Canadian Film Festival
The Canadian Film Festival, formerly known as the Canadian Filmmakers Festival, is an annual film festival in Toronto, Ontario. Showcasing a program of Canadian independent films, it is held in March of each year and usually runs for five days.
The festival was launched in 2004, and ran annually until 2008 at the Royal Cinema. Although not staged between 2009 and 2011, it was relaunched in 2012 and has run annually since. The festival has been staged at the Scotiabank Theatre since 2017.
The festival was formed in association with the Toronto International Film Festival Group, but operates independently of TIFF. It serves commonly, but not exclusively, as the Toronto premiere venue for films which premiered elsewhere on the Canadian or international film festival circuits in the previous year but have not yet screened in Toronto, although it also serves as the premiere venue for some films.
The 2020 festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada; instead, the organizers partnered with the pay TV service Super Channel to provide television and streaming broadcasts of the films that had been slated to screen at the festival. With the pandemic continuing into 2021, festival organizers again partnered with Super Channel to present the 2021 edition of the festival under the same model.
Films
2014
Features
- Afterparty — Michelle Ouellet
- The Birder — Ted Bezaire
- H & G — Danishka Esterhazy
- Patch Town — Craig Goodwill
- Play the Film — Alec Toller
- The Privileged — Leah Walker
2015
Features
- Barn Wedding — Shaun Benson
- Ben's at Home — Mars Horodyski
- The Cocksure Lads Movie — Murray Foster
- Late Night Double Feature — Navin Ramaswaran, Zach Ramelan, Torin Langen
- Nocturne — Saul Pincus
- Pretend We're Kissing — Matt Sadowski
- Relative Happiness — Deanne Foley
- Shooting the Musical — Joel Ashton McCarthy
2016
Features
- 20 Moves — Harv Glazer
- Across the Line — Director X
- Borealis — Sean Garrity
- Dead Rush — Zach Ramelan
- How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town — Jeremy LaLonde
- Jackie Boy — Cody Campanale
- The Sabbatical — Brian Stockton
2017
Features
- An American Dream: The Education of William Bowman — Ken Finkleman
- Badsville — April Mullen
- Broken — Lynne Spencer
- Broken Mile — Justin McConnell
- Edging — Natty Zavitz
- Filth City — Andy King
- Great Great Great — Adam Garnet Jones
- The Heretics — Chad Archibald
- Lost Solace — Chris Scheuerman
- Modern Classic — J.M.B. Hunter
2018
Features
- Becoming Burlesque — Jackie English
- The Cannon — Marshall Axani
- The Drawer Boy — Arturo Pérez Torres, Aviva Armour-Ostroff
- The Go-Getters — Jeremy LaLonde
- Love Jacked — Alfons Adetuyi
- Luba — Caley Wilson
- Ordinary Days — Kris Booth, Renuka Jeyapalan, Jordan Canning
- Prodigals — Michelle Ouellet
- Room for Rent — Matthew Atkinson
- A Swinger's Weekend — Jon E. Cohen
2019
Features
- Creep Nation — John Geddes
- The Dancing Dogs of Dombrova — Zack Bernbaum
- Honey Bee — Rama Rau
- Nose to Tail — Jesse Zigelstein
- Nowhere — Thomas Michael
- Pond Life — Gord Rand
- Red Rover — Shane Belcourt
- This Is North Preston — Jaren Hayman
- Wolves Unleashed: Against All Odds — Andrew Simpson
2020
Features
- Alone Across the Arctic — Francis Luta
- Clapboard Jungle — Justin McConnell
- The Cuban — Sergio Navarretta
- Hazy Little Thing — Sam Coyle
- A Perfect Plan — Jesse Ikeman
- Queen of the Morning Calm — Gloria Ui Young Kim
- Shoot to Marry — Steve Markle
- Volition — Tony Dean Smith
Unscreened
Several films had been planned for the festival lineup, but were not able to be screened due to the shift from physical to broadcast screening. However, the films were still screened for the jury, and remained eligible for the festival awards.- All About Who You Know — Jake Horowitz
- Nail in the Coffin: The Fall and Rise of Vampiro — Michael Paszt
- Unidentified Woman — Katrina Saville
- You Hired a Hitman — Ravi Steve
2021
Features
- Between Waves — Virginia Abramovich
- Chained — Titus Heckel
- The Corruption of Divine Providence — Jeremy Torrie
- Events Transpiring Before, During and After a High School Basketball Game — Ted Stenson
- Mad Dog and the Butcher — Thomas Rinfret
- Range Roads — Kyle Thomas
- Sugar Daddy — Wendy Morgan
- White Elephant — Andrew Chung
- Woman in Car — Vanya Rose
2022
Features
- Ashgrove — Jeremy LaLonde
- Beneath the Surface — Marie-Geneviève Chabot
- Carmen — Valerie Buhagiar
- The Last Mark — Reem Morsi
- The Long Rider — Sean Cisterna
- The Noise of Engines — Philippe Grégoire
- A Small Fortune — Adam Perry
- Tehranto — Faran Moradi
- Tenzin — Michael LeBlanc, Josh Reichmann
- We're All in This Together — Katie Boland
2023
Features
- Babysitter — Monia Chokri
- Bloom — Fanie Pelletier
- Bystanders — Koumbie
- Golden Delicious — Jason Karman
- How to Get Your Parents to Divorce — Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers
- Polarized — Shamim Sarif
- Retrograde — Adrian Murray
- Streams Flow from a River — Christopher Yip
- When Time Got Louder — Connie Cocchia
- Wintertide — John Barnard
2024
Features
- The Burning Season — Sean Garrity
- Daughter of the Sun — Ryan Ward
- Doubles — Ian Harnarine
- Hailey Rose — Sandi Somers
- Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones — Kaveh Nabatian
- Look at Me — Taylor Olson
- Place of Bones — Audrey Cummings
- Valley of Exile — Anna Fahr
- WaaPaKe — Jules Arita Koostachin
- With Love and a Major Organ — Kim Albright
- Wild Goat Surf — Caitlyn Sponheimer
2025
Features
- Conceiving Clara — Tarique Qayumi
- Crocodile Eyes — Ingrid Veninger
- Darkest Miriam — Naomi Jaye
- Gold Bars: Who the Fuck Is Uncle Ludwig? — Billie Mintz
- His Father's Son — Meelad Moaphi
- Home Free — Avi Federgreen
- The Killgrin — Joanna Tsanis
- Larry (They/Them) — Catherine Legault
- The Legacy of Cloudy Falls — Nick Butler
- Lunatic: The Luna Vachon Story — Kate Kroll
- The Players — Sarah Galea-Davis
- Please, After You — Rob Michaels
- Skeet — Nik Sexton
- To the Moon — Kevin Hartford
- Vampire Zombies... from Space! — Michael Stasko
- Waiting for the Storms — François Delisle