Drawing from the events surrounding her fourteen-year-old cousin’s murder in 2008, director Miryam Charles wants to finally unpack her grief and the trauma associated with it. Through dream-like reenactments of her own childhood and an imagined life for her cousin, Charles delves into the changing emotional, political, and historical climates surrounding her family as Haitian-Canadians in Quebec.

This beautifully crafted film is a bold and thought-provoking look at family, and a moving tribute to a life tragically cut short.

“A daring blend of documentary and fantasy that invests a deeply personal drama with a wide historical scope.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Filmmaker Ben-Saud takes us into her family home, where she was confined with her parents and adult brother and sister during the early months of the lockdown, to experience the sometimes funny and sometimes challenging realities of pandemic coexistence.

A young boy brought along by his father on a vigilante border patrol looking for illegal immigrants starts to question the morality of the group’s actions.

A vacationing couple discovers an unconventional skydiving club. Should they take the plunge?

For three teenage girls growing up in Kahnawake — and indeed, all teenagers on the reserve — life can be quite confusing. If they want to move away to pursue new experiences — perhaps in nearby Montreal — they risk losing credibility, or worse yet, their rights as Mohawk women. Of course, if they stay, their opportunities in the tiny community are limited.

With insight, humour and heart, director Tracey Deer (who left Kahnawake to attend school and pursue filmmaking) returns to her community to follow these Mohawk girls and tell their stories. Her deeply emotional documentary reveals the complex hope, heartache and promise of growing up Indigenous in the 21st century.

The tenacious Bobby-Yves wakes up to find himself stranded in a blizzard, and must explore the landscape to find shelter and warmth before he succumbs to the icy white abyss. A suspenseful and unexpectedly humorous tale told through a beautiful, minimalist animation style, Le givre de Bobby-Yves is an instant classic.

In this exploration of maternal and romantic love, two seemingly unrelated pairs — a couple and a mother and son — intertwine after a tragic accident. Starring Vanessa Paradis.

The first feature from internationally acclaimed director Xavier Dolan, J'ai tué ma mère explores the fraught relationship between 16-year-old Hubert (Dolan) and his mother (Dorval). With lingering tensions from his father leaving them, they live in a seemingly constant argument, and he does everything within his power to distance himself from her on a quest that strikes a perfect balance between heartbreaking and hilarious.

This semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story launched Dolan’s career, winning three prizes at Cannes before going on to international acclaim.

“A coming-of-age tale as ferociously raw as its teller” – Rick Groen, The Globe and Mail

Left on her own after her mother’s death, 16-year-old Fern (Imajyn Cardinal) finds a book on how to become a millionnaire, takes on multiple jobs, and tries to save herself. Based on a novel by Edeet Ravel.

Set in 1840, as white settlers begin encroaching on Inuit territory, Before Tomorrow is a visually stunning tale of an Inuk woman and her grandson. Ningiuq (director Madeline Piujuq Ivalu) is an elder who, along with her best friend Kutuujuk (Qulitalik), gather with their families each summer to share food, visit and tell stories. This particular summer however, Kutuujuk is sick and Ningiuq is worried about their future.

The two women and Ningiuq’s grandson Maniq (Paul-Dylan Ivalu) are dropped off on a remote island to dry and store fish for winter. However, as summer turns to fall, they wait in vain for the others to pick them up, and Ningiuq worries that her worst fears about the impending advance of white Europeans are coming true.

After spending most of her life working as an Innu language translator and transcriber, Joséphine Bacon rose to fame late in life in her second career as an award-winning poet. This moving profile frames her life and work in a new context, offering a deeply personal look at an important literary figure in Canada.

Je m'appele humain premiered at the Quebec City Film Festival to great acclaim, and went on to receive four Prix Iris nominations, including Best Documentary.

Driven by a desire to spark change in her community, young activist Mani (Jacobs) returns to her reserve from the big city to promote the ending of alcohol prohibition on her reserve. When she runs into opposition from the local convenience store owner Nadine (Poupart), the two square off, forcing the divisive issue into the spotlight leading to unexpected consequences.  

This critically acclaimed first feature from Caroline Monnet is a thought-provoking and timely look at an ongoing debate that rarely gets the media attention it deserves. 

