Get ready, New York. Canada Now coming your way from February 13 to 16, 2020, at Manhattan’s IFC Center.
Prepare to be dazzled, impressed, and inspired by this year’s diverse selection of eight independent Canadian films, ranging from emerging talent to cinematic icons, comedy to drama, documentary to Indigenous content and new works by female directors.
In the last four years, the Canada Now initiative has brought more than 40 top-notch films to over 90 cities in five countries! We hand-deliver some of our best homegrown content directly to new audiences.
Presented by Telefilm Canada, here are the eight films featured :
- Atom Egoyan’s Guest of Honour. Making its U.S. premiere, this father-daughter drama premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, screened at the Busan International Film Festival, and had a special presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Pssst: here’s some background on this Oscar-nominated filmmaker!)
- Marie Clements’ Red Snow follows a POW’s escape through Afghanistan with an Indigenous family. Starring Tantoo Cardinal, this film won Best Director at the American Indian Film Festival, Best Canadian Feature at the Edmonton International Film Festival, and Most Popular Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
- Zacharias Kunuk’s One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk. This feature screened at TIFF and was chosen for TIFF Canada’s Top Ten, opened the 20th edition of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, and was featured at the Venice Biennale, representing Canada as part of a Canada Pavilion video art installation by the Isuma collective and video production company (co-founded by Kunuk). (For more, check out our video spotlight).
- Sophie Deraspe’s Antigone. Canada’s official Oscar submission (for Best International Feature Film) took home the Best Canadian Feature Film Award at TIFF and was named to TIFF Canada’s Top 10. The drama puts a modern plot on Sophocles’ Greek tragedy of the same name.
- Yung Chang’s This Is Not a Movie is a doc about foreign correspondent Robert Fisk, and has its world premiere at TIFF before heading to the DOC NYC festival.
- Louise Archambault’s And the Birds Rained Down (Il pleuvait des oiseaux) Selected as one of TIFF Canada’s Top 10 of 2019, this tale of living off the grid screened at TIFF, the Vancouver International Film Festival, San Sebastian International Film Festival, and Palm Springs International Film Festival, among others.
- Nicole Dorsey’s debut feature Black Conflux takes place in 1980s Newfoundland and was named to TIFF Canada’s Top Ten and had its U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. At the Whistler Film Festival, this drama also picked up a Rising Star award (for Ryan McDonald) and Honourable Mention for Best Actor (for Ella Ballentine).
- Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas’s White Lie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in the World Cinema section, and had its international premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in October.
- Last but not least, don’t miss the U.S. premiere of Monia Chokri’s A Brother’s Love (La Femme de mon frère). This first feature of this Quebec filmmaker scored a Cannes Coup de Coeur award, and is about a brother and sister whose relationship gets challenged when he falls in love with a new woman.
Hot tip: most directors will be present for their screenings and Q&A sessions!
What's next for Canada Now?
The showcase heads to Los Angeles from March 5 to 8, 2020, then to Mexico March 20th to finally continue in Germany until May. Follow all the dates and latest news below!
