2026
GENDER EQUITY IN MEDIA FESTIVAL
GEMFest 2026 returns to VIFF Centre on March 5 – 8th!
Entering its 21st year, the Gender Equity in Media Festival (GEMFest), formerly Vancouver International Women in Film Festival (VIWFF), showcases an impressive line-up of short and feature-length films (narrative, documentary, experimental and animation) by established and emerging women and gender diverse filmmakers from around the world.
GEMS Vancouver’s signature event, GEMFest, is the only film festival dedicated to women and gender-diverse people in Western Canada, and one of just three international film festivals for women and gender-diverse people in Canada.
GEMFest provides a platform for challenging gender inequity and the lack of diversity in the screen-based media industry through a combination of film screenings, discussions, and professional development and networking opportunities.
The festival will open in Spring 2026, and screen films with women and gender-diverse filmmakers in at least three of the following eight key creative roles: Writer, Producer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor, Composer, Lead Performer and Production Designer.
The 2026 festival will be a focused on in-person screenings and events.
Tickets now on Sale
If you have any questions or concerns, contact us at ticketing@gemsvancouver.org
Refund policyTickets: 24 hours before the event start time.Passes: 24 hours before the start of opening night
Join us in extending a warm welcome to the filmmakers participating in GEMFest 2025, for an evening filled with celebration, refreshments, and connections.
Featuring a Q&A and special musical performance by Hearse Chasing subject, Cassidy Waring, immediately following the screening, leading into our opening reception.
All ticketholders are welcome to attend the reception.
- Canada
- 2025
- 18 min
- English, Turkish (Subtitles), Open Captions
- Short
- Opening Night
- Documentary
- Local
For over thirty years, Burcu’s Angels has been more than a vintage store. Nestled on Vancouver’s Main Street, it has served as a sanctuary and a “coming out center” for generations of queer, immigrant, and marginalized communities. At the heart of the space is Burcu Özdemir, a Turkish queer elder whose warmth, humour, and defiant generosity shaped the store into a place of belonging.
As rising rents and constant displacement force Burcu to move the shop once again, the film captures a moment of reflection and reckoning. Through archival fragments, intimate observations, and the voices of those who found safety within its walls, Burcu’s Angels honours the resilience required to hold space over time. The film is a tender portrait of chosen family and a meditation on the fragile cultural spaces that allow communities to gather, endure, and imagine home.
- Canada
- 2025
- 43 min
- English, Open Captions
- Feature
- Opening Night
- Documentary
- Local
Singer-songwriter Cassidy Waring returns to Calgary to confront the family tragedy that shaped her. When Cassidy was a teenager, her world was shattered by addiction, abuse, and the sudden death of her mother. Years later, a diagnosis of Complex PTSD gave her language for the pain she carried. Joined by her younger brother, she searches for answers from those who knew their family. Hearse Chasing weaves music, memory, and raw conversation into a portrait of grief, survival, and healing.
The Acts of Vision program showcases a diverse selection of films that explore the intimate realities of Black life through a diasporic perspective. Intimacy and interiority serve as a departure point for the films in this program, which consider memory, history, and the power of the everyday as resistant tools through which complex interpersonal and communal relationships are navigated and sociopolitical entanglements in contemporary life are negotiated.
Acts of Vision: Features
Friday, March 6 | 6:00PM
- Canada
- 2025
- 98 min
- English, Closed Captions
- Feature
- Acts of Vision
- Drama, Narrative
After the parties, jobs, and hook-ups throughout their twenties, eight friends grapple with their thirties, trying to hold on to their group. Growing up is hard, staying close is even harder.
Sunday, March 8 | 1:00PM
- Canada
- 2025
- 79 min
- English, Captions
- Feature
- Acts of Vision, Closing Night
- Documentary
- Local
The story of Judi Singh, an unwitting trailblazer who, as a Black-Punjabi singer, steps onto jazz stages during tumultuous times and leaves a musical imprint to be discovered.
Acts of Vision: Shorts
Saturday, March 7 | 12:00PM
- Nigeria
- 2026
- 30 min
- English, Captions
- Short
- Acts of Vision
- Documentary, Experimental
- Canada Premiere
Four women navigate life as masculine-presenting women in Nigeria, a society with rigid gender expectations.
