FORM 2025 happened November 7—22, 2025 as a Hybrid Festival: Live + Digital
Returns to the Past
Responses to the Present
Reimaginings of the Future
41 Short Films from 8 Countries, 5 World Premieres from
7 Commissioned Artists, 2 Installations
Screenings — Cyphers — Workshops — Installations — FORMations Artist Talkbacks — Public Screens — Special Events
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
Click through to browse highlights in photos
FESTIVAL EVENTS
Click on any event to learn more.
To conclude the first decade of FORM be a part of marking this milestone with celebration. Gather together among artists and audiences to commend the generous contributions that have shaped the past two weeks, complete with food and dancing.
At the heart of FORM lies our annual Commissioning Fund Program, a moment when the ambitious creativity of Youth and Emerging artists is harnessed. Over six months, artists transform their unique perspectives on movement to be told through filmmaking. Their ideas are supported through creative workshops, mentorship, and peer discussions. Not only is this program a catalyst for these artists to share their distinctively powerful stories, it is also an opportunity for their voices as creative leaders to be nourished.
This year, we are excited to bring you From the Cypher to the Screen, a two-part street dance event that features a cypher competition and film screening. Join us in celebrating local and national street dance artists and their endeavours into movement-on-screen.
Present Revolutions is a collection of films that respond to social issues of our time. Reflecting young peoples’ experiences growing up in a politically dynamic and polarized society, these works crystallize moments in time where we question our current reality.
A movement can begin within an individual, garnering momentum until it exists beyond oneself. Through its sheer urgency this action accumulates to a point when it cannot be ignored. When we create films that creatively interrogate our social reality, we liberate ourselves and our communities. It is in this way that filmmaking is an act of everyday resistance.
Since FORM’s inception, themes of technology and interaction have been woven throughout our programming. Impetus by Katria Phothong-McKinnon, FORM’s 2024-2025 Technology and Interaction Artist In Residence, is an interdisciplinary performance and tech based installation that explores identity, digital existence and cultural preservation through the meeting points of classical Thai dance, Voguing, w*acking and new media.
Dreammaking in Frame is a collection of films that immerse us in reimagined realities — dreamlike states that do not conform to the ordinary or the recognizable. Activated by nonnormative movement(s), the body becomes a vessel that bends the line between truth and performance and unravels relational boundaries. Each of these films embark on an introspective journey, leaving us to contemplate our place within the everyday world we witness.
Each year, in anticipation of the premiere of the Commissioned Artists’ films created through the Commissioning Fund Program, we gather to learn more about some of the ideas motivating and inspiring their work. Discover more about Simone Chnarakis’ film GVASALIA through this workshop.
Join us, as we gather to discuss and hear from the artists of 2025 Public Screens facilitated by Hân Phạm! These films were created with deeply personal ponderings in mind, where each artist questions their relationship to a larger concept beyond themselves. Whether this be one’s relationship to time, an object, our surrounding environment, or social system in place, A Body Uncontained pushes us to contemplate new ways of existing beyond the confines of these dynamics.
Check out the installation during public gallery hours! Movement sparks journeys that come alive through the lens of a camera. It is a vessel for introspection, for experimenting with process and form, and for redefining space and our bodies’ relationship to it. On this common ground we find the intimacy and beauty of being held in community.
In a masterclass that traces the evolution of her practice. Bookended by her 1995 dancefilm classic the village trilogy and her genre defying 2025 new work Matryoshka Crush, this half-day class will give participants a behind-the-scenes experience of experimental, movement-based filmmaking.
Join artist & filmmaker Laura Taler to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the village trilogy with a screening of this 1995 dancefilm classic accompanied by her genre defying new work, Matryoshka Crush. In tandem with FORM’s 10th anniversary, the program honours the evolution of storytelling through movement-on-screen over the past three decades.
Lyzah and Kimmortal, a symbiotic co-facilitating force, will bring their Filipinx lens and inquiries from a recent creation process called pound to FORMations. Leading participants through movement grounded in w*acking and grounding practices as well as tuning the sonic possibilities through voicework and poetry, Lyzah and Kimmortal invite you to storytell through your elders and embody these stories through filmmaking, sound, and movement. Join us in practicing liberation work for ourselves, for generations before us and for those who will come after.
Join us for the Opening of Collisions of Commissions! In a viewing experience that brings our bodies to new orientations, six CRT TVs bridge 52 of FORM’s Commissioned films, created over the past nine years to meet in the present moment. Each screen traces a unifying link that has unfolded across the years among the voices of artists across so-called Canada. Marking vibrant and dynamic moments in movement-on-screen, we reflect on the inspiring imprints these emergent artistic pursuits have created.
