Vacation With the Stars by Visiting the Best Film Festivals in the World

Planning a holiday? Consider Telluride, Middleburg or these five other locales

Thelma M. Adams,

AARP

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Published May 16, 2025

Film festivals let you see the sights, attend screenings and maybe even spot a celebrity or two.

Pamela Gentile/Courtesy Telluride Film Festival

Film festivals can be a fantastic way to make the most of travel to some of the most lovely places in the world. For over 30 years, I’ve had my dream job: covering film and film festivals. I’m a two-time New York Film Critics Circle chair who has attended, been on juries, and moderated panels for festivals, including Provincetown, Bentonville, and Middleburg, as well as Berlin, Woodstock, the Hamptons, New York, Toronto, Marrakech and Sundance. Cannes, Venice and Telluride are on my bucket list.

At the following film festivals you can see the sights, attend screenings and talks, even spot a celebrity or two. Here are seven of our favorites.

The Provincetown International Film Festival in picturesque Cape Cod, Massachusetts, showcases over 80 features and short films.

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Provincetown International Film Festival (June 11-15)

Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is a travel destination for everybody, and for film fans, Provincetown is a sandy heaven, a colorful mecca with a culture all its own.

Grab a festival pass or individual tickets ($350–$1,500, not including fees) to the Provincetown International Film Festival and spend your days at the movies and/or sunning at the beach. Director John Waters, 79, is the festival’s longtime ambassador and typically screens a few of his favorite offbeat movies while hosting the keynote interview. This year, he’s talking with director Ari Aster, who will receive the festival’s “Filmmaker on the Edge” award on June 14.

Your best mode of transportation is a bicycle, easily rentable at many locations. Stop in at the boozy afternoon Tea Dance at Boatslip Resort & Beach Club, sing along at the piano bar at the Crown & Anchor, or investigate early American history with a view at the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum. B&Bs are plentiful; the Land’s End Inn is especially picturesque.

For a good photo op, stand in front of the 82-year-old Lobster Pot with its famous neon sign before diving in for crustaceans by the pound and taking in the beautiful bay views.

the exterior of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Take a break from the Bentonville Film Festival and visit the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Courtesy Crystal Bridges Media

Bentonville Film Festival (June 16–22)

Ever been to Arkansas? The Betonville Film Festival beckons! Individual film tickets and festival passes are reasonably priced, starting at $250 for the Festival Explorer Pass). This year, Hollywood’s Geena Davis, 69, is your host at this female-centric film festival that stays true to her Thelma & Louise roots. Bentonville is also a festival for discovering new voices and new stories off the beaten Oscar track. Hotels are abundant and fairly priced, and the charming, old-fashioned city square is ideal for shopping and noshing at Tavola Trattoria or Tusk & Trotter American Brasserie.

Bentonville’s crown jewel is the world-class Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, with paintings by artists including Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol. It is surrounded by a lush Ozark forest — a walker’s paradise. And it’s free! Snap a picture on the city square in front of Walton’s 5 & 10, the 1950s birthplace of Sam Walton’s empire and home of the Walmart Museum.

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The Venice Film Festival fills every night with parties, filmmaker talks and elaborate dinners. Don't forget to take a selfie while riding a gondola.

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Venice Film Festival (Aug. 27–Sept. 9)

Where does summer end and Oscar season begin? On the island of the Lido, in the magical Venetian Lagoon.

This year, Oscar-winning American director Alexander Payne (Sideways), 64, will lead the stellar jury to award the Golden Lion at the classy festival, where stargazing on the red carpet is a must.

One of the five most influential film festivals (along with Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance), Venice’s film fest fills every night with parties, filmmaker talks and elaborate dinners, with movies screened at the historic Palazzo del Cinema. Take a selfie while riding a gondola, join a walking tour or grab a table on the Piazza San Marco for a cappuccino while people- (and pigeon!-) watching. Tickets and subscriptions will be available in August.

a screening at the Telluride Film Festival

The spectacular Colorado box canyon is host to the Telluride Film Festival.

Merrick Chase/Courtesy Telluride Film Festival

Telluride Film Festival (Aug. 29–Sept. 1)

This Labor Day film festival is where the art-film elite meet the most dedicated fans in the spectacular Colorado box canyon where Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank. The town has retained its frontier charm and natural beauty. If you play your cards right, you might find yourself on a barstool chatting with an A-list actor or director about a future best picture Oscar winner you get to see before anybody else.

