(March 1, 2017 – Toronto, ON) It seems as if March has become the official Canadian Movie Month. The big event is the Canadian Screen Awards, which kick off next Tuesday March 7th and wrap on the 12th with the Broadcast Gala Awards. March is also home to ever-growing Canadian Film Fest (CFF). Northernstars was there for the very first festival when it was unsure if anyone would show up and although the crowds were small the idea stuck and found Bern Euler is to be congratulated for sticking with the dream, nursing it through the years and now seeing it become a highly popular destination festival for Canadian filmmakers and fans of Canadian film alike. The 2017 version runs from March 21st to the 25th.
The big news is this year’s CFF has grown and changed its hosting venue. The festival has expanded from four days to five and this year the festival shifts from the beloved Royal Cinema (pictured) in the city’s Little Italy neighbourhood to the huge Scotiabank Theatre in downtown Toronto were all of the activities that are part of the festival can take lace under one roof.
The opening night gala is the Toronto premiere of Ken Finkleman’s 2016 feature An American Dream. The 90-minute film costars include Jake Croker, Diana Bentley, Shiloh Blondel, Jan Caruana and Precious Chong. The full title is An American Dream: The Education of William Bowman. The festival will close with Andy King’s dark comedy crime story Filth City that stars Melinda Shankar, Melanie Nicholls-King, and Siobhan Murphy. This year’s CFF will showcase a total of 10 feature films and 21 shorts.
“It was extremely difficult task to narrow down the selection from the stellar list of submissions, but we think this year’s final selection is exceptional,” commented Bern Euler, Founder and Executive Director of CFF. “We also couldn’t be happier or more excited about our partnership with Cineplex. Their generosity to us directly extends to Canadian filmmakers and proves their continued proactive support of Canadian artists.” He added, “We are grateful to the respective teams at the Royal Theatre and the Monarch Tavern, for without their support, we would not have grown to where we are today.”
Other feature films screening over the five-day festival include Lost Solace (dir. Chris Scheuerman) which recently won the Best Director Award at The Auckland International Film Festival, Great Great Great (dir. Adam Garnet Jones), The Heretics (dir. Chad Archibald) and Broken Mile (dir. Justin McConnell) just to name a few.
The CFF shorts program includes an array of impressive films including the award-winning Rainfall (dir. Efehan Elbi), The Cameraman (dir. Connor Gaston) and Parent Teacher (dir. Roman Tchjen).
Online ticket sales start March 7 and there is more information online at the festival’s website.
