27th Dawson City International Short Film Festival
April 2nd – 5th 2026
Its Film Fest time!
The 27th Dawson City Film Fest is coming up (April 2nd-5th). It’s time to start planning your weekend!
The weekend is full of films, workshops, installations, projections, and our famous Sunday afternoon Pierogi Street Feast. Live music and food on Princess street in front of KIAC.
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Workshops!
NO COST, JUST REGISTER
Optical Sound Sensation with Richard Reeves. REGISTER HERE: https://forms.gle/4iHAv9RrQu79WQma8
Investigating interplay between sound and picture. An experimental animation experience produced by drawing both sound and picture onto 35mm film.
A film without words…
No camera or musical instrument.
Sound is produced from handmade graphical patters spliced onto 35mm film optical sound area, then composed frame by frame thereby ‘animating’ the sounds. Making handmade optical sound shapes directly onto 35mm film compliments the hand drawn images directly onto film.
3 Sessions
Wednesday April 1st 6pm – 9pm
Drop-In: Thursday April 2nd 11am – 4pm
Friday April 3rd 10am – 3:30pm
KIAC Classroom
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Screenwriting for beginners with guest filmmaker Justine McCloskey. REGISTRATION NOW FULL!
Screenwriting can be intimidating!
The format alone can scare off even the bravest of writers, never mind dealing with efficient scene descriptions, snappy dialogue, and knowing what to do with it once the thing is written. Once you get used to the technical aspect, screenwriting is a tool that can be used to tell incredible stories in the most beloved and accessible medium.
Want to give it a try?
The course is designed for teens and adults. It will be a 2 hour workshop with some room for exercises and group involvement.
Sunday, April 5th 11am to 1pm @ SOVA Lecture Hall (upstairs)
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Grant writing for Media Arts and Filmmakers with guest filmmakers Richard Reeves and Justine McCloskey. REGISTRATION NOW FULL
Learn about the different levels of funding available to you and understand how to effectively approach a grant application for your project.
This workshop will break down key elements of a grant application; investigate the different requirements needed for each granting body; address how to distil your story, budget, and plan into an actionable and equitable project; get you set to reach out to grant officers; understand what wider public funding may be available to you; and familiarize you with some of the quirks you may experience in the multitude of granting portals in operation.
Bring your idea and we can look at it together! This workshop is a lecture that will include a roundtable where participants can discuss their grant ideas and workshop them together.
Tuesday March 31st 6pm – 8pm @ KIAC Ballroom
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Meet our Guest Filmmakers
Richard is a kinetic film scratcher, visual music maker, animated traveller of time and space, light sensitive, spinner of zoetrope’s, looper of loops and collector of projection bulbs for total enlightenment.
He is best known for creating animations by drawing both sound and picture directly onto film and has produced award winning films that have screened around the world.
Richard is an honorary member of the Quickdraw Animation Society and previously worked at QAS as Film Production Coordinator. He mentored workshops at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School for 10 years and taught animation courses across Canada, Europe and South America. Richard has collaborated with artists often involving dancing human projection screens, interactive animation installations, online animation jams and large outdoor projections. He has attended Artist in Residence programs at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá Colombia and Iris Film Collective in Vancouver BC.
Richard continues to explore animation as a visual music time and space art form.
Justine McCloskey graduated with honours from Toronto Metropolitan University’s BFA Film Studies program in 2013, specializing in directing and production design. In 2012, she was awarded the prestigious Norman Jewison Award for Innovation in Filmmaking and in 2013 was nominated for the Dean’s Essay Award for her essay “Grete Suffraunce: Dysentery and The Crusades.” Since then, her writing and photography has been published internationally.
She attended the University of Toronto and received her MA in Art History while TA-ing media and photography courses with both UofT and OCADu. She recently worked as a Creative at HumanContact Inc. where she produced and directed commercials, radio spots, and internal content for clients across Canada.
Her OAC-funded still life food photo series will be exhibited this spring, and will be completing her LIFT-funded short film this summer.
You can typically find her amidst piles of cookbooks, camera in hand! Feel free to say hi!
