Overview The Denver Film Festival is Denver Film's fall festival of independent and international cinema, and its 2025 edition opened with a red-carpet screening of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and closed there with the world premiere of Elway, presented by John Elway and the film's co-directors. It runs for about ten days out of the Sie FilmCenter on East Colfax, with galas at the opera house and screenings at the Denver Botanic Gardens and MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater. Peter Warren and Irene Clurman founded it in 1978, one of the first film festivals in the country, and the 2026 edition is its 49th. Denver Film runs the Sie FilmCenter year-round as Colorado's only nonprofit movie theater, by its own count. On site The festival is screenings plus the room around them: red carpets, galas, parties, filmmaker lounges, and a Q and A or conversation after many films. Passholders have their own space in the Dormer Harpring Lounge, and a Colorado Spotlight section screens work by local filmmakers. The juried awards include the Krzysztof Kieslowski Award for best feature, the Maysles Brothers Award for best documentary and the True Grit Award, alongside an audience award. The honorary awards carry local names and references: the 5280 Award is named for the city's elevation, and the Stan Brakhage Vision Award for the experimental filmmaker. Talent and Influencers In 2025 Lucy Liu took the John Cassavetes Award with a screening of Rosemead, Delroy Lindo the Next50 Career Achievement Award with Sinners, Gus Van Sant the Excellence in Directing Award for Dead Man's Wire, and Niecy Nash-Betts the CinemaQ LaBahn Ikon Award at the Botanic Gardens. Bradley Cooper's Is This Thing On? was the centerpiece. Earlier guests include Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Patricia Clarkson and Joan Chen in 2024, Sterling K. Brown in 2023 and Rian Johnson in 2019. Track record The 2024 festival ran 187 films across 250 screenings, events and panels, brought in more than 150 special guests, and sold out 72 screenings. The 2025 program carried 136 features, documentaries and shorts. Brand presence Sponsors buy in at four levels, Marquee, Studio, Cameo and Film. The top levels put a sponsor in the cold open and the pre-show of every screening, on the window wraps and lobby screens, and in the festival guide, with a 15-second video spot and product distribution during the festival. Beyond the levels, a sponsor can put its name on an award, a panel series, a lounge, a special event, a venue or a special presentation of one of the most anticipated films; the Anna and John Sie Foundation sponsors the Maria and Tommaso Maglione Italian Filmmaker Award. As a nonprofit, Denver Film builds custom packages.