The Beaufort International Film Festival (BIFF) was launched two decades ago to jumpstart filmmaking in Beaufort, which was sputtering after racing to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with films like “The Great Santini,” “The Big Chill” and “Forrest Gump.”
Since then, says Ron Tucker, a retired Marine who started BIFF with his wife, Rebecca, the festival “has become sort of a cultural phenomenon.”
At the 2026 festival, which runs Feb. 17-22 at the University of South Carolina Beaufort’s Center for the Arts, 805 Carteret St., 54 of the 554 entries, which set a record for submissions, will be shown daily. The films were submitted for screening from directors hailing from 50 countries, from Croatia to Mexico. About 100 filmmakers, from New York to Los Angeles to Charleston and Columbia, are expected to attend the festival. Immediately after the showings, they will answer questions from film fans who religiously turn out for the mid-winter movie binge-watch in a city that’s been a backdrop to dozens of films…