MISAFF is Canada's premier festival of new South Asian and select Middle Eastern cinema. In 2025 we hosted an inaugural film symposium industry event. Our next edition takes place from the 1-4 October 2026.
The MISAFF film festival features the best of new films for our Mississauga and Toronto area cinephiles. MISAFF features ground-breaking and award-winning films, carefully curated for their cinematic excellence and social consciousness. The outstanding films, industry panels, and networking opportunities for filmmakers and film lovers alike make MISAFF the premier South Asian film festival in Canada.
MISAFF has featured OMDC and Telefilm industry brunch with filmmakers as well as industry talks called MISAFF CHAT. Industry events include film financiers in an exclusive setting that is a prime networking opportunity for film professionals. MISAFF Chats have included actors Rajkumar Rao, Agam Darshi, Gabe Grey, Supinder Wraich, Varun Saranga, and Marina Khan and filmmakers Hansal Mehta, Saqib Malik, Hardik Mehta, Deepa Mehta, Anu Menon, Zarqa Nawaz and Vinay Virmani to name a few. Every year MISAFF features an up-and-coming Canadian talent as our MISAFF STAR.
MISAFF26 will have more opportunities for producers, directors, actors, and crew to meet and network with industry professionals from Canada and around the world.
MISAFF is a juried festival. Best fiction, best documentary, best short, best Canadian short, best cinematography, best sound, best performer and best production design are some of the categories considered for awards.
The Sabeen Mahmud award for courage in cinema is presented to the filmmaker with the most powerful and compelling story of social justice and/or social uplift.
