Festival dates:
October 16 - October 19, 2025
Hellifax Horror Fest takes over Carbon Arc Cinema from October 16-19, 2025!
Read all about Hellifax at hellifax.com!
Screening times:
Thursday, October 23, 6:30 PM
Sunday, October 26, 5:30 PM
Carson Lund | USA | 2024 | 98m
As an imminent construction project looms over their beloved small-town baseball field, a pair of New England Sunday league teams face off for the last time over the course of a single day.
Screening times:
Friday, October 24, 6:30 PM
Sunday, October 26, 7:45 PM
Yeo Siew Hua | Singapore, USA, Taiwan, France | 2024 | 126m
Mandarin with English subtitles
A young couple looking for their missing daughter finds video recordings of their most intimate moments taken by a mysterious voyeur, which sets them on an investigation to find the truth behind the images.
Screening times:
Monday, October 27, 6:30 PM - filmmakers attending!
Jen Muranetz | Canada | 2024 | 78m
English with English subtitles
A documentary following Canada’s largest demonstration of civil disobedience, in a historic struggle to protect old growth forests. This screening is part of the film's Nova Scotia theatrical tour! It will be attended by director Jen Muranetz and executive producer Neal Livingston, who will be available for a post-screening Q&A.
Screening times:
Friday, October 31, 6:30 PM - SOLD OUT!
Friday, October 31, 9:15 PM - show added!
Claudia Lonow | USA | 2025 | 82m
Tillie, a floundering young woman and her charismatic, alcoholic father, struggle to resolve their fractured relationship in the weirdest possible way: after he dies, his ghost appears in mirrors to haunt everyone in the family but Tillie.
Screening times:
Saturday, November 1, 8:30 PM
John Carpenter | USA | 1980 | 109m
English with English subtitles
This is the third and final film in our Master of Horror, John Carpenter Retrospective for October! We'll also be screening Prince of Darkness (1987) on October 4, and The Thing (1982) on October 12. All Carpenter films will have English subtitles.
Screening times:
Monday, November 3, 6:30 PM
Healing Through Poetry | Asiah Sparks | Canada | 2025 | 21m - director attending!
Lost Chapters | Lorena Alvaredo | Venezuela | 2024 | 67m
Afterwords Literary Festival presents new 20-minute documentary Healing Through Poetry by former Youth Poet Laureate Asiah Sparks. This short doc will screen at 6:30 PM, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker! Following the Q&A, 67-minute Venezuelan narrative feature Lost Chapters will screen.
Screening times:
Sunday, October 12, 7:45 PM
John Carpenter | USA | 1982 | 109m
English with English subtitles
This is the second film in our Master of Horror, John Carpenter Retrospective for October! We'll also be screening Prince of Darkness (1982) on October 4, and The Fog (1980) on November 1. All Carpenter films will have English subtitles.
Screening times:
Sunday, October 12, 5:30 PM
Phil Tippett | USA | 2021 | 83m
This film does not feature any dialogue
The Assassin travels through a nightmare underworld of tortured souls, ruined cities and wretched monstrosities forged from the primordial horrors of the unconscious mind of Phil Tippett, the world's preeminent stop-motion animator.
Screening times:
Saturday, October 11, 6:00 PM - The Toxic Avenger
Saturday, October 11, 8:15 PM - Tromeo & Juliet - Debbie Rochon attending!
The Toxic Avenger | Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman | USA | 1984 | 82m
PLUS Tromeo & Juliet | Lloyd Kaufman | USA | 1996 | 107 min
Hellifax Horror Fest presents this Troma Double Feature, with Canadian horror icon Debbie Rochon in attendance, for an audience Q&A after Tromeo & Juliet!
Hellifax Horror Fest occurs very soon: October 16-19, 2025!
Screening times:
Friday, October 10, 6:30 PM - Desperately Seeking Susan
Friday, October 10, 9:00 PM - Smithereens
Including new pre-recorded interview with Susan Seidelman by Carbon Arc!
