The Maryland Film Festival changed its mind. Spring is king.

After moving this year’s event to Nov. 5-9 from its typical spring date, organizers announced Thursday that the 2026 edition will take place April 8-12, also at the SNF Parkway Theatre.

Nancy Proctor, executive director of the festival and the theater, said the spring date aligns better with the academic calendar, allowing more students and schools to participate.

“The student audience and student filmmakers are a really important part of the program,” said Proctor, who took the role in August.

However, festival director KJ Mohr gave a similar reason earlier this year when the fall change was announced.

“Notably, the move to fall gives us the opportunity to better engage with student filmmakers and college film programs in Baltimore and beyond,” Mohr told Baltimore Fishbowl at the time.

While May seemed too late in the academic calendar for students and professors — given finals and students leaving for the summer — they also told organizers that November feels too early in the school year, Proctor said.

The April 2026 date is an attempt to find a spring sweet spot.

Another reason for the move: avoiding overlap with other local fall movie festivals such as the New/Next Film Festival, the Baltimore International Black Film Festival, the Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival and The Be More Film Festival, according to Proctor.

“We want folks to be able to participate in as many film festivals in the year as possible,” she said.

The Maryland Film Festival, an annual five-day showcase of independent cinema, is celebrating its 26th year in 2025. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the event saw some changes — like going to a virtual/in-person hybrid model in 2021 and taking a hiatus in 2023 to reconsider its business model.

The event regularly offers Marylanders their first chance to see new movies by rising filmmakers from around the country.

The 2025 edition includes 15 Maryland premieres, including Annapurna Sriram’s “Fucktoys,” William Means’ “Junkie,” and “I Was Born This Way,” a documentary about late Baltimore native and disco-singer-turned-activist Carl Bean. See the lineup and other programming here.

While Proctor and Mohr are preparing for this year’s festival, the new April 2026 date means there’s much less time to organize and produce next year’s event — a fact not lost on Proctor.

“Creativity loves constraints,” she said. “So yeah, we’ve got six months to gin up a new festival. But at the same time, that’s an opportunity to kind of rethink what we do, and it’s motivation to reach out even more to partners to find collaborative ways of creating a really amazing experience.”