New Name, New Logo, Same Festival!
GIFF 2022 announcement by Executive Director, Alan Wong
With the expanded reach of virtual offerings these past two pandemic summers, the newly branded Gimli International Film Festival (GIFF) has truly tapped into a global audience. This change signifies a new era for Manitoba’s premiere film festival, which is also proudly the largest film festival in Canada to be set in a rural community.
Gimli’s natural beauty as a lakeside community has drawn visitors from all over the world, and the festival’s main attraction, the RBC Sunset Beach Screenings held nightly on Gimli Beach, with its towering screen rising out of the waters of Lake Winnipeg, make it a wholly unique Manitoba summer experience.
The name change is representative of the reach and scope that the annual multi-day event has grown to encompass and sets the stage for a broader reach of creation, collaboration, and expression while continuing to highlight and support the local film and media arts community.
As in recent years, the festival will continue to feature the best in independent cinema from Manitoba, across Canada, and around the world, highlighting films from Iceland and other circumpolar countries, paying tribute to the history of the festival and the community of Gimli.
It will also continue to showcase leading-edge, thought-provoking contemporary cinema that is grounded in social justice, Indigenous narrative, environmental protection, equality, and human rights; stories of the human experience that seek to inspire, educate, entertain, and empower a new generation of movie-lovers and emerging filmmakers.
This year, our festival will take place from Thursday, July 20th to Sunday, July 24th. We intend to return to in-person screenings and events while meeting all government health regulations and protocols, with a curated selection of films offered online and on-demand for two weeks starting Monday, July 25th and ending Sunday, August 7th. As the COVID situation remains consistently dynamic, we will be keeping a close eye on the ongoing situation and do our best to bring the festival back to Gimli, safely and responsibly.
Film submissions to 2022 Gimli International Film Festival are now open through FilmFreeway!
For more information on the festival, go to gimlifilm.com.
For media inquiries, please email media@gimlifilm.com