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Indigenous filmmakers continue to make strides in Canada, building industry capacity on their own terms and telling stories that both honor their communities and reach out to global audiences. Toronto’s 2023 slate offers audiences and buyers vital, provocative, and — because we need it — hilarious world-premiering work from established creators and up-and-comers.

“Tautuktavuk (What We See)” is the latest from Isuma, the collective of Inuit-owned media companies best-known for Camera d’Or-winning “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” (2001). “Tautuktavuk” is written and directed by film veterans Carol Kunnuk and Lucy Tulugarjuk, who also play sisters helping each other heal from past and present trauma.

“Originally we were to be face-to-face in the same house,” Tulugarjuk, who is based in Montreal, tells Variety. “I was supposed to film in Igloolik (in Nunavut) over three seasons but when Covid hit, the world locked down. We had to put that reality — the southern pandemic versus the Arctic pandemic

— in the film.

June is National Indigenous History Month, and there’s no better time to enjoy some Indigenous-made entertainment.

Check out these recommendations of some of the top movies from a new generation of Indigenous filmmakers and actors who tell their own stories — their way.

Read More: Et Canada Honours National Day Of Truth And Reconciliation With ‘Indigenous Artists & Icons’

“Atanarjuat the Fast Runner”

Directed by by Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, this 2001 drama was the first feature film in history to be written, directed and acted entirely in the Inuktitut language.

According to Kunuk, this screen adaptation of an ancient Inuit legend “demystifies the exotic, otherwordly aboriginal stereotype by telling a universal story.”

“Before Tomorrow”

Adapted from a Danish novel, this 2008 feature from directors Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu is the first feature film to be made by Arnait Video Productions, a women’s Inuit film collective.

Set in a small Inuit...

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures today announced its schedule of inaugural in-person screenings and public programs, which will begin on September 30 when the museum opens. The Academy Museum is the largest institution in the United States devoted to exploring the art and science of movies and moviemaking.

During the first three months of the Academy Museum’s opening, the museum will offer the public a robust, dynamic, and diverse slate of over 115 film screenings, discussions, and programs for film lovers of all ages, beginning with two special presentations of The Wizard of Oz (USA, 1939) featuring live musical accompaniment by the American Youth Symphony conducted by Academy Award®-nominated composer David Newman.

Other highlights of the museum’s first few months of in-person programming include the launch of ongoing series:

Stories of Cinema: featuring screenings of films highlighted in the museum’s core exhibition, including Real Women Have Curves (USA,...

Finally, after years of delays, some caused by the pandemic, some not, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on La Brea and Wilshire has revealed its launch schedule of live screenings and public programs to begin on opening day, September 30. The first three months brings over 115 film programs, panels, and events, beginning with two screenings of MGM musical “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) with live musical accompaniment by the American Youth Symphony conducted by Oscar perennial David Newman.

Among the continuing virtual programs leading up to the museum’s opening are a conversation with Oscar-winner Spike Lee and writer-director-producer Shaka King, and a 20th anniversary screening of “Y tu mamá también”. Clearly, the Academy Museum is launching at a time when inclusion and diversity are front and center for curators and programmers. “As with all of our exhibitions and initiatives,” stated Bill Kramer, Director and President of the Academy Museum, “we...

Finally, after years of delays, some caused by the pandemic, some not, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on La Brea and Wilshire has revealed its launch schedule of live screenings and public programs to begin on opening day, September 30. The first three months brings over 115 film programs, panels, and events, beginning with two screenings of MGM musical “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) with live musical accompaniment by the American Youth Symphony conducted by Oscar perennial David Newman.

Among the continuing virtual programs leading up to the museum’s opening are a conversation with Oscar-winner Spike Lee and writer-director-producer Shaka King, and a 20th anniversary screening of “Y tu mamá también”. Clearly, the Academy Museum is launching at a time when inclusion and diversity are front and center for curators and programmers. “As with all of our exhibitions and initiatives,” stated Bill Kramer, Director and President of the Academy Museum, “we...

