SCAD Savannah Film Festival to Open With Bleecker Street and LD Entertainment's 'A Talent for Murder' and Honor Helen Mirren With Legend of Entertainment Award

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA (Sept. 21, 2026) — The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) announced the Opening Night presentation for the 29th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival. The nation's largest university-led film festival and one of the largest of any kind in the Southeast, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival will open Saturday, Oct. 24, with a screening of A Talent for Murder, followed by a moderated Q&A with Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren, who will accept the festival's Legend of Entertainment Award.

"We are thrilled to open this year's festival with A Talent For Murder and to present Helen Mirren with the Legend of Entertainment Award," said Christina Routhier, senior executive director of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. "Across a career defined by fearlessness and range, Helen has given audiences some of cinema's most indelible performances, offering our SCAD students an incredible opportunity to learn directly from a true master of the craft."

A Talent for Murder is directed by Anton Corbijn and distributed by Bleecker Street and LD Entertainment. The film follows a mysterious young man (Alden Ehrenreich) from a New York publisher who is sent to Switzerland to persuade a renowned writer (Helen Mirren) to write one final installment of a legendary thriller anthology.

One of the most acclaimed performers of her generation, Helen Mirren has won an Academy Award, a Tony Award, four Emmy Awards, and five Actor Awards, four BAFTAs, and three Golden Globe Awards for her storied work across film, television, and the stage. She received the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Queen, alongside Oscar-nominated roles in The Madness of King George, Gosford Park, and The Last Station. Her extensive credits span landmark work in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover; The Mosquito Coast; The Good Liar; Hitchcock; RED; National Treasure: Book of Secrets, The Hundred-Foot Journey; Trumbo; and Prime Suspect, as well as recent work like 1923, Barbie, Fast X, The Thursday Murder Club, and Golda. Mirren will next be seen in the second season of Paramount+'s MobLand. Named a Best Actress by virtually every critic's organization from Los Angeles to London, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2003 and has received numerous career honors, including the BAFTA Fellowship, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award for her lasting contributions on screen and stage.

Festival passes for 2026 are available now. Individual event tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 2.
 

ABOUT THE SCAD SAVANNAH FILM FESTIVAL

Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is filled with cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Each year, more than 74,000 people attend the eight-day festival. The festival has become a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, hosting exclusive screenings, competition films, feature films, documentaries, shorts, animated films, panel discussions, and workshops at SCAD's historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces. Presented in Savannah, a premier film hub in the Southeast, the festival promotes quality movies produced by independent and studio filmmakers.

Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram, Letterboxd, and TikTok @savfilmfest. For additional information and tickets, visit filmfest.scad.edu.
 

SCAD: THE UNIVERSITY FOR CREATIVE CAREERS

SCAD is a private, nonprofit, accredited university, offering more than 100 graduate and undergraduate degree programs across locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Lacoste, France; and online via SCADnow. SCAD enrolls more than 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 100 countries. The future-minded SCAD curriculum engages professional-level technology and myriad advanced learning resources, affording students opportunities for internships, professional certifications, and real-world assignments with corporate partners through SCADpro, the university's renowned research lab and prototype generator. SCAD has earned top rankings for degree programs in interior design, architecture, film, fashion, digital media, and more. Career success is woven into every fiber of the university, resulting in a superior alumni employment rate. A 2026 study found that 99% of recent SCAD graduates were employed, pursuing further education, or both within 12 months of graduation. SCAD provides students and alumni with ongoing career support through personal coaching, alumni programs, a professional presentation studio, and more. Visit scad.edu.
 

ABOUT THE SCAD SCHOOL OF FILM AND ACTING

With resources that rival Hollywood studios and Broadway theaters, award-winning faculty, professionally run casting offices, and renowned film and television festivals, the SCAD School of Film and Acting prepares students for impactful careers in film, television, and live performance. Students in acting, cinematography, editing, film and television, production design, sound design, and the school's new music production and vocal performance degree programs work across disciplines on professional-caliber film and TV shoots and stage performances, gaining hands-on experience, production credits, and valuable industry connections before graduation.

The heart of the SCAD School of Film and Acting is the newly completed 11-acre SCAD Film Studios in Savannah, the largest and most comprehensive university film studio complex in higher education. Designed for professional and student productions, the complex includes purpose-built soundstages and an expansive Hollywood-style backlot with more than 50 façades and practical interiors that can be transformed for different locations and eras. Filmmakers in Savannah also have access to a leading-edge LED volume stage, as well as virtual production, postproduction, and extensive production and costume design facilities. Together with SCAD Film Studios in Atlanta — with its own state-of-the-art spaces, such as an LED volume stage, broadcast studios, and editing facilities — located amid one of the nation's leading film and television production markets, these resources position students on the same sets and spaces they will lead throughout their careers. At SCAD, every set, stage, and studio is a classroom.

Each fall, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival welcomes celebrated filmmakers, actors, producers, and other industry leaders to Savannah, bringing national and international attention to filmmaking throughout the region and Georgia. During the festival's weeklong lineup of screenings and panels, SCAD students enjoy myriad opportunities to connect with major stars in front of and behind the camera, including exclusive master classes and Q&A sessions.

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