Meet the 2026 Festival Jury!

Dr. Hiba Ali is a digital artist, scholar, and educator working across immersive environments, installation, moving image, garments, and sound. At the intersection of technology, embodiment, and care, their practice explores how digital space can become a site of rest, healing, and collective transformation. Rooted in worldbuilding and digital somatics, Ali creates XR-based environments that center refuge, agency, and embodied connection, particularly for bodies shaped by migration, diaspora, and colonial histories.

Saffron Maeve is a Toronto-based critic and film programmer. She is a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail, and her writing has appeared in Film Comment, Sight and Sound, Reverse Shot, MUBI Notebook, Documentary Magazine, and more. She is the curator of the screening series CONTOURS at Paradise Theatre and Apparatus Theory at Revue Cinema, and the quarterly reading series Crit Salon. Saffron has curated programs for TIFF, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Cinematheque (BC), and Spectacle Theater. Presently, Saffron is pursuing a PhD in Cinema & Media Studies at York University.

Montréal-born eunice bélidor is a curator, author, and researcher. She is a scholar-in-residence at Concordia University, teaching in the Graduate Curatorial Practice Diploma. Her current curatorial methodology focuses on epistolary writing and its intersection with radical hospitality, care, as well as affective and speculative archiving and racial issues. She has published essays and reviews in various publications, books and journals, notably in C Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, Vie des Arts and Espace. Her exhibitions have been presented in Canada and Europe, more recently at Centre Clark, the MAI, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d'art Contemporain, and at Galerie de l'UQAM. In 2018, she was the recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation–TD Bank Group Emerging Curator in Contemporary Art Award. She has held curatorial and managerial positions at articule, the FOFA Gallery at Concordia University (Montréal), and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. She is currently a film curator and programmer at the Montreal International Arts Film Festival (FIFA).

AstroLab Studios Production Award

Awarded to a filmmaker who showcases an exciting synthesis of curiosity, experimentation, and innovation. The recipient will receive a certificate valid for one day of production in Studio 1 of AstroLab Studios, valued at $3750. Sponsored by AstroLab Studios.


This year's recipient is Nour Bishouty. Nour's film On the count of three was a part of the program Monitor 16: Shadows Swept Far Away, curated by Sameena Siddiqui and Vicky Moufawad-Paul. This program was presented in partnership with SAVAC.

Boundless Vision Award

Awarded to a festival project that is expansive and imaginative in vision, while creatively resourceful in its production and execution. This award was established in 2015 to honour Scott Miller Berry, who was the Executive Director at Images Festival for a decade. The prize is $1,500 cash and is sponsored by Deanna Wong, Charles Street Video, Scott Miller Berry, Oakville Galleries and an anonymous donor.


This year's recipient is E. Jane. E. Jane's film LetmeBeaWoman.Mp4 was a part of the program We're here to please you, Baby, curated by Kiki (Kiera Boult). This program was co-presented with InterAccess, Vtape, Inside Out and Ed Video Media Arts Centre.

For the Love of Celluloid

Since 1982, Main Film, located in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), has been recognized by its peers as an artists' center that nurtures and uplifts the emergence of a vibrant and innovative generation of filmmakers especially within the analog practice and we are proud to be defenders of the analog practice in Canada. Main Film is excited to sponsor the "For the Love of Celluloid" award, to be presented at Images Festival. This award aims to celebrate and honour the exceptional dedication and passion for celluloid film within the independent cinema scene. The prize is $500 cash and is sponsored by Main Film.


This year's recipient is Elena Calvo Polo. Elena's film Fragments of was a part of the student program our bodies hold time, curated by Ghislan Sutherland-Timm. This program was co-presented with Xpace Cultural Centre, the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, Video Pool Media Arts Centre and Festival of Recorded Movement (FORM) with support from Zamalek and York University's Department of Cinema & Media Arts.

Radical Forms Award

This honour goes to an artist whose work is impervious to constraints—willful, unruly, and uncontrollable. This award was established in 2000 to honour the former Executive Director Deirdre Logue. The prize is $1,000 cash and is sponsored by Vtape, Deirdre Logue and an anonymous donor.


This year's recipient is Chantal Partamian. Chantal's film Traces / آثار was a part of the program Monitor 16: Shadows Swept Far Away, curated by Sameena Siddiqui and Vicky Moufawad-Paul. This program was presented in partnership with SAVAC.

The Niagara Custom Lab Award

The Niagara Custom Lab Award is presented to an artist who maintains a curiosity and commitment to exploring celluloid within their films. The recipient will receive $1200 in laboratory services for processing and scanning 16mm and Super 8 motion picture film. Sponsored by Niagara Custom Lab.


This year's recipient is Sophie Sabet. Sophie's film Return of the Bright Night was exhibited at the Bachir/Yerex Presentation Space between April 9th - 25th. This program was presented in partnership with Vtape.

York University Award for Student Work

Awarded to the best student work on screen. The prize is $500 cash, and is sponsored by York University’s Department of Cinema & Media Arts.


This year's recipient is Tianhui Wu. Tianhui's film 过去的鬼魂在低语 (The Land Where Ghosts Could Speak) was a part of the student program our bodies hold time, curated by Ghislan Sutherland-Timm. This program was co-presented with Xpace Cultural Centre, the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, Video Pool Media Arts Centre and Festival of Recorded Movement (FORM) with support from Zamalek and York University's Department of Cinema & Media Arts.

Thank you to our Awards Sponsors

Each winner will also be awarded an Annual Pro Plan from MyAirBridge!

This year’s awards are generously supported by:

Astrolab logo
Charles Street Video

Images Festival operates on land stolen from the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Tkáron:to is currently home to diverse Indigenous and Métis peoples as well as people who settle on this land. As part of Treaty 13 and the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Covenant, we acknowledge that we all eat from the same bowl and spoon, and must take only what we need, ensuring resources are available for all. 

As art workers, artists, and curators, we see the process of untangling ourselves from settler complicity as internal, structural, and ongoing. It is not something to be taken lightly. The inclusion of Indigenous artists and curators into our program is just the first step of necessary and deeper change. Extending from our organizational accountability work, we strive to not only undo forms of complicity, but also actively create an environment and infrastructure that can support Indigenous peoples who work with us. 

Images expresses our solidarity with Indigenous people on Turtle Island and globally. We are committed to continuing to learn, critique, and challenge the settler colonial structures we are complicit in.