Denver Film Festival 2026 (Oct. 22–Nov. 1): How to Get Tickets, From I Play Rocky on Opening Night to a Halloween Closer

The 49th Denver Film Festival runs October 22 through November 1, 2026, at four Denver venues: the Sie FilmCenter on East Colfax Avenue, the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Anyone can go. Tickets are sold per screening on the festival's Eventive site (public sales opened October 5), passes start at $450 ($350 for Denver Film members), and every public screening at the Ellie holds back sliding-scale, pay-what-you-can seats.

Picture an opera house on a Thursday night. The lights go down, and instead of a soprano you get a broke young actor who has written a boxing script and won't sell it unless he gets to play the lead. That's opening night in Denver: Peter Farrelly's I Play Rocky, with Anthony Ippolito as the young Sylvester Stallone. Founded in 1978, Denver was one of the first film festivals in the country, and this edition is its last before the big 50th.

Why go instead of waiting for streaming? The mix. In one week you can see Pedro Pascal play a cellist for Tony Gilroy and catch new films from Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Lee Chang-dong, often ahead of release, sometimes with the filmmakers in the room.

The Essentials

• When: Thursday, October 22 through Sunday, November 1, 2026.
• Where: Sie FilmCenter (2510 E. Colfax Ave.), Ellie Caulkins Opera House, MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater, Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
• Cost: Per-screening tickets, discounted for Denver Film members. Mile High Pass $450 ($350 members); all-access Ellwood Pass $1,000 ($750 members). Sliding-scale seats at the three public Ellie screenings and select general admission shows.
• Who: Anyone with a ticket. Parties are 21+ with photo ID.
• Where to book: The official schedule at denverfilmfestival.eventive.org (the button on this post goes straight there).

What's on the Screen

The big nights. I Play Rocky opens on October 22 at the Ellie, and screenwriter Peter Gamble will present it, then return the next day for a Creative Conversation. On October 24, two Centerpieces fill the Ellie: Behemoth!, Gilroy's film with Pascal as a cellist coming home to Los Angeles after 20 years on the road (the festival calls it a love letter to movie scoring, made with nine composers), and Ink, Danny Boyle's story of the misfits who remade the news business.

Closing Night is Saturday, October 31, at the Holiday Theater: James Gray's Paper Tiger, about two brothers pulled into a too-good-to-be-true scheme with the Russian mafia, starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller. Neon opens it in theaters in November.

Special Presentations are where the festival gets playful. Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut turns Julianne Moore into a community-theater method actress clashing with director Paul Giamatti. Elsinore stars Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson, who fought to play Hamlet while battling AIDS. And in Wicker, Olivia Colman plays a fisherwoman who falls for a man made of wicker. He is played by Alexander Skarsgård.

The competition is the cinephile's corner. Finalists for the Krzysztof Kieslowski Award include Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden, Lee's Possible Love, Andrei Zvyagintsev's Minotaur and Toronto People's Choice winner La Bola Negra. The prize's name is festival history: Kieslowski came to Denver for a tribute in 1989 and returned in 1994.

The honorees include Carrie Coon (Excellence in Acting, The Liberation), John Cho (the Outlaw Award, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother) and Fred Hechinger (Rising Star).

How to Get In, Step by Step

1. Browse the program on the official Eventive schedule. Each film has its own "Get Tickets" button.
2. Pick tickets or a pass. Two or three films? Buy singles. A long weekend? Compare that total against the Mile High Pass.
3. Consider membership first. Denver Film's Film Buff membership is $65 ($35 students). Members get ticket discounts and $100 off the Mile High Pass. Sign in before checkout so the discount applies.
4. Buy online. The box office doesn't print tickets; you show them on your phone or a printout.
5. Want pay-what-you-can? Look for the sliding-scale option on Opening Night, the two Centerpieces and select general admission shows. It's a limited allotment, so book early.
6. Passholders: reserve, then get your badge. Passes work one ticket per screening, with no overlapping showtimes. Pick up badges at Festival Headquarters (2504 E. Colfax Ave.), 2 to 7 p.m., October 19–21; after that, at the Sie box office.

Tickets or a Pass?

The Mile High Pass is the festival's most popular: one Ellie screening, two Special Presentations, six general admission tickets, panels, the passholder lounge and priority seating. The Ellwood Pass adds every Special Presentation and Red Carpet screening plus VIP party invitations. Unless you're taking the week off, the Mile High is the sweet spot.

Why It's Worth Being in the Room

I Play Rocky is built around a refusal: an unknown actor turning down easy money because he wants the part. In an opera house full of people with their own unsold scripts and someday plans, it plays like a dare. You'll feel the room lean in when he says no, and the next day you can hear the man who wrote that scene explain it.

That's what a festival does that a couch can't. It hands you a film before anyone has told you what to think, then puts you in a lobby with strangers who want to argue about it. Some of these films will be everywhere this winter. A few won't, and you might be one of the few hundred people who loved them first.

Good to Know

• Book the big nights first. Opening Night, the Centerpieces and Closing Night are the marquee events, and the sliding-scale seats are a limited allotment.
• Park free at the Sie. The garage above the theater is free.
• Accessibility: The festival currently says the Sie's elevator is out of service. Email accessibility@denverfilm.org before you buy if you need step-free access.
• Parties are separate tickets, all 21+. The Opening Night Party fills Market Station on October 22. The Halloween Closing Night Party has one rule: costumes aren't encouraged, they're required. The juries name the winners at the Awards Brunch on November 1.

The curtain goes up on an underdog on October 22. Watch it before I Play Rocky, and keep an eye on the empty-rink date with Adrian. It's the quietest scene in a boxing movie, and it shows exactly what Stallone was fighting to keep.