Genre Gems is a five-day film festival that showcases the very best in genre cinema. Due to the recent financial success of Hollywood genre films such as Sinners and 28 Years Later, the festival aims to provide a counter-cultural slate of standout discoveries for fans of adventurous, boundary-pushing filmmaking. From horror films to science fiction, the carefully curated programme will spotlight hot festival titles from Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Fantasia, Locarno, and TIFF for their prestigious Ottawa premieres! The quality over quantity programming mythos prioritises films that defy and subvert genre tropes. We’re looking for strong artistic voices that aren’t afraid of provocation or self-censorship.
With the eclectic programming, the goal is to motivate audiences to engage with genre cinema. There is an avid genre community that routinely attends repertoire screenings at the Mayfair Theatre and Bytowne Cinema. We want to include and invite as many people from the community, and start discussions about the selection. Each film will have an official piece written and published by Genre Gems as a print-exclusive in our official programme book. The book will be sold throughout the five-day extravaganza at our box office. The pieces range from academic essays to candid interviews with film talent. The goal of the writing is to deconstruct, destigmatise, and promote bold storytelling within the context of genre cinema. Paired with the writing, we will showcase films from both international and Canadian talent at the festival.
The goal with Genre Gems is to encourage positive debate about cinema. The selection and experience at the inaugural edition will be simultaneously entertaining and thought-provoking. Each screening will have an in-person introduction, where the programming team will provide context and introduce sponsors before the start of each feature presentation.
The first edition of Genre Gems will take place at the Mayfair Theatre and Ciné Starz St. Laurent Centre
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About The 2025 Poster Design
The inaugural poster design for the 1st edition of Genre Gems was designed by award-winning Canadian multi-media artist Winston Hacking.
With his design, Hacking’s poster embodies the whirlwind of genres on display at the festival. Including motifs from westerns, spy capers, murder mysteries, ghost stories, road movies, and horror films into his carefully curated design, the poster’s exuberant colour palette playfully pops out with its phantasmagoric face formation. The welcoming colours contrast with the intensity of the visual. The uncanny shape, formed out of pre-existing material, represents the curatorial ethos at Genre Gems. The diverse compilation symbolises the variety of films at the festival, luring audiences with its harmonious collage. The same techniques appear within the poster’s text-art. The font for ‘Genre Gems’ was carefully created one letter at a time, from cut-out images. The cosmic aesthetic is accessible to the eye, displaying an unabashedly maximalist genre-shifting tapestry with its economical iconography.
“I was enthusiastic to support David with his forthcoming Genre Gems festival. His fervent enthusiasm for avant-garde cinema is essential to introducing diverse world perspectives to Ottawa.”
About Winston Hacking
Known for recontextualising found footage and photography through his elaborate collage animations, Hacking has directed music videos for Flying Lotus, Run The Jewels, and Corridor. Winston is currently participating in a residency at the Toronto Animated Image Society, where he is experimenting with claymation. Hacking’s work has been showcased at festivals such as OIAF and Annecy, as well as many local and international microcinemas. His recent music video ‘Jump Cut’ was nominated for a Juno Award, and past projects have won a D&AD Wood Pencil, a Clio Gold, and a Libera Award for Album Packaging.
The land on which the Genre Gems Film Festival takes place is the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg peoples. Since time immemorial, the Algonquin Anishinabeg peoples have stewarded the lands, waters, and rich cultural life of this region. As part of honouring this territory, we encourage Genre Gems attendees to seek out the work of Indigenous filmmakers, learn about the territories that we each occupy, and take action in support of Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty.