IN THE PALACE 2026: Digging Great Films Since 2003

The 23rd International Short Film Festival IN THE PALACE will take place from June 22 to 28 at the Palace of Culture in Pernik, Bulgaria.
 
 
Picture this: around 250 accredited film professionals - including directors, producers, screenwriters, actors, journalists, critics, and guests connected to major awards and festivals such as the Oscars, Venice, Cannes, and Berlin - gathered inPernik for one week dedicated to short film.

This year, the festival presents 190 films in its competition programmes, selected from nearly 5,000 submissions from morethan 130 countries. According to festival director Tsanko Vasilev, the selection committee worked to create a diverseprogramme in tenns of genre, origin, themes, and visual style, while also including Bulgarian films in the competition.

This year's campaign is titled "Digging Great Films Since 2003" - because, as the festival director puts it, the festival's job is "to find them and bring them to light."

All screenings and events at the festival are FREE ENTRY.

Alongside the film competition, the festival will host the 21st edition of FILMER FORGE, its professional programme featuring training sessions, workshops, panels, open discussions, an international scientific conference, and a pitching session for new film projects.

This year's focus is on providing professional training for producers, directors and screenwriters titled "EAVE onDemand" made possible by a partnership with the European Association of Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, EAVE, and theinternational scientific interdisciplinary conference on the topic "Short Film, Big Questions: Festivals, Policies and Public Engagement".

The 23rd edition of IN THE PALACE is part of Bulgaria's National Cultural Calendar for 2026 and is organized by theInternational Short Film Festival IN THE PALACE Foundation and the Municipal Foundation "Pernik Culture," with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Municipality of Pernik, the National Film Center, and the National Culture Fund.
 
With free entry to all screenings and events, IN THE PALACE 2026 invites audiences, guests, and film professionals to discover why Pemik becomes a home for short cinema every June.

Written by Monika Zafirova