The Media City Film Festival has been bringing unique cinema and digital art to audiences in Windsor and beyond for three decades, and thanks to support from the federal and provincial governments, it can continue to do so well into the future.
The festival found a new audience during the pandemic online, reaching more than 320,000 local and global audience members between 2020 and 2023.
"Media City Film Festival is honoured to receive this vital support," said Oona Mosna, the festival's artistic director. "In times of crisis, and these days there seem to be a lot of them, people require access to artistic expression and the community that art creates. We're proud to have reached tens of thousands of new audience members online and in-person, audiences that would normally be out of reach."
A $62,500 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation in March 2023 will support this year's online edition, which will run from December 9 to December 30. It will provide free access to more than 70 films, 50 of which will premiere at the festival.
While the event features local, regional, and national filmmakers and artists, works from more than 30 other countries are also featured.
"The pandemic was a challenging time for everyone. The arts and culture sector was especially hit hard. However, MCFF learned a lot," said Mosna. "This Ontario Trillium Foundation grant enables us to continue to provide important access to participants locally, across Ontario, and around the world."
The Ontario Arts Council will support the film festival over the next three years with a grant worth $121,325 for the in-person part of the event. MCFF also entered a new $15,000 market development partnership with the provincial body to create new film productions and promote Ontario filmmakers. The financial support will build on MCFF's existing "Made in Windsor" films, which have found audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival, Academy Museum, New York Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Some major collections were purchased by the Academy Film Archive, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian Museum.
The Canada Council for the Arts contributed the rest of the funding, $208,000, through its Arts Festivals and Presenters program.