Sacramento French Film Festival — 25th Season
June 26–28, 2026 · Tower Theatre, Sacramento
Since 2002
Every summer since 2002, the Sacramento French Film Festival takes you on a trip to France without leaving town...
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Our Mission
The Festival is dedicated to providing the Sacramento community with unique, inspiring, festive, and affordable events that bring people together in celebration of French culture. It is committed to fostering friendly relations between American and French people through the universal language of film and the arts. It encourages audience participation through thought-provoking discussions between Festival guests and attendees.
Founded in 2002, the Sacramento French Film Festival now presents two annual events as well as special screenings under the umbrella of the Sacramento French Cultural Society, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated in 2010.
After a sold-out first edition at the Tower Theatre in July 2002, the Sacramento French Film Festival moved downtown to the Crest Theatre, its home until 2019.
In 2008, we introduced a second annual event dedicated to short films, the Winter Shorts Fest. Originally hosted by the Poetry Center, it quickly grew to bigger locations, first Verge Center for the Arts (2011–2013), then the Crest Theatre (2014–2019) and Tower Theatre (2020–today).
We presented a third event, a one-day fall festival called the MiniFest, at the Esquire IMAX Theatre from 2014 to 2020.
In 2020, confronted with the COVID pandemic, the SFFF immediately shifted to a dedicated online streaming platform with no interruption in programming. From 2020 to 2023, we kept our community connected and engaged through virtual festivals, special screenings, and transatlantic Zoom discussions with French filmmakers. After two virtual and then two hybrid years in multiple venues, 2024 was our first year fully back in-person, at the Tower Theatre.
Over the years, the SFFF has partnered with local arts organizations and film festivals, and presented numerous special screenings — notably a silent French film with live music accompaniment by the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra in 2012, a documentary commemorating the victims of the Paris terrorist attack in 2015, and French experimental shorts during the ephemeral installation Art Street in 2017.
Find all our past events here
Audience Award Winners
The People Who Make It Happen
The festival has always been powered by a dedicated team of volunteers and committee members who give their time, creativity, and love of French cinema year after year. Below is a glimpse of the team over the years.
The SFFF Planning Committee Over the Years...
SFFF Planning Committee & Board of Directors onstage while Cécile Downs receives the medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from Denis Bisson, Attaché Culturel to the French Consulate in SF — Opening Night 2013
SFFF Planning Committee onstage on Opening Night 2011 — Photo Dimitri Stanich
Happy Team of Volunteers on Closing Night 2010 — Photo Mark Urquart Webb
SFFF Planning Committee onstage on Opening Night 2009 — Photo Denis Rouleau
SFFF Planning Committee onstage on Opening Night 2008 — Photo Steve Kao