Palm Springs Film Festival Shifts 2026 Awards Event Date

Looks like awards circuit habitués will have a little bit longer to recover over the winter holidays this season.

The Palm Springs Film Festival said Thursday that the date of its awards event is being moved back one day to Saturday, January 3. It had been scheduled for Friday, January 2.

The Palm Springs International Film Awards are usually the first big, awards season event to take place after New Year’s. Given the fact that AMPAS just revealed a new procedural rule indicating that voters must now watch all nominated films in each category in order to be eligible to vote in the final round, an extra day to watch screeners or attend a screening or just plain rest up is welcome.

Nearly all honorees at the Palm Springs International Film Awards went on to receive Oscar nominations, and four went on to win in their categories including Adrien Brody, Kieran Culkin, Mikey Madison and Zoe Saldana.

Film screenings for the 37th annual Palm Springs Film Festival will begin on Friday, January 2, including the opening night presentation that evening. On January 12, there will be Best of Fest and special programming. In all, the 2026 festival will run from January 2-12.

Palm Springs ShortFest is still scheduled to take place from June 24-30, 2025.