- Nigeria
- 2024
- 17 min
- English Subtitles, Open Captions
- Short
- Acts of Vision
- Drama, Narrative
- Canada Premiere
Two unsuspecting women are brought together but destined to be pulled apart, during a week-long trip to Lagos Nigeria
- Canada
- 2024
- 9 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Acts of Vision
- Drama, Narrative
- Local
- Vancouver Premiere
A young Black girl navigates exclusion in her all-white ballet class, reclaiming her beauty and power in an ethereal and jubilant celebration of Blackness.
- Canada
- 2025
- 14 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Acts of Vision
- Drama, Narrative
- Local
- Western Canada Premiere
When a young girl disappears from a Benin city apartment complex, a bronze caster is haunted by grief for this stranger in unexpected ways.
- USA
- 2025
- 25 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Acts of Vision
- Documentary, Experimental
- Canada Premiere
After a Black Banjoist learns about the instrument’s forgotten history, it launches her on a lyrical journey to reclaim the joy that was lost along the way.
A spark ignites, and a story begins. Heat permeates, bringing a need for change, and a need for growth. Our first program shows resistance even in the harshest winds.
- Canada
- 2025
- 14 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Spark
- Comedy
- Local
Nonbinary stand-up comedian Stevie is taking testosterone and needs to tell their family, and chooses their sister’s baby gender reveal as the location to do their own reveal!
- Canada
- 2025
- 15 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Spark
- Drama, Sci-Fi
- Local
In a near future where a pill for immortality exists, an Indigenous woman must choose between living forever or having a child. But to choose immortality means to never return to her ancestors in the afterlife.
- USA
- 2025
- 14 min
- Sindhi, English Subtitles, Open Captions
- Short
- Spark
- Documentary
In rural Pakistan, Dr. Naz struggles to keep her vital women’s clinic alive against all odds.
- Canada
- 2025
- 30 min
- English with Open Captions
- Short
- Spark
- Documentary
- Western Canada Premiere
Three women turned advocates recount their experiences with menopause against a backdrop that hints at the history of misogyny that silenced its discourse.
Air dances with a spark, the wind catches an ember, and a gust connects with smouldering heat. In our second program, smoke billows upwards, sending signals of energetic transformation, movement, and momentum underway.
- Canada
- 2025
- 10 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Smoke
- Magical Realism, Narrative
- Local
Enna works in a unique store where she sells bottled sounds to customers who wish to reconnect with their past through experiencing auditory memories. When a series of unusual clients cause her buried emotions to resurface, Enna must confront a painful memory she’s tried to forget.
- USA
- 2025
- 18 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Smoke
- Documentary
Blending character portraits with historical context, Tessitura explores how voice and gender are continuously reformulated in opera.
- Pakistan
- 2026
- 15 min
- Urdu, English Subtitles, Open Captions
- Short
- Smoke
- Narrative
- Vancouver Premiere
A missed school bus leaves ten-year-old Myra stranded in Lahore, where her journey home spirals into a tense fight for survival against the men who stalk her every step.
- Canada
- 2025
- 11 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Smoke
- Comedy
Forced to reckon with doctors who treat her debilitating pain as though it’s all in her head, what will it take for Alice to get the care she needs?
- USA
- 2025
- 12 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Smoke
- Animation, Experimental
Using original poetry as the foundation, we are taken through a journey examining what it means to be a contemporary California Indigenous woman.
- Palestine
- 2025
- 19 min
- Arabic, English Subtitles, Open Captions
- Short
- Smoke
- Documentary
After months of displacement, Tahani and Sidra are able to return home, only to find it leveled, like the rest of their city, and to find no refuge except the grave and the memory of their mountain.
Fire bursts through, burning barriers, torching plans, and consuming our expectations. Our third program forces new fire into familiar stories.
- Scotland
- 2024
- 7 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Flame
- Drama
- Canada Premiere
A couple seek to find solace in the aftermath of a domestic tragedy.
