Festivals and Series

The Yale Film Archive hosts year-round screenings showcasing the Archive’s collection. All screenings and series are free and open to the public.

As the movie-going landscape is increasingly transformed through digital technology, the Yale Film Archive is committed to presenting films in their original format, projected onto the big screen before an audience, as they were intended to be seen. Each screening features an introduction, and they frequently feature frequently feature invited guests including filmmakers and faculty. Films screened range from contemporary classics and foreign films to silent features with live musical accompaniment. Drawing on the broad spectrum of films held in the Yale Film Archive and the expertise of the university’s film community, these series play an integral role in the film culture of Yale and New Haven. Series are curated by Yale Film Archive staff.

Inaugurated in 2009 by the Whitney Humanities Center to help foster a dynamic film culture at Yale, Films at the Whitney supports a host of other film-related events, including film conferences and festivals, special screenings and workshops with visiting filmmakers.

Established in 2024, the Yale Schwarzman Center Secret Film Society hosts public screenings of the season’s most anticipated films before they’re released. Our distribution partners include A24, Neon, Netflix, and more. 

The Yale Student Film Festival (YSFF) is a four-day event dedicated to celebrating the works of student filmmakers from all backgrounds. Since its inception in 2015, it has provided a platform for dedicated young artists and lovers of cinema from around the world to come together, showcase their work, and build connections.

Established in 2015, the Latino & Iberian Film Festival at Yale (LIFFY) promotes cultural awareness, mutual understanding, and unity among people of divergent backgrounds by presenting films that tell the stories and share the perspectives of people from the diverse countries, languages, and cultures that make up Latin America and the Iberian peninsula.

The Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY), sponsored by the Yale School of the Environment, showcases incisive, cutting edge films highlighting the environmental and social issues of our time.

The European Cinema Series highlights 12-18 feature films to showcase a different year in Europe through an international sample of its cinematic production. Many of the films are drawn from distant archives, shown in 35mm format, sometimes preceded by newsreels or shorts, and always interspersed with panels that discuss the films in relation to the historical, social, and aesthetic concerns of the year in focus.

The program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES) hosts an annual film series ranging in theme from Literary Adaptations on Screen to Slavic Science Fiction.

The Yale Festival of New Italian Cinema, consisting of four days of recent Italian films screened on campus,  is hosted by the Department of Italian Studies, the Whitney Humanities Center, and the Film and Media Studies Program. With introductions and post-screening discussions, these films attract a wide public from Yale and the City of New Haven. 

The Yale Africa Film Festival is hosted by the Council on African Studies in collaboration with Yale African Graduate & Professional Students and highlights forward-thinking films from the African continent and its diaspora.