The Canned Film Festival was a nationally syndicated late night television comedy series that aired in the United States for a single season in the summer of 1986. With only a one-letter difference in the spelling, the name is likely an intentional play on the name for the Cannes Film Festival, the annual world-renowned film-screening celebration in Cannes, France. Not to be confused with the latter, the Canned Film Festival featured B movies as the centerpiece for each television episode, and was composed of short vignettes interweaved throughout the films. Boasting the tagline "late night with the best of the worst," the series was promoted and sponsored by the Dr Pepper Company, whose then-tagline "out-of-the-ordinary" echoed the show's collection of odd and strange movies. The series was created by Young & Rubicam and developed for television by Chelsea Communications, LLC (a company later acquired by the now bankrupt Adelphia Communications Corporation ).

Although similar in style to the successful Mystery Science Theater 3000 series that aired a few years later, the Canned Film Festival differed in that its comedy scenes occurred strictly during the commercial intermissions instead of adding peanut gallery type satire during the actual run of the movies. In addition, the script, although comedic in nature, often reflected upon the serious contextual and cultural subjects contained in the featured movies, sometimes providing historical insight into their production. An example is seen during the episode featuring Project Moonbase, where female spaceship commanders were discussed as an accurate future prediction by the 50s era movie, as were cordless telephones and big screen televisions. The featured B movies of the series were not full-length, and edited to fit the show's approximately two hour timeframe per episode.