Spotlight on Academics is a film festival with a difference. We are dedicated to sharing knowledge through film, meaning we only program films that are suitable for use in post-secondary classrooms. Our judges are filmmakers and academics, and our audience is composed of people who want to learn through film. We market online to thousands of faculty at universities in several countries and we also open our doors to the public. This provides filmmakers with a targeted audience for potential sales and it provides viewers with access to a specialty boutique for an affordable price. Our priority is to provide the audience with quality films that contain reliable information and perspectives that enhance our understanding of the world. We are open to films on any subject that are suitable for classroom use.

In additional to screening films in-person, we also partner with ResearchTV, an online streaming platform for academic audiences. As a result, every film selected for the Spotlight on Academics festival is automatically considered for inclusion on ResearchTV. Filmmakers are not obliged to work with ResearchTV, but it provides filmmakers with an opportunity to have films distributed to a larger market for individuals sales. After the festival selections are made, interested filmmakers will have their films peer-reviewed by academics and filmmakers who understand both the rigors of scholarship and the challenges of publishing research in a film format. If a film is judged to be suitable for academic audiences, ResearchTV will further contact the filmmakers to discuss inclusion on its platform.
Visit our ResearchTV page for more information.

Spotlight on Academics is a hybrid festival that is held annually in Thunder Bay, Ontario and streamed online through researchtv.ca to ensure the broadest possible audience. Thunder Bay is located on Lake Superior between Toronto, Ontario, and Winnipeg, Manitoba, north-east of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and it is serviced by an international airport. Click here to learn more about the city and region we call home.