The 29th SCAD Savannah Film Festival opens Saturday, Oct. 24. Helen Mirren's A Talent for Murder opens the festival, Julianne Moore's Centerpiece screening of The Debut is Tuesday, Oct. 27, and Wild Horse Nine closes it on Halloween night. All three pass tiers are listed as sold out: the $200 Savannah Daytime, the $350 Spotlight and the $600 Marquee. Most of the celebrity tributes are sold out too.
A local can still go, though. The open part of the festival is in the mornings, Monday through Friday, at $10 a ticket. Several downtown restaurants that opened in 2026 are already serving at that hour, a few blocks from the theaters.
What Sold Out First
The festival's own schedule shows a clear pattern. As of mid-October, the honoree events had gone fast. Paul Bettany's Virtuoso Award screening of VisionQuest, Monday, Oct. 26 at 3 p.m. at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts, was sold out. So were Meghann Fahy's The Good Daughter on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 4 p.m. at the Lucas, Emmy Rossum's Furious on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at noon at Trustees Theater, and The Lowdown, where Ethan Hawke and Sterlin Harjo receive their Outstanding Collaboration in Television Award, on Friday, Oct. 30 at 3:45 p.m. at the Lucas.
The weekend daytime slots were nearly as tight. On opening Saturday, four of the seven events starting before 5 p.m. were marked sold out. On Sunday, Oct. 25, six of ten were.
The weekday mornings look very different. Before noon on Monday through Friday, more listings said "Buy tickets" than "Sold Out." On Friday, Oct. 30 alone, four of the six events starting before noon were still on sale. Sales change by the hour, so check the schedule before you plan a morning around any one title.
The $10 Mornings, Day by Day
Daytime tickets cover every film, panel and event that starts before 5 p.m. They cost $10 for the general public and $7 for seniors 65 and older, military and students. SCAD notes that some daytime screenings are priced differently. These titles were showing tickets available in mid-October:
| Day | Still on sale | Start times |
|---|---|---|
| Mon., Oct. 26 | Student Live-Action Shorts; Bedford Park; Tender Loving Care; Everytime | 9:30 a.m.; 10 a.m.; 12:30 p.m.; 1 p.m. |
| Tue., Oct. 27 | Shorts Spotlight: Unsung Heroes; Cookie Queens; Tangles; Josephine; Behind Their Lens: Artisans | 9 a.m.; 9:30 a.m.; 10 a.m.; 1 p.m.; 2 p.m. |
| Wed., Oct. 28 | Everest: The Other Side; A Look Inside Walt Disney Animation and 'Disney's Hexed' with Jared Bush; Avedon; The Liberation | 9 a.m.; 10 a.m.; 1:30 p.m.; 2 p.m. |
| Thu., Oct. 29 | The Last First: Winter K2; One in a Million; 'Critical Darlings' Awards Season Kickoff Live!; Mouse | 9 a.m.; 1 p.m.; 2 p.m.; 3 p.m. |
| Fri., Oct. 30 | The Secret Reading Club of Kabul; The Huntress; Building Arrakis and Beyond: In Conversation with Patrice Vermette; Clarissa; Uncle Roy | 9 a.m.; 9 a.m.; 10 a.m.; 11:45 a.m.; noon |
One honoree event is on this list. Patrice Vermette, who receives the Variety Creative Impact in Production Design Award, gives his talk on Friday, Oct. 30 at 10 a.m. at the SCAD Museum of Art, and it was still on sale.
Several of the weekday documentaries come from The Hollywood Reporter's Docs to Watch sidebar, including Cookie Queens, Avedon, Once Upon a Time in Harlem and American Doctor. Those last two are later in the afternoon: Once Upon a Time in Harlem starts at 4:15 p.m. on Oct. 27 and American Doctor at 4 p.m. on Oct. 29.
Tickets are sold online through the schedule, in person at the SCAD Box Office at 216 E. Broughton St., or by phone at 912.525.5050. During the festival, the box office opens one hour before the first event of the day.
When the Title You Wanted Says Sold Out
A sold-out listing can still get you in. The festival's FAQ calls those events "standby only" and says more tickets sometimes appear, so it is worth checking again. If nothing appears, the rush line works like this:
- The standby line forms about 60 minutes before the screening.
- About 15 minutes before start, staff count the empty seats.
