imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival showcases media artists of all backgrounds as part of their 2023 special events lineup

September 15, 2023, Toronto – Returning for another year of digital festivities, the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (imagineNATIVE) will feature 21 digital and interactive works from Indigenous artists from around the world. This year’s festival theme aims to showcase works that “make our spaces feel like visiting grandma/totah/kookum.”

 Kicking off the festivities will be this year’s Welcome Gathering featuring Manitou Mkwa Singers, Cotee Harper, Skye Dancers, and Poet Jennifer Alicia, followed by the Opening Night Party, sponsored by CBC, with multiple DJs performing, including headliner Boogey The Beat.

On October 18, 2023 imagineNATIVE’s Art Crawl will take over multiple venues and gallery spaces to bring 7 exhibitions and 19 artists to the city for an interactive multi-gallery experience.

Back for another year is the iNdigital Space and imagineNATIVE Arcade open from October 18 to October 21, 2023 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Gallery for free. Presented alongside iNdigital Space partners SEGA, East Side Games, and Ontario Creates,  this large-scale presentation invites you to see, listen, and play with the diverse Official Selection, which includes VR, 360, AR, video games, and interactive web and digital media works.

For Indigenous screen industry professionals, imagineNATIVE’s Industry Days is hosting several meetings, panels, and networking events throughout the festival including the imagineNATIVE + APTN lumi Web Series Pitch, the New Media Masterclass, a Two-Spirit + Indigiqueer Storytelling panel, an AI + the Industry panel and a Directing from Film to TV panel.

The festival also announced this year’s film programming which can be found here.

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is supported by its presenting partner the Canada Media Fund. The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival along with its many year-round activities is made possible with the support of public funders, foundations, and donors. imagineNATIVE acknowledges and gives appreciation to the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Ministry of Ontario, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Creates, Telefilm Canada, and Miziwe Biik.

For more information on this year’s festival, visit imagineNATIVE.org/festival. To purchase tickets to the Festival, visit imagineNATIVE.org/festival/box-office.