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.
Jeffrey St. Jules is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, who won the Claude Jutra Award in 2015 for his debut feature film Bang Bang Baby. The film also won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Andrew Cividino is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature film directorial debut Sleeping Giant, which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and for his frequent work as a director on the Emmy winning comedy Schitt's Creek, for which he won a Primetime Emmy at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.
Matthew Rankin is a Canadian experimental filmmaker. His feature-length debut, The Twentieth Century, premiered in 2019 and was nominated for eight Canadian Screen Awards, winning three.
Kathleen Hepburn is a Canadian screenwriter and film director. She first attracted acclaim for her film Never Steady, Never Still, which premiered as a short film in 2015 before being expanded into her feature film debut in 2017. The film received eight Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018, including Best Picture and a Best Original Screenplay nomination for Hepburn.
Katherine Jerkovic is a Canadian film director. Her debut feature film, Roads in February , won the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Her second feature, titled Coyote, also opened at TIFF in 2022 and has received several awards.
Jasmin Mozaffari is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. She won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019 for her debut feature film Firecrackers.
Bretten Hannam is a Canadian screenwriter and film director.
Aisling Chin-Yee is a Canadian film director, writer, and producer, who works primarily in Montreal and Los Angeles. In addition to her work as a producer, Chin-Yee directed the films The Rest of Us (2019) and No Ordinary Man (2020).
Akilla's Escape is a 2020 drama film, directed by Charles Officer, his final feature prior to his death in 2023. The film stars Saul Williams as Akilla, a marijuana dealer retiring from the business following legalization, who tries to rescue a young boy from being drawn into a life of crime.
Thyrone Tommy is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. After writing and directing the short film Mariner (2016), Tommy received acclaim for his work on the feature film Learn to Swim (2021), both of which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Ste. Anne is a Canadian experimental drama film, directed by Rhayne Vermette and released in 2021. The film stars Vermette as Renée, a Métis woman returning to her hometown in Manitoba for the first time in four years to reconnect with her family.
To Kill a Tiger is a 2022 Hindi-language Canadian documentary film, directed by Nisha Pahuja. The film centres on a family in Jharkhand, India, who are campaigning for justice after their teenage daughter was brutally raped.
Madison Thomas is an independent film and television writer and director from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She is most noted for her 2022 documentary film Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On.
The DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film is an annual Canadian award, presented by the Directors Guild of Canada to honour the year's best direction in documentary films in Canada. The award was renamed in 2010 to honour influential Canadian documentarian Allan King following his death in 2009. Individual episodes of documentary television series have occasionally been nominated for the award, although nominees and winners are usually theatrical documentary films.
Someone Lives Here is a 2023 Canadian documentary film, directed by Zack Russell. The film profiles Khaleel Seivwright, a carpenter who has launched a project of building small private shelters for homeless people in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic, against the bureaucratic resistance of the city government.
The Queen of My Dreams is a 2023 Canadian-Pakistani comedy-drama film, written and directed by Fawzia Mirza in her feature directorial debut. The film is based on Mirza's theatrical stage play Me, My Mom & Sharmila, which in turn was based on her 2012 short film The Queen of My Dreams.The film stars Amrit Kaur as Azra, a Pakistani Canadian woman who has had a strained relationship with her parents since coming out as lesbian, who undergoes an emotional journey after the sudden unexpected death of her father Hassan.
We Forgot to Break Up is a 2024 Canadian drama film, directed by Karen Knox. Adapted from the novel Heidegger Stairwell by Kayt Burgess, the film centres on The New Normals, an indie rock band from a small town led by trans man singer Evan, who move to Toronto in pursuit of stardom.
Sweet Angel Baby is a Canadian drama film directed by Melanie Oates, and released in 2024. The film stars Michaela Kurimsky as Eliza, a woman living in a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador whose place in the community is challenged when her secret social media persona, and her private romantic relationship with Toni are unexpectedly exposed.
Village Keeper is a Canadian drama film directed by Karen Chapman, and released in 2024. The film stars Oluniké Adeliyi as Jean, a Black Canadian widow living in the Lawrence Heights community of Toronto, where she tries to protect her children Tamika and Tristin from neighbourhood violence.
