MEET THE FESTIVAL.
OUR MISSION STATEMENT: The Edmonton International Film Festival Society’s (EIFFS) mission is to present a film festival in theatres to celebrate diverse cinema for audiences. To achieve this, we showcase high quality cinema from around the world to allow filmmakers to interact in a forum that creates and fosters community, while placing EIFF on the global film festival map.
We present films produced within 20 months of each festival. These films are curated from submissions and solicited from distributors. The festival also presents a generous dose of filmmaker chats, Q&A’s, gala screenings, a local filmmaker spotlight, ‘buzzy’ films that are travelling the festival circuit, shorts with lunch, and more. Films are selected on the basis of story, quality and originality. All films must be EDMONTON premieres.
FACT: EIFF is an OSCAR qualifying festival for SHORT films — Live Action & Animation — and is the final qualifying festival each calendar year.
Located just a couple of hours from the majestic Rocky Mountains, Edmonton is the heart of the Canadian Prairies, the largest northern city in North America. Each autumn, we hoist the curtains on a cinematic feast that celebrates the power of film. The menu consists of more than 150 films from 50+ countries, ranging from short to feature-length, dramatic to documentary, comedy to gut-wrenching and studio to independent. Our festival’s primary objective is to encourage and support the appreciation of cinema.
FACT: MovieMaker Magazine lists EIFF as a ’50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee’ (2015 – 2017 and in 2019).
WHO ATTENDS? Established in 1986, EIFF has a 30+ year history of welcoming veteran and emerging filmmaking talent. Over the years we’ve had the pleasure of hosting ANVIL, Jon Cryer, Thom Fitzgerald, Paul Gross, Werner Herzog, Norman Jewison, Naomi Klein, Jørgen Leth, Avi Lewis, Neil Mandt, Luke Matheny, Albert Maysles, Bruce McDonald, Don McKellar, Deepa Mehta, Jesse James Miller, Molly Parker, Patrick Warburton, John Waters, Shea Whigham… the list goes on! And countless emerging filmmakers, actors, writers and producers.
