March 2024 Film Festivals
by Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(February 28, 2024 – Toronto, ON) March begins on Friday and I’m late taking a look ahead to some of the March film festivals we have listed on Northernstars.ca.
First up has to be the Kingston Canadian Film Festival. It kicks off tonight with a screening of Fawzia Mirza’s The Queen of My Dreams (pictured above). It tells the story of Azra, a young Pakistani Canadian woman who has had a strained relationship with her mother Mariam since coming out as gay. But after her father Hassan unexpectedly dies, Azra goes on an emotional journey and begins to better understand her mother and her parents’ past. The opening night screening is at the Kingston Isabel Bader Centre at 6:30PM.
The Rendez-vous de la Francophonie (RVF), is described as an “epic celebration of francophone culture in Canada.” It runs the entire month of March, launching this Friday, March 1. Five documentary and animation programs will be available in person and online, free of charge, for francophone communities and francophiles across Canada.
The National Film Board of Canada is at RVF for the 19th year in a row. Their films include the documentary Travailler autrement (Work Different), by Vancouver-based director Julien Capraro, which will make its streaming debut on March 1 following its world premiere screening at the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma (RVQC) in Montreal today, February 28. Meanwhile, the documentary series Maisonneuve, by Jean-Martin Gagnon, is in its first week of streaming on nfb.ca, after taking its big-screen bow at the same festival. Click here for more information about the NFB at RVF.
It’s a Leap Year, which means there’s one more day in February and the 28th Annual Kamloops Film Festival decided February 29, 2024 would be the perfect day to start their festival. Documentaries, comedies, dramas, and Canadian films fill he schedule which runs until March i9th.
Further over there on the west coast, GEMFest (previously presented by Women in Film and Television Vancouver) begins in Vancouver on March 5 and runs until the 9th. Previously called the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival, GEMFest includes screenings, receptions, panels and more. There are 37 films from 14 countries on the schedule, including 14 Canadian films, of which 6 are from BC filmmakers.
Here in Toronto, the Canadian Film Fest (CFF) has announced their 2024 lineup as the festival expands to six days from March 18 to 23, 2024 at the Cineplex Scotiabank Theatre. There’s a bit of an emphasis on shorts, which we think is great, and this year CFF will have six dedicated Homegrown Shorts programs, including a spotlight on Toronto filmmakers. The full schedule includes 11 features and 45 shorts and opens with the Toronto Premiere of the 91-minute feature Doubles (pictured above) from director Ian Harnarine. Festival tickets go on sale March 4.
We list 14 festivals running in March and that includes February festivals that continue into next month, now just two days away.
Ralph Lucas is a former broadcast executive and award-winning director in high-end corporate video production. The founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca, online since 1998, he began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.
