DIM Cinema was initiated in 2008 by Amy Kazymerckyk to draw attention to artists who address cinema as an architectural space, social context, medium, and ecology. The series has been curated by Michèle Smith since 2014.

The name is inspired by the diffused Vancouver sky, the darkness of the cinema, and a quote from James Broughton's Making Light of It (1992): “Movie images are dim reflections of the beauty and ferocity in mankind.”

Amy Kazymerchyk is an independent curator who has contributed to artist-run culture and public galleries in Vancouver since the early 2000s.  Curator of SFU's Audain Gallery from 2013 to 2018, her most recent initiative is the project space Pale Fire. She is the 2022 laureate of the Paris/Vancouver curatorial residency program.

Michèle Smith is an independent curator, editor and translator whose projects include the artist book series Drawing Room Confessions. She has worked at Tate Modern and the Natural History Museum in London, and at Presentation House Gallery/The Polygon in Vancouver.