Joshua Giuliano’s debut film, River, is a wonderfully brutal and emotionally draining experience, showcasing how sound and visuals can be used as distinct elements to create something both fantastic and bleak. Estranged siblings Lucy (Jane Levy), Carla (Jessica Rothe) and their younger brother Drew (Max Mettern) are on their deceased
Tag: cinema
Smudge the Blade ★★★ TIFF 26
Cody Lightning’s wonderfully balanced dramedy Smudge the Blade shows the racism Indigenous players face in hockey. Full of heart and unafraid to get angry, there’s a lot to love about this one. Treaty 6 Blades, an under-28 hockey team from an Alberta reservation, face their last season together while navigating
Pâkwêsikan sâkihtin: Bannock is Love ★★★★ (short- Redefined) TIFF 26
Pâkwêsikan sâkihtin: Bannock is Love from Tyra Delver is warm, thoughtful and full of heart. This short documentary leaves us with a strong reminder: keeping your history close to you at all times helps others understand you and, by keeping stories and traditions alive, helps you fully understand yourself. Gathering
Where Our Flowers Grow (Short – Redefined) ★★★★ TIFF 26
Maxime Kornachuk’s Where Our Flowers Grow is a wonderful and poignant celebration of heritage and resilience. It’s a moving documentary short about the vital, universal need to reclaim your culture, no matter how distant your generation is, a need long denied to the Métis people. For generations, many Métis people
Restaurant Kids (Short – Redefined) ★★★★ TIFF 26
Sylvia Mok’s short documentary Restaurant Kids is a charming, delightful look at multiple generations of families detailing the good and bad of revolving their lives around their family business. Raised between dining rooms and take–out counters, the children of Halifax’s Chinese restaurateurs share stories of family, hard work and identity.
Benny’s Second Birthday ★★★★ Hollyshorts 2026
R.J. Glass gives his audience a parental nightmare with his short film Benny’s Second Birthday. Full of rightful paranoia, this is a psychological horror that ticks the right boxes. Little Benny is turning two years old, but when his pregnant mother Claire (Allegra Edwards) starts encountering strangers who seem to
The Inheritance ★★★ 1/2 Hollyshorts 2026
The Inheritance is a strong, unsettling short that explores the challenges mixed-race couples face as they delve into their ancestors’ past. Destinee Stewart keeps her audience uncomfortable throughout the fifteen-minute runtime. When Venus (Arie Thompson) joins her wife Harley (Hetty Abbott) on a remote family estate, unsettling visions collapse past
20 Films to watch at Fantasia Festival 2026
If you are anything like me, one of the funnest parts of the year is waiting until the full Fantasia Festival program is released and just browsing through all the films on offer. For the vast majority of these films, the most I have seen is the trailer and a
Atəm kʷaθ nan (Namesake) – ★★★★★ Hot Docs 2026
Atəm kʷaθ nan (Namesake) is a tremendously emotional and necessary documentary, showing us how lost some communities are in their efforts to recognise and respect Indigenous people. If we could all live with the attitude of the Tla’amin Nation, we would be a lot better off for it – A
Searching for Drug Peace ★★★★ Hot Docs 2026
Searching for Drug Peace is a raw, but careful conversation starter on the benefits of safe drug use and effective but still illegal methods of tackling the overdose crisis. Director Alisher Balfanbayev’s compelling and important documentary will reframe how people think about this highly political topic. Amidst a deadly overdose
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