- Canada
- 2025
- 12 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Flame
- Drama, Fantasy
- Western Canada Premiere
A teenage girl dreams of studying abroad, but her father’s rejection threatens to derail her plans, forcing her to confront her family’s troubled past and find strength within herself to pursue her dreams.
- USA
- 2025
- 6 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Flame
- Comedy
A woman existentially spirals via Voice Memo as the line to the bathroom she’s hiding in grows.
- Canada
- 2024
- 18 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Flame
- Drama, Romance
- Local
A love story set against the backdrop of the climate crisis and the opioid epidemic, Forest Echoes follows Echo and Wild, two urban Indigenous land defenders. On the one-year anniversary of their arrest on the front lines, a death in their community opens old wounds but also offers them a chance to heal.
- Canada
- 2024
- 12 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Flame
- Horror, Narrative
An insecure teen gains the ability to sculpt her own body by eating a clay sculpture and obsessively pursues her idea of bodily “perfection”.
- Madagascar
- 2024
- 19 min
- English, French, English Subtitles, Open Captions
- Short
- Flame
- Documentary
- Canada Premiere
DEBOUT! (Stand Up!) traces the journey of four women with disabilities across Madagascar. Moving through landscapes and silences, their bodies become vessels of resilience and hope, reminding us that standing is a quiet act of beauty, resistance, and grace.
The culmination of a fire’s components, our festival concludes in an energetic blaze, one that casts light on moments of joy and pain, alternative models of living, and unspoken truths.
- New Zealand
- 2025
- 11 min
- English, Samoan, English Subtitles, Open Captions
- Short
- Blaze
- Drama
- Western Canada Premiere
In the face of her mother’s absence and her father’s alcoholism, a 12 year old girl, Küī, rises above her age, caring for her brothers and confronting life’s harsh realities. Inspired by a true story.
- Canada
- 2025
- 15 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Blaze
- Drama
- Local
When a judgmental workaholic is gaslighted for her excruciating pain due to an ovarian cyst rupture, she’s forced to confront her own false beliefs about women’s pain. Film stills courtesy of Francois Dagenais.
- UK
- 2025
- 9 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Blaze
- Comedy, Mixed Media
Becky is a broke artist clinging to the belief that her work MATTERS, whilst Instagram insists everyone else is younger and better. With one week to finish a career-defining painting, can she defeat her insecurities?
- Canada
- 2025
- 22 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Blaze
- Documentary
At Gateway Meat Market, the lineups are long, the prices are low, and the vibes are high. Priced to Thrill tells the tale of a grocery store that’s anything but ordinary.
- Canada
- 2024
- 10 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Blaze
- Drama
- Local
Alice must confront her unresolved past when her estranged mother with dementia moves in, forcing her to provide the care she never received in her childhood while juggling her own responsibilities as a mother.
- UK
- 2025
- 14 min
- English, Open Captions
- Short
- Blaze
- Documentary
In the UK’s first women-only co-housing community New Ground, 26 women over 50 are challenging conventional ideas of ageing by building a life driven by independence, mutual care, and collective purpose.
- France/United States
- 2025
- 82 min
- English, Open Captions
- Feature
- Documentary
Unhoused in San Francisco, Dawn and Tony find solace with Terry and Harry who facilitate support groups at Glide church. They challenge them to overcome the hurdles of their situations and speak up for their community. Fire Within interweaves their intimate quests to forge their place in an American Society ravaged by inequalities and dives into a world between the churches and the streets.
- Canada
- 2025
- 70 min
- English with Closed Captions
- Feature
- Documentary
- World Premiere
A Cree Approach follows Tristin Greyeyes’ journey to understand why Cree isn’t her first language, through the story of her grandma, Freda Ahenakew. Freda’s work in language revitalization inspires Tristin to reclaim her heritage.
- Canada
- 2025
- 80 min
- English, Closed Captions
- Feature
- Horror, Narrative
In the age of low-rise jeans and flip phones, a Persian teen trying to fit in with her new Canadian clique dyes her hair blonde — and invites a monstrous force into her life.