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has announced its inaugural in-person programming schedule, which features two screenings of “The Wizard of Oz” with a live accompaniment by the American Youth Symphony, conducted by composer David Newman, on opening day.

During the first three months of the museum’s opening, it will offer a diverse and robust slate of over 115 screenings, discussions and programs, along with ongoing special and standalone series

Special series and standalone screenings include:

“Malcolm X“ in 70mm: a screening for Academy Museum Members of the seminal film, with special guests Spike Lee and Denzel Washington. Oscar Frights: featuring screenings of Oscar-winning and nominated horror films, including “Get Out” (2017) and “Psycho” (1960). Hayao Miyazaki: in conjunction with the Academy Museum’s landmark exhibition on Hayao Miyazaki, the Academy Museum will screen the filmmaker’s complete body of work as a feature director, including “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988) and “Spirited Away...

Appropriately, considering one of the key attractions of the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures are Dorothy’s infamous ruby-red shoes, the museum’s official opening screening September 30 will be The Wizard of Oz accompanied by the American Youth Symphony conducted by David Newman.

But there is much more both before and after the museum’s public unveiling at the end of September. The Academy has unveiled a slew of discussions, programs and 115 screenings over the course of the first three months after the doors open on the Los Angeles venue. Other movie-oriented events will include Oscar Sundays featuring Oscar-honored films, and “Oscar Frights” with movies like Get Out and Psycho. Spike Lee and Denzel Washington will be on hand for a 70Mm screening of Malcolm X. A program of movies featuring women composers is also on tap, and are retrospectives of filmmakers Jane Campion and Satyajit Ray among many others.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures‘ inaugural in-person schedule for its first three months will begin on its Sept. 30 opening day with two special presentations of the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz.” Those will feature live musical accompaniment by the American Youth Symphony conducted by composer David Newman, the museum said Wednesday.

MGM

The museum will offer more than 115 film screenings, discussions and programs. According to a museum statement other highlights include the launch of these ongoing series:

Stories of Cinema: featuring screenings of films highlighted in the museum’s core exhibition, including Real Women Have Curves and The Way of the Dragon.Oscar® Sundays: held every Sunday evening in the David Geffen Theater, this series celebrates films that have been honored at the Academy Awards®. For the series’ first iteration, we are celebrating the work of women directors, including Harlan County, U.S.A. and Seven Beauties.Family Matinees:...

Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner, screening at this year's event

The annual Folk Film Gathering is returning for another year, with an exciting online programme featuring film, music and conversations between makers of the two, all wrapped around the theme of 'Solidarity'.

Run by Transgressive North's Mike Brogan and Jamie Chambers, whose film Blackbird was nominated for the Edinburgh International Film Festival's Michael Powell award in 2013, the festival retains its focus on, and championing of, folk culture from around the globe.

The 2021 edition, running between 25 June and 2 July, will be entirely online, and will feature live contributions from a series of world-leading filmmaking including John Sayles, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Gaston Kaboré, Zacharius Kunuk, Pat Collins (Ireland;...

France’s Annecy Festival, Europe and one of the world’s largest and most important annual events for all things animated, has announced the lineups for its first group of competition sections for this summer’s 60th anniversary hybrid edition.

Instantly recognizable U.S. titles from this year’s TV competition lineup include the “Last Splash” episode of Matt Groening’s Netflix Original “Disenchantment,” praised for its sincere handling of the tragicomic romance of lead character Princess Tiabeanie, or Bean, and mermaid Mora. Hulu’s long-awaited and well-received reboot of Warner Bros “Animaniacs” is participating with its two-part premiere episode “Suspended Animation,” featuring the three Warner siblings and fan favorites Pink and the Brain. The best-known franchise in this year’s competition however, is Apple TV Plus’ “Peanuts” update “The Snoopy Show,” from WildBrain, Peanuts Worldwide and Charles M Schulz Creative Associates.

