MCFF: 27th virtual edition

Media City Film Festival (MCFF), Windsor–Detroit’s international festival for film and digital art, announces the full scope of its 27th edition: December 9–30, 2024.

All 70+ films featuring some of cinema’s most groundbreaking contemporary voices are available to view for free in full open access globally for the duration of this amazing virtual event. The program includes nearly 50 world virtual premieres: mediacityfilmfestival.com

MCFF 2024 highlights a mind-blowing selection of new films, world premieres, digital restorations, and historical masterpieces from legendary, award-winning, and emerging artists, including Artavazd Péléchian, Ja’Tovia Gary, Mona Hatoum, Richard Serra, Jocelyne Saab, Madeleine Hunt–Ehrlich, Toshio Matsumoto, Sharon Lockhart, Skip Norman, Akram Zaatari, Sky Hopinka, Harun Farocki, Kevin Jerome Everson, Suneil Sanzgiri, and dozens more. 

Legendary Armenian director Artavazd Péléchian returns to MCFF with a rare virtual screening of his 35mm masterpiece We (1969). This special and timely offering sets the tone for MCFF’s incredible selection of films. Described by Sergei Parajanov as “one of the few authentic geniuses in the world of cinema,” the “we” that serves as the title of the film refers to the Armenian people and the genocide they suffered in 1915–16. Péléchian ingeniously weaves together his own moving images with archival footage to underline a fierce will to share, to recognize, and to achieve universal peace. 

Palestinian filmmaker Kamal Aljafari’s remarkable A Fidai Film (2024) makes its virtual world premiere with MCFF as it simultaneously blazes a trail at festivals, museums, and cinema houses around the world. 

2024 MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” recipient Tony Cokes returns to MCFF for his third appearance with Evil.5: Grin and Bear (No Responsibility Mix) (2006). The film responds to the rhetoric of the Bush administration’s “war on terror” with quotes from Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Richard Clarke, and Donald Rumsfeld scrolling as texts set against bright bands of colour and a soundtrack by German electropop band Lali Puna.

2024 Trellis Art Fund recipient Ja’Tovia Gary appears with three films, including the virtual world premiere of her most recent moving image artwork, Quiet as It’s Kept (2023). 

MCFF 2024 artists: Kamal Aljafari, Sharon Lockhart, Suneil Sanzgiri, Leonardo Pirondi, Pablo Álvarez-Mesa, Chris Kennedy, Ana Vaz, Beatrice Gibson, Sam Drake, Ute Aurand, Helena Girón, Samuel Delgado, Rouzbeh Akhbari, Felix Kalmenson, Rose Lowder, Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, Siegfried Fruhauf, Sky Hopinka, Toshio Matsumoto, Skip Norman, Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka), Parastoo Anoushahpour, Ja’Tovia Gary, Mustafa Abu Ali, Pat O’Neill, Artavazd Péléchian, Jocelyne Saab, Kevin Jerome Everson, Rhayne Vermette, Eitan Efrat, Sirah Foighel Brutmann, Akram Zaatari, Simon Liu, Ben Rivers, Céline Condorelli, Razan AlSalah, Ayanna Dozier, Luis Arnías, Tony Cokes, Little Egypt Collective, Maryam Tafakory, Saif Alsaegh, Basma Alsharif, Jonathan Schwartz, Morgan Quaintance, Harun Farocki, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Deborah Stratman, Walid Raad, Nour Ouayda, Narcisa Hirsch, Mona Hatoum, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Christopher Harris, Richard Serra, Katie Barkel, Nik Liguori, Joanie Wind, dream hampton, Scott Northrup, Trinity Sutherland, Shanna Maurizi, bree gant, Derek Jenkins, Ed Janzen, Mitch McCabe.

MCFF’s rich and varied program also features much more. The festival’s site construction was expertly developed, designed, and managed by Spellerberg Associates for your screening pleasure.

Artistic Director & Lead Curator: Oona Mosna / Program Advisors: Jeremy Rigsby, Sophie Cavoulacos, Maia Asshaq, and Greg de Cuir Jr. / Regional Curator: Brandon Walley.

MCFF is made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Trillium Foundation, and Ontario Arts Council.