OFFA (Oakville Festivals of Film and Art) is proud to celebrate 12 years, with our week-long festival happening June 18th to 25th 2025. From the moment you arrive, you will understand why this social issues and event-oriented festival is so loved by filmmakers. We offer an intimate and effective networking opportunity for filmmakers (conducted through a full Industry Summit that accompanies the festival), as well as an immersive, film screening and arts experience for our audiences. We recognize filmmakers in all genres who tell great stories, celebrate diversity and explore social issues, while sparking meaningful discussion.

For over a decade, we have been bringing the social-issues-oriented Oakville Film Festival to local, Canadian and international filmmakers, giving them a chance to participate in a truly community-oriented festival with national and international appeal. From our live gala premiere film screenings that encompass the work of filmmakers alongside passionate musicians, dancers, and other artists; to our full week of festival screenings at our local independent cinema, and professional, performing arts centre; to our enlightening Q&A sessions; from collaborative networking socials to our professional live and virtual workshops, Master Classes, and panels, you will soon discover why the Oakville Film Festival has become an important stop on the festival circuit. And new for 2025: we will be hosting a full day of screenings in Mississauga during the festival on top of our regular Oakville screenings.

Good story-telling is paramount: our thought-provoking features and documentaries about the human condition, speak to the diverse social issues that impact our community, and the world. Festival highlights include issues that are predominant in our community, such as those impacting women, families, immigrants, and Indigenous and BIPOC communities. For many years, OFFA has hosted a special event for National Indigenous People's Day, so are looking for Indigenous feature films & shorts for a special GALA event on National Indigenous Peoples Day. Our selections include Canadian and international feature films, short films, documentaries, and webisodes.
We have a strong history of attracting diverse filmmakers from around the world, who attend the event to participate in our festival and 3 day Industry Summit, including discussions and Q&As for their films, in a friendly, intimate and inspirational environment. Our Industry Summit brings filmmakers together to learn, collaborate and socialize with like-minded individuals who share the same passion for films. Supporting local filmmakers and giving them an opportunity to showcase their films in front of a supportive audience is as key part of our mission. The juried competitive festival awards programme includes 10 different awards, as well as Honourable Mentions for acting.

We look forward to seeing you in the small community with a big heart!
Check us out at www.offa.ca‬

1. Best Canadian Feature Film or Documentary Award.

2. Best International Short Film Award.

3. Best Canadian Feature film or documentary Award

4. Best Canadian Short Film Award

5. Best Student film Award

6. Best Canadian Director Award

7. Best International Director Award.

8. Audience Choice Award Best Feature or Documentary

9. Audience Choice Award Short Film.

10. Best Indigenous Film Award.

Plus Honourable Mentions for Acting

We do not accept features longer than 2 hours, feature films must be 90 minutes or more, and documentaries can be 90 minutes, or 45 minutes or more. If you submit a ONE HOUR or ONE HOUR 20 minute documentary and we accept it, it will be programmed with another short documentary. We accept short films up to 22 minutes long, We do not accept pornography.

If accepted, your film could be screened either live, or in a digital format, or both. At this time, due to the COVID 19 pandemic, OFFA reserves the right to modify the delivery of its festival programming based on government rules and regulations related to the pandemic. At this time, our festival is planned as a hybrid event, with both digital and live screenings.

If you are successful with features or doc submissions and we do a live screening, we would prefer delivery of a DCP for the festival screening. HOWEVER, if you have a short film we accept any HD Quality digital file delivery. If the film is to be screened online, we would require an HD quality video file.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Jaiden Reese

    We played our short film Delivery, Oakville was an excellent festival that was super supportive and great with communication. We would love to return!

    September 2024
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Thank you so much Jaiden for bringing Delivery to Offa!

  • It as so lovely to be a part of my hometown festival, alongside so many talented creators. The care and support the OFFA team gives each filmmaker is incredible. Thank you again for selecting Leveled, we had such an amazing time.

    July 2024
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Thanks so much Sara for bringing Leveled to OFFA!

  • Lisa Kockeritz

    I was thrilled for Treat Day to have it's Canadian premier at the OFFA. The programming was fantastic and the Industry Summit was extremely worthwhile. The communication and all the events and galas were top notch. A special kudos to Tori Nixon who led the shorts programming with patience and skill. As a newbie, I had a lot of questions and Tori was always helpful and kind.

    July 2024
  • Carla Aicken

    The festival does a wonderful job of immersing filmmakers in the city and allowing them the opportunity to explore and discover the tools and local gems that could become useful in their next film. The focus of this festival is networking and it's joy to attend and be surrounded by so many like-minded individuals.

    July 2024
  • Sepideh Yadegar

    What an absolute honour to be part of the Oakville Film Festival this year! We had the privilege of premiering our film "One Must Wash Eyes" alongside many other national and international films. Wendy, Jennifer, Tori, and many more were the engines behind a week of entertainment, networking, and an industry summit. I can't wait to go back with my next project! Thank you OFFA

    July 2024
    Logo
    Response from festival:

    Thanks so much Sepideh it was a pleasure screening One Must Wash Eyes and having your team out!