Images Festival is proud to announce its 38th edition taking place April 10th-14th, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. Tickets for all budgets and festival passes are now on sale via imagesfestival.com.

This year’s festival theme draws inspiration from Gloria Anzaldúa’s poem “New Speakers,” in which she writes We don’t want to be / Stars but parts / of constellations. At a time of heightened disparity and manifold global atrocities across political factions, Gloria’s proclamation resists the oppressive systems that thrive on individualism, isolation, division, and scarcity. Her discursive resistance gives renewed potential to the idea of constellations. The curated programs in this year’s festival explore this more deeply.

The 38th edition of Images Festival is curated by Programming Director Jaclyn Quaresma alongside Curators-in-Residence: The Camelia Committee (Mira Adoumier and Nour Ouayda), Heather Canlas Rigg, Kate Wong and Emerging Curator, Nala Haileselassie. This year’s festival celebrates experimental film and new media art in and beyond the cinema through 40 films, four exhibitions, talks, performances, and more! Screenings will be presented at Innis Town Hall with additional programs online and at off-site venues: Gallery 44, Gallery TPW, VTape, Mercer Union, Le Labo, LIFT and TIFF.

TIFF Wavelengths returns as the official festival pre-opener with Infinite Returns curated by Suneil Sanzgiri and co-presented with Mercer Union, featuring films by Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou Rahme, Naeem Mohamien, Noor Abed, Onyeka Igwe, Sarah Maldoror and Suneil Sanzgiri. The festival launches the next day at Gallery TPW with the opening of Never One Thing Alone, an exhibition co-curated by Liz Ikiriko and Jaclyn Quaresma that considers intricate networks of solidarity and connection, movements of resistance, and collective action through works by aka TAWLA, Dana Qaddah, Joyce Joumaa, Roï Saade and Sharlene Bamboat.

Following the opening festivities, we will present multiple screenings each day curated by the residents, Mira, Nour, Heather, Kate, and Nala. With an exciting list of filmmakers, these screenings contain a mix of features, mid-length, and short films from emerging, established, and student filmmakers experimenting with film and video, and exploring constellatory thinking, solidarity, and the commons. In addition to the resident-curated programming, Images will present feature films by Dionne Brand and John Greyson, Maryam Tafakory’s first performance in Canada, a poetry performance by M. NourbeSe Philip in partnership with Gallery 44, a lecture-performance by Annie Wong, a student screening and mixer, and a closing party at Cinecycle co-hosted with MANO and CFMDC.

In celebration of Arjuna Neuman and Denise Ferreira da Silva’s return to Images with their latest film Ancestral Clouds Ancestral Claims, Images will present their earlier works, which premiered at previous editions of Images: Serpent Rain, 4 Waters-Deep Implicancy and Soot Breath//Corpus Infinitum (2020). These three films will be available online at imagesfestival.com from April 11-15th, free for viewing!

Artists and filmmakers include:

Arjuna Neuman; Denise Ferreira da Silva; Annie Wong; Maryam Tafakory; Dionne Brand; Adebukola Bodunrin; Alex Lo; Annie Sakkab; Ayo Akingbade; Eri Saito; Evelyn Pakinewatik; Jia-chae Chang; Natalia Lassalle-Morillo; Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou Rahme; Naeem Mohamien; Noor Abed; Onyeka Igwe; Sarah Maldoror; Suneil Sanzgiri; Sanaz Sohrabi; John Greyson; m. nourbeSe philip; Agnès Hayden; Gala Hernández López; Irina Tempea; Martin Davalos; Nikola Ilic; Sarah Ballard; Alejandra Harrison; Alejandra Saldivar; Amel Moyersoen; Eva Swiatkowski; Liz Adler; Sandra Ignagni; Tram Anh Nguyen; aka TAWLA; Dana Qaddah; Joyce Joumaa; Roï Saade; Sharlene Bamboat; Zeesy Powers; Hassan Khan; Samira Elagoz & Z Walsh; Shen Xin; Sohrab Hura; Tao Hui; Theo Jean Cuthand; Charline Dally; Helena Girón & Samuel M. Delgado; Jad Youssef; Samy Benammar.

As part of the festival, we are pleased to offer a selection of accessible programs, including: ASL interpretation and Creative Audio Descriptions for Ancestral Clouds, Ancestral Claims (Arjuna Neuman and Denise Ferreira da Silva); ASL Interpretation for Burial for a Hungry Ghost (Annie Wong); ASL Interpretation and Active Listeners for Door Prize (John Greyson); Active Listeners for A Thousand Bodies and A Thousand Landscapes (The Camelia Committee). Assistive listening devices are available on a first-come, first-served basis for all in-person screenings.

This year’s trailer was created by Parastoo Anoushahpour.

For the full calendar of programs and events, please visit imagesfestival.com

About Images Festival

Images Festival is a non-profit, artist-led festival dedicated to experimental film, media arts, contemporary art, and the spaces in which these forms coexist. Images’ programming interrogates the conditions of contemporary moving image culture, and provides a platform for artists, filmmakers, curators, and other practitioners to engage with experimental practices in both form and content.

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For media-specific inquiries regarding Images Festival, please contact Camille Rojas:

camille@imagesfestival.com