At FIDMarseille, you can attend individual screenings, follow a retrospective or spend several days moving between films and discussions with their makers.
Choose your sessions by both film interest and language, then match your ticket format to the screenings you can realistically attend. The festival uses several cinemas and partner venues, so the location of each session matters as much as its start time.
Dates and programme
- Season
- Summer, June–July; recent editions in early July
- Usual duration
- Six days
- Free access
- Opening night and events at Bibliothèque L’Alcazar
- Paid access
- Other screenings and events, by ticket or pass with reservation
- Advance booking
- Online; Festival Pass sessions reserved before attendance
FIDMarseille favours contemporary, independent work, particularly documentary and experimental cinema. It is a chance to choose films beyond mainstream releases, whether you want to follow a particular filmmaker or try an unfamiliar form.
The programme usually appears at the beginning of June, about a month before the festival. On the official FIDMarseille website (fidmarseille.org), go to Festivals, select the edition and open Programme. Use the film descriptions to make a shortlist before choosing tickets.
Reserve the sessions that anchor your visit first, then leave room for discoveries rather than committing to films simply because they fit between other plans.
Screenings, opening and closing
| Moment | Festival day | Timing | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening screening | First day | Evening | — |
| Awards, then closing film | Final day | Evening | Artplexe Canebière |
Across the festival, recurring strands include competitions, retrospectives, focus programmes and special screenings. The competitions encompass International, French and First Film sections, alongside Flash and GNCR. Other Gems and Young Audience programmes broaden the selection, although the exact mix varies between editions.
Follow a retrospective or focus programme if you want a thread connecting your films. Competition screenings offer a different approach: choose individual works whose subjects or forms appeal to you, rather than treating the selection as a checklist.
Filmmaker meetings and discussions give public audiences opportunities to hear from film teams. Talks and debates begin in the morning near screening rooms, with conversation continuing into the festival’s late-night social spaces. Leave room around a film if discussing it is part of what draws you there.
Use the screening calendar on the official FIDMarseille website to read each session’s language labels. These can say “Film with English subtitles only”, “Film with French subtitles only” or “Film available only to French speakers”. Choose an explicitly English-subtitled session if you need English subtitles, because an unlabelled listing is not an assurance that they will be available. Match that information to the film description before reserving.
Festival cinemas and venues
Cinéma Les Variétés is a recurring FIDMarseille venue hosting films from the annual festival programme. It is one of several cinemas and partner venues used across Marseille, not a single base for every session you might choose.
- Name
- Cinéma Les Variétés
- Location
- 37 Rue Vincent Scotto, Marseille Maps
- Site
- lesvarietes-marseille.com
- Hours
- 13:15–00:00
Use the location on your screening’s programme entry or ticket, rather than assuming that a strand stays at one cinema. Keep the venue name alongside the film title when making your shortlist: it helps distinguish sessions and makes the next journey easier to plan.
If your time is tight, group screenings at one cinema. When moving between sites, leave space for the journey as well as entry at the next venue. A discussion after one film can make a tightly packed sequence harder to manage, so choosing fewer sessions leaves you freer to stay for it.
Tickets and festival passes
| Criterion | Single-screening ticket | 5-Screening Card | Festival Pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| Admission coverage | One screening | Five screenings | All screenings and events; reservation required |
| Rounded published price range | About €5–€10, by age or concession | About €25–€35, reduced to full rate | About €55–€75, reduced to full rate |
Choose by the sessions you can attend, not just the number of films that interest you. A single ticket suits a short visit, while the card suits a handful of screenings. The Festival Pass is personal and suits a fuller festival schedule, with room for meetings as well as films.
Reduced rates apply to under-18s, students, job seekers, RSA income-support beneficiaries and seniors. The single-ticket range also includes a separate under-14 rate. Your eligibility, as well as the number of screenings, affects which format makes sense.
Buy through the online ticket office reached from the FIDMarseille website, or use the festival ticket counters at Cinéma Artplexe Canebière and Cinéma Les Variétés. Some screening or ticket categories are not available through every channel. The closing screening uses the standard festival ticket arrangements.
A Festival Pass purchase does not complete your screening reservations. Use the personal code sent after purchase to reserve a separate ticket for each chosen screening. Keep those session tickets ready for admission, rather than relying on the pass alone. Select sessions that leave enough time to reach their venues and enjoy any discussions you want to attend.
Arriving at your screening
Plan both the journey to your chosen cinema and the return after an evening film. Allow time for entry and for transfers between festival sites, rather than treating the end of one screening as the start of the next.
Programme and venue updates appear on the official FIDMarseille website, including Events and News, and on the festival’s Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Use an announced venue change when planning your journey, so you head to the cinema hosting your session rather than an earlier location.
Sources & fact-checking
Checks against the sources below cover: services and opening hours.
- FID Marseille | Terms and Conditions
- FID Marseille | Accueil
- FID Marseille | Tarifs
- Ticket Office
- FID Marseille | Ticketing
- 37e édition du FIDMarseille du 7 au 12 juillet 2026
- Call for films 2026
- FID Marseille | Programme
- FID Marseille | FAQ
- FIDMarseille : 37e édition du 7 au 12 juillet 2026
- FIDMarseille press dossier 2022
- À propos
- FID Marseille | Calendar
- Lieux du festival – FIDMarseille
- FIDMarseille 2025 Press Kit
- FID Marseille | Calendrier
