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5 must-watch movies at IFFBoston 2026
Independent Film Festival Boston will bring more than 90 movies to Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline during its eight-day spring festival, starting April 22.
Ask any Boston-area cinephile about the best film festival the city has to offer, and chances are they’ll name the Independent Film Festival Boston (IFFBoston).
Since its founding in 2003, IFFBoston has grown in size and stature, bringing an impressive slate of new movies to the independent cinemas of Boston during its annual spring festival, which runs from April 22-29 this year.
The IFFBoston 2026 lineup features more than 90 films, a mix of narrative titles, documentary features and shorts, and short film programs featuring directors from near and far.
The festival opens Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre with “I Love Boosters,” a crime comedy starring Keke Palmer and directed by Boots Riley (“Sorry to Bother You”). The festival closes on April 29 at the Coolidge Theatre in Brookline with “The Invite,” a dramedy directed by and starring Olivia Wilde alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton.
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Tickets are running low for both of these marquee titles, but IFFBoston executive director Brian Tamm encourages anyone who can secure tickets to do so.
“We’re opening the festival with something big and bold and colorful and in your face, and we’re closing with something that’s very intimate and sly and quieter,” Tamm told Boston.com. “The way the schedule worked out is kind of delightful.”
Beyond seeing film festival favorites from mid-major studios like A24 and Neon, IFFBoston 2026 is an opportunity to see films you won’t find anywhere else.
This year, Tamm and co-executive director Nancy Campbell have selected a number of films that are politically resonant, including the documentary “Everybody to Kenmure Street,” about how hundreds of residents in Scotland’s most diverse neighborhood successfully stopped an immigration raid. But they’ve also focused on the lighter side of things with documentaries like “I Love Cheese,” about the world of competitive cheese-mongering.
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“We have a wide range of films that I’m excited about this year,” Tamm said. “Films for people who want to get deeper into what’s going on in the world, films for people who want to escape for a couple hours — it’s all here.”
Whether your goal is to see buzzworthy festival hits before anyone else or discover your new favorite filmmaker, here are five of the best movies to watch at IFFBoston 2026.
For a full schedule of IFFBoston 2026, visit IFFBoston’s website.
“First They Came For My College” (April 23, 7 p.m., Somerville Theatre)
This documentary chronicles the hostile government takeover of New College of Florida, in which Gov. Ron DeSantis installed conservative board members, purged liberal academics, and implemented a curriculum designed with the goal of advancing the ideals of Project 2025 and dismantling Critical Race Theory. The film’s message is clear in its title: If it’s happening here, it can happen to your college, a message that Tamm sees as especially relevant for audiences in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville.
“It’s important for a state like Massachusetts, which is very college-centric, to really be aware of what’s happening,” Tamm said. “What’s happening in Florida is an incubator for what they want to do elsewhere.”
“Cookie Queens” (April 24, 6 p.m., Brattle Theatre)
Tamm compared this Sundance hit — which follows four Girl Scouts as they try to sell the most boxes of cookies and earn the title of “Cookie Queen” — to the 2002 hit documentary “Spellbound.” The film focuses not only on the quartet’s role in a booming $800 million industry, but what the act of selling cookies does for these still-developing minds.
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“It’s not just about raising money for the troop,” Tamm said. “It’s also about taking a step into a bigger world figuring out how to navigate it.”
“Newport & The Great Folk Dream” (April 26, 3:30 p.m., Somerville Theatre)
If you enjoyed watching Timothee Chalamet rile up a Newport Folk Festival crowd by “going electric” in “A Complete Unknown,” you’ll likely enjoy this deeper look into the early days of the festival, which features rare and never-before-seen footage from the festival’s 1963-66 editions alongside interviews with Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger.
“It’s an examination of American culture,” Tamm said. “Those were very turbulent times, and the film shows how the Newport Folk Festival specifically and the folk movement in general spoke to those times.”
“The Big Cheese” (April 26, 7 p.m., Somerville Theatre)
A team of Harvard grads and other film professionals with local ties are behind this documentary about a team of cheese mongerers (that’s the cheese equivalent of a wine sommelier) leading team USA in a quest for its first win at the “Olympics of Cheese.”
“It’s a big, competitive story told with great drama,” Campbell said. It’s a lot of fun, and people love cheese. I love cheese.”
“Everybody to Kenmure Street” (April 28, 8 p.m., Somerville Theatre)
In May 2021, an early-morning immigration raid in one of Scotland’s most diverse neighborhoods led to an act of civil resistance that brings to mind how the residents of Minnesota came together during the unprecedented ICE raids this past winter.
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“These people are not activists, they’re just regular people who care about their neighbors,” Tamm said. “I think the idea of people coming through for their neighbors and helping each other get justice is such an important message.”
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