Educational Film: No
Cocoon
Director
Juliet Belisario
Writer
Juliet Belisario
Cast
Jae Chung, Kole Parks, Corey Parks
Producer
Juliet Belisario
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
- Own Voice
Eitr
Director
Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller
Writer
Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller
Cast
Augusto Bitter, Guled Abdi, Mostafa Shaker
Producer
Farah Abdo
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Interest
BIPOC Stories
Original Language
English
The Jazz Infernal
Director
Will Niava
Writer
Kristelle Laroche
Cast
Alexis Belhumeur
Producer
Jerad Anderson
Genre
Drama
Interests
Arts and Culture, BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships
Original Language
French
Le dernier repas (The Last Meal)
Director
Maryse Legagneur
Cast
Marie-Evelyne Lessard, Gilbert Laumord
Producer
François Bonneau
Genre
Drama
Interest
Family Relationships
Original Language
French
Sur la terre comme au ciel (On Earth as in Heaven)
Director
Nathalie Saint-Pierre
Cast
Lou Thompson, Edith Cochrane
Producer
Nicolas Comeau
Genre
Drama
Interests
Family Relationships, Newcomer Stories
Original Language
French
La fonte des glaces (The Thawing of Ice)
Director
François Péloquin
Cast
Lothaire Bluteau, Christine Beaulieu
Producer
Ziad Touma
Genre
Drama
Interests
Social Justice & Politics, Strong Female Leads
Original Language
French
I Am The Blues
A musical journey through the swamps of the Louisiana Bayou, the juke joints of the Mississippi Delta and Moonshine soaked BBQs in the North Mississippi Hill Country. Visiting the last original blues devils, many in their 80s, still living in the deep south, working without management and touring the Chitlin’ Circuit. Let Bobby Rush, Barbara Lynn, Henry Gray, Carol Fran, Lazy Lester, Bilbo Walker, RL Boyce, Jimmy ’Duck’ Holmes, Lil Buck Sinegal, LC Ulmer and their friends awaken the blues in all of us.
Director
Daniel Cross
Genre
Documentary
Interest
BIPOC Stories
Original Language
English
Modern Whore
By turns earnest and riotously entertaining, this documentary feature expands on director Nicole Bazuin and performer and co-writer Andrea Werhun’s book and short film of the same name. Werhun interviews a diverse community of sex workers and dancers, exploring their professions’ risks and rewards. Modern Whore is a revealing film that exposes the silencing effects of shame and stigma, a culture that fetishizes trauma, and the vulnerabilities that underlie a lack of labour protections.
Director
Nicole Bazuin
Cast
Andrea Werhun
Genres
Documentary, Drama
Original Language
English
Lunatic: The Luna Vachon Story
Trudy Vachon was a soft-spoken teen with an unusual dream: she wanted to carry on in the footsteps of her famous dad, Paul “Butcher” Vachon, and her uncle Mad Dog. Defying expectations for “lady wrestlers”, who were typically treated as bimbos at the time, she adopted a demonic snarl and the nickname Luna, and shaved half her head: a Heavy Metal fighter, and genuinely scary (even to friends and family). Kate Kroll’s touching documentary mixes admiration with sadness: Luna was bipolar, and the wrestling world she grew up in was riven with abuse. She achieved fame, even got her own action doll, but her life was full of pain and heartache.
Director
Kate Kroll
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Intimate Moments: Short Films
Brendan’s short films reflect the yearning and instability of contemporary life. They are vignettes of loneliness, desire and fleeting human connection.
Director
Brendan Prost
Original Language
English
- Own Voice
Starwalker
Welcome to the House of Borealis! For Star (Dillian Chiblow), this East Van drag house is the home they’ve been searching for, an alternate family that’s genuinely supportive and inspiring. At its centre is Mother (Stewart Adam McKensy), who’s seen it all, been it all, and somehow knits together a wayward group of orphans and runaways. Corey Payette’s musical blends drag spectacle, Indigenous storytelling, and soaring emotion in a film that celebrates chosen family and the liberating magic of performance.
Director
Corey Payette (Anishinaabe)
Genre
Documentary
Interest
BIPOC Stories
Original Language
English
Dead Lover
A foul-smelling gravedigger's romance ends in tragedy, spurring her to attempt a resurrection through a madcap series of science experiments. Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie’s film is a zany DIY horror that zaps fresh life into Mary Shelley's classic.
Director
Grace Glowicki
Producers
Yona Strauss, Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie
Genres
Comedy, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller
Original Language
English
- Own Voice
Les Amours Imaginaires (Heartbeats)
With Heartbeats, Xavier Dolan captures the beautiful absurdity of unrequited love. Two friends fall for the same enigmatic stranger, and their friendship slowly unravels under the weight of fantasy and projection. Stylish, playful, and emotionally raw, the film examines how desire often says more about our own longing than about the person we chase. Dolan’s pop-infused aesthetic turns heartbreak into something both painfully relatable and strangely glamorous.
Director
Xavier Dolan
Dolan is an acclaimed filmmaker and actor, whose films have won over 90 awards internationally. J’ai tué ma mere and Heartbeats both won the Regards Jeunes Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Laurence Anyways won the Queer Palm at Cannes, and Best Canadian Feature at TIFF, and Mommy won the Jury Prize at Cannes, 10 Jutra awards and nine CSAs. He also directed Tom at the Farm, It’s Only the End of the World, Matthias & Maxine, and others.
Writer
Xavier Dolan
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Original Languages
English, French
Language Version
EN Subtitles
Mais où va-t-on, coyote? (Spare My Bones, Coyote!)
Director
Jonah Malak
Producer
Dominique Dussault
Genre
Documentary
Original Languages
English, French, Other Language
Love & Independence: Short Films
A program of shorts that introduces daring new voices in Canadian cinema. Personal, playful, provocative, and self-financed, these films offer the freedom to express boldly through practices rooted in filmmaking among friends.
Directors
Lea Rose Sebastianis, Daphné Xu, Kalil Haddad, Jamie Whitecrow (Anishinaabe)
Original Language
English
The Things You Kill
Director
Alireza Khatami
Cast
Ekin Koç, Hazar Ergüçlü
Producer
Naomi Despres
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Interest
Family Relationships
Original Languages
English, Other Language
Language Version
EN Subtitles
Director
Tara Johns
Cast
Graham Greene
Producer
Robert Vroom
Genre
Documentary
Interest
Cult & Offbeat Cinema
Original Language
English
Director
Christopher Auchter (Haida)
Genre
Documentary
Original Language
English
Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day
Directors
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
The New Romantic
Director
Carly Stone
Writers
Carly Stone, Kyle Mann
Cast
Jessica Barden
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Original Language
English