Discoveries from Canada World Cinema

Stacked Like Me reveals the world of women whose breast size defines their lives.

Two monks come to a small village to lead a simple life but their first act of charity is to try and seduce one of the village women.

A close-knit circle of Toronto friends, shaken by the break-up of their favorite couple, are forced over a winter to finally grow up.

The film follows five people who lost their sight in armed conflicts, gathering fragments of their present-day lives. Through an enveloping sound composition, veiled archival material, footage shot by the protagonists themselves, and a sensitive visual approach, the film explores memory, perception, and our relationship to the visible. Steering away from spectacle, it invites us to hear what often goes unheard, and to feel differently. In an age saturated with images, this documentary offers a sensory experience where listening becomes a gesture of resistance and human reconnection.

As Christmas nears, a financial advisor starts seeing a recurring number: 624. It’s the time she wakes, an address, the change at a Christmas shop. She’s told the number is from a Christmas angel to help make her heart’s secret wish come true. A numbers person, she calls it a statistical coincidence. But when she discovers the number’s meaning, she finds love.

High school teacher Elara’s quiet holiday season gets a jolt of spice when she accepts a 12 Dares of Christmas challenge from her sister while scrambling to ready her town for a Christmas exchange program with suave, opinionated French teacher Gabriel.

On October 31, 1955 June & Frank Marsters met their grisly end when an escaped killer known as the Willow Woods Wolfman broke into their house. In the decades since the night has grown to be the stuff of local legend, but what really happened that Halloween?

Reared by an abusive, pill-popping mother and an absentee playboy father, six-year-old Valentina must fend for herself. She does what she can to craft the illusion of normalcy: makes herself lunches that look just like the ones her classmates tote, dresses and grooms herself expertly, and lies to cover up for her mother Anita's erratic behavior.

25-year-old Arghavan lives with her parents in Tehran, and intends to marry her fiancé, Hesam. One day, her short stories win her a grant to attend a writing workshop in Germany. Soon before she is to leave, however, Arghavan is abducted and raped. In a strict, conservative society where young women are expected to be virgins before marriage, this is a social catastrophe. Plagued by gossip and finding little solace, Arghavan's life begins turning into a nightmare.

Set in the summer of 1942 during WWII, the film traces the trajectory of simple people thrown into extraordinary lives, revealing the heart-warming flame of hope and humanity that endures, even in times of war and dispair. As young Julien, his family and a group of friends traverse the French countryside after fleeing the institution they called home, Julien must deal with his father's extreme violence and his mother's rosy fantasies and once again form a family that society tries to forget.

Based on a short story by Timothy Findley.

Through the eyes of a Quebec Jewish activist, Lea Roback, feminist, unionist, pacifist and communist, A VISION IN THE DARKNESS proposes a modernist vision of Quebec history, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the period knows as « La Grande Noirceur », the Great Darkness.

See the full spectrum of the Showscan process. Magic sequences, special effects, miniature photography, high speed thrills and suspense.

A deceased Sicilian father, has one last outrageous mission in store for his son - spread his ashes in the lemon groves of Sicily, reunite two feuding families, discovering the heart and soul of who he really is.

Outsider Sophie or Ina Litovski, as she prefers to be called, feels ignored by her lethargic mother with whom she lives in a small apartment. Tonight she'll play her violin at the school concert and she decides to make this the turning point in her life.

Amaluna invites the audience to a mysterious island governed by Goddesses and guided by the cycles of the moon. Their queen, Prospera, directs her daughter’s coming-of-age ceremony in a rite that honours femininity, renewal, rebirth and balance which marks the passing of these insights and values from one generation to the next. In the wake of a storm caused by Prospera, a group of young men lands on the island, triggering an epic, emotional story of love between Prospera’s daughter and a brave young suitor. But theirs is a love that will be put to the test. The couple must face numerous demanding trials and overcome daunting setbacks before they can achieve mutual trust, faith and harmony.