Forever friendships and long conversations often begin while waiting in line. It’s pricey; one festivalgoer decided to spend eight days in Venice instead of four in Telluride, and saved $1,000. Telluride festival passes allowing entry to up to 50 films in 11 theaters sell out months in advance; last year they ranged from $390 to $4,900. You can still get individual tickets to some films, and it’s fun to camp in the town park ($24–$42 per night for those over 62) and take in the free outdoor screenings and panels featuring famous filmmakers.

Don’t leave without snapping a photo looking up the main street through the festival banner at the beautiful mountains and blue skies beyond. Telluride also hosts multiple festivals, including the Balloon Festival (June 6–8), a Food & Vine Festival (June 13–15), a Bluegrass Festival (June 19–22), and an Americana Music Festival (July 18–19). Remember: Don’t drink the first night or two; you’ll want to adjust to the 8,750-foot altitude first.

The Middleburg Film Festival takes place in Virginia horse country, at the sprawling Salamander Resort & Spa.

Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Middleburg Film Festival (Oct. 16–19)

Nestled in Virginia horse country about an hour from Washington, D.C., this vibrant festival offers award-magnet movies in an intimate setting, with many film screenings and celebrity talks held at the luxurious Salamander Resort & Spa (make time for a massage!).

You’ll hear onstage conversations with movie stars, directors and special guests, often moderated by Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday. It’s a tiny hamlet redolent of history; visit the 1728 Red Fox Inn, where celebrities including Jackie Kennedy and Tom Cruise have tippled, dined and slept.

Ticket packages are available in August, and individual film tickets, which typically start at $125, go on sale once the full slate has been announced in early October. Don’t miss one of the local winery tours — Middleburg is the heart of Virginia’s wine country as well as horse and film country, and no other state has a longer history of viticulture.

Reserve a table at The Olde Pink House in Savannah’s historic district for a memorable Southern feast.

Cindy Ord/Getty Images

SCAD Savannah Film Festival (Oct. 25–Nov. 1)

The colonial-era city made famous by the book and film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is home to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), which boasts one of America’s leading film schools. SCAD brings top films and filmmakers to Georgia, and it’s one of the world’s leading documentary festivals thanks to Hollywood Reporter awards executive editor Scott Feinberg’s Docs to Watch series. Day passes start at $175.

The greatest challenge to the festival is that the surrounding city is so beguiling. Take long walks through its 22 town squares with grand old oaks and Spanish moss, and stroll down by the riverside sipping Chatham Artillery punch, the unofficial local drink nicknamed “Vanquisher of Men.” This is a drinker’s paradise, but don’t skip Georgia cuisine, both high and low. Reserve a table at The Olde Pink House at 23 Abercorn Street in the historic district for a memorable Southern feast. And take a photo under the marquee of the SCAD Trustees Theater on Broughton Street for posterity.

Halle Berry posing on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival

Halle Berry attends the “Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning” red carpet at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 14, 2025, in Cannes, France.

JP PARIENTE/SIPA

Festival de Cannes (May 13–24)

The Cannes film festival is the starting gun of international movie awards season, and the most glamorous of competitive film festivals. It’s in many ways the most formal as well, with a strict dress code for the nightly screenings. Only recently were women allowed to wear flats on the red carpet — forget about Crocs and Keds!

Access to the festival, whether via pass or single tickets, is available through the online ticket office. Passes are steeply priced, costing in the thousands and requiring accreditation, but nightly open-air films at the Cinéma de la Plage are free.

If you attend the Festival de Cannes, don’t miss the nightly — and free! — open-air films at the Cinéma de la Plage.

Joachim Tournebize/FDC/AP Images

Lodgings range from the magnificent Carlton Cannes on La Croisette, the festival’s main artery, to more reasonable Airbnbs. Make sure to savor the wine of Cannes, rosé, and get a photo of yourself running barefoot in formalwear on the beach à la Brigitte Bardot in 1956. Cannes gets crowded, so it’s never too early to book a hotel or transportation for the following year.

Heidi Klum posing on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival

Heidi Klum poses on the red carpet at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 14, 2025, in Cannes, France.

David Rivière/Sipa US/AP Images

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Thelma M. Adams, the former film critic for Us Weekly and the New York Post, is a novelist who writes on film for AARP, The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.

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