Wake Forest Film Festival
2026 Wake Forest Film Festival | March 6 - 7
The Wake Forest Film Festival will spotlight passionate creative and thought-provoking movies by some of today's most promising and accomplished local, national, and international filmmakers.
Intended for both the general public and film professionals, or one-day film showcase will engage audiences with films of all lengths and genres.
2026 Wake Forest Film Festival seeks entries, volunteers needed to judge films
The Wake Forest Renaissance Centre (WFRC) is inviting filmmakers to submit their films for the Seventh Annual Wake Forest Film Festival (WFFF).
The WFFF seeks feature and short films in the following categories: student, narrative feature, narrative short, and documentary. Films may be submitted via FilmFreeway at https://filmfreeway.com/WakeForestFilmFestival. The website includes film screening fees and submission requirements. The Early Bird Deadline is Friday, Aug. 22, and the fee is $5 for students and $15 for professionals.
Scheduled for Friday and Saturday, March 6-7, 2026, the WFFF will spotlight passionate, creative, and thought-provoking movies by some of today's most promising and accomplished local, national, and international filmmakers. Intended for both the general public and film professionals, the WFFF is an opportunity for filmmakers to showcase their films in a unique location to a discerning audience.
The WFRC is also seeking volunteers with filmmaking experience to judge film submissions for the 2026 Wake Forest Film Festival. Selected judges will receive a link to view a selection of films, then provide feedback and scores. To learn more, contact Louis Roussell at lroussell@wakeforestnc.gov or 919-435-9587.
Tickets to the 2026 WFFF go on sale Tuesday, Aug. 26, at 10 a.m.
2026 Schedule
To be announced closer to event.
History of the Wake Forest Film Festival
The Wake Forest Film Festival was created from the dreams of three like-minded women with a passion to evoke social change in their community: Cathy Gouge, Wake Forest Renaissance Center for the Arts Manager (2015-2019), Gauri Singh, filmmaker and resident, and Kimberly Soden, Cultural Arts Board member (2018-2020). These women discovered they shared the desire to bring awareness to the fast growing, diverse community of Wake Forest by creating a film festival that would attract independent film artists from across the globe.
After numerous meetings and conversations, festival founders Gouge, Singh, and Soden were joined by other community volunteers and a committee was formed to launch the first Wake Forest Film Festival in 2018. That first festival featured films from across the globe and attracted filmmakers and industry professionals.
The year 2026 marks the seventh year of the Wake Forest Film Festival. The two-day festival features films in four categories: student, documentary, narrative feature, and short feature.
Wake Forest welcomes filmmakers and industry professionals from across the United States to share their art of storytelling through the medium of film.
2025 Wake Forest Film Festival
Our 2025 Wake Forest Film Festival promotional video is provided along with last year's playbill.