Ten Canadian Film Fest features, plus 28 short films, will premiere exclusively on Super Channel Fuse beginning March 22
Action on Women In Film generously sponsored by Scotiabank and DGC Ontario
Super Channel and the Canadian Film Fest (CFF), an indie-spirited festival dedicated to celebrating Canadian filmmakers, are pleased to announce that they have partnered once again to bring a third edition of the Canadian Film Fest presented by Super Channel to film fans across the country.
Beginning Tuesday, March 22, the festival will run Tuesday to Saturday for two consecutive weeks, presenting ten feature films and 28 short films as part of the virtual festival experience. All festival feature films will have a linear only limited run, so audiences are encouraged to watch the lineup on Super Channel while they can and experience the films festival-style during their linear broadcast. This year’s slate of compelling Canadian features and shorts includes 50% female and 40% BIPOC filmmakers.
“We are proud to share our enthusiasm for supporting Canadian storytelling and content by collaborating once again with the great team at the CFF to bring a third edition of the Canadian Film Fest to our viewers,” said Don McDonald, President and CEO, Super Channel. “We look forward to sharing this collection of captivating films with our audience in what has become an annual tradition.”
“We have an incredible wealth of creative talent in Canada and are delighted to once again bring audiences a diverse selection of some of the best films on offer as part of this year’s virtual lineup,” said Ashleigh Rains, Festival Director, Canadian Film Fest. “Partnering with Super Channel gives film-lovers across the country the opportunity to explore immersive stories through the lens of homegrown filmmakers and we are so happy to continue our long standing relationship with them.”
The Canadian Film Fest presented by Super Channel will once again immerse viewers in a virtual festival experience complete with pre-recorded and live Q&As with filmmakers, access to industry programs online (panel discussions, masterclass) and a virtual awards presentation. Further details to be announced.
Scotiabank and DGC Ontario have generously supported the Canadian Film Fest by sponsoring Action on Women In Film, a virtual event addressing the persistent gender gap for women in the Canadian film industry. The free all-day summit taking place on Wednesday, March 23 will provide education, mentorship and networking opportunities for women (including cisgender women, transgender women, women-identified, gender non-conforming women and others who identify themselves within the spectrum of the gender identity of a woman that may be fixed or fluid). Additionally, Scotiabank will remove barriers to access to the festival by reimbursing all submission fees for BIPOC and female filmmakers.
The festival kicks off on March 22 with the World premiere of Tehranto (dir. Faran Moradi), starring Sammy Azero (In the Dark, Easy Land), Mo Zeighami (Three Sisters) and Navid Negahban (Tehran, Homeland), an unlikely story of love and family when Badi and Sharon, two young students with very different upbringings from a divided Iranian community, accidentally fall in love. Closing out the festival on April 2, will be Carmen (dir. Valerie Buhagiar) making its Toronto premiere. Starring Natascha McElhone (The Truman Show, The Devil’s Own, Californication), this joyful and poignant film tells the story of a 50-year-old woman who must find her voice after her life of servitude to her brother in a tiny Maltese village, abruptly ends.
The 28 new CFF short films showcased in the Festival includes Toronto Premieres of Mimine (dir. Simon Laganière), a clumsy and reckless father decides to dazzle his young son as he notices that the child is developing a beautiful relationship with his ex-girlfriend’s new lover; Not My Age (dir. Kaitlyn Lee), when a young-at-heart Korean Grandma breaks her leg on a nightly adventure with her Granddaughter, she fights for one more spray paint extravaganza in the dead of night; See you Garbage! (dir. Romain Dumont), a dramatic comedy that resembles a revolutionary tale, attempting to explore the encounter between the well-coated contempt of the political class and a sudden awareness of its people; L’Innu du futur (dir. Stéphane Nepton), a poetic story and an ode to the land in relation to the identity as an urban Indigenous person; Nuisance Bear (dir. Jack Weisman, Gabriela Osio Vanden), a shifted perspective where the audience can see themselves through the perspective of polar bears, and experience how they navigate an obstacle course of tourist paparazzi and wildlife officers during their annual migration.
A complete listing of scheduled festival features follows below.
The 2022 Canadian Film Fest presented by Super Channel features schedule:
(All feature presentations get underway at 9 p.m. ET/PT and are preceded by a brief introduction and short film.)
Tuesday, March 22: Tehranto (Drama, Comedy) – World premiere
Director: Faran Moradi
Cast: Sammy Azero, Mo Zeighami, Navid Negahban, Mahsa Ghorbankarimi, Ali Badshah
In Toronto lively music, intricate textiles and vibrant colours paint an unlikely story of love and family when Badi and Sharon, two young students with very different upbringings from a divided Iranian community, accidentally fall in love.
Wednesday, March 23: The Noise of Engines (Drama) – Toronto premiere
Director: Philippe Grégoire
Cast: Robert Naylor, Tanja Björk, Naïla Rabel, Marie-Thérèse Fortin, Alexandrine Agostini, Marc Beaupré, Maxime Genois
Alexandre, an instructor at the Canadian customs college, returns home to his small town after his employer places him on compulsory leave. As he forms a new friendship with a female Icelandic drag racer, he finds himself under surveillance by police investigators trying to get to the bottom of the sexually explicit drawings that have been troubling the town.
