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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Janicke Askevold
intervista: Janicke Askevold
scheda film], 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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Urška Djukić
scheda film] by Urška Djukić (Slovenia/Italy/Croatia/Serbia), The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Diego Céspedes
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intervista: Óliver Laxe
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intervista: Mascha Schilinski
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intervista: Cyril Aris
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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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hlynur Pálmason
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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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Maryam Touzani
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intervista: Jim Jarmusch
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intervista: Jafar Panahi
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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 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Joachim Trier
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intervista: Stéphane Demoustier
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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 [+leggi anche:
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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 [+leggi anche:
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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.