Supported by Hollywood Suite
September | Film Festival Rewind
In tribute to the fall film festival season, this month’s collection puts a spotlight on past selections from film festivals across Canada from previous years. These works feature Canadian talent and storytelling from coast to coast, and the Canadian festivals that curate and showcase them.
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.
Benjamin, Benny, Ben
Director: Paul Shkordoff
An unexpected event threatens to undo the job interview preparation of an anxious young man.
Screened at 2020 Toronto International Film Festival
Hey, Viktor!
Director: Cody Lightning
Twenty-five long years after his time in the limelight, former child actor Cody Lightning tries to revive his fortunes with a self-produced sequel to Smoke Signals in this smart, irreverent new comedy.
Screened at 2023 Edmonton International Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival
Madeleine
Director: Raquel Sancinetti
Every week, two friends born 67 years apart share their life stories in a senior home’s living room. The younger friend convinces the 107-year-old lady to join her in an adventure: a road trip to the sea.
Screened at 2023 Saguenay International Short Film Festival (Regard), Atlantic International Film Festival
The Movie Man
Director: Matt Finlin
This documentary introduces a colourful entrepreneur and his unique multiplex and museum set deep in the forest of small-town Ontario. After 40 years in business, Keith is forced to confront his shrinking movie business, declining health, feeding 40 cats, keeping a bear at bay, and a global pandemic. The future of his visionary cinema complex becomes more and more uncertain as the film unfolds.
Screened at 2024 Kingston Canadian Film Festival, DOXA Documentary Film Festival
*Selected by Hollywood Suite
Nanitic
Director: Carol Nguyen
na·nit·ic / adjective: The first brood of worker ants produced by a queen ant using only the reserved nutrition in her body. Nanitics shoulder the initial fate of the colony and are often underfed due to the conditions in colony building. Thus, nanitics may be smaller in size from later workers ants to optimize the survival of the group… — But what happens to the colony when the queen dies? Had the nanitics done enough?
9 year-old Trang starts to shift out of oblivion as her aunt Ut tends to Grandma, who lies in her deathbed in the living room. How can a single body occupy so much space? What will happen when Grandma is gone?
Screened at 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (Share Her Journey Award), Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
Picture Day
Director: Kate Melville
A rebellious teen has to repeat her senior year of high school and gets caught between adolescence and adulthood, as two male admirers vie for her attention.
Screened at 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, CineFest Sudbury International Film Festival
The Queen of My Dreams
Director: Fawzia Mirza
Azra is worlds apart from her conservative Muslim mother. When her father suddenly dies on a trip home to Pakistan, Azra finds herself on a Bollywood-inspired journey through memories, both real and imagined; from her mother’s youth in Karachi to her own coming-of-age in rural Canada.
Screened at 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, Whistler Film Festival
S-Yéwyáw: Awaken
Director: Liz Marshall
Stories of hope and homecoming intersect as Indigenous multimedia changemakers learn and document the teachings of their Elders. Calling the audience’s attention to the filmmaking process of narrative collaboration between an Indigenous and settler team, this character-driven documentary connects the transformative stories of three Indigenous multimedia changemakers and their four Elders.
Screened at 2023 Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival (People’s Choice Award Winner)
*Selected by Hollywood Suite
When Morning Comes
Director: Kelly Fyffe-Marshall
After his mother decides to relocate their family from Jamaica to Canada, young Jamal runs off to spend time with his best friend, the girl he likes, and his substitute father figures. He also visits the grave of his beloved father one last time.
Screened at 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, 2023 Regent Park Film Festival
Window Horses
Director: Ann Marie Fleming
Rosie, a young poet, travels to a poetry festival in Iran and discovers her own voice while opening herself to those of others in this whimsical, animated coming-of-ager.
Screened at 2016 Vancouver International Film Festival (Best BC Film Award and Best Canadian Film Award)
