How much of the Middleburg Film Festival happens somewhere you've already been this year?
Most of it. The 14th festival runs October 15 to 18, 2026, and it screens films at four places: Salamander Resort at 500 North Pendleton Street, The Hill School at 130 South Madison Street, the Middleburg Community Center at 300 West Washington Street, and the National Sporting Library at 102 The Plains Road. Three of the four are civic or school buildings in town. That's why the festival fits into Middleburg's October instead of taking it over. The rest of the month's calendar runs through the same rooms and streets.
300 West Washington Street, Three Times in One Month
The Middleburg Community Center does more work this October than any other address in town. The festival FAQ lists it as the box office and as one of the four screening venues. Festival merchandise is sold there too, with the FAQ calling the Community Center the festival headquarters. It also serves as the shuttle stop for the National Sporting Library.
The first screening of the whole festival is there too. A "pre-opening" film plays at the Community Center on Thursday afternoon, October 15. After that the scene moves to Salamander for the 7 p.m. Opening Night film.
Two weeks later, the same building hosts the town's Halloween. According to Visit Middleburg's October roundup, parade participants meet at the Community Center before the 5 p.m. Annual Halloween Parade on October 31. The Middleburg Police Department and the Middleburg Business & Professional Association kick off the parade. Afterward the evening goes back to the Community Center for "Hot Dog, It's Halloween!" from 5 to 8 p.m., with hot dogs and Halloween activities. The event is free, and RSVPs are taken online.
So the building that sells festival tickets in mid-October fills with kids in costume on the last night of the month.
The Weekend Before: Glenwood Park and Farmer's Delight
The festival's run-up starts outside town. The Virginia Fall Races hold their 72nd running on Saturday, October 10, 2026, at Glenwood Park, sanctioned by the National Steeplechase Association. The organizers describe "the cheer of 10,000 fans," a Family Fun Fair with a petting zoo and bounce house, and a Vendor Village selling clothing, hats, handcrafted goods, pet supplies and jewelry. The racecourse is at 36787 Glenwood Park Lane.
The races have a local beneficiary built in. Since 1955, the race meeting has contributed to the INOVA Loudoun Hospital Foundation. Visit Middleburg lists both reserved spaces and General Admission, with a full card of jump races and tailgating between them.
On Sunday, October 11, the Land Trust of Virginia holds its 6th annual Sunset in the Field at Farmer's Delight. The evening has live bluegrass, barbecue, local drinks and views of the Blue Ridge, plus face painting, yard games and goody bags for children. The event raises money for the Land Trust's conservation work, so the weekend's second event also supports a local cause.
Wednesdays on Reed Street
The quietest film program in town this month isn't part of the festival. Middleburg Library at 101 Reed Street is showing an Alfred Hitchcock film every Wednesday in October, with refreshments. The first was Suspicion, tonight, October 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. The listing doesn't give titles for the later Wednesdays or mention a cost, so it's worth checking with the library before you go.
On the calendar, the second Wednesday is October 14, the night before the festival's pre-opening film at the Community Center. That puts a library screening of a 1940s-era thriller and the start of a festival known for Oscar contenders less than a day apart and a few blocks from each other.
Festival Week, Building by Building
Seen venue by venue, the festival's footprint looks like this.
| Venue | Address | Festival role | Elsewhere in October |
|---|---|---|---|
| Middleburg Community Center | 300 W. Washington St. | Box office, headquarters, screenings, shuttle stop | Halloween parade start and "Hot Dog, It's Halloween!" on Oct. 31 |
| The Hill School | 130 S. Madison St. | Screenings in the Performing Arts Center | School campus |
| National Sporting Library | 102 The Plains Rd. | Screenings | Library and museum programming |
| Salamander Resort | 500 N. Pendleton St. | Opening Night, screenings, conversations and special events | Resort |
The Hill School's role is bigger than one screening room. This year the festival sold a $400 Hill School Venue Movies pass covering Friday through Sunday films at the Hill School Performing Arts Center only, and it's marked sold out. So is the $150 Future Filmmaker's Pass for anyone with a current student ID or under 21, which covered regular screenings and conversations but not the Opening Night or Saturday Night Centerpiece events. Individual tickets are still sold through the festival website and its mobile app.
The hours are long. Screenings and conversations run at all four venues from about 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, October 16 and 17, and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 18. Main Street parking meters are free for the whole festival. Shuttle buses run on a continuous loop between festival headquarters, The Hill School, the Community Center and Salamander, and the festival says it will post routes and times closer to the weekend.
The festival showed 45 films in 2025 and 40 in 2024, and its current FAQ promises more than 45 across the four days. The dates also moved up a day, from October 16 to 19 last year to October 15 to 18 this year.
Some of the special programs on the 2026 schedule:
- A concert of Daniel Pemberton's film scores performed by a 60-piece orchestra. Pemberton's credits include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Project Hail Mary.
- Variety's Creative Collaborators Award, presented to costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, production designer Ruth De Jong and film editor Jennifer Lame for their work with Christopher Nolan on Oppenheimer and The Odyssey.
- An animation master class with Bob Pauley, the Toy Story 5 production designer who designed Buzz Lightyear for the 1995 original, plus a drawing demo of new characters.
- Coffee & Contenders, where Variety's Clayton Davis and Jazz Tangcay share their Oscar predictions over a complimentary cocktail or mocktail.
- A conversation with Seth Rogen, and a special screening of The Invite, which Rogen introduces.
The festival places its conversations and special events at Salamander, in either the Library or the Coca Cola Tent & Lounge. The screening schedule is what fills the in-town buildings.
Founder and board chair Sheila Johnson, who writes that Middleburg has been her home for more than 30 years, describes the festival in two ways. It gives people "one more reason to visit this very special region," and she's "delighted that the Middleburg community will have the opportunity to experience some truly extraordinary films together." That second goal shows in where the screenings happen.
Washington Street Between Screenings
The walk between the Community Center and the center of town passes some recent changes. Faire Isles Trading Co., a Celtic-goods shop at 116 West Washington Street owned by Adam and Stephanie Shahan, opened in early May 2026. Stephanie Shahan told Middleburg Life she wants visitors "to enjoy your time [in a] visually pleasing, aromatic [space] that hits all the senses."
The Byrne Gallery at 7 West Washington Street has "Harvest: Celebrating Gatherings and Memories" on view from October 2 to November 1, so the show spans the whole festival week.
Across the street, the former Fun Shop property at 115–117 West Washington Street is still in progress. Loudoun Now reported a mixed-use plan with a ground-floor restaurant, an upstairs Chase social club, a rooftop garden and eight apartments. Visit Middleburg lists The Chase Club as coming to 115 West Washington Street and accepting applications. The town's September 3, 2026 Historic District Review Committee agenda included requests for a fence plus projecting and wall signs there, with the sign locations identified as La Caccia, L'Enoteca and The Chase Club. No opening date has been announced, so festival-goers this year will walk past a project that isn't finished yet.
After October 31
Once the Halloween crowd leaves the Community Center, the next big date on Washington Street is December 5, 2026, which the organizers have set for Christmas in Middleburg. They haven't posted a 2026 program yet. For more about everyday life here, our Middleburg neighborhood page and lifestyle guide are good places to start.
Months like this one are part of what owning a home in Middleburg means, and they're part of how I tell a home's story when I market it. If you're thinking about how your place fits into a town whose calendar runs through West Washington Street, Marcy Smith is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