Desperately Seeking Susan | Susan Seidelman | USA | 1985 | 104m
PLUS Smithereens | Susan Seidelman | USA | 1982 | 93m
It’s the 40th Anniversary of 80s New Wave screwball comedy Desperately Seeking Susan! The Susan Seidelman Double Feature screens both feminist cult classics Desperately Seeking Susan and Smithereens.
Screening times:
Thursday, October 9, 6:30 PM
Embeth Davidtz | South Africa | 2024 | 99m
English and Shona with English subtitles
A 7-year-old girl has a wild childhood on a Rhodesian farm in 1980, just at the end of the Zimbabwean War for independence. This is another Carbon Arc Cinema ICYMI screening, bringing back quality art house films that briefly ran at the multiplex.
Screening times:
Saturday, October 4, 8:45 PM
John Carpenter | USA | 1987 | 102m
English with English subtitles
This is the first film in our Master of Horror, John Carpenter Retrospective for October! We'll also be screening The Thing (1982) on October 12, and The Fog (1980) on November 1. All Carpenter films will have English subtitles.
Screening times:
Saturday, October 4, 6:00 PM
Mini sustainable fashion market featuring local vendors from 5:00 PM!
Andrew Morgan | USA | 2015 | 92m
We're celebrating Sustainable Fashion Week in style! Come hang with Toni + Lin from Plasticfree Toronto for a cozy community screening of The True Cost — a groundbreaking film about the human and environmental impact of fast fashion. Come early (and stay late!) to shop and connect with local sustainable designers and vintage curators, including Stokeduds, Jenim Artwear, Magpie Vintage, Shelly'z Upcycle and more! Fast fashion is out, good vibes and good fits are in.
Screening times:
Friday, October 3, 6:30 PM - With Q&A
Friday, October 3, 9:15 PM - Second show added!
Seth & Peter Scriver | Canada | 2025 | 97m
English with English subtitles
A psychedelic, animated collage born from phone calls between two brothers—one in Toronto, the other on a Northern Manitoba reserve. Over nine years, they crafted something funny, beautiful, political, and deeply personal.
FREE ENTRY for NSCAD Students!
Screening times:
Thursday, October 2, 6:30 PM - Fall Season Opening Screening!
Sunday, October 5, 5:30 PM
Andres Veiel | Germany | 2024 | 115m
English and German with English subtitles
Carbon Arc resumes screening four nights a week on Thursday October 2nd with German documentary Riefenstahl: a new look at the legacy of filmmaker and Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl, who spent her life after the fall of the Reich denying complicity with its horrors.
Screening times:
Sunday, September 14, 7:30 PM
Experience bold new voices at Carbon Arc Cinema as participants from this year’s AIFF Filmmaker Lab debut their work on the big screen. These fresh short films reflect the creativity, collaboration, and growth fostered throughout the Lab.
Please check out the epic Atlantic International Film Festival program at atlanticfilmfest.ca! It looks so great! We’ll be there, and hope to see you there, too!!
Screening times:
Sunday, August 31, 5:30 PM - SOLD OUT
Sunday, August 31, 7:30 PM - selling quickly!
Sunday, August 31, 9:30 PM - show added!
A triumph! A spectacle! A fuzzy wuzzy cuddle puddle! CatVideoFest is all that and more. A favorite family-friendly cat-themed film event screening across North America is now coming to Halifax!
Ticket profits go to My Grandfather's Cat, a Dartmouth nonprofit organisation helping seniors and terminally ill people feed and arrange second forever homes for their pets in Canada.
Screening times:
Saturday, August 30, 8:45 PM
Danny DeVito | USA | 1989 | 116m
A wealthy couple seems to have perfect marriage. But when their marriage begins to fall apart, material possessions become the center of an outrageous and bitter divorce battle. Based on the 1981 novel by Warren Adler, and subject of the 2025 remake The Roses.
Screening times:
Saturday, August 30, 5:30 PM - almost sold out!
Akira Kurosawa | Japan | 1963 | 143m
Japanese with English subtitles
An executive of a Yokohama shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom. This is a modernist crime thriller, a class examination, and an engrossing tale of greed and envy. Subject of Spike Lee’s 2025 reinterpretation Highest 2 Lowest.
Screening time:
Thursday, August 28, 7:00 PM - Rush Only!
