Be sure to check out our full 2026 Fall Arts Guide to live music, movies, art, theater, festivals and more in the Bay Area.
The Bay Area is fertile ground for film festivals year-round, but peak harvest season arrives in September and October. Toss in a bumper crop of ambitious (and political) wide releases and some tasty revivals from cinema’s past and we have the fixings for a fabulous fall feast. And that’s before the avalanche of Oscar-touted movies arrives around the holidays.
There are so many intriguing choices that the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive retrospective Martin Scorsese Pictures (Sept. 5, 2026–June 2027) and the SF Silent Film Festival’s centennial celebration of Buster Keaton’s still-astounding The General (Sept. 18 at the Orinda Theater with live musical accompaniment) didn’t make my cut. Nor did a pair of long-awaited adaptations of female-powered novels, Verity (starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, opening Oct. 2) and Klara and the Sun (Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, Oct. 23). Have I whetted your appetite?
Andrew Garfield stars as Ploughman in director Paul Greengrass’ ‘The Uprising.’
‘The Uprising’
Opens Sept. 11, 2026
In the late 1300s, still mourning their plague deaths, England’s overtaxed farmers organized against the elites who manipulated teenage King Richard II for their own benefit. Lacking the right to vote, the populace had few options besides rebellion. (Unrelated public service announcement: Election Day is Nov. 3.) Paul Greengrass (The Last Bus, Captain Phillips, Bloody Sunday) has a penchant for unlikely heroes, and casts Andrew Garfield as a slight, bearded, principled widower who emerges as one of the leaders. Kill the rich! No kings! Up the revolution! Volunteers, anyone?
A still from Danny Roberts’ short documentary ‘The Western Snowy Plover,’ screening as part of SF CritterFest.
Sept. 17–20, 2026
4 Star Theater, San Francisco
The SF IndieFest family has a new sibling in this vocal and colorful compendium of movies starring the animal kingdom, wild and domestic (with a couple human cameos). Head honcho Jeff Ross and ace programmers Chris Metzler and Jason Wolos return to the 4 Star Oct. 15–22 with the très cool Green Film Festival of San Francisco and the San Francisco Short Film Festival.
A still from Levan Akin’s ‘Crossing,’ 2024.
Sept. 23–Oct. 2, 2026
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
For over a decade, Director of Film and Senior Film Curator Susan Oxtoby has shared with Bay Area audiences her affinity for the underappreciated films of the small nation of Georgia. Now, when the country’s authoritarian rulers are punishing all forms of free speech — uh, I’m talking about Georgia — BAMPFA embarks on a year-long act of cultural solidarity. In the first leg, nine filmmakers and scholars bring their art, ideas and struggle to the Bay Area for 10 days. (In addition to Georgia and Scorsese, this fall BAMPFA also showcases rare and classic Hong Kong movies and the late ’50s-early ’60s masterpieces of Masaki Kobayashi. Just … wow.)
A still from Angie Chen’s ‘My Name Ain’t Suzie (Fa gai si doi),’ 1985. (SF Film Preserve)
Sept. 24–27, 2026
Roxie Theater, San Francisco
“Access must be the end point of all preservation initiatives,” declares the website of the San Francisco Film Preserve. The SFFP’s inaugural festival collects 14 rarely seen features — excavated treasure for cinephiles — each paired with a short. Angie Chen’s grittily affirmational 1985 drama My Name Ain’t Suzie, set in the brothels of Hong Kong after World War II, kicks off the weekend. Every program is catnip, but none more than Lepers & Sex AKA Santo vs The Riders of Terror, Rene Cardona’s 1970 entry in the long-running El Santo franchise chronicling the action adventures of a good-guy Mexican wrestler in a silver mask. That’s entertainment!
Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich in Martin McDonagh’s ‘Wild Horse Nine,’ 2026.
