33rd Images Festival Call for ON SCREEN Submissions

Established in 1987, IMAGES FESTIVAL is the longest running and most influential moving image festival in Canada. Our ON SCREEN program is an annual survey dedicated to contemporary artist’s film and video presented in a cinema context and to moving image in all its forms.

Images presents work that counters dominant mainstream narratives and provides alternative ways of thinking and seeing that expands the understanding of media art through our programming and education-based initiatives. 

Images Festival does not select films based on any particular themes, genres or aesthetic categories but selects moving image works that share formal and political sensibilities which emerge from recent critical discourses between contemporary art, cinema and media arts. 

DATES

The 33rd edition of Images Festival will take place between April 16 to 22, 2020.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Monday, October 14, 2019. 

GENERAL SUBMISSION ELIGIBILITY

Images Festival will consider works that have been completed in the last three years, including short, mid-length and feature films. Artists maintain final edit and copyright control. 

If you submit an incomplete film (rough cuts, works-in-progress), the picture must be locked. We do not offer funds for the completion of works, or take on commissions.

STUDENT SUBMISSION ELIGIBILITY

Images Festival will accept student works that have been completed in the last academic year (2019/2020) for consideration in our annual International Student Showcase program, which is programmed by students and/or recent graduates. The work must not exceed 20 minutes in length in order to qualify.

Student artists and filmmakers can submit a maximum of two submissions/works. If there are multiple submissions, only the first two works submitted by each student will be reviewed. 

If students elect to submit to the general On Screen Competition program (rather than in the student category), the entry fee requirement applies. 

PLEASE NOTE: Student works may NOT be entered into both the Student and On Screen Competition programs.

Poisoned Earth a new Documentary by Andrew Budziak

In early 2018, documentary filmmaker and Akin King member Andrew Budziak received a tip that something bad was happening to wolves in Alberta so he went to investigate. What he found was horrifying. He discovered that the Alberta government has been using a highly lethal poison to kill wolves. The reasoning for doing this? It is said that they want to help caribou numbers which are in decline. All of the conservation experts Budziak’s team spoke to told them something similar. Budziak notes that wolves are not the biggest danger to caribou - habitat destruction from oil and logging is the real threat.  He says that “in order to keep oil and gas happy, the Alberta government has decided to quietly kill wolves instead.” 

This discovery sparked an idea to delve deeper into the issue through a new documentary, Poisoned Earth, a film that takes a serious look at Alberta’s wolf cull practices.

Grey wolves like this are the target of the poison program.

“We really needed people to see what was going on here, what was happening with this program.”

— Budziak on CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.

Through his Kickstarter campaign, Budziak more than doubled the amount needed to finish the film. It’s because of everyone’s generous support that Budziak and team now have the ability to do a number of things to strengthen this story. Learn more about the film and the kickstarter campaign here.

In early December 2018, Budziak was interviewed by CBC’s Wallis Snowdon and Madeleine Cummings about his new film. They discussed this issue in more detail, exploring the use of strychnine in Alberta, a nasty poison used in the wolf culling, and its drastic effects on the surrounding wildlife and ecosystem overall.

Read the full article here.

Andrew is a documentary film maker based in Toronto. He has produced stories on polar bears, wolves, moose, peregrine falcons and the people who fight to keep those animals safe.  Andrew is a former CBC television and radio producer and reporter. His storytelling has taken him around the world from Pakistan to Japan and from Hinton, Alberta to Etobicoke, Ontario.  Andrew lives in Toronto with his wife and their one and a half year old son who proudly makes over ten different animal noises. 

where now? Documentary Series on view at Sunrise Studios →

where now? is a narrative-driven documentary series about place-making in a rapidly gentrifying Toronto, brought to you by sisterhood media.

In an unprecedented moment of Torontonian fame, where now? expounds on what the city and its residents truly stand to gain — and, of course, lose — in its climb to a become an internationally-recognized cultural hub. who reaps the benefits? and who is its first casualty?

where now? is directed by Amani Bin Shikhan, a writer, editor and researcher, among other things. In her work, Shikhan aims to frame and re-frame questions of tradition and movement through the lens of black cultural expressions and their multidisciplinary histories. She loves this city more than she should and is deep-in-her-bones tired of condos. she doesn’t want to leave.

Produced by sisterhood media, a platform dedicated to creating and curating content for folks on the margins. They produce multimedia works focusing on identity and community. where now? is one of these projects.

View where now? at Akin Sunrise  (100 Sunrise Avenue) until August 12th. 11AM to 6PM daily.

Polar bears on the brink - New video by 8 String Media for TVO

TVO just released a beautiful new short film by 8 String Media of Akin Lansdowne. It was shot in Polar Bear Provincial Park on Hudson Bay.