We love celebrating the day devoted to Canadian films in the National Canadian Film Day. We will run a glorious preview next Wednesday, the actual day this year. You might need some time to prepare, which is very fair, so we are providing the basic info.
Rounding up "snubs" list for Canadian Screen Awards is tricky, as not every eligible film submits for consideration (81 features entered this year). But in addition to THE SHROUDS, glaring Best Pic omissions include RUMOURS, SEVEN VEILS, MATT AND MARA (which got just 3 tech noms) https://t.co/2AUZ2rRnzQ
— Barry Hertz (@HertzBarry) March 26, 2025
There were a lot of good Canadian films at the 2024 Windsor International Film Festival. I know we say that every year. Can I Get a Witness and Seeds made the TIFF Top Ten list, which made me personally happy.
We noticed that 2 dark horses, which we've saw at WIFF 24, made the catalogue for the 2025 Canadian Film Fest in Toronto late last month: The Players and Darkest Miriam.
We enjoyed both films, pleasantly surprising. Dark films is a reality but so good. Legitimately surprised that Darkest Miriam made the cut for Best Motion Picture for the Canadian Screen Awards.
The Oscars, perhaps not a fair comparison, inspires discussion before the nominations over what might be the Best Picture nominations. The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television list is a confusing array of Canadian films that don't feel like "the best." You could argue that Barry Hertz noting the absence of Guy Maddin and David Cronenberg might be seen through a lamestream lens. I could argue for 6 films that don't include Maddin or Cronenberg but not Matt and Mara.
We have bias against The Apprentice and perhaps Who Do I Belong To (for very different reasons). We have not seen Village Keeper but could easily make the list. Gamma Rays feels confusing based on the trailer but might be better (sometimes that happens). Universal Language makes perfect sense and will likely win. The idea is to celebrate valid films that deserve to be on this list. The TIFF Top 10 is a lot better indicator than the Canadian Screen Awards.
In the spirit of fairness, here was the top 10 list of Canadian films of 2024 from Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail:
1. Universal Language
2. Rumours
3. Matt and Mara
4. In a Violent Nature
5. Attila
6. 40 Acres
7. Measures for a Funeral
8. Ru
9. Born Hungry
10. Frankie Freako & The Heirloom (tie)
Other observations from the Canadian Screen Award nominations that we didn't mention during the nominations notice:
- Unlike the Academy Awards, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is not afraid to nominate female directors. 33%, 2 of 6, are female: Naomi Jaye (Darkest Miriam) and Meryam Joobeur (Who Do I Belong To). The Oscars often treat female directors as if they have cooties. Sarah Polley absolutely should have been nominated for Best Director for Women Talking.
- Kaniehtiio Horn amazingly cast Graham Greene as himself in a meta way in Seeds. A clever and insightful move. Graham Greene is nominated for Performance in a Supporting Role, Comedy. Greene is 1 of 2 CSA nominees who have Oscar nominations. Greene has an Academy Awards nomination from 35 years ago. Some actor named Cate Blanchett has 8 Oscar nominations, include 2 Academy Awards. Horn has an acting nomination and a nomination for Original Screenplay for her writer/director debut.
- A rarity for your humble narrator who has seen every single Canadian film nominated for Adapted Screenplay: Sébastien Girard Blue Sky Jo | La Petite Et Le Vieux; Naomi Jaye Darkest Miriam; Sook-Yin Lee, Joanne Sarazen Paying for It; Atom Egoyan Seven Veils; Jason Buxton Sharp Corner; and Sophie Deraspe, Mathyas Lefebure Shepherds | Bergers. Have only seen 2 of the 6 for Original Screenplay: Kaniehtiio Horn Seeds as well as Matthew Rankin, Pirouz Nemati, Ila Firouzabadi Universal Language.
- A nod to Hunting Daze, an adventurous film, that got a nomination for Best First Feature Film Award. I've only seen this film and Seeds in this category.
We recognize that people often need popular cultural points to make a connection with Canadian films. Charlotte Le Bon is a French-Canadian actor who is also a writer and director. Le Bon took over portraying Chloe in Season 3 of HBO's The White Lotus.
Le Bon's writer/director debut was Falcon Lake (2022), one of the best films we've seen in the last few years.
