Images Festival 39th Edition: Tickets on Sale Now

The world was always full of us, Anouk Verviers (2025), video still.

Images Festival 39th Edition:
Metabolizing Moving Images

April 9 – 13, 2026
Various locations, Toronto & Online

Images Festival’s 39th edition opens next week! From April 9 – 13, 2026, we will be presenting films, exhibitions, performances, tours and talks. Tickets and passes are PWYC and are available at imagesfestival.com.

This year’s edition Metabolizing Moving Images examines how moving images are absorbed, processed, and lived through. The festival is curated by Programming Director Jaclyn Quaresma with Curators-in-Residence: Katie Lawson, Kiera Boult, Alper Turan and the 2026 Images Festival Emerging Curator, Ghislan Sutherland-Timm.

Festival programs will take place at Innis Town Hall and Cinecycle with additional programs at VTape, Le Labo, Charles Street Video and TIFF. Attendees can enjoy a commissioned sound mix created by Sonic Liberation Devices that will play in-cinema throughout the preshows.

Admissions at a Glance:

Tickets to Images Festival’s screenings are available on a tiered pricing model from $50, $15, $5, and $0. Tickets are available through our online box office at imagesfestival.com. If there are tickets still available on the day of the screening, patrons can purchase tickets in-person.

Festival passes are available for $65 and provide full access to all in-person screenings. Industry passes are available for $65 to artists, curators, filmmakers, and arts administrators. Industry pass-holders will receive exclusive access to the Images Festival Industry Database which provides online access to our film programs from April 9 – May 4, 2026.

Features & Performances:

• ELIXIRFRAME with Serena Lee and Fan Wu – April 9, 7:30pm
• Karthik Pandian’s Surrendur (World Premiere) – April 10, 7:30pm
• Eshan Rafi’s My Father’s Imagination II – April 11, 12:30pm
• Anouk Verviers’s we felt our cells tumble, cluster, and creep – April 12, 1:00pm
• Serena Lee and Fan Wu’s Dance&Alchemy – April 13, 4:00pm

Exhibition:

• Sophie Sabet’s Return of the Bright Night exhibition reception – April 11, 11am

Screenings of Shorts:

• bodily burden, curated by Katie Lawson featuring artists Christina Battle, Kym McDaniel, Naomi Rincón-Gallardo, Sabīne Šnē and Theo Cuthand – April 10, 11am
• Unstill Images, curated by Alper turan featuring artists Arief Budiman, Clint Enns, Çiçek Kahraman, Elisabeth Subrin, Sofia Dona and Zeynep Dadak – April 10, 1:45pm
• Refusing (Reproductive) Labour: Ecological Solidarities, curated by Katie Lawson featuring artists Anouk Verviers, Oona Taper and Stéphanie Lagarde – April 11, 2pm
• Student Screening of Shorts! our bodies hold time, curated by Ghislan Sutherland-Timm featuring artists Chloë Gordon, Defne Kirmizi, Diana Esther, Elena Calvo Polo, Félix Caraballo, Michaela Michalak, Patricio Escartín, Radin Khodadadi and Tianhui Wu – April 11, 4:30pm. Sponsored by Zamalek and Niagara Artist’s Centre with catering by Palestine Bakeshop.
• Epic fails, or, ordinary failure wasn’t enough, curated by Kiera Boult featuring artists Cassie Packham, Dayna McLeod, Fox Maxy, Jake Starr, Marion Balac, Mikiki – April 11, 7:30pm
• We’re here to please you, Baby, curated by Kiera Boult featuring artists Deirdre Logue, E. Jane, Renèe Helèna Browne and Zhongyao Wang – April 12, 3pm
• SAVAC’S Monitor 16, curated by Sameena Siddiqui and Vicky Moufawad-Paul. This is the Toronto premiere of Monitor 16, in partnership with Images Festival – April 12, 6pm

Talks and Events (Free):

• Opening Party at The Commons (401 Richmond Street, 4th floor) – April 9, 9:30pm
• Curators-in-Residence Panel with Alper Turan, Katie Lawson, and Kiera Boult – April 13, 10:15am
• Images x CSV Artist Residency Artist-in-Residence open for viewing at CSV throughout the festival.
• In Conversation: Dayna McLeod, Kiera Boult and Mikiki – April 13, 11:30am
• Surrendur: In Conversation with Karthik Pandian – April 13, 2:30pm
• The Gaza Biennale T’karonto Pavilion: Witnessing Sumud, Closing Reception and Magazine Launch at A Space Gallery – April 13, 4pm
• Closing Party at CineCycle – April 13, 8pm. Sponsored by Burdock Brewery and Paradise Grapevine.

Throughout the festival, Kensington Market’s Pamenar will have a custom Images Limoncello-Gin Spritz available exclusively to festival-goers at Happy Hour prices from April 9–13, 2026!

Submissions for 2027:

Film submissions for the 40th Images Festival—taking place in April 2027 will—open on April 9, 2026 and remain open through the summer! Visit the submissions page on our website for more details.

For the full calendar of programs and events, please visit imagesfestival.com.

About Images Festival

Images Festival is a non-profit, artist-led festival dedicated to experimental film, media arts, contemporary art, and the spaces in which these forms coexist. Images’ programming interrogates the conditions of contemporary moving image culture, and provides a platform for artists, filmmakers, curators, and other practitioners to engage with experimental practices in both form and content.

Press

For media-specific inquiries regarding Images Festival, please contact Camille Rojas: camille@imagesfestival.com

401 Richmond Street West, Suite 451
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8 Canada
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