The Calgary Underground Film Festival will kick off its 11-day celebration of genre films and off-kilter cinema with Irish filmmaker Damian McCarthy’s supernatural horror film Hokum and close with the international premiere of Boots Riley’s comedy I Love Boosters.
The festival, which will run from April 16 to 26 at the Globe Cinema, will show 45 feature films and 35 shorts. That will include four locally produced films and nine international premieres. More than 85 guests, including filmmakers and actors, will be attending screenings for Q&As.
Hokum is the acclaimed follow-up to McCarthy’s 2024 folk-horror film Oddity. Adam Scott plays a writer who returns to the Irish hotel where his parents honeymooned to scatter their ashes, only to find that the place may be haunted.
I Love Boosters is director and hip-hop star Boots Riley’s sophomore film after 2018’s dark comedy Sorry to Bother You, which was a CUFF favourite. The new film is about a group of shoplifters who target a ruthless fashion maven. It stars Keke Palmer and Naomi Ackie.
A scene from the film I Love Boosters, which will close the 2026 Calgary Underground Film Festival.
Alberta-based features include Calgary director Rino Mioc’s Earth to Colby about a vlogger who discovers portals in her hometown; Calgary director James Buddy Day’s documentary NOFX – 40 Years of F–kn’ Up about the punk-rock band, produced by the act’s vocalist/bassist Fat Mike; the Alberta-shot horror CAMP starring local actor Mike Tan and produced by Calgary’s Taylor Nodrick and Michael Peterson; and Buffet Infinity, a debut horror-comedy by Edmonton director Simon Glassmen. The festival will also feature Young Female Playwright, the directorial debut of Calgary expat Pony Nicole Herauf, and former Jasper resident Jody Wilson’s coming-of-age film The Bearded Girl.
The nine international premieres include the horror film Goody Goody by American director Raymond Creamer; John Wilson’s The History of Concrete, a critically praised comedic documentary about the filmmaker’s bizarre attempts to pitch a film about the history of concrete; and Matthew Perniciaro’s documentary, Long Live the State, about the New York comedy troupe formed in the 1980s.
A scene from the horror film Obsession, which will screen at the 2026 Calgary Underground Film Festival.
Canadian premieres include Caleb Phillips’ existential horror film Imposters, Australian director Natalie Erika James’s body-horror film Saccharine. The festival will also screen Curry Barker’s comedy-horror Obsession. Barker will be in attendance.
On April 15, a day before the official start of the festival, there will be a 30th anniversary screening of Bruce McDonald’s Hard Core Logo to celebrate National Canadian Film Day, with McDonald in attendance. The festival will also offer a 45th-anniversary screening of the Canuck cult-horror classic My Bloody Valentine, with director George Mihalka in attendance.
Festival favourites such as The Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat-Cereal Cartoon Party will take place on April 18 and feature three hours of retro animation. On the final day of the festival, April 26, there will be a screening of projects created as part of the 48-hour Movie Making Challenge.
The Calgary Underground Film Festival takes place from April 16 to 26. Visit calgaryundergroundfilm.org.
A scene from the 1981 Canadian cult classic My Bloody Valentine by George Mihalka. The Calgary Underground Film Festival will present a 45th-anniversary screening of the film.