TIRANA, Sept. 3 /ATA/ – The Tirana International Film Festival (TIFF) returns for its 24th edition from Sept. 21-27, placing cinema at the heart of one of the oldest yet most complex questions of our time: what does it mean to be human today?
It may seem like a question that needs no answer because we assume we already know it. But at a time when identity can be reduced to a profile, human relationships to a screen and reality to what a camera can capture, the question takes on new urgency.
That is the idea behind the 24th edition of TIFF. “HUMANOGRAPHY – Bring it back” is more than a festival theme; it is an attempt to refocus attention on people and on what we still share: emotion.
Dignity, memory, identity, love, fear, desire, belonging and the need to be seen and understood form part of a cinematic map that does not necessarily seek answers. Instead, the films appear to leave audiences face-to-face with questions.
Cinema has always had a complicated relationship with reality. It promises to show us the world, while in fact placing us before a particular perspective on it. What do we see? What do we miss? And, above all, whose reality are we looking at?
From the humanism that once sought to transcend class, religion and borders to an increasingly fragmented society, TIFF 2026 seeks to put back at the centre what risks being lost amid the noise of our time: the human being.
In that sense, “HUMANOGRAPHY” also provides a lens through which to view the festival programme. Albanian and international films screening during TIFF week will not simply tell stories, but explore different territories of reality – personal stories, conflicts, identities, relationships and dilemmas that invite audiences to reflect on themselves.
Cinema, in this case, is not only a window through which we observe others. It is also a mirror. And sometimes what appears in it is not what we expected to see.
For seven days, Tirana will once again become a meeting place for Albanian and international cinema. Alongside film screenings, the 24th edition will feature masterclasses, exhibitions, workshops, industry events and special programmes.
Kinema Millennium, Kino Piramida, Agimi Art Center, Vila 31 × Art Explora and Tunel Terrace will be among the venues hosting this journey through film and image.
But perhaps the most interesting challenge of this edition is not simply to see how far cinema can go in portraying reality. It is to consider how far we may have moved from ourselves.
“Bring it back” therefore sounds less like a slogan than a call: bring the human being back to where they belong – at the centre.
Because before we talk about images, technology, identity or new ways of telling a story, one question remains the simplest and most difficult of all:
What does it mean to be human today?
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