Seven nights in a 120-ticket house
The 21st San Francisco Short Film Festival runs as part of San Francisco IndieFest, and its live programme plays seven nights at the 4-Star Theater, 2200 Clement St, San Francisco, CA 94121. The organizer lists the festival window as October 15 to 22, 2026. The live screenings run October 15 to 21.
Every live night sells against a 120-ticket allocation, and the ticket type is General Admission. No reserved seating is sold, so a team books together and arrives together.
What one block holds
Each live night is a single two-hour block. Opening Night runs 8:15 p.m. to 10:15 p.m., and the other six nights follow the same two-hour shape.
Film counts per block run from 6 to 12. An Animated World carries 12, Opening Night 8, Funny LOL 8, True Stories 8, Spine-tingling Stories 8, Closing Night 7 and Spontaneous Connections 6.
The festival publishes 88 short films across the programme, drawn from the Bay Area and from abroad. Many screenings run with filmmakers in attendance.
Start times and the midweek slot
Opening Night falls on Thursday October 15 at 8:15 p.m. Funny LOL runs Friday October 16 at 8:30 p.m. An Animated World runs Saturday October 17 at 8:30 p.m. True Stories runs Sunday October 18 at 5:00 p.m. Spontaneous Connections runs Monday October 19 at 8:15 p.m. Spine-tingling Stories runs Tuesday October 20 at 8:15 p.m. Closing Night runs Wednesday October 21 at 8:15 p.m.
Monday and Tuesday both start at 8:15 p.m., and both sit after a normal working day. A studio team books the Monday block, clears the theater by 10:15 p.m., and keeps the Tuesday block as the second outing of the week.
A 15-dollar block
The festival publishes live show tickets at $15 and virtual presentations at $10. One block, one ticket, one price. Eight people at the Monday block pay $120. The same eight at both the Monday and Tuesday blocks pay $240.
The 95-dollar pass
Two passes are on sale. The Virtual Screenings Pass is $65. The Live+Virtual Screenings Pass is $95 and covers the live nights and the virtual programmes.
Seven live blocks at $15 come to $105, so the $95 pass saves $10 across the full live run and adds the virtual programmes. At six blocks the pass costs $5 more than six single tickets. The break-even sits at the seventh block.
A passholder still needs a ticket for each show. The festival publishes that requirement on every live event, so the 120-ticket allocation caps each night for passholders and single-ticket buyers alike. The festival recommends advance purchase.
Price the outing
Six people at all seven live nights pay 42 tickets at $15, or $630. Six Live+Virtual passes pay $570, a saving of $60. Six people who attend five blocks pay $450, and single tickets stay cheaper than the pass below seven nights.
Run the same sum per person. One delegate at all seven live nights pays $105 in single tickets against $95 for the pass. One delegate at six nights pays $90, so the pass costs $5 more. The pass breaks even at the seventh block.
Rooms and room nights
The bookMyTeam San Francisco directory lists 562 hotels. A request goes in free at bookmyteam.org/rfp/submit, hotels compete for the group, and the team pays the hotel directly. The platform publishes group savings of 15 to 40 percent below the Best Available Rate, and its group rate calculator quotes 15 to 30 percent. Hotels respond within 24 to 72 hours.
A group rate is negotiated for a block of 10 or more rooms. A team of six or eight sits under that block, so the request goes in and each hotel sets its own terms.
Room nights follow the rota. A team at all seven nights, arriving Thursday October 15 and leaving Thursday October 22, needs seven nights. Six people in three double rooms is 21 room nights. A midweek team at the Monday and Tuesday blocks needs two nights, and six people in three double rooms is 6 room nights. The festival publishes no room block and no rate of its own.
Confirm before booking
Three questions belong with the request. Which live nights still carry tickets inside the 120-ticket house. Whether a Live+Virtual pass reserves a seat on a night or only the right to claim a ticket. What the nightly rate and the cancellation window are on each room offer.
