Community News & Opportunities

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Vancouver Int’l Film Festival 2025

Oct 2 - 12th, 2025

The annual Vancouver International Film Festival showcases exceptional cinema in one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Our spectacular 2025 roster will include some of the best cinema from around the globe, talks, conferences, live performances and other unique events that celebrate film and film culture.

Subscribe to VIFF NEWS to be the first to receive the latest festival news.

Info & Details HERE!

The Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival 2025

This season, VHS is taking over downtown Vancouver! With screenings at Cineplex Cinemas International Village, Panels and Table Reads at Vancouver Film School, parties, Networking Events and the VHS Golden Tape Awards, VHS is making Vancouver the horror hub of Western Canada.

https://www.vancouverhorrorshow.com/

 

Crazy8s 2026: Early Bird Registration Now Open!

Register and submit your short film concept in a 3-minute video pitch, along with the first 3 pages of your script, and you could be one of the Top 6 selected to make your film through Crazy8s!

Register now to take advantage of the early bird deadline, and submit your application any time up to the final deadline of October 17.

Online Submissions: Register and submit on FilmFreeway.

Registration & Submission Deadline: October 17, 2025 at 11:59 pm

Registration Fees: $60 CAD

September 16 at 10am - Tickets for 2025 Festival go on SALE!

Including Special Events with Chris Hadfield (November 15) and Margaret Atwood (December 9)

The 38th annual Festival is fast approaching, and once again, we are gearing up to welcome you back to Granville Island for a week of exceptional books, ideas, and dialogue. Our wide range of programming will highlight some of the most relevant issues of the current moment, celebrate the beauty of craft, and inspire the reader in all of us. Read on to learn about the program and how to buy tickets—along with an exciting opportunity to enter our new Writing contest with Peliplat!

Check out the Line Up, Tickets & Details: HERE!

Free Workshop - BC Cultural Days Info Session!

Monday, Sept 29 - 11am – 3pm

North Delta Centre for the Arts

Do you have a story to tell but aren’t sure how to bring it to the screen? Whether you’re a student, youth, or just starting out in film, this free BC Culture Days session is your chance to get real feedback from filmmakers, scriptwriters, and industry professionals.

Come workshop your draft, spark new ideas, and discover opportunities to grow as a storyteller.

Details to Register HERE!

Having a Senior Moment Festival Oct 3 - 11th, 2025

Western Gold’s HAVE A SENIOR MOMENT FESTIVAL is an event that turns the notion of “have a senior moment” (normally understood as a moment of forgetfulness, a foolish mistake, or a lack of understanding based on age) on its head!

A multi-disciplinary series of events and gatherings showcasing the performing arts for old folx and/or by old folx, HAVE A SENIOR MOMENT FESTIVAL provides a gathering place for young, old, and those in between. The festival includes theatre, works in development, music, creative workshops, artist salons and more—all celebrating the notion that Creativity Has No Expiry Date!

Event Details & Tickets HERE!

 

SCRIPTS & SIPS

Saturday, October 11th, 3:00 – 6:00 PM

Part of Western Gold Theatre's Have a Senior Moment Festival, in partnership with Curious Cats Theatre Collective

Grab a beverage, get social, and be the first to hear cold readings of excerpts from new scripts. Wanna be an actor? Lend your talents by signing up to be a cold reader. It’s fun, informative, and informal. Followed by feedback from established and published playwrights.Pay-What-You Decide

3:00 PM: Mix and mingle. COLD CASTING BEGINS.

3:30 PM SCRIPT READINGS, FEEDBACK & TALK-WITH

Lend us your chops! Sign up to be a reader!

This info session is the perfect warm-up for the Sundar Prize Storyteller’s Contest under our new Luminaries Program – submit by Oct 28, 2025 for a chance to win the following:

First Place: $300

Second Place: $200

Third Place: $100

Plus a ✨ filmmaker mentorship! ✨

LEARN MORE HERE!

Wed, Oct 22

The ANZA Club - 3 West 8th Ave, Vancouver, BC

Details on FaceBook

This year’s Festival invites artists, neighbours, and audiences to reflect on what it means to live with dignity – on unceded land and with each other. Dignity in Community honours the everyday and extraordinary ways people care for each other, resist displacement, and make space to belong. We celebrate the strength and creativity found in our connections and imagine what is possible when dignity is a shared foundation for us all.

The 2025 Festival features over 100 events at over 40 local venues, including music, stories, poetry, theatre, ceremony, films, dance, readings, forums, workshops, discussions, gallery exhibits, art talks, history walks, and more!

Link to Website HERE!