Oct. 1–11, 2026
Various locations
The 49th edition of Marin County’s sun-dappled autumn jewel is the first since beloved creative director Zoe Elton transitioned to a part-time role and Rose Kuo came aboard as artistic director. The lineup always boasts a fine selection of local documentaries and foreign fiction gems, as well as a tempting array of arthouse titles poised for end-of-year kudos. Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh will be on hand opening night to present Wild Horse Nine (opening Nov. 6 in theaters), his follow-up to The Banshees of Inisherin. Sam Rockwell, who stars opposite John Malkovich, will be honored the following night with a tribute. The festival introduces two sections this year, New Directors (first and second features) and Animation (for adults). Keep an eye out for Clarissa, an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway set in contemporary Nigeria that opens at the end of the year.
Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell in a scene from Alejandro Iñárritu’s ‘Digger,’ 2026.
‘Digger’
Opens Oct. 2, 2026
The gifted Alejandro G. Iñárritu (The Revenant) is back, finally, after the critically dismissed, occasionally indulgent and altogether jaw-dropping Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (dive into Netflix’s depths to find it). Inspired, presumably, by the current plague of insufferable billionaire megalomaniacs, Digger centers on a larger-than-life, louder-than-God oilman (T. Boone Pickens meets Slim Pickens) who triggers a global catastrophe that he, and only he, can thwart. Extending Iñárritu’s streak of casting Hollywood unknowns, some dude named Tom Cruise tries his hand at black comedy.
Oct. 4–9, 2026
Various locations
Raise your glass, put down your phone and focus on the screen. This is an art function, not a social event. Who am I kidding? Every film festival takes creators seriously, of course, but the Drunken — by virtue of its bar-hopping ambience — encourages you to participate in a way you might not (or are frowned at) in a theater.
Jeremy Strong stars as Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Social Reckoning.’
‘The Social Reckoning’
Opens Oct. 9, 2026
Sixteen years after penning The Social Network (2010), which made the slippery Silicon Valley nebbish Mark Zuckerberg a household name, Aaron Sorkin has written and directed a sequel. This chapter revisits the fallout after the 2021 leak of an internal document describing Facebook’s adverse effects on teenage users. “Profits over people” is plainly a recurring theme this fall, though I’m most curious to see/hear Mikey Madison (Anora), Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) and Jeremy Strong (Succession) deliver Sorkin’s rhythmic lines while walking in circles.
A still from Paweł Pawlikowski’s ‘Fatherland,’ 2026.
‘Fatherland’
Opens Oct. 23, 2026
You might pigeonhole Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida, Cold War) as a writer-director of gorgeously shot, black-and-white travelogues through postwar Europe. That’s OK with me. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, don’t you know. Pawlikowski received the Best Director award at Cannes for this fictionalized 1949 road trip taken by the renowned German writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller). If you are interested in the intersection of art and politics (and history, of course), Fatherland is a must-see.
Nov. 5–8, 2026
Vogue Theatre, San Francisco
SFFILM’s stellar concentration of pithy nonfiction is invariably thought-provoking and big fun. An odd thing to say about often-dismal reality, I know. But if a subject fascinates a good filmmaker, the odds are excellent that they will convey that interest in an interesting way. A contingent of local filmmakers turns up for most programs, and you might find yourself eavesdropping on their conversations outside the theater afterward.
Christian Bale as Al Davis and Nicolas Cage as John Madden in ‘Madden.’
‘Madden’
Streaming Nov. 18, 2026
Prime Video
Ahoy, East Bay pirates, dig out your silver and black. The late, great John Madden, everyone’s favorite football coach and television announcer, is heading your way. The producers enlisted another unique character, Nicolas Cage, to play him. Christian Bale rekindles our love-hate relationship with Raiders owner Al Davis, while Kathryn Hahn portrays Virginia Madden. David O. Russell’s biopic is slated for an Oscar-qualifying, one-week release but not a theatrical run, which is fitting since its subject was a longtime denizen of the small screen.