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The Gim­li Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val (GIFF) is gear­ing up to wel­come thou­sands to Gim­li, Man­i­to­ba for its 24th year. From July 24 – 28, 2024, atten­dees will enjoy a line­up of local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al nar­ra­tive fea­ture films, doc­u­men­taries, and shorts. The fes­ti­val also boasts the GIFF Glob­al Indus­try Sum­mit, spe­cial screen­ings (The 48 Hour Fest, RBC $10,000 Emerg­ing Film­mak­er Pitch Com­pe­ti­tion, Win­nipeg Indige­nous Film­mak­ers Col­lec­tive Screen­ing) and spe­cial events. The festival’s high­light, the RBC Sun­set Beach Screen­ings, will take place every night, offer­ing a unique cin­e­mat­ic expe­ri­ence under the stars. The fes­ti­val aims to unite a glob­al com­mu­ni­ty of film lovers and share diverse sto­ries through the art of cinema. 

Every year, GIFF con­tin­ues its mis­sion to inspire, edu­cate, and empow­er audi­ences through our dynam­ic fes­ti­val pro­gram­ming,” says Teya Zuzek, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of GIFF. It’s an excit­ing time to be part of the Man­i­to­ba film indus­try. GIFF is here to ampli­fy emerg­ing and estab­lished film­mak­ers and real­ly cel­e­brate the amaz­ing work that is being done region­al­ly, nation­al­ly, and beyond.” 

GIFF is proud to col­lab­o­rate with mul­ti­ple nation­al-lev­el orga­ni­za­tions, bring­ing even more depth and excite­ment to the fes­ti­val. These part­ner­ships demon­strate the fes­ti­val’s com­mit­ment to fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with­in the Cana­di­an film indus­try, while also pro­vid­ing a plat­form for film­mak­ers to show­case their work to a broad­er audience. 

Our Offi­cial Nar­ra­tive Fea­ture Films:

  • Áma Glo­ria (Dir. Marie Ama­chouke­li, France) 
  • Atikamekw Suns (Dir. Chloe Leriche, Canada) 
  • Close to You (Dir. Dominic Sav­age, Canada) 
  • Daugh­ter of the Sun (Dir. Ryan Ward, Canada) 
  • Days of Hap­pi­ness (Dir. Chloé Robichaud, Canada) 
  • Final­i­ty Of Dusk (Dir. Madi­son Thomas, Canada) 
  • Grand Finale (Dir. Sig­ur­jon Kjar­tans­son, Iceland) 
  • Hai­ley Rose (Dir. San­di Somers, Canada) 
  • Han­dling the Undead (Dir. Thea Hvis­ten­dahl, Norway) 
  • In Her Name (Dir. Sarah Carter, Canada) 
  • Lim­bo (Dir. Ivan Sen, Australia) 
  • My Mother’s Men (Dir. Anik Jean, Canada) 
  • My Won­der­ful Stranger (Dir. Nin­na Rún Pálmadottir, Norway) 
  • The Old Oak (Dir. Ken Loach, Unit­ed Kingdom) 
  • We Grown Now (Dir. Min­hal Baig, U.S.A)
  • With Love and a Major Organ (Dir. Kim Albright, Canada) 

This year, we received an impres­sive array of over 1,400 film sub­mis­sions from 88 dif­fer­ent coun­tries,” says GIFF’s Head of Pro­gram­ming, Michael Bar­ry. In recent months, the pro­gram­ming team has metic­u­lous­ly curat­ed an excep­tion­al line­up for 2024 — show­cas­ing the finest in Man­i­to­ban, Cana­di­an, Cir­cum­po­lar, and World Cin­e­ma. We hope each of these remark­able films res­onate with you as deeply as they did with us dur­ing the selec­tion process. My sin­cere appre­ci­a­tion goes to the Pro­gram­ming Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, and the entire pro­gram­ming team for their ded­i­ca­tion and invalu­able sup­port in craft­ing this year’s out­stand­ing program.” 

GIFF’s Top Prize, The Alda Award, hon­ours the cin­e­mat­ic achieve­ments of a film indus­try vet­er­an. This year’s win­ner is Cana­di­an Inuk pro­duc­er and direc­tor, Zacharias Kunuk. GIFF will be doing a ret­ro­spec­tive of two Kunuk films, Angakusa­jau­juq: The Shaman’s Appren­tice (2021) and Kiv­i­too: What They Thought of Us (2018) on Sat­ur­day, July 27th

RBC Sun­set Beach Screen­ings are one of the fes­ti­val’s stand­out free events. They take place every evening of the fes­ti­val at 9:45 p.m. on Gim­li Beach. This year’s theme is Chas­ing Adventure”. 