PRODUCER’S WORKBOOK 6 LAUNCH: Making Your First Feature in Canada: Navigating the System
Friday, March 6 | 11AM - 12:15PM
A demystifying conversation about what it actually takes to make a first feature film within the Canadian funding and distribution landscape. Designed for emerging producers, the advisors behind GEMS’ newest edition of the Producers Workbook unpack the practical, legal, cultural, and business realities behind the Telefilm and Canadian system.
Panelists: Amber Ripley (Founder, Goodbye Productions), Hilary Hart (Co-President, Game Theory Films)
Moderator: Andy Alvarez (Director/Writer, Studio 104 Entertainment)
Your Script Isn’t the Problem: Notes, Agency & Advocating for Your Story
Friday, March 6 | 1:30PM - 2:45PM
Finalists from this year’s Screenwriting Competition gather for an honest discussion about writing and revision — from first drafts to preparing a script for development. Centering notes, agency, and creative decision-making, the panel explores how writers stay true to their characters, make difficult cuts, and advocate for their stories as they take shape.
Who Holds the Story?: Community Storytelling, Consent & Cultural Stewardship
Friday, March 6 | 6:30PM - 7:45PM
Centering ethical and creative responsibilities, this panel is an in-depth conversation about what it means to tell stories rooted in community — particularly when working with matriarchal knowledge, cultural protocols, and intergenerational narratives and how to collaborate with communities as partners rather than subjects.
Panelists: Tristin Greyeyes (Director, A Cree Approach), Loretta Sarah Todd (Leader in Indigenous Media).
Getting Seen: Discovery, Support & Promotion After Production
Saturday, March 7 | 10:00AM - 11:15AM
Festival and venue programmers discuss how completed films — and the people in them — are discovered, supported, and promoted. With a focus on visibility, audience engagement, and local distribution strategies, this panel offers filmmakers and actors insight into how to get their work seen in their communities on time for, and beyond the premiere.
Panelists: Ava Maria Safai (Filmmaker, Foreigner), Rachel Fox (Sr. Programmer, The Rio & Park Theatre), Fegor Obuwoma (Programmer, GEMFest Acts of Vision), Nicola Pender (Director/Founder, Pender PR).
Funding Realities: A Community Townhall
Sunday, March 8 | 11:00AM - 12:15PM
A candid town-hall style dialogue between funders and producers that addresses the current gaps, pressures, and possibilities within Canada’s funding landscape. As funding models shift and filmmakers’ needs evolve, this panel focuses on transparency, and creates space for honest conversation about what support structures are working, where the roadblocks are, and how both sides can collaborate to build more responsive pathways for financing local films.
Panelists: Brishkay Ahmed (Writer/Producer/Director, Digital Warriors Productions Inc.), Sarah Jane Flynn (Director, Independent Production & Business Affairs).
Pitch Forum
TICKET SALES: Open to GEMS Members February 11 • Open to Public February 13
Sunday, March 8th at 11:30am | VIFF Centre – Studio Theatre
The GEMFest Pitch Forum serves as a dedicated platform for filmmakers to present their projects to production companies, broadcasters, and distributors within the industry. Registrants will be paired with their desired pitch recipient for a one-on-one, 10 minute pitch.
Cailey Cavallin & Rachel KNapp
Development Executive & Development Coordinator, Lark Productions
As Development Executive at Lark Productions, Cailey Cavallin collaborates on the development of a diverse slate of projects for the Canadian and international marketplace. She also serves as Creative Executive on Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. Cailey is a graduate of Vancouver Film School’s Writing for Film and Television program and holds an Honours BA in English Literature from the University of Ottawa.
Rachel Knapp is the Development Coordinator at Vancouver-based Lark Productions, where she plays an integral role in shaping a dynamic slate of scripted content. Since joining Lark in 2022, Rachel has contributed to the development of several projects, including CBC’s Allegiance and CityTV’s Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. Working closely with creative teams, writers, and producers, she supports projects from initial concept through to greenlight, helping bring compelling stories to the screen.