Major non-u.S. productions include Russia’s “Masha and the Bear,...

I could, and sometimes do, wax philosophical, intellectual, and academic about the Native films I enjoy. But that sort of analysis can get pretty boring, and saps what I love about movies. I watch to be entertained! I don’t necessarily want to ponder the state of my Native being when I’m just trying to watch stuff blow up on screen. I prefer bombast and popcorn. Put it this way: instead of seeing “Thunderheart” in theaters, I saw “Wayne’s World” a third time toward the end of its cinematic run.

Growing up when I did, I became a consumer byproduct of early MTV, HBO, and “Skinemax” access, of USA network action flicks and Nick at Night reruns. If I took note of Native cinema (or more accurately Natives In cinema) back then, it was when they weren’t being obviously Native: Graham Greene in “Die Hard with a Vengeance,...

For too long, the stories of Native and Indigenous people have been told by Hollywood through the eyes of everyone but us. It’s an exciting time in film and television, with more Natives writing, directing, and developing content. We’re challenging images and stereotypes and wiping the war paint off the lens.

These are the films, shorts, and documentaries that Native storytellers have shared with us in the past 20 years. A celebration of diverse voices within our community — as you’ll see, our tribes and experiences are all different from each other.

For Native American Heritage month, here is a selection of films, documentaries and shorts to seek out.

“Four Sheets to the Wind”(2007) – by Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee)

This coming-of-age-film by Sterlin Harjo follows a young American Indian, Cufe, played by Cody Lightning, who leaves the reservation after his father dies. His father’s death prompts Cufe to...

The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.The Painted BirdDear Kelley and Fern,Leonardo has already written on Václav Marhoul’s sprawling and undeniably uncomfortable The Painted Bird, but since I know neither of you are seeing it, I wanted to expand a bit more on this picaresque of human suffering. Based on the 1965 novel by Polish writer Jerzy Kosiński (who also wrote Being There), it episodically shuttles an orphaned boy from person to person around an unnamed Eastern European countryside of such provincial poverty it might as well be pre-industrial. We see a Luftwaffe scout plane early on, yet the deliberately measured effect of Marhoul’s decidedly relaxed storytelling is that of slowly pushing this boy from an older, nearly medieval past of superstition, into a Christian community, then into the Second War World and a key post-war coda.

The Canadian film industry produces numerous blockbuster features, as well as popular TV series, in an entertainment business mostly financed by Us Hollywood studios:

Some notable 'Hollywood North' movies produced over the years include "2012", "X-Men: The Last Stand", "Man of Steel", "Star Trek Beyond", "Tron: Legacy", "Titanic", and "I, Robot", all filmed in Vancouver, with "Kick-Ass" and "Suicide Squad" shot in Toronto.

But truly 'Canadian' movies, produced and directed by Canadian film-makers, are not as well known around the world as their Us counterparts. Is it because the Canadian government investing tax dollars into properties, insist their films be representational 'art', while Hollywood films only care about profit ?

Chances are, you will never see a slot machine based on "Jesus of Montreal", or "Goin' Down The Road"...

...while Hollywood's "Terminator" and "Jurassic Park" movies have popped @ the 'Royal Vegas Online Casino' as slot games. 

The Royal Vegas, just like Hollywood,...

The Canadian film industry produces numerous blockbuster features, as well as popular TV series, in an entertainment business mostly financed by Us Hollywood studios:

Some notable 'Hollywood North' movies produced over the years include "2012", "X-Men: The Last Stand", "Man of Steel", "Star Trek Beyond", "Tron: Legacy", "Titanic", and "I, Robot", all filmed in Vancouver, with "Kick-Ass" and "Suicide Squad" shot in Toronto.

But truly 'Canadian' movies, produced and directed by Canadian film-makers, are not as well known around the world as their Us counterparts. Is it because the Canadian government investing tax dollars into properties, insist their films be representational 'art', while Hollywood films only care about profit ?