Depuis une sérieuse dispute avec son frère Fred, qui lui servait de modèle, Viviane, photographe professionnelle, a mis en veilleuse ses ambitions artistiques. Or, le hasard lui fait rencontrer Guillaume, un jeune mécanicien dont la photogénie naturelle l'inspire. Réticent, ce dernier se laisse convaincre de poser pour Viviane qui, retrouvant son énergie créatrice, fait de lui le sujet d'un projet d'exposition. Bientôt, l'artiste constate que le jeune homme, qui vit toujours chez ses parents, porte les stigmates d'un douloureuse expérience familiale, qui le rend asocial et autodestructeur. Tout en cherchant à percer le mystère de Guillaume, Viviane tente un rapprochement avec son frère.

At the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.

This experiment in point of view, narrative structure, and time attempts to reproduce cinematically Gertude Stein's notion of a "continuous present." In four rhyming shots/scenes, it suggests the development of a relationship over many years. Based on biographical details from the lives of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, with improvised performances by Jackie Burroughs and Anne Anglin.

This animation film celebrates the creative process--its beauty, fury, and consequences. It is a highly stylized and impressionistic rendering; each scene corresponds to a step in the process. Black and white photographs, representing reality, are overlaid with animated colour drawings, representing fantasy. It illustrates the artist braving creative storms, indulging runaway imagination and learning, by trial and error, to take possession of his creative energy. Film without words.

A cartoon film about the whole heterogeneous mixture of Canada and Canadians, and the way the invisible adhesive called federalism makes it all cling together. That the dissenting voices are many is made amply evident, in English and French. But this animated message also shows that Canadians can laugh at themselves and work out their problems objectively.

Dr. Desai is desperate to prove the existence of an afterlife. Unfortunately for one feisty prostitute, Cheri, his obsession will become her nightmare in a battle for survival.

Filmmaker Stephen Hosier takes a journey with Richard Csanyi, his childhood friend, as he investigates the life and death of his twin brother Attila, who was found dead on a rooftop in 2020.

Canadian author, humorist and storyteller W.O. Mitchell talks about his career as a writer and performer. Known for his witty radio and television appearances, Mitchell shows a more serious side as he reveals his personal views on writing and on the meaning of life and death.

A dark historical drama about two sisters, the man that comes between them, and the tragedy that results. Set in the 1870s.

Video lottery addiction is a serious problem in Canada, but does the government's need for revenue mean the enormous social costs are being ignored? This is a story about a society hooked on gambling and the people trying to force lottery corporations to come clean and take responsibility for what's happening to people whose lives are being devastated by Playing Machines. Also at the center of the story, a pugnacious Canadian Actor, John Dunsworth (Trailer Park Boys), who's gambling addictions nearly destroyed his career.

A wealthy family withdraws from society after something unforeseen happens. When one of its members leaves the house on the pretext of paying an innocent visit to someone outside, the family’s fragile equilibrium is disturbed. In Broad Daylight presents an inscrutable, tantalisingly elusive fictional world enhanced by a colourful array of absurd characters.

Director Bruce Alcock takes his inspiration from Chopin’s eponymous composition in this wonderful 3D animation, which pays tribute to the moments of beautiful chaos that can spring suddenly from the mundane.

Peter Watkins' global look at the impact of military use of nuclear technology and people's perception of it, as well as a meditation on the inherent bias of the media, and documentaries themselves.

When a Black man is viciously assaulted by police right outside their window, all of the guests at a dinner party seem to consider the attack unremarkable except for one.

Black and white images shot at night. A camera roams the streets of Montreal in search of sounds, smells and sensations. From the first frame, NIGHTS stakes its ground as a poetic, nomadic experience, an open-ended essay about the countless inner worlds that inhabit the big-city night. Testimonials and confessions gradually emerge, from a photographer to a truck driver, from a baker to a blind woman who had to learn to “see” the world differently. Their experiences overlap, but are unalike. We have the feeling of living different lives, against the grain of normality, and we are not alone in this. Diane Poitras achieves nothing less than the reconstitution of a parallel community.

When Justin's libidinous teenage explorations are sabotaged by Emily, the ghost who haunts his room, he must reconcile his previous promise of joining her in the afterlife with growing up.

A man tries to cancel his credit card after being mugged.