Cailey & Rachel are looking for:
- Ongoing scripted television series:
- Procedurals with a big hook for Canadian buyers
- Fare for streamers (i.e. Thrillers, romance, grounded sci-fi, 1/2-hour comedies)
David Strasser
Director & Executive Producer
Based in Vancouver, David Strasser is an award-winning executive producer and director known for building elevated, character-driven television across mystery, thriller, procedural, and romance. His projects reach global audiences on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hallmark, and Lifetime, earning nominations from the Leo Awards, Canadian Screen Awards, and the Directors Guild of Canada. He executive produces and directs Hallmark Mystery’s acclaimed Nelly Knows Mysteries franchise (2024–2026) and executive produced the DGC-nominated romantic comedy The Wish Swap (2025). He recently directed key episodes of UPtv’s procedural Blue Skies (2026) and directed Lifetime’s Love, Again (2026), starring Valerie Bertinelli, Eric McCormack, and Henry Czerny.
David is looking for:
Made-for-television feature scripts, including female-led thrillers, family dramas, rom-coms, and holiday.
Geoff Manton
Executive Producer, Boldly
Geoff is a co-founder and Executive Producer of Boldly. He has worked closely with his partners to spearhead a Values-based producing model that has influenced countless commercial productions over the last decade. He has also woven this model into original projects and documentaries produced for Telus Originals and the CBC, along with multiple short films that have earned premieres at TIFF, SXSW and Slamdance. Geoff is currently developing a long-form documentary about climate change and vulnerable masculinity.
True to his community values, Geoff co-founded Filmable, a non-profit community-building initiative, which has created new opportunities to meaningfully connect independent filmmakers and strengthen the Vancouver independent filmmaking industry.
Geoff is looking for:
- Projects that help reframe the issues of today and inspire audiences to imagine a world of possibilities. Either through Documentary or Narrative, strong messaging, strong characters and strong storytelling, Boldly’s goal is to make positive impact.
Jack Fox
Film and TV Producer
Jack Fox (he/him) is a trans-identified, Vancouver-based film and television producer
creating thoughtful, human-centered stories across documentary, unscripted, and factual
entertainment.
With over a decade of experience, he has contributed to projects for Netflix, CBC, CTV,
OUTtv, and T+E, including Million Dollar Secret, Farming for Love, History’s Most Haunted,
and multiple feature-length documentaries.
Starting in 2011 in community television, Jack learned the power of accessible storytelling.
Known for calm leadership and collaboration, he fosters environments where crew, talent,
and contributors feel supported. His work blends polished execution with genuine care,
inspiring teams to do their best.
Jack is looking for:
- Projects across the board — documentaries, feature films, scripted series, and short-form drama. Think big, bold stories we’ve never seen before — fun, edgy, provocative, and boundary-pushing. Stories that challenge the status quo, spark conversation, and stay with audiences long after the credits roll.
Ronny Kurland
Creative Executive, Reckless Pictures
As a Creative Executive (Development & Production) at Reckless Pictures, Ronny Kurland Kavelaars oversees a diverse development slate of high-concept series, feature films, and TV movies. Since 2021, Ronny has produced over 35 Film and Television projects, shot all over the world, and has helped set up multiple series at networks and studios. In her role, Ronny plays a crucial role in shaping the vision of a project from concept to completion. She works closely with writers and producers to refine, elevate, and guide stories through the development and production pipeline while balancing creative with the practical realities.
Ronny is looking for:
- Finished scripts/pilots for Features, TV Movies, and original series. Focusing on the following genres:
- Thrillers (elevated or contained), Romance (Rom-Com or Romantic Drama), and YA (both thrillers or romance) but open to other genres.
- Also looking for vertical/micro drama scripts.
Sara Blake
Producer, Ceroma Films
Sara Blake produces director-driven works that are fresh and unexpected. Sara passionate about the collaborative nature of filmmaking, fostering long-term relationships and engaging early to support strong directorial visions. Her credits include feature films Seagrass (FIPRESCI Award at TIFF ‘23, Sao Paulo ‘23, Mar Del Plata ‘23), Until Branches Bend (TIFF ’22, PÖFF ‘22, SXSW ‘23, Locarno ‘23, Prix de Soleure ‘23, Best B.C. Film ‘22), Raf (TIFF ’19); and Be Still (VIFF ‘21). In 2022, she won the Indiescreen Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award. Sara co-founded the non-profit organization Filmable and sits on the CMPA BC Branch Council.