Thursday, March 24: We’re All in This Together (Drama) – Toronto premiere
Director: Katie Boland
Cast: Katie Boland, Alisha Newton, Jenny Raven, Martha Burns
A woman goes over a waterfall. A video goes viral. A family goes into meltdown. Meet the Parkers. Set over the course of four days, We’re All In This Together follows the misadventures of the Parker family of Thunder Bay as catastrophe forces them to do something they never thought possible—act like a family.
Friday, March 25: A Small Fortune (Drama) – Toronto premiere (Super Channel Original)
Director: Adam Perry
Cast: Stephen Oates, Liane Balaban, Andrea Bang, Joel Thomas Hynes, Matt Cooke, William McFadden
Kevin is an Irish Moss harvester committed to his traditional way of doing things at the expense of a more lucrative life for himself and his pregnant wife. When he finds a bag of money washed up on the shores of Prince Edward Island, his decision to keep it secret turns his quaint fishing village into a growing crime scene as the money’s owners come calling.
Saturday, March 26: Ashgrove (Drama) – Canadian premiere
Director: Jeremy LaLonde
Cast: Amanda Brugel, Jonas Chernick, Shawn Doyle, Natalie Brown, Christine Horne, Sugith Varughese
Set in the not-so-distant future, Dr. Jennifer Ashgrove – one of the world’s top scientists – is battling to find a cure to a crisis that affects the world’s water supply. As the weight of the world takes its toll, she retreats to the countryside with her husband in a bid to clear her mind. But their relationship is strained, and they soon realize that their ability to save their marriage will literally determine the fate of humankind itself.
Tuesday, March 29: The Long Rider (Documentary, Drama) – Canadian Premiere (Super Channel Original)
Director: Sean Cisterna
Cast: Filipe Masetti Leite
When Filipe Leite leaves his adoptive home of Canada, the aspiring journalist sets out on an epic quest to ride from Calgary to his family’s home in Brazil – and later beyond – entirely on horseback. Inspired by Aimé Tschiffely’s 1925 equestrian journey, Filipe’s 8-year odyssey of over 25,000 kms across 12 international borders, sees the young immigrant battle intense heat, drought, speeding transport trucks, nature’s wrath and corrupt border guards on his history-making long ride home. Culled from over 500 hours of never-before-seen-footage.
Wednesday, March 30: Tenzin (Drama) – Canadian premiere
Director: Michael LeBlanc, Josh Reichmann
Cast: Tenzin Kelsang, Tenzin Yeshi, Tenzin Choekyi, Salden Kunga, and Chemi Lhamo
Tenzin is a young Tibetan man living in Toronto, whose older brother self-immolates as a form of nonviolent protest of the treatment of Tibetans living under the current Chinese occupation. Tenzin struggles to come to terms with the loss of his brother while navigating a life with one foot in Western youth culture and the other, somewhat reluctantly in the devoted community of his fellow exiled Tibetans.
Thursday, March 31: Beneath the Surface (Documentary) – Toronto premiere
Director: Marie-Geneviève Chabot
Cast: Laurent Sirois, Stéphane Sirois, Jean-Pierre Sirois, Jérôme Sirois
Hoping to reconnect, three brothers embark on a fishing trip with their father, whose absence from their childhood has left them with lasting scars. For Stéphane, Jean-Pierre, Jérôme and Laurent, this is a chance to find some answers, and maybe even to make their peace with the past. On the gently rocking boat, dreams and regrets slip in and tangle up with their fishing lines. The trip is a bittersweet quest to find a lost family ideal. It’s a foray into a masculine world struggling toward reconciliation, where sometimes the most courageous thing to do is break the silence.
Friday, April 1: The Last Mark (Drama, Comedy, Action) – Canadian Premiere
Director: Reem Morsi
Cast: Shawn Doyle, Alexia Fast, Bryce Hodgson, Jonas Chernick, Krista Bridges
A self-loathing and aging hitman, Keele (Shawn Doyle), is tasked to kill a witness (Alexia Fast), but he quickly learns his new mark might be his estranged daughter. He abducts her in an attempt to keep her safe from his maniacal associate (Bryce Hodgson). Keele struggles with this new parental responsibility of keeping her alive. Whether she’s his daughter or not, she acts like a carbon copy of the person he hates the most: himself.
Saturday, April 2: Carmen (Drama) – Toronto Premiere
Director: Valerie Buhagiar
Cast: Natascha McElhone, Steven Love, Michaela Farrugia
Carmen is a charming story, inspired by true events, set in a village in Malta. Carmen (Natascha McElhone) has looked after her brother, the priest at the local church, since she was sixteen years old. Now almost fifty, she is suddenly left to start a new life. Facing her past, Carmen brings colour to the lives of the villagers in this compelling story about a woman finding her voice.
Sunday, April 3: Rebroadcast of winning films (to be announced
About the Canadian Film Fest
The Canadian Film Fest (CFF) is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to supporting Canadian independent films and cultivating emerging and established filmmaking talent. Film-loving audiences come to enjoy a diverse selection of 100% Canadian film screenings (features & shorts) and filmmakers flock to the CFF’s various industry events to take advantage of essential networking opportunities. CFF’s mission is to celebrate the art of cinematic storytelling by showcasing Canadian films and filmmakers.
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
