GEMFest Film Festival in Vancouver 2024

Gender Equity in Media Society (GEMS), previously called the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival, presents GEMFest at the VIFF Centre in Vancouver March 5-9, 2024. Enjoy screenings, receptions, panels, and more featuring 37 films from 14 countries across the globe.

GEMFest 2024

• Date: March 5 to 9, 2024 (in-person festival events) and March 12 to 26, 2024 (virtual festival events)
• Location: VIFF Centre Vancity Theatre & Studio Theatre (1181 Seymour St, Vancouver)
• Tickets: Purchase tickets online for in-person events. Online programming coming soon.

The festival, now in its 19th year, provides a platform for challenging gender imbalance and the lack of equity and diversity in the screen-based media industry. GEMS presents a selection of compelling feature films that delve into pivotal moments in history and personal narratives. GEMFest is also proud to present a slate of in-person events and ancillary programming, including an International Women’s Day Panel on March 8th, featuring major players in diversity and inclusion efforts. The in-person portion of the festival will be followed by a virtual festival from March 12 to 26, 2024.

Highlighted films include Analogue Revolution: How Feminist Media Changed the World by filmmaker Marusya Bociurkiw, chronicling the labour, hurdles, and triumphs of Canadian feminist media between the 1970s-1990s, tracing the rise and fall of analogue communications preceding the MeToo era. Tautuktavuk, directed by Carol Kunnuk and Lucy Tulugarjuk, artfully blurs the line between narrative and non-fiction, offering a poignant exploration of domestic violence and substance abuse through the eyes of two Inuit women, Uyarak and Saqpinak.

The shorts programs include an array of narrative, documentary, and animated films. Canadian highlights include Hair or No Hair, Chicken, Yaye, Cherry, Heat Spell, Streetcar, Two One Two, The Light Is My Birthplace, Loud and Here, Sisterhood Softball, and Indigenous shorts including Nisihkason Lex, Our Grandmother The Inlet, and Redlights. 

Browse more Vancouver Festivals this season »