The Whistler Film Festival, Dec. 3rd - 7th, 2025, connects Audiences, Filmmakers and Industry with the Films we love, Industry Insights we need and the human connection that we crave. Events included film premieres, industry summits, talent programs, parties and special guest appearances by actors and directors.

WFF’s Content Summit takes place December 3-6, 2025, in Whistler with a robust calendar of programming, including informative panel sessions, talent talks, 1:1 Market Meetings, workshops, networking gatherings, pitch competitions, and networking events. Don't miss this chance to elevate your projects and your career!

WFF currently offers 11 Annual Market-Driven, domestic Talent Development and Promotion Programs for up to 82 Canadian Artists to advance their projects and craft. These highly successful, selective programs have launched the careers of many of our talented alumni.

Tickets & Event Details HERE!

Somewhere in the back of your closet gathering dust and turning yellow with age is comedic gold: those old journals, poems, and essays you wrote as a teenager when you thought you could do no wrong. If you were to read them today you’d probably cringe at your former feelings . Now, imagine sharing them in front of an audience (or live streamed to the Internet). That’s exactly what happens at Teen Angst Night.

The show will be back in late September/ October. On pause due to summer in Vancouver!

Want to be a reader for the Fox Cabaret shows?

More infomation HERE!

 

Thanks to all who Participated in our 2025 Event!!

Run N Gun is Vancouver's wildest filmmaking competition. Established in 2015, over 1100 films have been created through Run N Gun (& our sister competitions Shits N Giggles, Blood N Guts & Vancouver Quarentine Performance Project), and it has become the biggest filmmaking event Vancouver has to offer!

Run N Gun website HERE!

 

Next Celluloid Social Club Event - TBD

Celluloid Supper Club, presented in association with Celluloid Social Club and Shamshiri Caveman Restaurant.

Keep in touch with local screenings happening online at our FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/18306091376

https://celluloidsocialclub.com/

 

Ongoing Resources & Friends…..

Gender Equity in Media Society Vancouver (GEMS) is a member-based organization committed to furthering gender equity in film and television. Previously named Women in Film and Television Vancouver (WIFTV), GEMS incorporated in 1989 as a not-for-profit society registered in British Columbia.

By addressing systemic barriers, GEMS works towards supporting more inclusive, representative media.

The Genre Film Lab / Coffee Chats - past chats available to view online!

gemsvancouver.org

BIZ Books

Your online source for film, television, and theatre books. We invite you to browse through our online store where you will find thousands of titles. Let’s make your creative dreams come true!

Sign up for our newsletter with notices of sales, workshops, blogs & special events at bizbooks.net

GVPTA is a non-profit charitable organization whose membership includes theatre companies, theatre makers and artists, and other organizations and individuals that support theatre. We provide services, promotion of member news and community events, opportunities to connect and network, and hold an annual theatre conference. 

Show Listings Here!

First Saturday Open Studios

First Saturday is a public monthly artist-run open-studio event in Vancouver, North Vancouver, New Westminster, Victoria & the Gulf Islands. Each month a new artist opens their doors to the public to share their work & chat…

Website & details here!

For Reviews of local & international performances & arts events, Colin Thomas [award winning playwright, Theatre Reviewer & Critic for almost four decades] offers thoughtful & insightful gems to consider in the world of theatre & art. Highly recommend!

Fresh Sheet Subscribe!

 

Short Play Challenge Winners!

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Come see the winners of the Short Play Challenge!

Come see the winners of the Short Play Challenge!

 

Yup, it’s that time. The Cold Reading Series is pleased to (finally!) announce the winners of the Short Play Challenge.

These seven writers will have their plays produced in 6 weeks. Yes, that’s right. We’re bringing four plays to life in the next six weeks, and you get to come see them. So mark it down on your calendar if you haven’t already. 

The winners of the short play challenge are:

High School Diplomacy by Cookie Boyle

Out & About by Mairy Beam, Dick O'Connor, Neila Lem, Michel Crete

Kidnappees by Annahis Basmadjian

Legless by Colette Nichol

Thank you for coming out to the shows and voting. Thank you for submitting your scripts. Thank you for supporting local creativity.

Without the support of the actors, writers, and audience members who came out and watched, clapped, laughed, cried, and voted, this wouldn’t be happening. 

We’re very excited to be bringing you three World Premiere’s and one West Coast Premiere this coming May at Studio 16.

Dates: May 9th, 10th, 11th @ 8 pm

Tickets go on sale on April 9th, so watch for that link. 