This feature doc profiles acclaimed writer Alistair MacLeod. Hailed internationally as a master of the short story, MacLeod also wrote a novel, No Great Mischief, which was celebrated around the world. Depicting men and women living out their lives against the haunting landscape that surrounds them, most of MacLeod's work is firmly based in Cape Breton even if his characters stray elsewhere. Focusing on the complexities and abiding mysteries at the heart of human relationships, MacLeod maps the close bonds and impassable chasms that lie between people and invokes memory and myth to celebrate the continuity of the generations. This film portrait explores the life and work of this giant of literature.

What are you willing to do, to be saved? Oats Studios presents a new chapter of ADAM and a new tribe of human survivors in this post-apocalyptic world. Created entirely in real time using Unity, check out Episode 3.

After 20 years of marriage and almost perfect love, Sophie leaves her husband Gilles for another guy. Many misadventures await Gilles in his nervous breakdown, while trying to get a way to reclaim his love back to Sophie.

A female marshal goes undercover on a deathtrap starship to prevent a terrifying alien invasion.

A disgruntled film production assistant seeks advice from a young, eccentric producer with sadistic tendencies.

A small Canadian town is devasted when a local mine--the town's only source of income--is closed. One man incurs the wrath of the townsmen when he stubbornly refuses the small amount of settlement money offered by the government.

Canadian military organization, M.U.D., enlists their most skilled operative for a highly dangerous mission.

In a dystopian future where the air is unbreathable and all citizens must wear elaborate masks in order to live, one young scientist fights to win his lover by defying the state and seeing her face.

Native American Chief Sitting Bull seeks refuge in Canada.

There is no ‘best thing’ about having terminal cancer, but for forty-year-old Joe, being welcomed back into his childhood home, feeling the warmth and support of his sister and her husband and observing his young niece’s blossoming emotional maturity seem to give new meaning to a life he feels he had wasted. With unexpected humour, stark realism and quiet insight, Under The Weather is an uplifting meditation on one man’s graceful surrender to the inevitable and the palpable impact his passing has on those he leaves behind.

Two room mates finally get a new fridge from their landlord but it is old, broke, and haunted.

The first feature-length documentary that fully explores how the toxic social and political Canadian context after 1968 created some of the most nihilistic and imaginative Canadian cult films of the 1970s and 80s and beyond.

A karaoke video which takes the lyrics and sentiment of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin pop classic at face value... and then puts a different face on them.

After discovering that his terminal illness is no longer manageable, Daniel leaves the hospital and wanders through landscapes in search of a final resting place.

Peep the chicken ventures out on an adventure into the Big Wide World and makes some friends along the way. Narrated by Peter Ustinov, this 1988 short film commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada comprises three short stories starring Peep the chicken, Quack the duck, and Chirp the Robin, and eventually served as the inspiration for an ongoing 2004 animated series.

Tower centres on a thirty-four year old man, Derek, who lives at home with his parents in Toronto, Canada. Unlike his married brother who is expecting a baby, Derek is single and without a career. Although he aspires to become a graphic-animator, he works part-time at his uncle’s construction company. Late at night he wanders the street alone and frequents nightclubs in search of companionship. Derek suddenly finds himself in an intimate relationship with a woman he meets, Nicole. When a neighbourhood raccoon becomes a constant nuisance by tearing up his family’s garbage, Derek sets out to catch it.

A masked man practices various tortures on women while some dark ambient music plays.

A young woman taking care of her diabetic father gets involved in a one way relationship. Portrait of a generation about to replace another, Demain is a film based on an inertia marked youth, and on it's precursors confronted to their own disappearance.

A girl trapped in a time loop leaves an AI replica to relive her final days. Glitches and burned-in subtitles reveal the machine’s fractured view, until the loop shifts to the real her — blurring the line between memory, code, and consciousness. "Told from the memory stream of a trapped A.I., the film visually glitches as it attempts to 'escape,' including encoded flashes of an 'ESC' key."

"Poor Miss Clavel, how would she feel if she knew that on top of the ferris wheel, in weather that turned from bad to rotten, Pepito and Madeline had been forgotten?" Luckily, the Strong Man, the Clown and the elephant rescue Madeline and Pepito, and the adventurous pair join the gypsy circus!