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MEDIA CITY FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES MORE THAN $200,000 IN FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL FUNDING AND INVITES THE PUBLIC TO JOIN ITS FREE OPENING NIGHT CELEBRATIONS IN WINDSOR AND DETROIT

Media City Film Festival (MCFF) announces more than $200,000 in support from federal and provincial agencies, including funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, with further support from Acción Cultural Española. MCFF will undertake its historic return to in person events from Tuesday, November 7 through Saturday, November 12, 2023. The festival’s full program schedule can be found at mediacityfilmfestival.com

MCFF is planning a week-long party to celebrate its 26th annual edition, and invites the public to kick-off celebrations with this spectacular funding news and a week filled with the art of cinema, beginning with two distinct Opening Night events, one in Detroit, Michigan and one in Windsor, Ontario. Screening programs featuring more than 70 films are Pay What You Like or Free all week at the Capitol Theatre in downtown Windsor.

“Media City Film Festival is delighted to be awarded more than $200,000 in funding from provincial and federal agencies, with additional funding news forthcoming. MCFF is a world-renowned organization with recognition from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and colleagues at hundreds of prestigious festivals and institutions internationally. At home, MCFF remains one of Windsor-Detroit’s treasures and best-kept secrets. This November, filmmakers and guests will attend MCFF from around the world, as they have done for almost thirty years. We invite local audiences to join us in this historic celebration,” said MCFF Artistic Director Oona Mosna.

MCFF’s Opening Night Detroit launches November 7 at 7pm with a spectacular FREE evening at the Detroit Film Theatre, at the Detroit Institute of Arts. An Ecstatic Experience Segues to Infinity opens with the first-ever festival retrospective focussing on one of the United States’ most significant moving image artists, Ja’Tovia Gary. “Making art is a transformative process that transmutes pain or trauma into something beautiful, useful, functional, instructive for those who can engage with the work,” as Gary recently stated in the New York Times. With Gary’s installation The Giverny Suite currently on view at The Museum of Modern Art through 2024, the festival is delighted to have her in attendance from Dallas, Texas. The evening is rounded out with the first-ever Detroit performance by legendary multi-instrumentalist Laraaji, first discovered by Brian Eno. Laraaji’s has more than 50 releases to his credits and some of his musical tracks have garnered more than 18 million listens on Spotify. Laraaji attends from Harlem, New York.

The public has the chance to meet more than 60 filmmakers and guests in attendance from Serbia, Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Lebanon, Argentina, Mexico, Japan, across the United States, Canada, and the world at Media City Film Festival’s Opening Night Party in Windsor at The Capitol Theatre, Wednesday, November 8 at 6pm.

Come Out: Films of Narcisa Hirsch, a focus on the trailblazing Argentine filmmaker, follows MCFF’s Opening Night Party at 7:45 pm. Now in her 96th year, Narcisa Hirsch has spent seven decades as one of the foremost figures of the South American avant-garde. Come Out features rare films never before screened outside of Argentina, including new 35mm and digital restorations. Tomas Rautenstrauch, grandson of the filmmaker and director of the Filmoteca Narcisa Hirsch, attends from Buenos Aires to introduce the screening.

MCFF’s International Competition Jury will award prizes to films in five categories. Japanese-Canadian filmmaker Daïchi Saïto, whose 35mm masterpiece earthearthearth was produced by MCFF and was recently purchased by the Academy Film Archive, screens in MCFF’s first International Competition Program, along with works by Harry Smith (USA), Rose Lowder (France), Luke Fowler (Scotland), Testsuya Maruyama (Japan), Amy Halpern (USA), Siegfried Fruhauf (Austria), and Alexander Larose (Canada).

MCFF screenings continue at the Capitol Theatre from Thursday, November 9 to Saturday, November 11 with an exceptional, rare, and bountiful offering of over 70 films made by some of cinema’s most extraordinary practitioners. MCFF’s full festival press release is forthcoming, and its FREE 120 page festival catalogue is now available with pick-up locations at The Capitol Theatre, Phog Lounge, Trinosophes, and other locations in Windsor-Detroit. MCFF’s rich and varied program includes many more treasures. Full festival pass: $30 CAD. Single tickets: Pay What You Like.

MCFF 2023 ARTISTS: ★ Simone Leigh ★ Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich ★ Ja’Tovia Gary ★ Harry Smith ★ Michael Snow ★ Narcisa Hirsch ★ Sharon Lockhart ★ Maryam Tafakory ★ Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet ★ Sarah Maldoror ★ Sky Hopinka ★ Nour Ouayda ★ Rose Lowder ★ Kevin Jerome Everson ★ Tetsuya Maruyama ★ Robert Beavers ★ Nathaniel Dorsky ★ dream hampton ★ Tomonari Nishikawa ★ Skip Norman ★ Ana Vaz ★ Miryam Charles ★ Mary Helena Clark ★ Ayanna Dozier ★ Ute Aurand ★ Colectivo Los Ingrávidos ★ Hadassah GreenSky ★ Ben Russell ★ Jeannette Ehlers ★ Helga Fanderl ★ Helena Girón & Samuel M. Delgado ★ Pablo Mazzolo ★ Ben Rivers & Céline Condorelli ★ Adam Piron ★ Sam Drake ★ Deborah Stratman ★ Rouzbeh Akhbari & Felix Kalmenson ★ Fox Maxy ★ Paul Sharits ★ Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka) ★ Siegfried Fruhauf ★ Morgan Quaintance ★ Forough Farrokhzad ★ Simon Liu ★ Mike Stoltz ★ Abigail Child ★ Alexandre Larose ★ Luke Fowler ★ Daïchi Saïto ★ Amy Halpern ★ Nik Liguori ★ Michele Goulette ★ Julia Yezbick ★ Derek Jenkins ★ Alana Bartol & Bryce Krynski ★ Adam Sekuler ★ Calla Moya ★ Ed Janzen ★ and more!

Media Contact: Oona Mosna, MCFF Artistic Director: mediacity@houseoftoast

About MCFF: Media City Film Festival is an international festival of film and digital art dedicated to the creation, exhibition, and dissemination of the cinematic arts in Windsor–Detroit. MCFF is a presentation of the House of Toast Film & Video Collective with assistance from Allied Media Projects (Detroit). The 26th edition is made possible with generous financial support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and All Star Gaming Centre. Additional sponsorship and in-kind support from Acción Cultural Española, Art Windsor-Essex (Moonshine exhibition), Common Ground Art Gallery, Full Aperture Systems, and the Detroit Film Theatre. Thank you also to members, donors, sponsors, presenting partner organizations, volunteers, and audience members.

Image credits: Image credits: Ja’Tovia Gary portrait © Jersean Gollatt; Laraaji portrait © Balarama Heller. The Giverny Document (2019) © Ja’Tovia Gary. The Newest Olds (2022) © Pablo Mazzolo. Cultural Nationalism (1969) © Skip Norman. Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke (2023) © Tomonari Nishikawa.