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Film Festivals in Baku
Baku International Film Festival
The Caspian capital where Zaha Hadid's white wave rises behind a medieval walled city, and carpets get a museum shaped like themselves.
Run by Baku International Film Festival, with published dates and a real program.
Dates & details verified against: Official event site ↗
Why here
The Baku International Film Festival stages its seventeenth edition October 21-31, 2026, backed by the Ministry of Culture and the Azerbaijan Film Agency with the Nizami Cinema Center as its anchor venue, a run of premieres and regional competition that overlaps the jazz festival's tail to make late October Baku's culture fortnight. Azerbaijani cinema's own lineage runs back to 1898 oil-boom newsreels, among the earliest film footage in the Muslim world, and the festival leans on that history while programming the Caucasus and Turkic new waves that rarely reach Western screens. The independent DokuBaku documentary festival adds an off-grid counterweight in the same season.
Best months
Annual in late October: the 2026 edition runs October 21-31. Tickets are cheap and mostly walk-up outside premieres. Screenings run in original language with subtitles at the main venues.
Getting there & around
The Nizami Cinema Center and satellite venues are central. Late October pairs the film and jazz festivals in one trip.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Baku International Film Festival
OrganizerThe Baku International Film Festival was established in 2004 by the Young Filmmakers Centre and runs its seventeenth edition October 21 to 31, 2026, directed by Fehruz Shamiyev. The program centres on short and debut films, drawing over 1,500 submissions a year, alongside screenings of award-winners from the Cannes, Venice and Berlin circuits. Earlier editions were staged at the Nizami Cinema Center with Ministry of Culture support.
Also good for film festivals in October:
Torn between Baku International Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival for October?
A plan settles it for your skill and budget, same-day.