The 21st San Francisco Short Film Festival runs 15 to 22 October 2026, produced by San Francisco IndieFest. The live screenings run seven days, 15 to 21 October, at the 4-Star Theater, 2200 Clement Street. The organiser sells the live week through its own ticketing platform, which lists seven programmes and one venue.
120 seats a programme
Each programme holds 120 general-admission seats. The platform's venue record sets the room's capacity at 120 and leaves reserved seating off. Every seat is $15.
The week's ceiling is $12,600
Seven programmes at 120 seats is 840 seats. One full programme at $15 a seat takes $1,800. The full week at every seat sold takes $12,600. That figure is the ceiling the room can produce at the published price.
The seven clocks
Opening Night runs Thursday 15 October at 8:15 p.m. Funny LOL runs Friday 16 October at 8:30 p.m. An Animated World runs Saturday 17 October at 8:30 p.m. True Stories runs Sunday 18 October at 5 p.m. Spontaneous Connections runs Monday 19 October at 8:15 p.m. Spine-tingling Stories runs Tuesday 20 October at 8:15 p.m. Closing Night runs Wednesday 21 October at 8:15 p.m. Each programme runs two hours.
Six evening programmes end at 10:15 p.m. or 10:30 p.m. The Sunday programme ends at 7 p.m.
Six nights hand the desk a 10 p.m. wave
Six of the seven programmes start after 8 p.m. and finish at 10:15 p.m. or 10:30 p.m., on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Those six nights run past 10 p.m. The Sunday finish at 7 p.m. is the week's early close. The next programme opens Monday 19 October at 8:15 p.m., which is 25.25 hours after the Sunday finish.
The checkout morning
Closing Night is the last live programme, on Wednesday 21 October, and ends at 10:15 p.m. The festival window on the organiser's own site runs to 22 October.
Where the seats stand on 8 October
The platform's counters on 8 October read 26 of 120 seats sold for Opening Night, 12 for Funny LOL, 6 for An Animated World, 27 for True Stories, 14 for Spontaneous Connections, 4 for Spine-tingling Stories and 36 for Closing Night. That is 125 seats across the seven programmes, or $1,875 at the published price, against the 840-seat ceiling. The counters leave 715 seats open. The Sunday programme holds 27 of those sales and the Tuesday programme holds 4.
The $10 virtual programme
The platform lists twelve virtual presentations at $10 each. Advance tickets are recommended for the live shows.
The programme running order
The seven live programmes list between seven and twelve film entries each, which is 58 entries across the live week. Opening Night lists eight entries, Funny LOL eight, An Animated World twelve, True Stories eight, Spontaneous Connections seven, Spine-tingling Stories eight and Closing Night seven.
The screening week and the window
The organiser's site dates the festival 15 to 22 October, which is eight days. Its live section dates the seven screening days 15 to 21 October. The organiser's stable also holds the 29th San Francisco Independent Film Festival, dated 4 to 14 February 2027, and the 26th San Francisco Documentary Festival, dated 3 to 13 June 2027.