Latest news with #CanFilmDay
CBC
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
3 Canadian films to watch on National Canadian Film Day
Founded in 2014, National Canadian Film Day (or CanFilmDay) encourages audiences to "stand up for Canada by sitting down to watch a great Canadian film." This year, CanFilmDay will present almost 2,000 free screenings across every province and territory, as well as more than 43 countries around the world. The movement has seen a surge of support in recent months thanks in large part to the current moment of national pride, with registrations running 60 per cent higher than last year. Today on Commotion, Toronto Metropolitan University's Storyteller in Residence Jesse Wente, film critic Sarah-Tai Black and screenwriter Nathalie Younglai join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to celebrate CanFilmDay, and to discuss the state of Canadian filmmaking in 2025. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: Jesse, we were talking before we went live, and you were like, "There used to be a time when I saw 10,000 movies a year." Maybe you see slightly fewer than that now, but seeing as this is National Canadian Film Day, can you give me a home-grown movie that has come out in the last year or so, that you think people should spend some time with? Jesse: Well, sure, but just to quickly correct the misinformation that just occurred, it was 1,500. Elamin: That's a lot, man. That's three a day. Anyway, yes. Continue. Jesse: Yeah, so I was a film critic and programming a couple different film festivals at that time, and that's how you accumulate that. The film I most want to highlight is a fantastic documentary. Canadian cinema is very much rooted in the documentary tradition. That's where our national cinema actually comes from, from the founding of the National Film Board and the early days of the CBC…. And so I want to highlight Wilfred Buck. This is a fantastic documentary, sort of a biography of this Cree elder who's very well known in all Indigenous communities as being "the star guy," because he has a deep understanding and knowledge of Cree astronomy and understanding of the stars in a very different way than we understand now. This film melds science and humanity. It takes you through time. It takes you through literal space, Elamin. I think it's just a fantastic film, and the type of film that … gives a window for a lot of the world, and for Canada, it gives a great opportunity to reflect on the knowledge systems that have existed here for thousands of years and that yet remain somewhat of an untapped resource for the Canada of today. WATCH | Official trailer for Wilfred Buck: Elamin: You're such a great salesman of a movie, Jesse, that I'm like, "I'm gonna abandon the rest of the show and go find this movie."... Sarah-Tai, over to you, pal. What do you want to recommend? Sarah-Tai: Something I watched very recently and enjoyed is Sook-Yin Lee's Paying For It, which is an adaptation of cartoonist Chester Brown's graphic novel of the same name. The novel follows his decision to start frequenting sex workers after the break-up of his real-life relationship with Sook-Yin. And Sook-Yin is re-imagined in the film as this character, Sunny. It's this very nostalgic, zeitgeist-y look at late '90s, early 2000s Toronto's arts and culture. You get to see that transition of MuchMusic, which is called MaxMusic in the film, from this kind of zany DIY platform for punky kids into this more mainstream space. It's really funny. It's really cool. I laughed out loud, which is very difficult to do for me for a narrative film. But I think it's really fresh, and I think Sook-Yin and co-writer Joanne Sarazen add a really amazing feminist perspective to Chester's story as well. WATCH | Official trailer for Paying For It: Elamin: Natalie, over to you pal. What do you want to recommend? Natalie: I'd love to highlight Lucky Strikes, which is a film by Darcy Waite. It's this hilarious Indigenous comedy starring Victoria Gwendolyne, Gabriel Daniels and Meegwun Fairbrother. It's about this washed-up Indigenous bowler trying to preserve his father's legacy by buying his late father's bowling alley. But first, [he and his best friend] have to win this national bowling competition. I think these really fun and quirky stories about Indigenous communities are really important for audiences who are Indigenous, but also non-Indigenous too alike.
CBC
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
National Canadian Film Day returns with record-breaking number of free screenings
Buy Canadian. As the U.S. trade war persists, that simple phrase has become a rallying cry at the checkout line. But are Canadians applying the same nationalistic fervour to all of their consumer habits? What about movies, for example? Is it time to watch Canadian too? Wednesday is National Canadian Film Day, an initiative that aims to make homegrown cinema easier to access than usual. And according to organizers, this year's edition will boast a record-breaking number of free in-person screenings. Nearly 2,000 community events are scheduled for Wednesday, and no province or territory has been left behind. Interest from new presenting partners saw an uptick this year, increasing by 60 per cent, and artistic director Sharon Corder says the recent wave of patriotic sentiment may account for the excitement. "I think in general there's a quiet pride in Canada, but this year it's a lot noisier," she says. "People want to join in and celebrate being Canadian." On that front, approximately 100,000 audience members are expected to attend CanFilmDay events. Cineplex and Landmark Cinemas (both of whom are sponsors) have donated screens, and a plethora of public watch parties will be taking place in community venues including libraries and schools. But the celebration isn't limited to Canada. CanFilmDay screenings are also booked for 40 other countries (including the United States), and a searchable program guide is available on the event's website. Ticketed entertainment is also on the schedule. New films will debut with key talent in attendance. CanCon classics such as Rude, C.R.A.Z.Y., Ginger Snaps and Waydowntown will be celebrated at special anniversary presentations. And a panel of stars (including Don McKellar and Mary Walsh) will appear on stage in Toronto for a town-hall discussion: Elbows Up for Canadian Culture. For those who'd prefer to stay on the couch with a bag of all-dressed chips, the options are similarly plentiful thanks to partnerships with major broadcasters and streaming services, and according to organizers, approximately 2.5 million viewers sampled a Canadian film from home during last year's edition. A collection of 60 movies has been highlighted by CanFilmDay organizers. This year's theme is "something to believe in," and among the dozens of titles is Universal Language, Matthew Rankin's absurdist comedy set in an alternate Winnipeg. (The film made a splash at Cannes last year.) Other contemporary offerings include Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (2024), BlackBerry (2023) and Hey, Viktor (2023). Corder co-founded National Canadian Film Day in 2014 with her husband and fellow filmmaker Jack Blum, and the initiative sprung out of their non-profit, Reel Canada. "It started with a desire for people to actually see the films we make," she says, and in Reel Canada's early days, Corder would meet students at school screenings across the country. "We were talking to young people and they didn't know the difference, in lots of ways, between us and the U.S., and that seemed dangerous and strange," she says. When CanFilmDay launched, she wanted to show audiences that Canada does, in fact, have a film culture of its own. "Here are our films, they reflect us," she says. "They reflect where we live, they reflect our geography, they reflect our differences, they reflect our our samenesses, and so it just became more and more urgent for us — for people to take a look." That mission hasn't changed, but CanFilmDay has welcomed the "elbows up" enthusiasm of the moment. "We're not saying never watch anything from another country, specifically a place south of us," says Corder. "But it's important to take a look at who we are and what we're about and to see what our values might be. To see what we look like, to see who we are. Just to reflect on us."