Collaboration with UBC's Top Screenwriters

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There can be a lot of waiting when you're an actor. Waiting for your agent to call. Waiting to land the perfect role. Waiting to meet the right people.
If you're tired of waiting, and you're craving a community of like-minded artists, actors, writers, filmmakers and directors who want to make their own work, come down to the Cold Reading Series' next event. 
The Cold Reading Series' next event: a collaboration between UBC's top screenwriters and the CRS.
Meet the four writers who are coming from all across North America to share their scripts with you. Part of the UBC Creative Writing Program, these early career writers are looking to hone their material and test it on a live audience. And we need you to bring their characters to life!

What's On?
Bees Are Dying by Michael Glasbourg
edu.Kate (pilot) by Peter Lockyer
Like a Thief in the Night by Kyle D'Odorico
Peace and the Good by Merril-Ann S. Phare

Stop waiting for your phone to ring.
Come out and cold read.
Sit back and enjoy the show.
Meet like minded artists who want to make their own work and take their art into their own hands.
 
January 30th at The Backstage Lounge on Granville Island
Casting at 6:30 pm Show at 8:00 pm
We look forward to seeing you there!

P.S. If you've been wondering who won the Screenwriting Prize...you'll find out soon!  Winners will be announced at the January Episode. 
P.P.S. The last scripts of the Short Play Challenge will be going up in Feb, so keep your eye out for that. 

Dramaturgy for the Short Play Challenge

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JUST ANOTHER REASON TO SUBMIT to the SHORT PLAY CHALLENGE:

If having your short play mounted by the CRS weren't reason enough to submit to the CRS this year, all winning playwrights will receive dramaturgical support from long-time story editor, dramaturg, director, teacher, actor, and CRS host LORI TRIOLO.

Lori's work as an artist, actor, mentor and coach led her to becoming involved in theatre and film as a director and producer. She has directed numerous plays ranging from student to professional to solo show productions. Lori most recently acted as producer and casting director for the Canadian independent feature film Lost Solace directed by Chris Scheuerman - a project which is now on the festival circuit.

With over 15 years as a dramaturge and story editor for countless projects, your work will be in good hands.

SUBMIT YOUR SCRIPT

Story Editors Announced!

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The CRS is excited to announce the two story editors who have generously donated their time to the Cold Reading Series as part of the Screenwriter's Prize this year.

JUST CONFIRMED: two of Canada's top Story Editors have donated their time to the CRS Screenwriter's Prize this year. Two lucky writers will receive a story editing session with one of two industry veterans: LINDA COFFEY or DENNIS HEATON.

Submissions are open until November 1st, and all general submissions to the CRS of finished feature scripts and short scripts will be eligible to win.

LINDA COFFEY, STORY EDITOR & GUEST MENTOR, WIDC

Linda Coffey is one of the very few story editors in Canada to have worked successfully in every aspect of both film and television development and production. She has story edited and consulted on hundreds of hours of television and feature film projects and has been a Guest Mentor with Women In The Director's Chair since 2006.

DENNIS HEATON, SCREENWRITER & SHOW RUNNER

Dennis Heaton is a multiple award-winning screenwriter, show runner and executive producer. Currently executive producer and show runner for CTV’s “Motive,” he’s also worked on “Call Me Fitz” for HBO, CTV’s “The Listener”, and Lifetime’s “Blood Ties”. In 2015 he won two Leo Awards - one for his work on “Motive” and the other for “Are you Gonna Eat That?”

Submit Your Script

Short Play Challenge & Screenwriter's Prize

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The CRS is excited to be offering two new development opportunities to storytellers in Vancouver.

The Short Play Challenge is a chance for both emerging and established writers to experiment with a short play format and have their works produced on stage by The Cold Reading Series as part of the 2017 Short Theatre Festival.

 
Short Play Challenge Vancouver
 

 

Any original unproduced play of 20 pages or less may be submitted throughout the season. Semifinalists will be decided by the CRS team, and the final winners will be voted on by the audience.

Open to playwrights in the Lower Mainland who can attend a live cold reading of their play this year, the Short Play Challenge has been created to provide opportunities for development to local storytellers and to strengthen the creative community.

Playwrights are welcome to submit more than one play. Each submission is $5.00 and can be submitted via the General Submission Page. 

Keep in mind that since the CRS audience will be voting in the final winners over the 2016 season, there is a clear advantage in submitting your play earlier rather than later. This will give the audience more opportunities to vote for your entry.

Votes cost $1.00 per vote, and audience members can vote as many times as they like. Playwrights can vote as well, just not for their own play. All voting must be done in person at the CRS.

Once voting commences, a leader board with the rankings will be on the Cold Reading Series Facebook page, so you can follow along as the challenge progresses.

Voting will come to a close in November at the last episode of the year.

Winners will be announced on November 15th. The last day to submit for the Short Play Challenge is November 1st at midnight PST.

For full details please go HERE >>