Guelph Film Festival

The Guelph Film Festival started in the early 1980's, making it one of the oldest documentary-focused film festivals in the world. We are located in Guelph, Ontario, Canada and our programming focuses on social justice, the environment, and community building (all broadly construed). We have purposefully kept the festival small to encourage participation in our post-film discussions, which are lead by the filmmaker, film subject, and/or someone from the community with knowledge of the topic(s) that can connect broader issues with local initiatives and understandings. At the GFF we focus on inspiring community engagement and appreciation for the arts through connecting people with stories of global reach and local relevance. #LetsTalkDoc The Guelph Film Festival is dedicated to expanding the proliferation of voices and perspectives of all kinds, through the presentation of stories from the margins. We program 50% Canadian Documentaries (this applies to both films shot in Canada and/or with a Canadian Director), 50% with Female/Female-Identifying Directors, 50% Diversity (BIPOC/LGBTQ+/Deaf & Disabled). At least two screenings every year are dedicated to Indigenous-made documentaries. We are serious about promoting gender parity and diversity in the film industry and every decision we make is guided by principles of inclusion. Our 2020 festival was presented online an opened with opened with the important social justice doc The Dilemma of Desire, and an amazing hour long discussion with filmmaker Maria Finitzo and subject/artist Sophia Wallace. The festival continued with a live zoom conversation around whales and eco-justice with the NFB doc The Whale and the Raven, and closed with an important conversation around Coded Bias: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence, continue on the festival's long standing commitment to deepening conversations around the films we screen. In addition to offering screenings of well renowned films, we are passionate about discovering and supporting the hidden gems and emerging filmmakers...the great docs that may not have made it into HotDocs, but that deserve a passionate audience to experience their stories. The festival takes place over nine days at the beginning of November in a variety of venues throughout downtown Guelph. Venues range in size from 80-300 seats, with most being around 80-100 seats and include a variety of community locations from galleries, museums, and performance centres to coffee shops, large churches to art studios, and a 300 seat theatre on campus.