Our line­up for this year includes (in the order they will be screened): 

  • Bar­bie (2023, Dir. Gre­ta Gerwig) 
  • Sum­mer Rental (1985, Dir. Carl Rein­er) — Thurs­day night’s screen­ing of Sum­mer Rental will cel­e­brate the career of Cana­di­an actor, John Can­dy, who passed away 30 years ago this year.
  • Thel­ma and Louise (1991, Dir. Rid­ley Scott) 
  • The­ater Camp (2023, Dir. Mol­ly Gor­don, Nick Lieberman) 
  • Padding­ton 2 (2017, Dir. Paul King) 

Our Offi­cial Doc­u­men­tary Features:

  • A New Kind of Wilder­ness (Dir.Silje Evens­mo Jacob­sen, Norway) 
  • Any Oth­er Way: The Jack­ie Shane Sto­ry (Dir. Michael Mab­bott & Luc­ah Rosen­berg-Lee, Canada) 
  • Every Lit­tle Thing (Dir. Sal­ly Aitken, Australia) 
  • Life Is Beau­ti­ful (Dir. Mohamed Jabaly, Norway/​Palestine/​Qatar)
  • Nice Ladies (Dir. Maëlle Guenegues, Netherlands/​Ukraine)
  • Play Dead! (Dir. Matthew Lancit, Canada) 
  • The Bat­tle for Laikip­ia (Dir. Peter Muri­mi and Daphne Matziara­ki, Kenya/U.S.A/Greece)
  • The Day Ice­land Stood Still (Dir. Pamela Hogan, Iceland) 
  • The Eter­nal Mem­o­ry (Dir. Maite Alber­di, Chile) 
  • These Four Walls (Dir. Bran­den Joseph DeFoort, Canada) 
  • Wil­fred Buck (Dir. Lisa Jack­son, Canada) 
  • Yin­tah (Dir. Jen­nifer Wick­ham, Bren­da Michell, Michael Toledano, Canada) 

The fes­ti­val will also include a spe­cial screen­ing of the 1976 Man­i­to­ban Film, Wilder­ness Trails (Dir. Gunter Hen­ning). Long kept safe and unviewed in the Library and Archives of Cana­da, this ret­ro­spec­tive fol­lows local nature film­mak­er George Cot­ter in a clas­sic por­trait of a film­mak­er on the hunt for a great shot. Hen­ning fol­lows Cot­ter as he focus­es on cap­tur­ing Man­i­to­ba wildlife and local birds. This is a must-see screen­ing! This event will start with a per­for­mance from local sound artist, Adara More­au.

Our Offi­cial Short Films:

  • 27 (Dir. Flóra Anna Buda, France/​Hungary)
  • Home Away From Home (Dir. Haley Char­ney, Canada) 
  • A Crab In The Pool (Dir. Alexan­dra Myotte, Jean-Sébastien Hamel, Canada) 
  • My Son Went Qui­et (Dir. Ian Bawa, Canada) 
  • Uni­brow (Dir. Ned­da Sar­shar, Canada) 
  • Les Lavandières (Dir. Lau­ra Kamugisha, Canada) 
  • Plaansh a Roo (Dir. Andrew Konoff, Canada) 
  • Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Cry­ing (Dir. Toby Gillies and Natal­ie Baird, Canada) 
  • Heal­er (Dir. MacKen­zie Leigh, Canada) 
  • Shit­ty Lit­tle (Dir. Jeff McK­ay and Takashi Iwasa­ki, Canada) 
  • The Con­quest of Space (Dir. Albin Biblom, Sweden) 
  • Wild­men Of The Greater Toron­to Area (Dir. Sol­mund MacPher­son, Canada) 
  • Dis­cor­dia (Dir. Rowan Gray, Canada) 
  • Sir­ius (Dir. Jean-Bastien Niyi­garuye, Canada) 
  • Star­bound (Dir. Madi­son Thomas, Canada)
  • Mod­ern Goose (Dir. Karsten Wall, Canada)
  • Your Call Is Impor­tant To Us (Dir. Romy Boutin St-Pierre, Joe Nadeau, Canada) 
  • The Land­marks of Mem­o­ry (Dir. Christi­na Haj­jar, Canada) 
  • Tai­lor Made (Dir. Quan Luong, Canada) 
  • Lul­la­by (Dir. Irèné-Kimberley Valin-Awashish, Canada) 
  • DRM1000: Intro To Per­for­mance (Dir. Ahlam Has­san, Canada) 
  • Audio And The Alli­ga­tor (Dir. Andrés I. Estra­da, Canada/​Venezuela)
  • Deep Root­ed (Dir. Kyle McDon­nell, Canada)

