Images Festival takes place from April 13 to 26, 2023 at various venues throughout Toronto. This year’s festival will feature an incredible group of films, videos, performances, workshops and exhibitions by emerging and established artists, filmmakers, and creative practitioners from Toronto and around the world.

This 36th annual event presents a nestling of two concepts: ghost and host. Though inlaid, these two words suggest entirely different ontological states: one of spiritual liminality—an ethereal in-between on the way to elsewhere—and the other consequential, rooted and embodied. This complexity echoes the stuff of moving images: present yet past, visible yet elsewhere, physical yet representative. A theme such as G(hosts) invites audiences to consider the links between spectrality and moving image culture, both in form and in content.

The festival opens on April 13 with the world premiere of So To Speak, Light by Wonwoo Kim, while the pre-opener, A Woman Escapes, a collaborative feature by Sofia Bohdanowicz, Burak Çevik, and Blake Williams in partnership with TIFF Wavelengths, will be presented on April 12. The feature films lineup also includes Nadia Shihab’s Sister Mother Lover ChildA Name for What I Am by Marta Pessoa and Susana Moreira Marques, Denim Sky by Rosalind Nashashibi, Kumina Queen by Nyasha Laing, Oriana by Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Niña Hermosa by Sebastián Salfate Devés, and Women Minor Speculations by Nicole Hewitt.

Companion Piece is an exciting collection of films that we will present on Monday, April 24, 6PM at Innis Town Hall, about queer love, relationships and public/private matters. With queer coupledom at its core, Companion Piece consider closeness through friends, family, kin, companions, lovers, partners, and community, as well as the manifold forms they might take in the private sphere or in the public realm.  works by Erin Johnson, Keenan MacWilliam, Anureet Watta, João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, all of which consider the complexity of intimate relationships. Feautring films by Erin Johnson, Keenan MacWilliam, Anureet Watta, João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata. Program Curated by Jaclyn Quaresma.

This year’s program additionally includes more than 115 artists, over 100 films, 10 world premieres, 25 Canadian and 10 Toronto premieres, 27 screenings, 18 conversations, 6 multidisciplinary exhibitions, as well as a range of special events, talks, and workshops. Invited guest curators Emma Steen, Helen Lee, Nasrin Himada, Nora Rosenthal, Sarah Edo, Samay Arcentales Cajas, Tyisha Murphy, Yasmin Nurming-Por, along with our Programming Director Jaclyn Quaresma have conceptualized programs that explore the theme in multiple ways, highlighting a breadth of contemporary moving image practices.

This year also marks the launch of Images’ new website, featuring a comprehensive events calendar, artist list, and festival catalogue. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate and access festival offerings, including event descriptions, ticket purchasing, and important details. The site also includes artist bios and profiles for a deeper understanding of their work and vision.

In consideration of the complex relationship between screens, internet access, and moving-image culture, Images Festival presents both online and AFK (Away From the Keyboard) screenings.

The Online programming stream is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, and the AFK (Away From the Keyboard) stream requires physical attendance at a specific location. Online programming includes virtual screenings and interactive events, while AFK programming offers in-person film screenings, workshops, talks, and other hands-on experiences. In person screenings will be presented across multiple locations such as the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC), Innis Town Hall, and The Revue.

For the full program lineup and to purchase tickets, please visit the Images Festival website at www.imagesfestival.com and don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter to receive updates about upcoming events and programming.

ABOUT IMAGES FESTIVAL

Images Festival is a platform for the exhibition and discourse of independent film and media art. Created in 1987, Images has spent the last 36 years presenting media works that are challenging in their form and content. Images showcases the intersection of emerging and established practices and invites open critical dialogue in the film and media arts community around the political herstories of moving image production, distribution, exhibition, and representation. 

The land on which we gather and organize is the territory of the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Today, the meeting place of Tkarón:to is home to many Indigenous people. A territorial acknowledgement can demonstrate a coming to awareness, and provoke thought and reflection, all of which are essential in beginning to establish reciprocal relations. This acknowledgement should not function as closure, resignation, or acceptance of the structural conditions of settler colonialism that remain in effect today. Images Festival will continue to ask what it means for us to keep open a spirit of sustained inquiry into the complexities of our context.

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats.