Canadian Film Festival Explained

Canadian Film Fest
Location:	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Language:	English
Founded:	2004

The Canadian Film Festival, formerly known as the Canadian Filmmakers Festival, is an annual film festival in Toronto, Ontario.^[1] Showcasing a program of Canadian independent films,^[2] 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.^[3] Although not staged between 2009 and 2011, it was relaunched in 2012 and has run annually since.^[4] The festival has been staged at the Scotiabank Theatre since 2017.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7]

Award for Best Feature Film

Year	Film	Director	Ref
2004	Expiration
2005	The Overlookers	Christopher Warre Smets	^[8]
2006	The End of Silence		^[9]
2007	The Zero Sum	Raphael Assaf
2008	The Last Hit Man	Christopher Warre Smets
2012	A Little Bit Zombie	Casey Walker	^[10]
2013	The Storm Within (Rouge sang)	Martin Doepner	^[11]
2014	Patch Town	Craig Goodwill	^[12]
2015	Ben's at Home		^[13]
2016	How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town		^[14]
2017	Great Great Great		^[15]
2018	The Drawer Boy		^[16]
2019	The Dancing Dogs of Dombrova		^[17]
2020	Shoot to Marry		^[18]
2021	Sugar Daddy	Wendy Morgan	^[19]
2022	Carmen		^[20]
2023	Babysitter		^[21]

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

• 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

Shorts

2017

Features

• — 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

Shorts

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

Shorts

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

Awards

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

Awards

2021

Features

• Between Waves — Virginia Abramovich^[22]
• Chained — Titus Heckel^[22]
• The Corruption of Divine Providence — Jeremy Torrie^[22]
• Events Transpiring Before, During and After a High School Basketball Game — Ted Stenson^[22]
• Mad Dog and the Butcher (Les Derniers vilains) — Thomas Rinfret^[22]
• Range Roads — Kyle Thomas^[22]
• Sugar Daddy — Wendy Morgan^[22]
• White Elephant — Andrew Chung^[22]
• Woman in Car — Vanya Rose^[22]

Awards

2022

Features

• Ashgrove — Jeremy LaLonde
• Beneath the Surface (Le Lac des hommes) — Marie-Geneviève Chabot
• Carmen — Valerie Buhagiar
• The Last Mark — Reem Morsi
• The Long Rider — Sean Cisterna
• The Noise of Engines (Le Bruit des moteurs) — Philippe Grégoire
• A Small Fortune — Adam Perry
• Tehranto — Faran Moradi
• Tenzin — Michael LeBlanc, Josh Reichmann
• We're All in This Together — Katie Boland

Awards

2023

Features

• Babysitter — Monia Chokri
• Bloom (Jouvencelles) — Fanie Pelletier
• Bystanders — Koumbie
• Golden Delicious — Jason Karman
• How to Get Your Parents to Divorce (Pas d'chicane dans ma cabane!) — 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

Awards

2024

Features

• The Burning Season — Sean Garrity
• Daughter of the Sun — Ryan Ward
• Doubles — Ian Harnarine
• Hailey Rose — Sandi Somers
• — 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

Awards

External links

• Canadian Film Festival

Notes and References

1. James Adams, "'It's more than just a festival. It's a cause.'". The Globe and Mail, March 24, 2008.
2. https://nowtoronto.com/movies/features/the-canadian-film-festival-levels-up/ "The Canadian Film Festival levels up and embraces Filth"
3. "Canadian Film Fest presents ...: A patriotic showcase of movie talent in new features, docs and shorts plus a host of panels, parties and other special events at the Royal". Toronto Star, March 25, 2016.
4. "Everyday's a good day for a film fest". National Post, March 23, 2012.
5. "Film Fest opens for patriotic moviegoers". Toronto Star, March 17, 2017.
6. https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2020/04/20/postponed-canadian-film-fest-finds-new-home-on-super-channel.html "Postponed Canadian Film Fest finds new home on Super Channel"
7. Norman Wilner, "Canadian Film Fest announces 2021 lineup, will stream on Super Channel". Now, March 9, 2021.
8. https://streeter.ca/toronto/news/scriptwriter-shoots-from-the-heart-with-hit-man-screenplay/ "Scriptwriter shoots from the heart with Hit Man screenplay"
9. Chris Knight, "Good location comes with the territory". National Post, June 27, 2006.
10. Web site: Graham Lanktree. Ottawa gets A Little Bit Zombie. metronews.ca. April 28, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121022065518/http://metronews.ca/news/ottawa/118745/ottawa-gets-a-little-bit-zombie/. 22 October 2012. dead.
11. Charles-Henri Ramond, "Rouge sang: deux prix à Toronto". Films du Québec, March 25, 2013.
12. Juliana Cummins, "Patch Town takes best feature prize at 2014 CFF". Playback, March 25, 2014.
13. Etan Vlessing, "Ben’s at Home heads to Pacific Northwest Pictures for Canada". Playback, March 30, 2015.
14. Regan Reid, "Canadian Film Fest announces 2016 winners". Playback, April 4, 2016.
15. Regan Reid, "Great Great Great picks up CFF best feature". Playback, March 27, 2017.
16. Lauren Malyk, "CFF ’18: The Drawer Boy, Luba score top prizes". Playback, March 26, 2018.
17. Jordan Pinto, "The Dancing Dogs of Dombrova wins best feature at CFF". Playback, March 25, 2019.
18. Debra Yeo, "Documentary ‘Shoot to Marry’ and feature ‘Queen of the Morning Calm’ win Canadian Film Fest awards". Toronto Star, June 8, 2020.
19. https://www.northernstars.ca/sugar-daddy-cff-winner/ "Sugar Daddy CFF Winner"
20. https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/maltese-film-carmen-gets-best-feature-award-in-canadian-film-fest.946279 "Maltese film Carmen gets best feature award in Canadian Film Fest"
21. Kelly Townsend, "Babysitter wins Best Feature at 2023 Canadian Film Fest". Playback, April 3, 2023.
22. Liam Lacey, "The Canadian Film Festival: Films by emerging Canadian filmmakers find a second-time-around pandemic home on Super Channel". Original Cin, April 1, 2021.