The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is permanently moving its fall event to June to better align with Indigenous Peoples’ Month.

The festival organizers announced Thursday (Feb. 29) that the 25th edition of the festival will run from June 3 to 8, 2025 in Toronto and June 9 to 15 online. The new timing will also allow for film submissions to include productions from 2023 to 2025.

The organizers will be hosting events in the lead-up to the new dates, including an extended imagineNATIVE Tour, which will run to the end of November. More programming will be announced later in the year.

“Our goal at imagineNATIVE is to better serve our community and deliver a better festival every year,” said executive director Naomi Johnson in a statement. “From fresh programming ideas and themes to expanding our programming to outdoor events, the June 2025 date gives us more time to support our festival’s growth.”

“A festival in June means we’re in a month of increased awareness about Indigenous stories, allowing us to put our filmmakers front and centre,” added festival director Lindsay Monture. “We couldn’t be more excited to see what organizations and talent imagineNATIVE gets the chance to elevate to a bigger audience in our 25th year.”

Image courtesy of imagineNATIVE