Charlotte Le Bon's French Canadian-ness helped her career (Q from CBC Radio)
Britt Lower explains how Severance, the circus and libraries dovetail (Q from CBC Radio)
American actor Britt Lower is the lead in Darkest Miriam and is nominated for Performance in a Leading Role, Drama in the upcoming Canadian Screen Awards.
Lower may be better known to a lot of content viewers for portraying Helly R. on Severance on Apple TV+. As we've noted, Americans and other foreigners often get nominated for Canadian films.
2025 Canadian Screen Awards nominations: Film
2025 Canadian Screen Awards nominations
Speaking of Can I Get a Witness, Q from CBC Radio with Tom Power recently interviewed Sandra Oh about the film. Anne Marie Fleming did a wonderful job with climate change, the environment, older people, and being a witness in this film.
I saw that in Windsor in November and found the film charming and brought tears to my eyes. I don't always know where films are in finding them. Save this for when you can see the film. I truly want to, dare I say, need to see this film again.
The interview is also fun to hear Oh talk about seeing a production at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa when she was rather young.
Sandra Oh says she was a 'merciless' theatre kid
Oh Canada implies quite a bit of Canada in the film, even if the film is nowhere near being a Canadian film. They didn't even shoot the film in Canada, even if the modern part is literally set in Canada. We watched the really boring film to find tiny Canadian tidbits.
We had little hope of actual Canada in Oh Canada, the Paul Schrader film from the Russell Banks novel Foregone. The premise is great: the nuance of what an old person remembers in the context of documentary filmmaking.
Leonard Fife (Richard Gere) is supposed to have made great Canadian documentaries in this fictional career. There were 4 fake ones of note.
A documentary about the use of Agent Orange on a farm in Gagetown, New Brunswick. This report said that happened in 1966 and 1967, before the character's appearance in Canada in 1968. Of course, the use of Agent Orange likely wasn't limited.
There is a documentary on the impact of residential schools. The idea that a white man, an American, would magically fall on this subject and get a film made feels like deep fantasy.
A documentary apparently on the seal hunt. The brief footage shows the clubbing of baby seals, which was greatly exaggerated at the time. If that documentary was deceptive, that would be a bad example of his work, not a good example. Angry Inuk was a lot more precise about the seal hunt.
There was another documentary on a priest who molested numerous children. We saw Prey recently and that took a lot of work.
Twice Colonized is a relevant film given the targeting of Canada and Greenland
Canadian film review: Angry Inuk
At least the powers that be tried to put some stuff about Canada into the film. The most accurate scene was when Fife got to Quebec from Vermont: he gets advice to not stay in Quebec if he wants landed status since his French isn't that good. The idea that the first documentary was about New Brunswick makes sense. While New Brunswick is bilingual, establishing landed status as an anglophone would have been easier.
We talked about Drive Back Home, a new Canadian film set in that era in New Brunswick and Quebec. Eventually, Fife and his wife Emma (Uma Thurman) end up in Montréal, so hopefully he learned some French. Like French Girl, American films about Canada spend little thought on actually speaking the French language.
Caroline Dhavernas plays Rene, the nurse to Leonard Fife. Rene speaks English with a Quebecois accent and even has a line in French.
Like a lot of people, I was surprised to discover many years ago that Dhavernas was Canadian, much less French Canadian. She has no accent in Mary Kills People and is wonderful in Mars et Avril in Francaise.
An excellent casting decision though I didn't notice when I watched the film straight through. That is also a credit for Dhavernas as an actor. A true example of casting a Canadian playing a Canadian character in an American film theoretically set in Canada.
Canadian film review: Mars et Avril
Celebrating Mary Kills People in humanizing assisted suicide
Mary Kills People debuts final season in Canada but doesn't have a U.S. TV home
The Hollywood Reporter recently came out with its top Canadian films of all time, even if 3 of them are about 6 months old. Now the U.S. publication has a nice profile promoting National Canadian Film Day, which is next Wednesday. Sure they mention tariffs and the desire to rethink the interest in home grown Canadian content and films. Once again, a tip of the hat to love for Canadian films from outside Canada.
Thanks also to Reel Canada for having National Canadian Film Day.
Canadian film notebook: Your Tomorrow is available on TV Ontario
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
This is the second Canadian film notebook we ran this week. This is where we are.
photo credits: National Canadian Film Day; Oh, Canada
Twitter captures: @HertzBarry
video credits: Darkest Miriam; Oh, Canada
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