- A limited number of rush tickets go on sale, first come, first served.
- Waiting in line does not guarantee a seat.
Seating is general admission even with a ticket, and a ticket does not guarantee entry once a room is full. Either way, plan to arrive well before showtime. That waiting time is also where the downtown restaurants come in.
Breakfast Before the 9 A.M. Screening
The main venues sit close together. Trustees Theater is at 216 E. Broughton St., and Gutstein Gallery is across the street at 201 E. Broughton. The Lucas Theatre for the Arts is at 32 Abercorn St. Festival HQ is inside Press café at Jen Library, also at 201 E. Broughton. Pass pickup there begins Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Recess Hotel & Club, at 7 E. Congress St., is the largest new arrival in that area. According to Nation's Restaurant News, it opened in mid-September in the restored Manger Building, which was built as the Hotel Savannah in 1912. Two of its outlets keep hours that suit a festival morning.
The Servery is a takeout window off the lobby, modeled on a Japanese automat. NRN describes juices, smoothies, pastries, sandwiches and salads. It is open to everyone, with breakfast daily from 7 to 11 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and you can order online or at the window. Lunch service started Oct. 9. If your screening starts at 9 a.m. and you need to be in line by 8:30, you can order online on the way.
Le Flâneur is the hotel's French brasserie, run by executive chef Zach Chancey. Breakfast brings house-made pastries, an avocado tartine and crêpes. Lunch adds Niçoise salad and moules frites. It is open to the public. Brunch runs from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., a midday menu from 2 to 5 p.m., and dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Reservations are welcome but not required, and the restaurant recommends them on weekends and at peak hours. Those hours cover a full festival day. A Tuesday could start with breakfast here before Cookie Queens at 9:30 and end with the 5 p.m. dinner menu after Behind Their Lens: Artisans.
Lunch Between Screenings, Dinner After the Last One
Most weekday programs leave a gap around noon, and the 2026 openings cover it.
La Vetta opened in August at 15 W. Broughton St., on the same street as Trustees. Savannah Morning News reported that executive chef Michele Minchillo, who was born in Italy, earned a Michelin star at his restaurant Vitium in Cremona, and that the menu is contemporary and rooted in tradition. Reservations open on Resy 30 days ahead at 9 a.m., so the whole festival week is already bookable. Some bar seats are kept for walk-ins.
Lester's is chef Jacques Larson's raw bar under The Douglas at 18 E. Oglethorpe Ave. Local press coverage collected on the restaurant's press page describes a French-leaning raw bar with tinned fish, oysters, caviar-topped eggs, pâté and seasonal crudos. That is a small-plates stop that fits between a 1 p.m. film and a 4 p.m. one.
For the evening, Marbled & Fin at 520 E. Oglethorpe Ave. opened in April as a modern steakhouse, according to Savannah Morning News. It is open seven days a week. Bar service starts at 4 p.m. and the full menu at 5 p.m., and bar and lounge seats are first come, first served. That 4 p.m. bar opening lines up with the end of many afternoon programs, before the $17 evening galas begin.
If your morning is at the SCAD Museum of Art at 601 Turner Blvd., the Vermette talk being the obvious one, Stoner's Pizza Joint is close by. The Savannah Area Chamber listed its grand reopening at 606 Turner Blvd., Unit B, for Oct. 9, after the downtown location moved.
Two Notes Before You Plan Around Them
The rooftop at Recess is not part of a local's festival week. Kilter Rooftop Bar is open seasonally through mid-November to Recess Hotel & Club guests and Club Recess members only, and it returns in February 2027 with a full food and beverage menu.
Casa Dahlia, the Mexican restaurant going into the former Madame Butterfly space on W. Congress St., still has a sign-up on its website for notice of when the kitchen opens.
For browsing between screenings, Cosimo opened this month on the parlor level of 6 E. Liberty St. It is designer Emily Morabito Lacey's concept shop, with clothing, accessories, home goods, fine art and books. Visit Savannah lists its hours as 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. on Monday. Those hours fit a gap between a 1 p.m. screening and a 4 p.m. one.
If festival week has you looking at Savannah's Historic District as a place to live, or comparing it with a home elsewhere in the Lowcountry, I'd love to talk it through over coffee after a morning screening. Kim McElman is glad to help. Let's Connect.
