St. Louis International Film Festival 2026 (Nov. 5–15): How to Get Tickets, From Free Shows to a 1992 Double Bill

At 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 5, the lights go down in the Hi-Pointe Theatre on McCausland Avenue, and two CIA men played by John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell get packed off from Santiago to Easter Island shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup. That's Martin McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine opening the 35th St. Louis International Film Festival, a night before its theatrical release, per Deadline. Variety noted it reunites McDonagh with Rockwell, his Oscar winner from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

The practical version: SLIFF runs November 5 to 15, 2026, at ten venues in and around St. Louis, and anyone can buy a ticket on the festival's own site. Thirty-four programs are free. And the festival turns its birthday into a double bill: SLIFF started in 1992, and on Sunday, November 8, the Hi-Pointe screens two independent films from that year, Reservoir Dogs and Daughters of the Dust.

What SLIFF Is

The nonprofit Cinema St. Louis runs it: more than 200 films over 11 days, from documentaries and shorts to international features, with a Studio Spotlight for names like Mike Leigh and Tony Gilroy.

The heart of it is the Hi-Pointe. KSDK reported that the theater opened in 1922 and is the oldest continually operating single-screen movie house in the St. Louis area; Cinema St. Louis bought it and now runs from its address. In 1992, that room was already 70. Other screens include Chase Park Plaza Cinema, Arkadin Cinema & Bar and the Lincoln Theatre in Belleville, Illinois; free programs land at museums, a library and two universities (full list on the venue page).

Tickets and Passes, Priced

From the festival's tickets and passes page, checked November 1, 2026 (member prices in parentheses):

• Single ticket, $15. Members, students, seniors and military pay $12.
• Free programs, $0. You still need a ticket.
• Opening Night Reception, $20. A 6 p.m. party at Par Lounge with veterans of the very first SLIFF; includes Wild Horse Nine.
• 6-Film Pass, $85 ($65). Six tickets for six films, or for six people at one.
• SLIFF35 Pass, $300 ($250). Thirty-five tickets; only 35 passes exist.
• VIP Pass, $350 ($300). Unlimited screenings for one, plus Opening Night and filmmaker parties.
• All-Access Pass, $500 ($425). Unlimited screenings for two, plus every special event.

Six singles cost $90, so the 6-Film Pass saves only $5; its real use is bringing five friends to one film.

Getting a Seat, Step by Step

1. Pick a showtime on the festival schedule and add tickets to your cart, free programs included.
2. Pass or member discount? Enter your code in the promo code box at checkout.
3. Students and military validate ID by emailing a copy to SLIFFhelp@cinemastlouis.org or at the Hi-Pointe box office.
4. Bring the QR code from your confirmation email on your phone.
5. Walking up? Box offices open 30 minutes before each venue's first show of the day and take cards only.

Eleven Days, in Order

Deadline reported that Malkovich won Venice's Volpi Cup for best actor for this role. The dates worth circling:

• Wild Horse Nine (Thu., Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m., Hi-Pointe): opening night.
• All of a Sudden (Fri., Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m., Chase Park Plaza): Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 196-minute drama; it lets out around 10:45 p.m.
• The Gleaners and I (Sat., Nov. 7, 2 p.m., Saint Louis Art Museum, free): Agnès Varda's documentary.
• Gerry Rich workshop (Sun., Nov. 8, 11 a.m., Hi-Pointe, free).
• Reservoir Dogs (Sun., Nov. 8, 12:45 p.m., Hi-Pointe): introduced by Rich.
• Daughters of the Dust (Sun., Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m., Hi-Pointe).
• Tender Loving Care (Fri., Nov. 13, 7:45 p.m., Chase Park Plaza): Mike Leigh's new film.
• The Debut (Sun., Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m., Hi-Pointe), then the Closing Night Awards Party (9:30 p.m., Hi-Pointe, free), where Audience Choice is announced.

Sunday, November 8: The Year SLIFF Was Born

The programmers describe their 1992 picks as films "that changed the way we experience cinema," and these two went in opposite directions.

The AFI Catalog records that Reservoir Dogs debuted at Sundance on January 18, 1992, and that viewers reportedly walked out during the violent scenes; Miramax bought it that spring anyway. The festival says Gerry Rich ran Miramax's marketing when the film came out, and HarperCollins, publisher of his new memoir Chasing Hollywood, describes a kid who escaped his St. Louis neighborhood for the top of Hollywood. Catch his free workshop at 11, then carry one question into the 12:45 show: how do you sell a movie people walked out on?

That evening, the same screen shows Julie Dash's story of a Gullah family on the South Carolina Sea Islands in 1902, weighing a move to the mainland. Film at Lincoln Center calls it the first film directed by an African American woman to receive a national theatrical release. Dash told RogerEbert.com she stained the elders' hands permanently blue from the indigo fields, though the dye would have worn off by then: "I was determined to depict the metaphor of the period of enslavement in a way it had never been seen before."

One film locks men in a warehouse to bleed and lie to each other; the other puts women in long white dresses on a beach and lets the camera drift. It's hard not to see the two roads American independent film took that year. Watching both in a 1922 theater, beside people who have kept this festival alive for 35 years, feels like opening a family album with half the family in the seats.

Before You Go

• Buy early for Hi-Pointe nights. Seats are assigned, best available at the moment you buy.
• Every sale is final. No refunds, no exchanges.
• "Sold out" free shows aren't hopeless. Seats that open up are released at the venue.
• From out of town? The Cheshire, near the Hi-Pointe, has a festival rate (How to Fest page).

The festival ends where it began, with a 7:30 p.m. show in the Hi-Pointe and the Audience Choice winner named afterward on the screen where Malkovich and Rockwell first reached Easter Island. And on November 8, watch the elders' hands in Daughters of the Dust, still stained indigo blue in 1902.