NEWS RELEASES

Jun 3 '25 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Spadina Museum)
Welcome to our first June Festival! Enjoy traditional singing, dance performances, and a delicious community feast prepared by Dashmaawaan Bemaadzinjin (They Feed the People). Guests will also be able to support and celebrate local Indigenous artisans by shopping at the Three Sisters Indigenous Craft Market.
Jun 3 '25 9:00 PM – 11:00 PM (Malaparte TIFF Rooftop)
Celebrate the Opening Night of imagineNATIVE’s 25th year! After the Opening Night Screening, head upstairs to Malaparte to celebrate with an Indigenous DJ dance party and enjoy stunning views of downtown Toronto!
Jun 5 '25 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM (Collision Gallery)
Every year, imagineNATIVE collaborates with established and local artist-run galleries in downtown Toronto to present national and international exhibitions featuring Indigenous artists who push the boundaries and expectations of what Indigenous storytelling is. We are proud to partner with Vtape, Onsite Gallery, YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Gallery 44, Collision Gallery, and Kent Monkman Studio for the 2025 Art Crawl.
Jun 8 '25 9:00 PM – 10:22 PM (Fort York National Historic Site)
Kaniehtiio Horn’s Seeds is a sharp, unsettling thriller and black comedy that digs deep into Indigenous anxieties. Horn, pulling triple duty as writer, director, and star, crafts a taut narrative around Ziggy, a Toronto bike courier and emerging influencer drawn back to her community and into the orbit of a suspicious seed company, Nature’s Oath. The film’s strength lies in its ability to blend the familiar tropes of a thriller with the specific, often overlooked, suspicions of Indigenous communities, exploring the fraught relationship between land, reproduction, and corporate exploitation. The creeping dread is palpable, amplified by the remote setting and the growing sense of unease surrounding the increasingly strange happenings circling Ziggy’s aunt's house and the cache of seeds she’s been entrusted to protect. Horn skillfully weaves Kanienʼkehá:ka perspectives into the narrative, creating a film that is both thrilling and deeply resonant. It’s a work that lingers, built on dark humour and subversion of genre, all with a very Mohawk twist.
Jun 8 '25 4:00 PM – 5:40 PM (TIFF Lightbox - Cinema 1)
Join us to honour Indigenous excellence in film and media arts, with generous support from our partners and individual donors. Each year, the imagineNATIVE Awards Presentation showcases a selection of exceptional works from our Festival. Each recipient is selected by filmmakers and industry professionals from the Festival’s independent programming team and juries. This event will feature can’t-miss performances by Lacey Hill and Adrian Sutherland!