To open the festival, the team of artists behind FORM celebrate and reflect on our momentous first decade of learning, connections, and creations with our artists, audiences, and peers. In conversation with legacy artist Nancy Lee, we pay tribute to the development of the form—the genre of movement-on-screen—and the framework of FORM. By sharing stories of our evolution and watching films from our past, we take time to map a few of the moments that have had a hand in shaping FORM, complete with cake and celebratory toasts.
Our Public Screens program, A Body Uncontained, reimagines how movement-on-screen is viewed and experienced. This collection of films cannot be contained within the walls of the cinema, they extend beyond the body and the camera to find a landing place on outdoor screens across so-called Metro Vancouver.
Want to help us make more programming like this?
2025 Commissioned Artists
Simone Chnarakis (she/her/they) is a 21-year-old Black woman and photographer born and raised in East Vancouver. Her work focuses on documenting Black communities, the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as the growing ballroom scene in the city. She is passionate about capturing raw, honest moments that reflect identity, culture, and care, through her work. She will be the cinematographer and co-director of this project.
Self-Portrait by Artist
Corus is an Indigenous artist from Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia.
Drawing inspiration from nature, Corus creates meditative neo-soul music that resonates with the rhythms of the earth. Their art is a reflection of the profound connection they feel to their ancestral lands — blending soulful melodies with the natural harmonies of the universe.
Corus also captures the magic of this connection through photography and videography that celebrate the spirit of Mother Earth.
Through their art, Corus aims to unite all living beings, fostering a sense of collective prosperity, healing, and growth.
Photo by Rhythm @earthsinmotion
Ben Mouland is a filmmaker and video engineer based in Vancouver. Originally from New York City and raised in Montreal, he moved to the west coast to study Film Production at the University of British Columbia. As a director his films can be described as living in the soft static between memory and moment, crafting works that disarm through simplicity and flawed human presence. Outside of directing, Ben experiments boldly with analog filmmaking, embracing its limitations to create inventive, offbeat work.
Photo by Arkin Pal / @arkinpal
Ronnie Cheng is a queer Hong Konger interdisciplinary artist with a focus on lens-based art, animation, new media art, and creative writing. Ronnie’s interest in the arts stems from a love for people, and thus, from values of community care and radical kindness. Thematically, their work often revolves around Hong Kong culture, queerness, the diasporic experience, and the fragility of memory. Ronnie has had films screened at festivals internationally, had gallery work exhibited across Western Canada, and is currently working on all sorts of independent media art endeavours, as well as projection design for theatre.
Andie Lloyd is a queer interdisciplinary artist and community advocate, raised and living on unceded Qayqayt territories. She works mostly as a lighting & video designer for live performance, as well as a digital platform & livestream consultant, visual artist, writer, media artist and VJ. Andie is a co-founder of HK House 香港屋 (@hkhouseofficial), a Metro Vancouver based non-profit dedicated to the love and preservation of Hong Kong culture. She is most known for her dynamic multilingual surtitling work for theatre, and hopes to also be known for her love for the community. She's fluent in Mandarin, Spanish and hopefully Cantonese soon!
Amélia is a French-Canadian filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist based in so-called Vancouver. They have written and directed short films, amongst other visual art (traditional and digital) and short-form theatre projects. In their practice, Amélia explores themes of queerness, linguistic identity and interpersonal conflict through metaphors based in memory, nostalgia and the fantastical. They have been a hip hop dancer for many years and is excited to combine this passion with filmmaking and their beginner mahjong skills!
Photos courtesy of Artists
Kristen ‘KatchFlow’ (she/her) is a multifaceted Barbadian-Canadian artist, dancer, choreographer, and educator specializing in various street and social dance styles. She uses movement as a powerful tool for self-expression and cultural exchange, sharing her knowledge with diverse communities of all ages. As she takes on more creative direction roles, KatchFlow continues to expand her artistic practice while staying rooted in cultural integrity and exploration. Her work is driven by a commitment to growth, connection, and representation through dance and education.
Photo by Richie Lubaton
Vincy (they) is a Chinese Canadian non-binary lesbian disabled award-winning cartoonist, multimedia illustrator, and workshop programmer. Blurring the line between memories, the subconscious, and day to day actions, they create dreamy worlds which we are invited into for an intimate heart to heart conversation. Striving for community care and connection for survivors by a fellow survivor, growing and learning to love and accept the love given to them wholeheartedly.
Photo by @natlob0
FORM 2025 would not be possible without the support we’ve received from partners, sponsors, funders, and individual donors. Thank you for supporting the expression and film creations of Youth + Emerging artists!
