Fall 2025 | Festival Showcase
With festival season in full swing, we’ve rounded up a slate of the latest Canadian titles premiering at film festivals across the nation. Be sure to check out these festivals and their incredible showcases of Canadian films!
Content Warning:
Some of the projects included in this collection deal with topics that may be distressing. Viewer discretion is advised – please check ratings and warnings on individual selections before engaging.
100 Sunset
Director: Kunsang Kyirong
A young introverted thief spies on her Tibetan community in Parkdale, Toronto where she meets an unexpected confidant.
Blue Heron
Director: Sophy Romvari
Death Does Not Exist (La Mort N’Existe Pas)
Director: Félix Dufour-Laperrière
After a failed armed attack on wealthy landowners, Hélène abandons her companions and flees into the forest. Manon, one of her friends and accomplices, returns to haunt her. Hélène has to revisit her convictions and choices, in a valley where metamorphoses and great upheavals disrupt the natural order of things.
The Girl Who Cried Pearls (La jeune fille qui pleurait des perles)
Directors: Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski
In Montréal, at the dawn of the 20th century, a poor boy falls in love with a girl whose sorrow turns into pearls. He sells them to a ruthless pawnbroker, who hungers for more. Tempted by greed, the boy must choose between love and fortune.
Have You Heard Judi Singh?
Director: Baljit Sangra
Gifted jazz singer Judi Singh defied expectations as a Punjabi-Black artist stepping onto the stage in the late 1950s. Weaving together moments of struggle and resilience, the film reintroduces a forgotten artist to the spotlight.
It Was Always In The End (Ça Va Finir Par Finir)
Director: Nancy Pettinicchio
Gabriel Drolet-Maguire, a queer fashion designer living in Montréal, takes us into their artistic world to speak vulnerably about their HIV diagnosis and the process of acceptance that led them to reach out to the HIV-positive community.
Lana
Directors: Laetitia Angba & Julie Redon Lissouba
Lana, amidst the turbulence of adolescence, leads a life unlike others. Her father, Benjamin, faces the threat of deportation from Canada, and the family grapples daily with the looming anxiety of an impending separation. In a bid to shield her family, Lana constructs a routine that affords her and her younger brother, Léo, a semblance of stability and normalcy. As a silent battle rages on, Lana must summon her courage to confront her father before his departure.
Little Lorraine
Director: Andy Hines
Set against the rugged beauty of coastal Nova Scotia, and inspired by true events that saw a remote mining and fishing town on Cape Breton turn into a hub for one of the largest cocaine smuggling operations in Canadian history, Little Lorraine marks the highly anticipated feature debut of Grammy-nominated Nova Scotian director Andy Hines.
Atlantic International Film Festival
Saints and Warriors
Director: Patrick Shannon
Set against the backdrop of the 2024 All Native Basketball Tournament and the battle for Indigenous sovereignty, Saints and Warriors captures a story of resilience, brotherhood, and the unbreakable spirit of Haida Gwaii.
Sk+te’kmujue’katik (At The Place of Ghosts)
Director: Bretten Hannam
Siblings Mise’l (Blake Alec Miranda) and Antle (Forrest Goodluck) were close confidants as children, but have drifted apart as adults. When a malevolent spirit begins tormenting them, the siblings are forced to reunite and journey into Sk+te’kmujue’katik, a primordial forest that exists outside of time, to confront their violent past. As long-buried wounds resurface, the siblings must face their trauma and the spectral echoes of their ancestors.
Check out more information on the film festivals featured in this collection and their programming:
Toronto International Film Festival
September 4 – 14
Atlantic International Film Festival
September 10 – 17
Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival
September 13 – 21
Lunenburg Doc Fest
September 17 – 21
Calgary International Film Festival
September 18 – 28
Montréal International Black Film Festival
September 24 – 28
Ottawa International Animation Festival
September 24 – 28
Edmonton International Film Festival
September 25 – October 4
Vancouver International Film Festival
October 2 – 12
