Naomi Jaye’s drama Darkest Miriam will screen at Canadian Film Fest.Courtesy of Game Theory
Wedged between TIFF and Hot Docs on the Toronto cultural calendar, the Canadian Film Fest has always faced a challenge in setting itself apart from the city’s (really, the country’s) two film-festival giants. Yet for its 19th edition, CFF has found itself holding a trump card of sorts: As a film festival dedicated to exclusively screening Canadian movies, the organization is primed to take advantage of a newly formed strain of made-in-Canada patriotism spurred by the current trade war.
Ahead of CFF’s launch next week – which opens with Naomi Jaye’s drama Darkest Miriam and includes the world premiere of Toronto filmmaker Ingrid Veninger’s Crocodile Eyes – The Globe and Mail spoke with festival director Ashleigh Rains about keeping cinema close to home.
Well, I guess the timing for this year’s festival couldn’t be better, amidst all the tariff talk.
Yes, but the festival’s mandate has always been to exclusively support Canadian talent. And this year, we had the most submissions from Canadian filmmakers ever – about 800, shorts and features – and we’ve expanded our programming to our biggest lineup ever: 16 features, 51 shorts, plus 14 industry events. It’s really a reflection of Canadian film coast to coast. And on top of that, we’re leaning into the conversation – we were getting ticket inquiries before they went on sale.
Canadian Film Fest director Ashleigh Rains.LAUREN VANDENBROOK/Supplied
The sense out there when it comes to live arts events is that there’s a lot of belt-tightening. How is support looking this year?
It is a tough environment, and we have felt the squeeze on the sponsorship side this year. Everyone is feeling the financial tightening and the risk aversion. But we’ve been able to expand the programming because we have the space at the Scotiabank Cineplex, and built in longer days in that space to grow the festival that way, and some great sponsors. We’ve been lucky to piece it together.
Do you feel this patriotic mood is going to last? To get audiences excited about Canadian film is, usually, a challenge, to say the least. How can the industry capitalize on this for the long term?
I’m hoping that for audiences who have never engaged with Canadian film all that much, they come to the festival and find a film that resonates with them. That challenges what they think about when they think about Canadian film. And then they can proactively search out those kinds of stories. It’s great that there’s a conversation now about supporting each other. But my hope is that we can look back at this moment in the future as a turning point.
Your film festival sits at an interesting place on the arts calendar – Toronto is such a film-festival-heavy city to begin with. How has CFF tried to stand out over the years in this landscape?
The festival was founded by Bern Euler almost 20 years ago because, as a film editor working in the industry, he saw that so many directors had great films, but didn’t have a place to showcase them. He started it in his basement, then it moved to the Royal and now it’s at the Scotiabank. Our mandate has always been to exclusively platform Canadian talent, so we’re not contending with TIFF, for example, because that’s an international festival. And the industry has been responsive to us – we’re growing our audiences and programming year over year.
And how does CFF define “Canadian” film? Is it just the talent on the screen, the money behind it, the creative elements … ?
We say if it’s in the creative control of Canadians – the directors. We also look at financing, but it’s mostly about being in the creative control of the Canadian filmmakers.
In addition to the conversations about supporting Canadian art, there’s an argument out there about limiting that to only consuming local content – effectively excluding anything American. What do you think about balancing support with potentially limiting our perspectives?
For me and the festival, I think this is just the moment to shine the spotlight on how we engage with Canadian storytelling. If you have ever felt a disconnect from Canadian culture, or you want a stronger connection, then that’s what we’re here for. We’ve been here, and we’ll still be here, telling great Canadian stories.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
The 19th edition of the Canadian Film Fest runs March 24-29 at the Scotiabank Cineplex in Toronto.
