About Us

Images was established in 1987 by the Northern Visions Collective to scrutinize the dynamics of visibility within the media arts in Toronto. In 1988, Images was incorporated as Northern Visions Independent Video and Art Association, and became Toronto’s original interdisciplinary arts festival, a critical forum for independent media art in Canada and around the world, and the city’s only alternative to the Toronto International Film Festival. Images began by presenting artists’ film and video, and later expanded to include exhibitions, installations, live performances, and educational initiatives. 

Images provides diverse artists at all stages of their career with a supportive and professional platform to present and discuss their work. The artwork we present is independent and produced outside of mainstream commercial production models, and as such, it counters dominant, conventional narratives and encourages alternative ways of seeing, contemplating, and understanding contemporary moving images. As a festival that has been at the forefront of innovations in media art practices and discourse for over three decades, Images aims to instill this spirit of innovation in the design, planning, and structure of our programming and operations. Images prides itself on being nimble and agile, two characteristics that have been instrumental to our ability to adapt our program offerings and ways of working to meet the needs of the communities and artists we serve. 

Since its inception, Images has been at the forefront of identifying and supporting work that was marginalized or left unrecognized by existing exhibition and cinema venues. Our festival foregrounds work from diverse communities and regions across Canada, and brings the Canadian art we present into critical dialogue with the rich spectrum of work being created around the world. In the 1990s, Images was a crucial player in opening up dialogue in the media arts around issues of representation, including race, gender, disability, and sexuality. Emphasis on identity and socio-economic deprivation are now at the centre of arts discourses and practices in Canada and abroad, and Images is proud of the part it has played in making awareness of and sustained engagement with these critical issues a priority across the arts and culture sector.