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.

Award for Best Feature Film

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

    Shorts

2015

Features

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

    Shorts

2017

Features

2018

Features

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

    Shorts

Awards

2020

Features

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

    Awards

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

    Shorts

Awards

2022

Features

Awards

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

    Shorts

Awards

2024

Features

Awards

2025

Features

Awards