BETTER CITIES FILM FESTIVAL
We want better cities, towns and neighborhoods.
So we launched a film festival.
Better Cities Film Festival was founded by festival director Josh Paget and First+Main Films. We collect, curate and present the very best films on the theme of making better cities, towns, and neighborhoods. The festival honors the top films and filmmakers with awards, and we screen those films to a vast audience around the world through our annual flagship event in Detroit, and through locally-organized screening events at cities and towns across America and around the world.
The 2023 Better Cities Film Festival flagship event will take place October 5-8, 2023 in Detroit, Michigan.
Submissions open December 1, 2022.
SCREENING & EVENTS
UPCOMING
Winston-Salem, NC
March 25 | 2:00PM
”Best of the Fest” reel selected by a/perture curator Lawren Desai with stories from Boston to Oklahoma City to Melbourne, Australia and themes that include urban design, placemaking, architecture, housing and transportation. Screens at a/perture cinema. Sponsored by Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership.
(More info & tickets)
Binghamton, New York
April 29, 2023 | 3:00pm-6:00pm
Atomic Tom’s 196 State St, Binghamton, NY 13901
Films, Q&A, food, music, art, and more!
Presented by Greater Binghamton Office of Placemaking and Visit Binghamton Film Office.
(More info)
Spokane, Washington
SPRING 2023 | Exact Date TBA
Garland Theater
924 W Garland Ave, Spokane, WA 99205
Special Event: Best of Fest Screening plus WORLD PREMIERE of Shaping Spokane Housing produced by First+Main Films.
Olympia, Washington
SPRING 2023 | Exact Date TBA
Best of Fest Screening & Happy Hour
Hosted by festival producers Joshua & John Paget
(email for info)
2023 BCFF
Annual Flagship Festival
Detroit, Michigan, USA
October 5-8, 2023
(More info)
RECENT
Troy, New York
January 24th, 2023 | 6:30PM
Capital Region edition of Better Cities Film Festival. The FOCUS Lab @ The Future of Small Cities Institute will showcase the Best of Fest 2021 Reel, and post-screening Q&A with filmmaker John Paget.
(More info)
Birmingham, Alabama
February 5th, 2023
Birmingham's 205 Festival will feature an impressive line up of placemaking and urbanist activities, including a specially curated line up of BCFF films.
(More info)
2022 BCFF
Annual Flagship Festival
Detroit, Michigan, USA. October 20th-23rd, 2022
(More info)
Stormwater Poland 2022
Katowice, Poland. September 28, 2022
(More info)
UN-Habitat Better Cities Film Festival, 11th World Urban Forum
Katowice, Poland, June 26-30, 2022
(More info)
CNU30 Screening: Oklahoma City
The Congress for the New Urbanism
Oklahoma City, OK. March 25, 2022
(More info)
3Sixty BCFF: Holland MI
Holland, Michigan. May 21, 2022
(More Info)
World Cities Day
Online Special Screening
co-hosted by UN-Habitat, the 11th World Urban Forum (WUF11), and the World Urban Campaign
October 31 – November 7, 2021
2021 Western States Planning Conference
Scottsdale, Arizona. August 24th 2021
BCFF @ Landscape Design Festival MAGENTA
Kaunas, Lithuania. September 17-26, 2021
October 7-10, 2021
(More Info)
WANT BETTER FOR YOUR HOMETOWN?
Here’s how you can book a
screening of the Better Cities Film Festival in your community.
HAVE A STORY ABOUT MAKING CITIES BETTER?
Submit your film.
Any length and genre is eligible.
Submission open December 1, 2022