South Western International Film Festival 3.28

The South Western International Film Festival is a newly launched international, new media cultural event that will establish Sarnia-Lambton as a cultural hub for South Western Ontario. By focusing on artist engagement, youth participation, community enrichment and our evolving diversity, SWIFF will create a unique and exciting cinematic experience for the community of Sarnia-Lambton while opening
its doors to visitors far and wide.Through an annual film festival and an educational outreach initiative with high school partners, we seek to bring the expertise and films of professional filmmakers and industry to share their knowledge in a productive way with the local community.

The South Western International Film Festival will be a draw from the worldwide professional film industry to screen feature length and short films from top-level directors from Canada and around the world. The conference will bring together the local community and amateur/student filmmakers with the professional delegate in networking and informative meetings as well as educational seminars. Specifically the Screenwriter's workshop, Actor's Master Class, and Producer's workshop are going to be highlights of the two-day conference for both achieving career advancement and also for the discovery of new talent. The full event schedule for the festival will run from Thursday Nov 5 with an Opening Night film screening at the Imperial Theatre and launch party at Refined Fool Brewery in downtown Sarnia. In addition to the films, SWIFF will feature a weekend full of filmmaking workshops led by some of the country's most talented artists. Saturday and Sunday's events will be both at the Judith & Norman ALIX Art Gallery and the Sarnia Library with a full day of production workshops, in Producing, Directing, Documentary Filmmaking, Screenwriting and Performance.


SWIFF is the creation of Artistic Director and Sarnia native Ravi Srinivasan. Ravi currently works in Programming with The Toronto International Film Festival. SWIFF is an independent, collaborative effort, featuring local business and community members.