SPRING ENERGY AT REGENT PARK FILM FESTIVAL:
New Executive Director,
and Under the Stars is coming
TORONTO – Monday, May 11 – “Regent Park Film Festival is where art, access, and community truth meet.” Regent Park Film Festival (RPFF) is coming out of winter hibernation and into 2026 with full spring energy. It’s giving excitement, and intentionality, and we have news!
Firstly, we have a new Executive Director: Denise Soueidan-O’Leary has joined RPFF!
Denise comes to RPFF as a social impact leader, equity strategist, and community builder, with deep roots in Regent Park where she spent nearly 10 years turning bold ideas into real-life, community-powered change. For more than 20 years, she has been doing the complicated and necessary work of bringing people, organizations, and institutions together to build futures that are more inclusive, more equitable, more human, and as often as possible, more fun.
As Denise herself puts it, “Regent Park Film Festival has always felt like more than film to me. It’s about visibility, accessibility, voice and possibility. RPFF is proof that when community voices are valued as culture-makers—not afterthoughts—everything changes. For nearly 25 years, this organization has created a powerful platform for storytelling that reflects the brilliance, complexity, and history of Regent Park, and other unheard voices. I’m so honoured to be part of both the legacy and the future of this work.”
See below for Denise’s full biography.
RPFF Board Chair David Osubronie adds, “Denise is an incredibly experienced, versatile, and committed community leader. Working with Denise in Regent Park in the past, I’ve witnessed her passion for amplifying the neighborhood organizations and fostering connections. It is clear that her dedication to social impact will be the engine behind how she shapes and leads RPFF into its 25th season, and beyond.”
As we prepare for our milestone 25th year in 2027, RPFF as an organization is focused on strengthening its foundations, deepening industry partnerships, and investing strategically to ensure long-term creative & cultural impact. The annual Regent Park Film Festival, which typically takes place in November, will return this year, but in a slightly different format. Film submissions are paused for this year in anticipation of that format change but will be open again in 2027 for our 25th anniversary Festival. We look forward to sharing more of those details with you as the season unfolds.
We are excited to announce that RPFF’s much-loved free outdoor summer screenings, Under The Stars, is back this year. Over the last 10 years, Under the Stars has become a pillar in the community as part of Taste of Regent Park, bringing community centered films that reflect the cultures and experiences of the neighbourhood to The Big Park (Dundas St. East & Sumach St.) each year.
Save the dates for this year’s edition of Under the Stars: July 8, 15, 22, and the rain date July 29th. Stay tuned to our socials, or sign up to our newsletter for the release of this year’s films!
For media interviews and inquiries, and all other questions, please contact us at info@rpff.ca or
call us at 416-599-7733.
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | @RegentParkFilm
www.rpff.ca
Regent Park Film Festival Charitable # 8459 14613 RR0001
Denise Soueidan-O’Leary Biography
Denise Soueidan-O’Leary is a social impact leader, equity strategist, and community builder. She has deep roots in Regent Park where she spent nearly 10 years turning bold ideas into real-life, community-powered change. For more than 20 years, she has been doing the complicated and necessary work of bringing people, organizations, and institutions together to build futures that are more inclusive, more equitable, more human, and as often as possible, more fun.
Her path has taken her from frontline social services to social entrepreneurship to leadership roles with organizations like the Centre for Social Innovation, where she helped advance community wealth-building strategies and equity-focused work in Regent Park. She is also the force behind The Lansdowne Cone, the neighbourhood ice cream parlour and purpose-driven social enterprise that created supportive employment opportunities for youth facing barriers in the west end and Regent Park. Whether she’s building strategy, fostering partnerships, or making systems a little more accountable, Denise is known for
connecting dots, connecting people, and turning good ideas into real impact.
Seeing a need, Denise recently built a consulting practice, ShiftWork, to support organizations on strategy, engagement, and DEI leadership grounded in trauma-informed practice, and reconciliation-centred approaches, mixing human-centered design and organizational strategy with just the right amount of constructive troublemaking. Her work is rooted in social justice, community voice, and the belief that those big, meaningful systemic shifts are possible.
For Denise, the Regent Park Film Festival is where art, access, and community truth meet. It’s a space where storytelling is celebration, resistance, visibility, and connection all at once. She is honoured to join RPFF’s almost 25 year legacy of handing the mic over to voices that deserve it, and excited to help carry that legacy into the future.