Spotlight on Academics Film Festival

Spotlight on Academics is a film festival dedicated to sharing knowledge through film. We are committed to showcasing films that are suitable for use in post-secondary classrooms because of our partnership with ResearchTV, an online streaming platform for academic audiences. Films selected for Spotlight on Academics are automatically considered for inclusion on ResearchTV, although filmmakers are not obliged to work with the platform. ResearchTV provides an opportunity for filmmakers to have their work peer-reviewed and marketed to universities and the general public.

After the festival, selected Spotlight on Academics films are reviewed a second time by scholars and filmmakers who understand both the rigors of scholarship and the challenges of publishing research in a film format. Spotlight on Academics, and our partner ResearchTV, hold filmmakers to high standards so that viewers can count on both the quality of the research and the quality of the production.

The festival will launch 8-11 February 2024 with 6 in-person screening sessions at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, ON, Canada. In addition to in-person sessions, all of the selected films will stream for 4 days on our festival channel hosted by ResearchTV.ca, which ensures that our viewers from around the world can access films and participate in the livestream events, panel discussions, and Q&A sessions with filmmakers. It will also provide a forum for fellow filmmakers and academics to meet and engage with one another.

Thunder Bay is located on Lake Superior between Toronto, Ontario, and Winnipeg, Manitoba, north-east of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and it is serviced by an international airport. Be sure to check out www.visitthunderbay.com for more information about the city and region we call home.