– Hosted in the eponymous Norwegian Arctic city, the 36th edition of the festival will celebrate the cream of the crop from 2025 and introduce potential new favourites
Sirāt by Óliver Laxe
Tromsø has released the full line-up for its 36th edition, which takes place from 19-25 January 2026 in the eponymous Norwegian Arctic city. The festival will open with Janicke Askevold’s Solomamma [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Janicke Askevold
interview: Janicke Askevold
film profile], a Norwegian co-production that competed for the Golden Leopard at Locarno this summer, and will close with Mile End Kicks, a Canadian romantic comedy.
The festival programming team has picked an action-packed 80 titles from among 400 movies, sculpting a programme that “reflects the most interesting films in the world right now”. With Tromsø having been selected as the European Youth Capital for 2026, festival director Lisa Hoen also highlights the work of the young programming team and the films that celebrate coming of age, growth and fresh perspectives.
This coming edition will feature 12 features in competition, all celebrating their Norwegian premieres and vying for the coveted Aurora Prize. Ten of these works are European co-productions, including several entrants for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film: Little Trouble Girls [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Urška Djukić
film profile] by Urška Djukić (Slovenia/Italy/Croatia/Serbia), The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo [+see also:
film review
interview: Diego Céspedes
film profile] by Diego Céspedes (France/Germany/Spain/Chile/Belgium), Sirāt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Óliver Laxe
film profile] by Óliver Laxe (Spain/France), Sound of Falling [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mascha Schilinski
film profile] by Mascha Schilinski (Germany) and A Sad and Beautiful World [+see also:
film review
interview: Cyril Aris
film profile] by Cyril Aris (Lebanon/USA/Germany/Saudi Arabia/Qatar).
Films from the North (FFN), Tromsø’s most popular sidebar, includes features and shorts – both fiction and documentary – from the High North (Sápmi, northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Canada, as well as Alaska, Iceland and Greenland). Movies in this section will vie for the Tromsø Palm, awarded to the best feature and best short. Features in the FFN strand include Hlynur Pálmason’s acclaimed family drama The Love That Remains [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile], the IFFR-premiered psychological thriller Raptures [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Jon Blåhed as well as world premieres including Sámi vs. Sámi by Ellen-Astri Lundby – a documentary about a court case over herding rights and indigenous identity – and the Swedish thriller The Watchmaker by Jonas Lawes.
Tromsø’s panoramic film section, Horizons, will screen acclaimed works from across the world, with no limitations on genre or style. Many of these are festival favourites varying drastically in tone, including Morocco’s feel-good Oscar entry Calle Málaga [+see also:
film review
interview: Maryam Touzani
film profile] by Maryam Touzani, Harry Lighton’s Un Certain Regard Best Screenplay Award winner Pillion [+see also:
film review
film profile], the Venice winner Father Mother Sister Brother [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jim Jarmusch
film profile] by Jim Jarmusch, the Cannes winner It Was Just an Accident [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jafar Panahi
film profile] by Jafar Panahi and the musical drama The Testament of Ann Lee [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Mona Fastvold.
The Critics’ Week selection, created in collaboration with the Norwegian Film Critics’ Association, will include five films selected by Norwegian critics and four Norwegian features from the past year. Highlights of this section include Joachim Trier‘s Grand Prix winner Sentimental Value [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Trier
film profile], the German body horror The Ugly Stepsister [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Emilie Blichfeldt and Stéphane Demoustier’s Claes Bang-led The Great Arch [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stéphane Demoustier
film profile].
East Side Stories, which began as a sidebar in 2002, includes films from the former Soviet republics with an emphasis on critical engagement and thoughtful storytelling. The section, says assistant programme director Henning Rosenlund, is heavily influenced by the war in Ukraine as well as the “human cost of war”, featuring Sergei Loznitsa’s Great Terror drama Two Prosecutors [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sergei Loznitsa
film profile] and Mstyslav Chernov’s Ukrainian frontline documentary 2000 Meters to Andriivka [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], among others.
This year’s Focus strand interrogates the theme of fascism, examining its interplay with cinema throughout history, as well as present-day democratic backsliding and authoritarian traits. Movies such as Leni Riefenstahl‘s infamous propaganda film Triumph of the Will will be critically interrogated alongside contemporary works including Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Brazilian thriller The Secret Agent [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].
Tromsø’s Special Screenings will once again centre on the festival’s flagship film concerts, featuring live music at the converted Alfheim swimming pool, in addition to Winter Cinema screenings at its open-air outdoor venue. The Overdrive section, Tromsø’s “midnight screening”-style sidebar, will boast the world premiere of the Norwegian monster thriller Kraken by Pål Øie and Sjur Aarthun, billed as a film that “unites Norwegian folklore with modern environmental threats”. The TIFF UNG strand for audiences aged 15-19 rounds off the selection with four flicks selected by a group of young people this past autumn.