Chances are, you will never see a slot machine based on "Jesus of Montreal", or "Goin' Down The Road"...

...while Hollywood's "Terminator" and "Jurassic Park" movies have popped @ the 'Royal Vegas Online Casino' as slot games. 

The Royal Vegas, just like Hollywood,...

In the scheduled nine day run, the Marrakech Int. Film Festival truly gets into gear on the first Saturday when the fifteen competing films (having all recently premiered elsewhere) are slowly unveiled to the high brow jury. My first stab at Director General Bruno Barde’s selections was Paradise, a contemporary, Tehran doldrum portrait which was also a double Locarno winner. After that, I was treated to an uneventful press conference for the compassionately generous Bill Murray with the only bit of noteworthy news was his involvement in the new Wes Anderson film.

Later that evening, the festival gives what is an annual Valentine’s card of sorts to one national cinema. This year’s selection is one that I’m all too familiar with. With Atom Egoyan selected as the ambassador, the reel presentation included highlights from Canadiana with a glaring absence of select Quebecois films and Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner.

The Dead Lands

Written by Glenn Standring

Directed by Toa Fraser

New Zealand, 2014

Set in New Zealand, long before the arrival of European colonialists, The Dead Lands sees the journey of 16-year-old Hongi (James Rolleston) as he transforms from warrior apprentice to full fledged killer under harrowing circumstances he much rather do without. The land where he has grown up was, up until recently, prospering in a much-welcomed peace, but it was not so long ago that war engulfed the neighbouring tribes. One leader, Wirepa (Te Kohe Tuhaka), suffers an insatiable thirst to crush the wipe out the current détente and aggrandize his legacy throug whichever means available, including the senseless massacre of Hongi’s entire tribe. Left to fend for himself and seeking justice, Hongi will be call upon the help of an estranged warrior (Lawrence Makoare), some would say monster, who lives in a damned region of the...

High Arctic Film Weekend, London

The nights are drawing in, Frozen Planet is on the box, the ice caps are melting – perfect timing for this Arctic-themed event. Today focuses on Inuit culture, with screenings of 1920s "documentary" Nanook Of The North (which was notoriously staged) and Zacharias Kunuk's thrilling fable Atanarjuat – The Fast Runner, plus Kunuk's latest doc, Qapirangajuq, an Inuit response to climate change. Sunday's highlights include vintage Arctic footage and a special preview of the final episode of Frozen Planet.

National Maritime Museum, SE10, Sat & Sun, nmm.ac.uk/visit/events

Shame - Special Previews, Manchester, Bristol

With acclaim for his risky, confrontational debut Hunger, artist-turned-film-maker Steve McQueen has opted for another risky subject for his follow-up. Shame gives us a frank, modern, almost empathic study of a New York sex addict – again played by Hunger star Michael Fassbender – and although it's more conventional than its predecessor,...

Studio Ghibli, London

If you've never stepped into the universes of Hayao Miyazaki and co, it's time you discovered what you're missing. These aren't just some of the best animated children's movies ever made; they'e some of the best movies full stop. The vibrant fantasy worlds, airborne adventures and noble junior heroes of Studio Ghibli's movies fascinate kids, but they're richer, more challenging and more psychedelically epic than most of what passes for grown-up fantasy. Avatar looks like Mr Men compared to, say, Princess Mononoke – which deals with similar themes with considerably more nuance. Having first championed them 10 years ago, the Barbican brings back Ghibli classics, from Laputa: Castle In The Sky and My Neighbour Totoro (the best one for young viewers), right up to previews of their latest, Arrietty, a version of The Borrowers.

Barbican Screen EC2, Wed to 31 Jul

Liverpool Arabic Fim Festival

Partly as a result of the Arab Spring,...

In honor of Canada Day, we are republishing this post -- Ranylt's first on the site -- from Canada Day 2007.