Addi­tion­al Programming: 

The fes­ti­val will have a range of activ­i­ties to cre­ate a mem­o­rable sum­mer expe­ri­ence for patrons and film­mak­ers alike. Atten­dees can join free events such as our Indus­try Ses­sions (GIFF Glob­al Indus­try Sum­mit), The 48 Hour Film Screen­ing, the $10,000 RBC Emerg­ing Film­mak­er Pitch Com­pe­ti­tion, and the Win­nipeg Indige­nous Film­mak­er Col­lec­tive Screening. 

GIFF Glob­al Indus­try Sum­mit coin­cides with the fes­ti­val; all events are held at John­son Hall (Water­front Cen­tre — 100 — 1st Street, Gim­li, MB). These indus­try-focused ses­sions and work­shops are open to the pub­lic, pro­vid­ing invalu­able insight into the film indus­try as well as net­work­ing possibilities. 

The high­ly antic­i­pat­ed 13th Annu­al RBC $10,000 Emerg­ing Film­mak­ers will take place at the Gim­li The­atre on the morn­ing of Sat­ur­day, July 27th. On Screen Man­i­to­ba, RBC, and Gim­li Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val will announce the com­peti­tors in ear­ly July – sub­mis­sion dead­line is July 2, 2024. Don’t miss the chance to see tal­ent­ed film­mak­ers pitch their ideas and com­pete for prizes such as pro­duc­tion funds, men­tor­ship, equip­ment grants, and more! 

Addi­tion­al pro­grams avail­able to attendees: 

Young Film­mak­ers Pro­gram – A screen­ing of short films by stu­dents in select­ed high school film & video pro­duc­tion pro­grams from across Man­i­to­ba. Come watch and cheer on the future of Man­i­to­ban film­mak­ing! This event is spon­sored by Man­i­to­ba Hydro. 

Win­nipeg Indige­nous Film­mak­er Col­lec­tive (WIFC) Screen­ing – A screen­ing of short films by mem­bers of the WIFC. This pro­gram, spon­sored by Warn­er Broth­ers Access Dis­cov­ery Cana­da, will give the best of the pro­gram a prize. 

Best of Man­i­to­ba Fes­ti­vals Pro­gram – A screen­ing of award-win­ning short films from the many niche film fes­ti­vals in Man­i­to­ba! See what has been mak­ing an impact in those com­mu­ni­ties, as fes­ti­val orga­niz­ers gath­er to net­work and pro­mote their events. 

48 Hour Film Com­pe­ti­tion Screen­ing – Film­mak­ers were giv­en the task to cre­ate a film in 48 hours or less. The entrants of this excit­ing com­pe­ti­tion will go on to com­pete at this screen­ing. A favourite amongst GIFF patrons, see who will win a chance to screen their win­ning short at the Toron­to Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val in September. 

Awards Recep­tion

GIFF will host its 2024 Awards Cer­e­mo­ny on Sat­ur­day July 27th, 2024. Along with the cov­et­ed Alda Award, GIFF and its spon­sors will be pre­sent­ing a vari­ety of awards to emerg­ing and estab­lished film­mak­ers. Win­ners will be announced the night of the event.

Vis­it the Gim­li Inter­na­tion­al Film Festival’s web­site and pre­pare to be inspired, enter­tained, and trans­port­ed to new realms of imag­i­na­tion. Don’t miss out on this unfor­get­table cel­e­bra­tion of the art of cinema. 

About this organization 

Since 2001, The Gim­li Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val (GIFF) has wel­comed thou­sands to the shores of Lake Win­nipeg for its var­i­ous film screen­ings of local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al fea­ture films, doc­u­men­taries, short films, and exper­i­men­tal media; not to men­tion the festival’s pre­mière event – the RBC Sun­set Beach Screen­ings which take place every night of the five-day fes­ti­val and have drawn peo­ple from all over the world to take in one of Manitoba’s most unique sum­mer expe­ri­ences. To learn more about The Gim­li Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val, please vis­it: www​.gim​li​film​.com