CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Films honored at two of the world’s most prestigious international film festivals will be screened in Charleston this November as the West Virginia International Film Festival celebrates its 41st year with eight feature films from six continents.
The festival, scheduled for November 12–15, will feature winners from the Cannes Film Festival in France and the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany, along with independent films from Nepal, Ghana, Brazil, Australia, Turkey, France, and the United States.
Screenings will take place at Park Place Cinemas and the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema on historic Capitol Street downtown and will also feature short films, filmmaker presentations, and workshops to support independent filmmaking in West Virginia.
The festival’s board of directors announced the lineup on October 7, according to festival spokesperson Blake Whitener.
International award winners highlight festival
Among the selections is Yellow Letters, a Turkish-language drama directed by İlker Çatak that won the Golden Bear, the highest honor at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival.
The film follows a married couple whose professional and family lives are upended after they lose their jobs amid political pressure. Forced to relocate to Istanbul with their teenage daughter, they struggle to preserve their relationship and independence.
Another selection, Elephants in the Fog, directed by Abinash Bikram Shah, won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Set in a Nepalese village surrounded by forests home to wild elephants, the film follows the matriarch of a Kinnar community who must choose between her personal aspirations and her responsibilities after a young woman disappears.
Including these two award-winning films gives West Virginia audiences a chance to see internationally recognized cinema that may not receive widespread theatrical distribution in the state.
Other selections span comedy, science fiction, documentaries, and family dramas.
In The Fisherman, a Ghanaian production directed by Zoey Martinson, a retired fisherman seeking to own his first boat receives unlikely help from a dead talking fish.
The American film Chronovisor, directed by Kevin Walker and Jack Auen, follows a French academic investigating a mysterious device purportedly developed by Benedictine monks to capture images of historical events.
The Australian film Yesterday Island, directed by Sam Voutas, concerns a struggling novelist who becomes trapped in a time loop while caring for a research station on a remote island.
The French comedy Guess Who’s Calling!, directed by Fabienne Godet, follows an unsuccessful impressionist hired to impersonate a famous novelist during phone calls.
Brazil’s Gugu’s World, directed by Allan Deberton, follows an 11-year-old aspiring soccer player who tries to hide his grandmother’s Alzheimer’s disease to avoid being sent to live with his disapproving father.
The American documentary Welcome Space Brothers, directed by Jodi Wille, examines the Unarius Academy of Science, a California spiritual organization whose members produced an extensive body of films and artwork inspired by their beliefs about extraterrestrial life.
Festival returns to reopened downtown theater
The 2026 festival will mark another chapter in the history of Park Place Cinemas, which reopened earlier this year after nearly two years of closure.
The downtown Charleston theater closed in May 2024 after more than four decades of operation and reopened in April 2026.
The film festival held screenings at the theater during its 40th-anniversary celebration in 2025, before the cinema resumed regular operations.
Organizers acknowledged the theater’s return when announcing this year’s program, thanking Park Place for making its facilities available after the reopening.
The festival will also use the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema at 230 Capitol Street. Park Place Cinemas is located at 600 Washington Street East.
An opening reception will be held on November 12 at Capitol Market, featuring a performance by the St. Marks Steel Drum Ensemble.
Four decades of international cinema in West Virginia
Established in 1985, the West Virginia International Film Festival has spent more than four decades introducing audiences to independent and international films that might otherwise receive limited exposure in the state.
The organization received recognition as West Virginia’s official film festival during the administration of Gov. Bob Wise in 2001.
Its annual fall festival returned in 2025 following a six-year hiatus, coinciding with the organization’s 40th anniversary.
Although the 2026 selection includes prominent international award winners, the festival has long emphasized films from different countries and cultures.
Previous programs have featured productions from Europe, Asia, South America and other regions, along with documentaries, experimental films and works by Appalachian filmmakers.
The organization operates as a nonprofit with a mission to inspire an appreciation of cinema through diverse and inclusive programming.
West Virginia filmmakers featured in short-film program
In addition to the eight feature films, the festival will screen short films and selections associated with regional filmmaking organizations.
Among them is When Earl Went to War, a documentary by Douglas John Imbrogno examining the experiences of a West Virginia man who served on the front lines during the Korean War and the conflict’s lasting consequences.
Imbrogno will also present Looking for Major & the Killer Skillet Incident, an Appalachian story involving self-defense, missing horses and troublesome hogs, along with a trailer for his science-fiction animation project Saint Stephen’s Dream: A Space Opera.
Other short-film selections include Ahyoka, a portrait of Cherokee cultural educator and two-spirit activist Ahyoka Youngdeer, presented in association with the Appalachian Queer Film Festival.
Maple Leaves, directed by Elena Alves and selected through the West Virginia Youth Film Festival, explores friendship, addiction, and the pressures confronting two young people.
Marra, directed by Scott Baucan, uses hand-drawn imagery and original music by Hello June and Jess Weary to explore trauma and recovery.
The program also includes The Static Room, directed by Will Lucas Michael; The Lady Widow, directed by Lonnie Martin; and Hello Maggie, an animated short by Willie Ito and Tony Tarantini about a boy imprisoned at the Heart Mountain incarceration camp in Wyoming during World War II.
The short-film program reflects the festival’s continuing relationships with independent filmmakers and regional film organizations.
Workshops support independent filmmaking
Beyond public screenings, the festival has long offered filmmakers opportunities to exchange ideas, build professional connections, and learn about film production.
Earlier programs featured student filmmaking competitions, educational presentations, and workshops. More recently, the festival has partnered with organizations such as the West Virginia Film Office and the West Virginia Filmmakers Guild to bring filmmakers together.
This year’s educational programming will be held at Folklore Music Exchange on Summers Street.
Filmmaker and Temple University associate professor Chet Pancake will present a program examining his work in film, video, and new media. Pancake’s work has been exhibited at venues including the Museum of Modern Art.
Producer and production designer Jen Davis will lead a workshop titled The Production Checklist, addressing practical considerations that independent filmmakers often overlook.
Topics will include insurance, production financing arrangements, tax incentives, contingency planning, and other requirements for preparing a film for production.
Davis has worked on film and television productions in West Virginia and supports independent filmmaking in the state.
Although the festival’s educational activities and regional partnerships are documented, organizers have not released figures showing how many filmmakers have obtained professional opportunities through its programs.
Tickets and screening schedule
The festival expects to release the full screening schedule in mid-October.
Early-bird festival passes are available through October 12, ahead of the November 12 opening reception.
Tickets and additional festival information are available on the West Virginia International Film Festival website.
The organization has not published verified attendance figures for its 2025 festival or the proportion of visitors traveling from outside the Charleston area. Those figures would help establish the event’s reach as a cultural tourism attraction.
For its 41st year, however, the festival’s program will offer West Virginia audiences films recognized at Cannes and Berlin, alongside emerging independent productions and work by regional filmmakers.
Sponsors include Forbes Law Offices, the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, the Appalachian Queer Film Festival, and individual contributors.