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.
