Flathead Lake International Cinemafest Returns to Polson for its 14th Year
The festival, which runs from Feb. 13 to Feb. 15, will feature a range of films, from full-length narrative and documentary features to shorts and animation, from 23 countries
By Lauren Frick
The Flathead Lake International Cinemafest returns this weekend for the 14th edition of the festival that will bring more than 50 films from across the United States and the world to Polson.
The event will run from Feb. 13 to Feb. 15, and 51 films will be featured in a series of blocked segments across two screens at Polson’s Showboat Stadium 6 theater, 416 Main St., over the course of the weekend.
The festival offers a wide range of film types including full-length narrative and documentary features, shorts, animation and student films from 23 countries, as well as several homegrown Montana films. There are filmmaker Q&A sessions planned at the conclusion of a select 20 films from the festival.
The weekend festival also has a number of other special events interspersed throughout its run, including a free kids screening of “Bad Guys 2” at 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 14 and a catered event in the theater lobby later that day. For people who can’t make it this weekend, there’s also an extension of the festival from Feb. 16 through Feb. 19, which offers additional screenings of films.
Tickets are $7.50 per film block and can be purchased from the Showboat Stadium 6 at 406-883-5603 or in person at the theater. All-access tickets — which cover all festival and encore screenings — are $50 and can be purchased at the theater or here.
Entering its 14th year, dozens of filmmakers will once again converge in Polson to share their work with the festival in person. The festival is known for its attentive audience attendees, who enthusiastically support independent films and those who produce them, organizers said in a press release.
The films selected for this year’s festival underwent a rigorous selection process curated by the festival’s multi-judge panel. Judges score films on a scale of one to 10, with the highest scoring official selection this year earning a cumulative score of 297 out of a possible 300 points, according to the festival.
One judge standout from this year’s selection is the documentary film, “SoCal Snowy Owl — The bird that united a community,” according to a press release from the festival. The film, which screens at 8:15 p.m. on Feb. 13, catalogs a rare snowy owl from the Arctic showing up in a suburb in Southern California, with three people finding that their encounters with this visitor had changed their lives for the better.
The film’s director Christopher Angel — a lifelong birdwatcher — said he drove with his 11-year-old son to Southern California in early 2023 after reading in national newspapers that a rare snowy owl had arrived..
“Having been disappointed before by wild animals proving to be impossible to find, I stopped the first person I saw who was carrying a large camera,” Angel said. “When I asked for directions to the owl, the man laughed and said to go around the corner and park and I would see. I followed his directions, to find two hundred people in the street, looking up at the bird on a roof.
“The owl was a star. She had transfixed the neighborhood. This documentary is as much about people as it is about the owl. This bird touched an entire community in unexpected ways.”
Another festival standout is “The Solution” a short film produced and directed by award-winning Flathead Lake International Cinemafest alumni filmmakers John Klein and Steve Kiniss, whose feature film “Never Not Yours” took home last year’s 2025 Jury Award.
“The Solution” tells the unnerving fictitious story of a math professor who, when rejected repeatedly for publication, finds herself supplanted by her genius-level teaching assistant, and resorts to drastic measures to re-assert her authority. The film screens at 8:45 p.m. on Feb. 14 and will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers following the screening block.
South Dakota-based filmmaker Justin Bergh’s documentary film “Chasing Tables,” which is one of the nominees for Best Feature Documentary, profiles chef and entrepreneur Jordan Taylor who, after training under two James Beard award-winning-chefs in some of the most acclaimed and important restaurants in the Pacific Northwest, returned to his roots in Sioux Falls and opened a string of successful restaurants. The film screens during the 8:15 p.m. block on Feb. 13.
Another Best Feature Documentary nominee, “The Last Picture Shows,” journeys into the American West on a search for traces of what was once a center of small-town life: the movie theater. On the trip, filmmaker Rustin Thompson finds abandoned and forgotten cinemas; theaters recently closed; theaters struggling to hold on; and theaters that — thanks to thoughtful caretakers — are not only surviving but thriving.
Several cinemas in Montana, including Libby, Shelby, Cut Bank, Choteau, Conrad and Anaconda, are featured throughout the documentary, which will screen at 6 p.m. on Feb. 14.
The festival weekend draws to a close with an awards ceremony and dessert reception from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 16.
All films, times and events are subject to change. The screening schedule and 2026 program are available to view at FLICPolson.com, where festival passes may also be purchased, and will be available to pick up at will call during the festival weekend. The Flathead Lake International Cinemafest is also on Facebook, where information is updated regularly.