Sara is looking for:
- Narrative features across drama, thriller, horror, and comedy that are driven by a clear directorial or auteur voice.
- I like projects that feel refreshing in their storytelling, have strong visuals, and a film that will surprise me 🙂
- Open to writers, writer-directors or writer-director teams.
- Projects shaped by a distinct director’s vision rather than developed as a spec script for sale.
- Also open to Serialized TV with the same creative specs!
GEMFest Awards Ceremony & Festival Party
The GEMFest Awards Ceremony & Festival Party is a ticketed event, open to all.
Saturday, March 7th at 6:30pm | Stage 6 (65 E 6th Ave, Vancouver, BC)
The GEMFest Awards Ceremony honour luminaries in the film and television industry, recognizing individuals who have made a significant contribution to advancing equity and creative excellence. There will be a special social hour immediately following the ceremony.
This year our awards will be presented at our Festival Party at Stage6 Studio – please join us for a celebratory drink and mingle!
Screenplay Competition
Screenplay Competition: Best Feature
Poisonous by Jasleen Kaur
Presented by Rephrase Filmworks
Screenplay Competition: Best TV Pilot
Young Hags by Corina Bizim and Maddy Hillis
Presented by Firecracker Deparment
Shorts Awards
Impact
Karateka (Director: Florence Fauquet)
Presented by North Shore Studios
Best Performance
Carmen Sylvestre (Lumen)
Presented by Lucas Talent
Best Cinematography
Nina Wells (Vivie)
Presented by ICG 669
Best Editing
Grace Zhang (Lovin’ Her)
Presented by Vancouver Post Alliance
Best Direction
Geneviève Tremblay & Milla Cummings (Passageways)
Presented by WIDC
Best Short
Is Gay Marriage Next? (Director: Emily Clark)
Presented by ACFC
Best of BC
NiiMisSak: Sisters in Film (Director: Jules A Koostachin)
Presented by Cinelease
February Sixteenth Nineteen Forty-Seven (Director: Jessica Miinguuaqtii)
Presented by Vancouver Film Studios, prize provided by Sparky’s Grip and Lighting
Little Miss Sleepy (Director: Jenny Lee-Gilmore)
Presented by MBS Equipment Co.
Features Awards
Impact
Inay (Director: Thea Loo)
Presented by CMPA
Best Performance
Olunike Adeliyi in Village Keeper
Presented by UBCP/ACTRA
Best Cinematography
Negin Khazaee for One Must Wash Eyes
Presented by Keslow Camera
Best Musical Score
Melody McKivor for Singing Back the Buffalo
Best Editing
Anna Chiyeko Shannon for Inay
Presented by Canadian Cinema Editors
Best Screenplay
Sepideh Yadegar for One Must Wash Eyes
Presented by CFL Law
Best Documentary
Tasha Hubbard (Singing Back the Buffalo)
Best Direction
Singing Back the Buffalo
Presented by DGC BC
Best Feature
Village Keeper
Presented by Telefilm
Industry Awards
Lifetime Achievement in Advancing Equity
To a leader whose impact on equity spaces has been felt over a long-term
Tracey Friesen
Presented by Elevate Inclusion
Emerging Changemaker Award
To a newcomer whose impact on the industry has made a difference to equity
Doaa Magdy
Presented by Creative BC
Leadership in Education Award
To an educator whose impact on equity in the classroom has been significant
Sharon McGowan
Artistic Achievement Award
To a leader whose impact on equity spaces has been felt over a long-term
Jules Koostachin
Presented by IATSE 891
Firecracker Film Fest
Saturday, March 7 | 11:00AM - 1:00PM
Firecracker Department is a place for female and non-binary artists to connect, create, and empower each other. Firecracker Film Fest celebrates funny and feisty short films by female and non-binary creators, spotlighting connection, community, and creativity through a comedic lens. Listen to our podcast and subscribe to our newsletter! www.firecrackerdepartment.com
GEMFest International Screenplay Competition
GEMS gratefully acknowledges the support of:
