyond a traditional screening schedule.
Planning a festival trip
A few practical notes if you're structuring a visit around TIFF specifically:
- Book accommodation early. The eleven-day window overlaps with an already busy autumn tourist season, and hotels near Aristotelous Square and the waterfront fill up, especially for the opening and closing weekends.
- Budget an evening at the Warehouses, even if Olympion is your default. The port venue has its own bars and a looser, festival-crowd energy that's worth experiencing at least once.
- Check the schedule daily — TIFF programmes films in overlapping slots across multiple venues, and the public schedule updates as the festival progresses, so don't lock in a full itinerary from the pre-festival programme alone.
- Pair it with the city's other November events. Ohi Day's military parade along the seafront falls just before TIFF starts, and the Dimitria arts festival runs concurrently through much of November — see our Thessaloniki events guide for the full autumn calendar.
What a festival night actually looks like
Expect a working, unglamorous rhythm rather than a red-carpet spectacle: queues form outside Olympion and the Warehouses well before showtime, mostly locals with festival passes and film students clutching printed schedules, and screenings are followed as often as not by a Q&A with the director or cast if they're in town. Between films, the Warehouses area turns into an informal gathering spot — bars, quick food, and conversations about what everyone just watched spilling out onto the port-side walkways. If you're used to major festivals built around celebrity sightings, TIFF's appeal is the opposite: it's a festival for people who actually want to watch films, seriously, in volume, for eleven straight days.
Dress for November — Thessaloniki's autumn evenings by the water get cool and occasionally wet, and moving between the two main venue clusters means a walk along an exposed waterfront stretch after dark. A layer and comfortable shoes matter more here than they would at a festival built around a single indoor venue.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2026?
The 67th Thessaloniki International Film Festival runs 5–15 November 2026. It falls at the tail end of the city's busiest cultural season, right after the Dimitria arts festival and the Ohi Day parade in late October.
How much are Thessaloniki Film Festival tickets?
At the most recent edition a single ticket was €7, dropping to €5 per screening if you buy the €50 ten-ticket package; online screenings run about €4, and students, the unemployed, large families, over-65s and people with disabilities can claim a free five-ticket package for pre-15:30 screenings with valid ID. Tickets are refundable up to the day before the showing. Buy online at filmfestival.gr or more.com, or in person at box offices at Aristotelous Square and the port Warehouses. Exact 2026 prices are confirmed nearer the November festival.
Where are the Thessaloniki Film Festival screenings held?
The two main hubs are the Olympion building on Aristotelous Square (with its second screen, Pavlos Zannas) and Warehouse 1 at the old port, which houses the John Cassavetes and Stavros Tornes screens. Smaller venues and box offices are scattered around both areas.
Do I need to book Thessaloniki Film Festival tickets in advance?
For popular sessions, yes — especially opening weekend or any screening with a director attending. Even at these low prices, in-demand slots sell out quickly. Tickets go on sale online before the festival starts, so buy as soon as the schedule and sales open if you have specific films in mind.