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Tickets
General Public: $50
KIAC Member: $40
Senior/Youth/Student: $35
Tickets available at KIAC and online, March 19th.
Additional tickets sold at at the door of festival.
Individual screening tickets available at the door (cash or credit).
Please arrive early.
Check out all the action on our website!
Thanks to all our funders and supporters!
Yukon Government, Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm Canada, Heritage Canada, NorthwesTel Community TV, Yukon Energy, Klondike Visitors Association, Schmidt Mining, Air North, Yukon Brewing, Reel Canada, Red Mammoth Bistro, Bombay Peggy’s, NVD Hotels, Parks Canada, SPYA, Yukon Film Society, Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre, Yukon School of Visual Arts, NFB, City of Dawson, Gold Rush, Eldo Enns, Dawson City General Store, johnsteins.com, Arctic Star Printing, Bonanza Market, Lulu Keating, Yukon Spa, Yukon Birch Syrup.
We are humbled to hold our festival on the traditional territory of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in.
Learn More About…
Artist In Residence Activities & Outreach
Artist in Residence activities include artist talks, studio tours, interactive events, and more.
Founded in 2001, in a partnership with Parks Canada, the KIAC Artist in Residence Program has welcomed over 300 talented artists, musicians and filmmakers to Dawson City from all regions of Canada and around the world. Our alumni include Sobey Art Award nominees, Western Canada Music Award winners, and prize-winning filmmakers from film festivals across the globe.
Check out the current Artists in Residence
Film Events
Film activities include film screenings, film selections, and more.
KIAC is proud to host an exciting roster of film screenings and film-related events throughout the year, such as the 48 Hour Film Challenge and Dawson City International Short Film Festival, numerous workshops, and other opportunities.
Exhibitions
Exhibition activities include gallery viewing hours, exhibition openings, artist talks, calls for submissions, and more.
ODD Gallery
The ODD Gallery, located in the Dënäkär Zho / KIAC building, presents a wide array of outreach programming including artist talks, openings, lectures, screenings, youth programs and other special events. Gallery programming fosters professionalism and appreciation of regional visual arts practice, and provides the community with exposure and access to a diverse range of contemporary visual arts practices and theories in a remote, northern setting.
Check out the current exhibition
Kids & Youth Programs
Kids & youth activities include: music lessons, art classes, dance classes, book readings, toddler classes, after-school programs.
Year-Round Programming
Kids and Youth (toddler to teen) programming ranges from music lessons (vocals, piano) to dance class (ballet, hip hop, and more), to hands-on workshops (pottery, screen-printing, animation and more) and is offered regularly throughout the year. KIAC strives to subsidize Kids & Youth programs as much as possible via grants and funding. Programming ranges from free Drop-Ins to registered weekly programs.
Youth Art Enrichment
Youth Art Enrichment is an annual four-day art program for Yukon youth hosted by the Klondike Institute of Art & Culture in Dawson City. Artistically-inclined youth ages 14 – 18 travel from across the Yukon to take part in intensive workshops led by professional artists. Students choose one of three mediums to study for the duration of the program, learning new skills, techniques, and ways to creatively make artwork for the world to see. The mediums change every year: we have offered printmaking, animation, painting, carving, stained glass, illustration, improv, and much more over the last two decades.
Learn more about Youth Art Enrichment
Performing Arts
Performing arts activities include: concerts, theatre and dance performances, open mics, radio broadcasts, special events, and more.
KIAC presents a year-round professional performing arts series in the beautiful second floor Ballroom that actively engages our community and provides inspiring performance opportunities for international, national, and regional artists in many disciplines. Our diverse programming includes jazz, classical, folk & roots, experimental, dance, theatre, and more.
Workshops
Workshops include: weekly drop-ins, registered programs, weekend workshops, and more.
KIAC presents a year-round schedule of educational opportunities ranging from drop in programs (pottery, screenprinting, seniors painting, concert band), to registered workshops (dance, music, film, visual art, craft, textiles, etc), to professional development opportunities for artists (grant writing, artwork documentation, etc).
Learn more about registration, upcoming courses, and outreach activities.