Past Festivals
imagineNATIVE 2003
imagineNATIVE 2002
imagineNATIVE 2001

Mandate/Mission Statement
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival promotes, advances, and fosters emerging and established Canadian Aboriginal filmmakers and media artists in an international context.

imagineNATIVE strives to present the highest standards of artistic excellence in the diversity of work selected, in the programming of the festival and related tours, and in its business practises as an organisation.

Brief History
Since its inception in 1998, imagineNATIVE (known also as the Centre for Aboriginal Media, imagineNATIVE's legal entity) continues to evolve to reflect the needs of its constituencies. Founded by Cynthia Lickers-Sage with the help of Vtape and other community partners, imagineNATIVE is now regarded as one of the most important Aboriginal film and media arts festivals in the world.

The four-day imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival and its annual tour (that takes selected programming to remote Aboriginal communities) fill a void in the artistic and cultural landscapes of Toronto in which Aboriginal filmmakers and media artists are often underrepresented or misrepresented.

Artistic Policy & Role
imagineNATIVE focuses on new film, video, radio, and new media works by emerging and established Aboriginal artists. Programming includes annual retrospectives, curated programmes, and showing of significant groundbreaking and legacy works. In maintaining a strict focus on new works by Aboriginal artists, imagineNATIVE has become an important feeder and exporter of Aboriginal works to other festivals, markets, and broadcasters nationally and internationally.

Selection criteria for the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is based on:
- Artistic excellence
- Innovation in form and content
- A key member of the creative team (director, writer, producer) must self-identify as Aboriginal
- Relevance of the work to the Aboriginal community and to general Canadian audiences as a whole.

imagineNATIVE is committed to a fair and democratic selection process. All works are considered, short-listed, and selected by the Programming Committee. Juries, consisting of community members and at least one imagineNATIVE board member, choose winners for the festival's annual awards.

Constituency & Contribution to Community
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival serves four primary audiences:
- Canadian and international Aboriginal artists
- Aboriginal audiences
- Non-Aboriginal audiences
- Canadian and international distributors, broadcasters, programmers, and industry professionals.