Doors open 6:00 pm
Enjoy trailers from the 2025 AIFF lineup, complete with exclusive behind-the-scenes commentary from the AIFF programming team. Connect with fellow film lovers and take home a special postcard souvenir!
The AIFF Box Office team will also be on-site, so you can be among the first to secure tickets for the festival.
Screening times:
Saturday, August 23, 8:30 PM
Charles Burnett | USA | 1999 | 108m
After years of living alone, an eccentric couple find real companionship and romance. This charming film is Charles Burnett’s final narrative feature to date.
Screening times:
Saturday, August 23, 6:00 PM - one night only!
Julian Glander | USA | 2024 | 90m
A teenager in suburban Florida desperately hustles to make $5,000 in this surreal animated coming-of-age story.
Screening times:
Friday, August 22, 9:00 PM
Robert Rodriguez | USA | 1998 | 104m
It's every teen's dream as they get to whack out their teachers who are infected by an alien worm bent on global domination.
Screening times:
Friday, August 22, 6:30 PM - SOLD OUT!
Sunday, August 24, 5:30 PM - a few tickets available
Sunday, August 24, 8:00 PM - show added
Amy Berg | USA | 2025 | 106m
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg illuminates the tragically short life of Jeff Buckley, a singer-songwriter with an otherworldly voice and boundary-pushing artistry.
Screening times:
Thursday, August 21, 6:30 PM
Yorgos Lanthimos | Greece | 2009 | 97m
Greek with English subtitles
A controlling, manipulative father locks his three adult offspring in a state of perpetual childhood by keeping them prisoner within the sprawling family compound.
Screening times:
Saturday, August 16, 8:30 PM
Charles Burnett | USA | 1994 | 109m
Burnett’s sorely underrated crime drama, a gripping and vividly stylized thriller about corruption within the LAPD that marks his most explicitly political film to date.
Screening times:
Saturday, August 16, 6:00 PM
Sunday, August 17, 5:30 PM - director attending!
Melanie Oates | Canada | 2024 | 96m
Eliza is an unassuming and beloved member of a small fishing community in Newfoundland who sees all of her relationships put in jeopardy after her secret social media persona is exposed.
Screening times:
Thursday, August 14, 9:00 PM
Graham Foy | Canada | 2022 | 117m
A perfect summer day ends in tragedy, weaving a cosmic connection between three suburban teenagers.
The Maiden will be preceded by local short "Stray" | Ashley McKenzie | Canada | 2013 | 15m
Screening times:
Thursday, August 14, 6:30 PM
Friday, August 15, 6:30 PM
Mahdi Fleifel | Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Greece, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands | 2024 | 89m
English, Greek and Arabic with English subtitles
Two Palestinian refugees looking to get out of Athens to better lives in Germany hatch a desperate plan.
Screening times:
Sunday, August 10, 5:30 PM - one night only!
Ralph Bakshi | USA | 1992 | 102m
An adult live-action / animated hybrid film about a cartoonist who finds himself in a cartoon-like universe he thinks he created.
Screening times:
Saturday, August 9, 8:30 PM - one night only!
Charles Burnett | USA | 1978 | 80m
Burnett’s debut feature, this film is practically synonymous with the Black filmmaking movement known as the L.A. Rebellion
Screening times:
Friday, August 8, 8:45 PM - one night only!
Nacho Vigalondo | Spain, Belgium 2024 | 110m
Uneasily coping with the tragic loss of his partner, Nicolas (Henry Golding) joins a clinical trial where lucid dreaming allows him to reunite with his lost love.
Screening times:
Friday, August 8, 6:30 PM - SOLD OUT
Laura Piani | France | 2024 | 98m
English and French with English subtitles
A single bookseller and writer is invited to the Jane Austen Writers' Residency where she is caught in a very unexpected romantic triangle.
Screening times:
Thursday, August 7, 6:30 PM
Saturday, August 9, 6:00 PM
Boris Lojkine | France | 2024 | 93m
French with English subtitles
A Paris food delivery cyclist and asylum seeker named Souleymane has two days to prepare his story for a make-or-break interview to secure legal residency.
