Tromso International Film Festival - European films to Norwegian and Arctic audiences 2026 and 2027

ongoing

Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) is Norway’s biggest festival with more than 60.000 audiences. Situated in the Northern part of Arctic Norway, more than 300 km above the Arctic Circle, and held annually in mid-January, the festival takes place at the end of the polar night, just as the sun returns to the horizon after two month’s absence. The unique setting not only means we are coveted by many filmmakers, but also that we are situated in an area that will only get more attention in the coming years. Northern Norway shares borders with Sweden, Finland, and Russia, and is the heartland of regional minorities such as the Kven people and the indigenous Sámi people. The Artic is also of strategic interest beyond its imminent inhabitants. China is now an Arctic Council member and US president Trump has expressed his desire for Greenland. Tromsø International Film Festival had its first edition in January 1991 to particularly counter the American dominance at Norwegian cinemas, which was really staggering at the time. This meant focusing on European films, and also films from other continents. Our goal is to present at least 55% non-national European films. We already have programs where we focus on low-capacity countries, such as Iceland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, but we will in the project period work on expanding to present more European films from low capacity countries. Another goal is to strengthen our relations to other European countries through inviting European film directors to our festival to represent their films and meet our audience as well as being a networking festival for film industry from the Europe and the Arctic areas. Our festival also has a focus on ingienous and Sámi films, and we collaborate with the International Sámi Film Institute. In our festival strategy sustainability and audience outreach is a priority.