The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, founded in 1976 and taking place each September. It is also a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Bell Lightbox cultural centre, located in Downtown Toronto.
The Traverse City Film Festival was an annual film festival held at the end of July in Traverse City, Michigan. The festival was created as an annual event in 2005 to help “save one of America's few indigenous art forms—the cinema". The event was co-founded by Michael Moore, the Oscar-winning film director, well known for his anti-establishment films and documentaries such as Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine, and Roger & Me, along with author Doug Stanton and photographer John Robert Williams.
Sheffield DocFest, short for Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF), is an international documentary festival and Industry Marketplace held annually in Sheffield, England.
CPH:DOX is the official name for the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, an international documentary film festival established in 2003 and held annually in Copenhagen, Denmark. CPH:DOX has since grown to become one of the largest documentary film festivals in Europe with 114,408 admissions in 2019.
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England in collaboration with the British Film Institute. The festival runs for two weeks in October every year. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 feature films and 150 short films from more than 70 countries are screened at the festival each year.
The Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) is the largest film festival in England outside London. Founded in 1987, it is held in November at various venues throughout Leeds, West Yorkshire. In 2015, the festival welcomed over 40,000 visitors and showed over 300 films from around the world, shorts and features, both commercial and independent.
The Cambridge Film Festival is the third-longest-running film festival in the UK. The festival historically took place during early July, but now takes place annually during Autumn in Cambridge. It is organised by the registered charity Cambridge Film Trust.
Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers from all over the world. At the core of the programs is the goal to introduce audiences to the artists' new work, aided by the institute's labs, granting and mentorship programs that take place throughout the year in the United States and internationally.
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,660 attending in 2016. It takes place each January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at the Sundance Resort, and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. Many films premiering at Sundance have gone on to be nominated and win Oscars such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role.
The East End Film Festival was one of the UK's largest film festivals. It ceased all operations on March 4, 2020 due to COVID-19. The owner, Alison Poltock, explained that "the push to provide a more mainstream commercial offering is not for us."
The UK Jewish Film Festival is an annual film festival dedicated to world cinema that explores Jewish life, history and culture worldwide. It was founded in 1997 and takes place in November, in London and in other cities in the United Kingdom.
The Let's All Be Free Film Festival (LABFFF) is an annual film festival that explores what it means to be free, via the medium of film. The inaugural festival was held in April 2013 in London, and screened 37 short films across many different genres - all focused on exploring what it means to be free. The festival was founded in 2012 by Palestinian-American film director Tariq Nasir, founder and director of the award-winning production company Unusuality Productions, and is one part of the creative cross-platform Let's All Be Free project.
The Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films (MIFF) is a festival organized in the city of Mumbai by the Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. It was started in 1990, and focuses on documentary, short fiction and animation films.
The Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) is an international film festival which takes place annually in York, England, at the beginning of November. Founded in 2011, it is a celebration of independent film from around the world, and an outlet for supporting and championing filmmaking.
Kamar Ahmad Simon is a Bangladeshi filmmaker. He was featured as red carpet director in Piazza Grande at Locarno and has won various awards including the prestigious Harrell Award at CIFF (Camden), Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel (Paris), Open Doors Award and Arte International Prix at Locarno, Golden Conch at MIFF (Mumbai), grants from Sundance, IDFA-Bertha and WCF/ Berlinale. He has been a jury of the Sydney International Film Festival for the Australian segment, La Bibliothèque publique d’information (BPI) France, Johns Hopkins University USA has acquired his film and Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) have exhibited his work.
Flickerfest is an international short film festival held annually in January at Bondi Beach, Sydney. It is an Academy and BAFTA recognised short film festival for both international and Australian film makers.
Rodrigo Reyes is a Mexican film director currently residing in the United States. He is best known for the film 499, which had its premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival.
The Forest City Film Festival is a film festival located in London, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2016, the Forest City Film Festival centres on exhibiting the work of filmmakers from Southwestern Ontario in juried competition for features, shorts, documentaries, short animations and other categories, although it also screens a selection of other Canadian and International films out of competition.