 

Based on a true story, Isabelle Fortier chronicles her experience as a sex worker in a semi-autobiographical novel under the pen name Nelly Arcan (Mylène MacKay). The book becomes a scandalous international bestseller, leading to unexpected and unwanted fame for Arcan, who must now deal with the pressure of increased scrutiny about the authenticity of her stories and the demand for an equally successful follow-up.

Anne Emond explores the author’s colourful and ultimately tragic life in a multi-layered and stylish mix of make-believe and memoir, revealing the person behind the shocking literary alter ego.

“Mylène MacKay delivers a towering performance” - T’Cha Dunlevy, The Montreal Gazette

The term “blood quantum” refers to a colonial system enforced on Indigenous peoples in North America which determines their individual status and rights based on their “percentage” of Indigenous ancestry. It is a tool of control, assimilation and erasure of Indigenous peoples.

In this brilliantly provocative horror film set in an isolated Mi’kmaq community, the Indigenous population remains immune to a raging zombie virus infecting the surrounding white population.

Blood soaked, fast paced and darkly comic, Blood Quantum is a wild ride using the zombie genre as a vehicle to explore white supremacy, colonialism, genocide and Indigenous self-determination.

In the bleak aftermath of an outbreak of zombies in rural Quebec, Bonin (Marc-André Grondin) struggles to survive along with the rapidly dwindling remaining population. When he encounters a group hiding in a house that is in the path of an invading horde of the undead, he must decide whether or not to save them, as doing so would put him and his companions in danger.

Les affamés is a brilliant and fresh take on the zombie genre, maintaining a tense atmosphere with exceptional moments of horror. It won the Best Canadian Feature prize at TIFF in 2017 and swept the Jutra Awards (now the Prix Iris) with ten wins, including Best Film and Best Direction.

“Robin Aubert's idiosyncratic and nuanced drama breathes fresh life into the zombie apocalypse subgenre.” - John Leydon, Variety

Sid (Debargo Sanyal) is a trans woman whose life takes a left turn when the teenage son she didn’t know she had turns up at her doorstep, in this heartwarming, feel-good film that defies the conventions of the family drama.

When her older sister vanishes from their Mohawk community, eight year-old Ivy (Delisle) joins her mother Susan (Moore) in a desperate search that lays bare the authorities’ indifference towards missing Indigenous Women and Girls.

Ivy and Susan’s journey to find answers is one that no family should go through, but their shared hope helps mother and daughter come together in love amongst difficult circumstances. Filmmaker Sonia Bonspille Boileau brings warmth and grace to this delicate depiction of a young girl forging a strong sense of identity while also contending with family tragedy. 

Feeling stifled by the confines of her small town, Leo (Karelle Tremblay) is reluctant to celebrate her 18th birthday, which brings her closer to an adulthood she doesn’t want to confront. Tired of her family nagging her about her future, she rebels against them by striking up a friendship with Steve (Pierre-Luc Brilliant), her much older guitar teacher who still lives in his mother’s basement. She is fascinated by both his musical ability and lack of ambitions to do anything else, which stands in stark contrast from everyone else in her life.

A quiet and poignant exploration of small-town life, this third film from acclaimed Quebecois director Sébastien Pilote claimed the prize for Best Canadian Film at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.

On Christmas Eve, a snow plow operator (Guy L’Ecuyer) in Montreal is suddenly called upon to work in an unexpected snowstorm which becomes a problem as he has not finished his Christmas shopping. Determined to get all his gifts while continuing to clear the roads, Léopold has a series of comedic misadventures that become increasingly ridiculous as his time begins to run short.

Originally commissioned as an NFB documentary about snow clearing, director Gilles Carle creatively reframed it as a narrative film to create a unique blend of documentary and direct cinema that also cheekily comments on contemporary social and political issues. It won the Best Feature prize at the 1965 Montreal International Film Festival.

Jacques (Alexis Martin), a struggling actor on the run from a loan shark, reluctantly strikes a deal with Simon (Gilles Renaud), a rural farmer with a secret marijuana greenhouse, to help him cultivate a marijuana crop for harvest. In exchange, Simon will hide him from the gangster he owes money to and give him a cut of the profits so that he can pay off his debts.

When they are forced to bring in a sassy energy technician (Emmanuelle Lussier-Martinez) to help their secret grow-op thrive, both men’s secrets are threatened, and the race is on to complete the harvest before they’re discovered.

Les Mauvaises Herbes was nominated for four Canadian Screen Awards including Best Picture and won two Prix Iris for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.