The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival has selected Anishinaabe filmmaker Darlene Naponse’s Stellar (pictured) as the opening film of its 23rd edition.

The hybrid Toronto-based festival, considered the largest presenter of Indigenous content globally, will open on Oct. 18 with six days of in-person events and programming, followed by a virtual selection of films available between Oct. 24 to 30. It will present 19 feature films, 13 short programs and additional digital, interactive and audio works, as well as a spotlight on Mohawk filmmaker Shelley Niro.

Stellar is written and directed by Naponse, who also produced the film alongside Jennifer Weiss and Paula Devonshire. The experimental romantic film stars Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Braeden Clarke as two Indigenous characters who take refuge in a Northern Ontario bar as a meteorite wreaks havoc on the environment outside. Toronto’s levelFILM holds Canadian distribution rights.

Cree and Métis director Gail Maurice’s ROSIE will close the in-person festival on Oct. 23. The ’80s-set drama is written and directed by Maurice, who also produced with Jamie Manning and Mélanie Bray. The feature follows a young, orphaned Indigenous girl in Montreal. Photon Films holds Canadian distribution rights.

Both films recently had their world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Other Canadian features selected for the festival include Cree director Jules Arita Koostachin’s Broken Angel, produced with Patti Poskitt; Métis filmmaker Marie Clements’ drama Bones of Crows, produced with Trish Dolman and Christine Haebler of Screen Siren Pictures; Métis director Berkley Brady’s Dark Nature, produced with Michael Peterson; and Inuit filmmaker Nyla Innuksuk’s horror film Slash/Back, which she produced with Daniel Bekerman, Christopher Yurkovich and Alex Ordanis.

Three short films and virtual reality (VR) projects from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) have also been selected. Among them are two documentaries: Bill Reid Remembers, directed and produced by Alanis Obomsawin with the NFB’s Quebec and Atlantic Studio; and Eric Janvier’s Heartbeat of a Nation, produced by Coty Savard for the Edmonton-based North West Studio.

Rounding out the NFB shorts is the animation Arctic Song, directed by Germaine Arnattaujuq (Arnaktauyok), Neil Christopher and Louise Flaherty, and produced by Christopher and Nadia Mike for Taqqut Productions, and David Christensen and Alicia Smith of the NFB.

Finally, the VR project is the English and Blackfoot title This Is Not a Ceremony by filmmaker Ahnahktsipiitaa (a.k.a. Colin Van Loon), produced by Dana Dansereau at the NFB’s Vancouver-based Animation and Interactive Studio.

The festival will also bring back its Industry Days programming at the Artscape Sandbox venue, which features panels, workshops and networking opportunities for attendees.

Image courtesy of levelFILM