Category Archives: A: Labor Film Festivals

Updated February, 2026. If you have info about a missing labor film festival — or updated info on one of those listed below — please email cgarlock@laborheritage.org

Bilbao, Spain: LAN Festival Audiovisual Obrero
Bristol, South West England: Bristol Radical Film Festival
Buenos Aires, Argentina: Construir Cine Film Festival
Canada: Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLIFF)
Dublin, Ireland: Dublin Workers Film Festival
East Lansing, MI: The MSU Film Collective
Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir: Turkey International Labor Film & Video Festival
Madrid, Spain: Muestra de Cine y Trabajo (Labor Film Program)
Malmö, Sweden: Nordic Labour Film Festival
Milan (Sesto San Giovanni), Italy: Labour Film Festival
New York City, New York: Workers Unite! Film Festival
Rochester, New York: Rochester Labor Film Series
San Francisco, California: LaborFest International Working Class Film and Video Festival
Santa Cruz, Monterey & Santa Clara, California: Reel Work May Day Labor Film Festival
Tolpuddle, UK: Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival
Vicenza, Italy: Working Title Film Festival
Washington, DC: DC Labor FilmFest 

ON HIATUS/INACTIVE
Barre, Vermont: Labor Film Night at the Socialist Labor Party Hall
Dublin, Ireland: Progressive Film Club
Dundalk, MD: Epic Moments In U.S. Workers’ History
East Lansing, Michigan: MSU Film Studies Series on “Work/Place”
Glasgow, Scotland: GMB Glasgow General Apex Branch Labor Films
Haifa, Israel: Haifa International Labor Film Festival
Homestead, Pennsylvania: Battle of Homestead Foundation Movie Program
Honolulu, Hawaii: LaborFest Hawaii
Huntington, West Virginia: Blair 100 Labor Film Festival
Liverpool, England: North West Labour Film Festival 
London, UK: London Labour Film Festival
London, UK: London Socialist Film Co-op
Madrid, Spain: Muestra de Cine y Trabajo (Labor Film Program)
Missoula, Montana: Montana Labor Film Festival
New South Wales, Australia:  Australian International Labour Film Festival
New York City, New York: Labor Goes To The Movies
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Americans in Struggle
Pioneer Valley, MA: Pioneer Valley Labor Film Festival
San Diego, California: May Day Workers Film Festival
Santa Fe, New Mexico: New Mexico Labor Film Festival
Sao Paolo, Brazil: Brazilian International Labour Film Festival
Seattle, WA: MayWorks
Taipei, Taiwan: Taiwan International Labor Film Festival

Founded: 2017
Latest: June 2-13, 2025
Website

Venue: different locations in the city of Bilbao and the town of Bizkaia.

Contact: Itxaso Díaz, info@lanfestival.org

Facebook: @lanfestivalobrero

Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
Website

We are the professors, students, filmmakers, screenwriters, and cinéphiles at MSU who gather weekly in the course FLM 200 to watch and discuss good films. In the spirit of the Cinémathèque française and the generation of film critics and French New Wave directors it inspired, our collective abides by the principle that good film writing and good filmmaking (and just plain good living) begin with serious film watching.

Spring 2026: The Industry Movie: Cinema on Filmmaking
At a time when we constantly have entertainment at our fingertips, how do we understand the industry that holds our attention? This course aims to dissect how the filmmaking process is portrayed in cinema, from the early shift of silent films to talkies (Singin’ In the Rain) to understanding how these shifts in entertainment impact our viewing experience (Goodbye Dragon Inn) to recent portrayals of a studio system that appears to be intoxicatingly desolate (The Studio) and everything in between.

All screenings will take place in B122 Wells Hall at 7pm. The series is free and open to all. West doors to Wells Hall, nearest Spartan Stadium, stay open until 7pm.

NOTE: Regular festival currently on hiatus but supporting/co-sponsoring other festival events as appropriate; check our Facebook page.

Cinema celebrating working people – solidarity with all those denied the right to work

@workerfilmfest

Bristol, South West England
Founded: 2012
Latest Festival: 2025; October 4-5

The Bristol Radical Film Festival was set-up in 2011 to provide a public platform for explicitly political cinema from a range of left-wing perspectives. Since then we have held monthly screenings at The Cube Cinema as well as an annual festival which takes places a range of progressive, community-based spaces across the city. Contact us at bristolradicalfilmfestival@gmail.com.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RadicalFilmFestival
email: bristolradicalfilmfestival@gmail.com
Website
*while not exclusively a labor film festival, the Bristol Radical Film Festival’s focus on progressive issues ensures that many of its screenings include films about work, workers and workers issues.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Latest festival: May 2025

Website (English)
Facebook page

info@construircine.com

Founded: 2001
Latest: 2025; 2026 season scheduled for May 1-31, 2026
Location: Washington, DC
Venue: The American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre in Silver Spring MD

The DC Labor FilmFest is an annual film festival dedicated to showing films about work, workers and workers’ issues. In  2014, it began anchoring the DC LaborFest, which includes labor music, art, books, history and more.

Contact:
Chris Garlock, Director
cgarlock@laborheritage.org
240-893-0304
Washington, DC 20006

Founded: 2001
Venue: New York City, NY
Website
Professional Staff Congress | 61 Broadway, 15th Floor, NYC 10006

Read more about the Labor Goes to the Movies film series.

Festival Synopsis: The Labor Goes to the Movies Committee plans and organizes the PSC’s long-running film series , which screens films about unions or social movements. As a committee, we select the films, usually after spirited discussion, and arrange for a speaker with expertise in the film’s subject to lead discussion. The committee is open to all, and includes film studies faculty as well as members who just love movies. We meet during the spring and summer to choose the following year’s films and stay in touch by attending the screenings each month.

psc@pscmail.org
Calendar: http://psc-cuny.org/calendar
New York, NY, U.S.A.
Website: http://psc-cuny.org/LaborMovies