Introducing: The Sunset Society
Think back to your favourite GIFF moment.
Maybe it was a summer night on the beach, the screen glowing over Lake Winnipeg as a thunderstorm rolled by in the distance, electricity in the air. Maybe it was seeing your first short on the big screen, or winning an award you never thought possible. Or maybe it was watching a first-time filmmaker face a packed theatre, hear the applause, and realize their story had landed.
For more than two decades, GIFF has been creating moments like these. What began in 2001 has grown into the largest rural film festival in Canada and one of the country’s largest film festivals. It’s a cornerstone of Manitoba’s film community: a place where local, national and international filmmakers share their work, and where audiences gather around films they won’t find anywhere else.
It’s Manitoba’s festival. And it needs your support.
Why now?
Until now, we’ve never run a dedicated monthly donor campaign. Each one of our festivals has come together thanks to grants, sponsors, partners, foundations, ticket sales and the incredible generosity of our volunteers.
The reality is that this model is under strain. Arts funding in Manitoba and across the country continues to be at risk, and festivals like ours are often the first to feel it. Most of our budget goes to programming: bringing films to Gimli, paying filmmakers fairly, and keeping our biggest public program, the Sunset Beach Screenings, free. Those are exactly the parts of GIFF that make it what it is, and they’ve continued to be the hardest to fund year to year.
Each year we start much of that work over, unsure what we’ll be able to count on. Monthly giving changes that. It gives us steady and predictable support, so we can commit to filmmakers earlier, plan programming with confidence, and protect the experiences that make GIFF special.
Meet The Sunset Society
The Sunset Society is GIFF’s new community of monthly donors. Every monthly gift, at any level, makes you a member:
Adopt a Short ($15/month): brings a short film to GIFF and pays its filmmaker fairly.
Support a Filmmaker ($25/month): helps an emerging filmmaker attend the full festival and build their career.
Light Up the Beach ($50/month): keeps our beach screenings free for everyone.
Keep GIFF Thriving ($100/month): sustains the festival year-round and helps us plan for its future.
Or choose your own amount. Every gift goes where it’s needed most.
Supporting the arts isn’t only about one week in July. When filmmakers can show their work at home, they’re more likely to keep making it here. Your support of GIFF is an investment in the future of film distribution and exhibition in Manitoba and in a province where stories get told, seen and shared.
Help us reach our first 100!
This is the Sunset Society’s founding year, and every member counts. We’re setting out to welcome 100 founding members. Whether you give $15 a month or $100, your gift becomes steady support GIFF can rely on to sustain and grow what makes this festival special: films in our wonderful DIY theatres, filmmakers in Gimli, and summer nights worth remembering.
If GIFF has ever given you a moment you still carry with you, this is your chance to pass it on. Join us, and help light up the next summer on Lake Winnipeg.
Bonus: Dedicate your memory. We would love to hear about the special moment that comes to mind when you are thinking about gimli.
With gratitude,
Teya Zuzek
Executive Director, Gimli International Film Festival
P.S. When you join, share your GIFF memory with us. What’s the moment that comes to mind when you think of GIFF? Dedicated your donation to your memory through CanadaHelps’s “Send a message to this charity (optional)” section. We’d love to hear it!!!