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Surrey’s Sundar film fest expands to North Delta this spring
Published 7:30 pm Wednesday, February 18, 2026
The 2026 edition of Sundar Prize Film Festival will be held at venues in Surrey and North Delta over four days this spring, event organizers have announced.
Festival pre-launch and opening-night events are planned April 23-24 at North Delta Centre for the Arts, followed by screenings and an award ceremony at Landmark Cinemas in Guildford on April 25-26.
“The Sundar Prize Film Festival wants to grow its impact, reach and audience in Surrey and North Delta, as they are really integrated communities in many ways,” explains Amar Sangha, co-founder of a festival that aims to spotlight “courageous storytelling, elevate marginalized voices and drive social change through the power of cinema.”
Last April in Surrey, makers of 11 movies went home with handcrafted bamboo trophies, $50,000 in total cash prizes and in-kind support following the festival, a project of Sher Pride (formerly Sher Vancouver), a Metro Vancouver charity for queer South Asians and allies.
This year’s third annual Sundar festival has a theme of “Home Is Complicated, So Are We,” with 62 films selected from 823 submissions.
Fifty of the festival’s 62 films are Canadian-made (42 in B.C.), 33 directed by women and 48 created by filmmakers from “underrepresented communities” including IBPOC and 2SLGBTQ+ creators, organizers say on the fest website, sundarprize.com.
“Though vastly different in form, genre and geography, the films selected this year are united by a shared inquiry into belonging,” says Sidartha Murjani, Sundar executive director and senior programmer.
“Home is explored not only as a physical place, but as identity, memory, community and longing — a nuanced, ever-evolving concept, much like ourselves.”
Highlighted films for 2026 include Saints and Warriors by Patrick Shannon and One Day This Kid by Alexander Farah.
Shannon’s documentary focuses on the Haida basketball season, where leaders of the Skidegate Saints fight to defend their All Native Basketball Championship title, “while also battling for their land and waters against the government that stole it through the Indian Act.”
Farah’s film, inspired by David Wojnarowicz’s renowned text, “is an exploration of silent struggle and unspoken tension as Hamed navigates an undefined future with his father.” Under the weight of his father’s expectations, the kid confronts fear, desire and shame in search of a self unknown.
Elsewhere in the festival programme, Calorie, directed by Eisha Marjara, follows a family “burdened by unresolved trauma as they struggle to find their way back to one another — and back home.”
International films booked at the fest include Bayaan by Bikas Mishra, starring Huma Qureshi. The film, world-premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, is set in a small Indian town where a rookie detective, investigating allegations against a revered cult leader, confronts a culture of silence and blind devotion.
With a “Celebrating Human Resilience” theme, the inaugural festival in 2024 championed diversity in film, with more such films screened at the 2025 festival.
