About

Devour! The Food Film Fest is a transformative food and film experience combining cinematic excellence with extraordinary gastronomic activities. The annual week-long festival—the largest food film festival in the world—typically hosts 100+ events, celebrated filmmakers, and high-profile chefs from around the globe. Devour! welcomes close to 15,000 food and film lovers to Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Devour! returns this year from October 23-29, 2023, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, celebrating Cuisine et culture de la francophonie. This year's spotlight program will take us into the world of French Cuisine and Culture, including how the roots of Acadian, Cajun, Creole and French cuisine intersect globally on screen and on your plate.

The festival has become a destination for celebrities and notable chefs including Anthony Bourdain, Phil Rosenthal, Jacques Pépin, Dominique Crenn, Chuck Hughes, Sam Cass, Michael Städtlander, Normand Laprise, Michael Smith, Gordon Pinsent, Jason Priestley, Lidia Bastianich, and Bill Pullman. Each year, top chefs from across Canada and around the world collaborate on special dinners inspired by films.

Devour! offers something for everyone with a roster of films at our host cinema, the Al Whittle Theatre, as well as food, film and beverage workshops, the Chowder Smackdown, the Great Devour! Community Supper in support of regional food banks, the Devour! The Street Food Rally and so much more.

Devour! challenges people to think differently and create a deeper connection to food through some of the most engaging documentaries, dramas, and short films. The festival’s finely curated program highlights current food trends and issues, farming, sustainability, and the impact of current food systems on our lives. Festival-goers delve deep into the world of food through original one-of-a-kind experiences—from interactive industry sessions with high-profile guests to cooking demos, film and television workshops, and more.

Just one hour from Halifax and Stanfield International Airport (YHZ), Devour! takes place in Wolfville, in Nova Scotia’s Kings County. Known as the agricultural heartland of the province, the area is home to a thriving wine industry and a warm, hospitable community with a longstanding farm-to-table ethos. A rich cultural landscape infuses the region and its people with a respect for the surrounding riches. No place could be more fitting to explore our relationship with food.

Devour! The Food Film Fest is managed by festival organizers Michael Howell and Lia Rinaldo. Devour! is overseen by an executive board and advisory council made up of key partners from the film, business, and culinary sectors. Public sector partners—such as Telefilm Canada, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism & Heritage—have joined the festival’s founding partner, Slow Food Nova Scotia, in support of the event. Over the past five years, the number of festival partners has tripled, including CBC as the official media partner.

Devour! has grown steadily since its inception. Box office numbers continue to climb on a yearly basis (from 1,000 attendees in 2009 to 14,463 in 2019). Devour! has also garnered worldwide media attention with articles in The Hollywood Reporter, enRoute Magazine, Screen International, USA Today, Saveur Magazine, The Daily Meal, and Reader’s Digest. Devour! has been recognized as a national culinary, hospitality, and tourism trailblazer and named a 2017 Canadian Treasure by the Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts (CHCA) at George Brown College. Previous awards include the prestigious Gary MacDonald Culinary Ambassador of the Year Award (2014) at the Taste of Nova Scotia Prestige Awards.

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