Mandate & Mission Statement

Global Visions Film Festival is Canada’s oldest documentary film festival.  We operate from the knowledge that the world is getting smaller, and that all people are interconnected, interdependent citizens of the global village. 

Global Visions Film Festival aims to entertain, engage and inspire our audience.  We entertain them by bringing original, top-quality documentaries made by talented filmmakers from across Canada and around the world to Edmonton every year.  We engage our audiences by challenging them through our films to think about their place in the world, and their shared responsibility to the planet, meaning everyone and everything that lives upon it.  And we inspire them by showing our audience that documentary film and filmmakers can help make a positive, transformative change in people’s lives. 

Our History

The Global Visions Film Festival (GVFF) is an annual, one of a kind, Edmonton based festival which celebrates the work of passionate, accomplished documentarians from Canada and around the world. Through the work of Canadian and international filmmakers, GVFF celebrates the passion of film and the diversity, joy, and responsibility of being a global citizen. 



We began 29 years ago as the Edmonton Learners Centre's Third World Film Festival. The centre became a non-profit society -The Global Visions Festival Society- in 1998 which organizes and runs the Global Visions Film Festival.

GVFF draws it's strength from enthusiastic, dedicated, grassroots community supporters, patrons and volunteers. Over the years nearly 80 thousand people have taken part in this event and our audience continues to grow.

The festival has traditionally run over four days in November in Edmonton's Downtown Arts District.  In 2012 we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of our festival!  This special occasion also brings a change of season for the festival to Spring 2012 (dates TBA).  In addition to dozens of films we present public workshops and panel discussions with filmmakers,  as well as our popular Youth Media Arts Day  for young filmmakers.  This special event will be held in November 2011.

In 2009 we began a partnership with Hot Docs, North America’s largest and most prestigious documentary film festival, to present the acclaimed film series Doc Soup.  Our 2010 festival brought us back to the Art Gallery of Alberta and the return of the Global Marketplace, which connects Edmonton to organizations who are attempting to make positive change in the world.