July 1 is Canada Day, so while my compatriots are busy painting themselves red and perfecting their Maenadic howls in time for tonight's fireworks, I've been tasked with offering up a list of ten nifty Canadian films that are mostly off the radar outside of this country (and I throw my arms around you in delight if you're a foreigner who's actually seen any of these--French kisses for anyone who appreciates them, to boot).

Many readers seem familiar with Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter and Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire. And David Cronenberg's body of work needs no introduction thanks to The Fly, Naked Lunch, Scanners, Crash (the other Crash!) and Videodrome. As unnatural as it is to omit Egoyan, Arcand and Cronenberg from a Canadian film overview,...

The Edinburgh film festival aims to surprise. But in order to do that, it needs less Toy Story, less iffy Britcoms, less big name documentarians, and a little more clout

For the last couple of years, ever since the UK Film Council offered it a substantial grant linked to a change in the way it presented itself, the Edinburgh film festival has constantly referred to itself as a festival of "discovery" – in contrast, presumably, to the London film festival, which perhaps considers itself a festival of "celebrity".

But what does this mean in practice? All film festivals, by definition, enable people to "discover" films they may not yet know about or have forgotten; their stock-in-trade, however specialist, is a mix of pre-release previews, archive retrievals – and squads of that odd beast known as the "festival film", the submerged nine-tenths of the film production world that gets only one or two screenings in its lifetime,...

In 1922, Robert J. Flaherty gave us Nanook of the North, one of my favourite silent films and an early example of a snow movie--that is, a movie that wouldn't be what it is without its wintry landscape. In some films, snow is incidental--a pretty backdrop or a minor metaphor (like the snowfall that blankets the Bride's duel with O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill Vol. I). In others, a snowy climate is central to the story or sometimes even a character in its own right. Here are 10 movies that each use ice, snow, and cold in a specific way; together, they collectively demonstrate the range one symbol can have.

As with a typical Pajiba Guide, many genres are represented (don't worry Nanook fans -- silent film, documentary, and Inuit culture are all covered below in some form). And as with a typical Guide, apologies must be made for omitting many more...

The Guardian film team's pick of the top 100 movies of the decade. Check back from 21 December as we unveil the top 10 day by day

11-20

11. Waltz With Bashir

12. Dig!

13. The Beat That My Heart Skipped

14. The Consequences of Love

15. No Country for Old Men

16. Silent Light

17. Japon

18. The Sun

19. What Time Is It There?

20. Before Sunset

21-30

21. Unrelated

22. One and a Two

23. Ivansxtc

24. Let the Right One In

25. Of Time and the City

26. When the Levees Broke

27. You Can Count on Me

28. A Serious Man

29. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner

30. Control

31-40

31. The Death of Mr Lazarescu

32. Grizzly Man

33. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

34. Être et Avoir

35. Far from Heaven

36. Hidden

37. The Hurt Locker

38. Oldboy

39. The New World

40. The Piano Teacher

41-50

41. Spirited Away

42. Vera Drake

43. American Splendor

44. Capturing the Friedmans

45. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

46. Crimson Gold

47. A History of Violence

48. In the Mood for Love

49. Movern Callar

50. The Night of the Sunflowers...

Being with Inuit who are experts in living in that environment and learning from them, adapting to their pace and their rhythm, letting the work be influenced by that, accepting that and finding the aesthetic of that relationship to nature, is a great pleasure, a challenge, a learning experience and it is very rewarding. - Before Tomorrow is a stunning and powerful drama set in an Inuit community in 1840 in the Arctic circle, a time when many Inuit had yet to meet white people, and thus maintained their traditional way of life. Based on the novel For Morgendagen by Danish writer Jørn Riel, Ninguiq (co-director Madeline Piujuq Ivalu) and her young grandson Maniq (Paul-Dylan Ivalu) set out to brave the harsh Arctic wilderness to hunt and save food for the upcoming winter. But contact with the outside world brings irrevocable damage to the community, and jeopardizes the future of Ningiuq,...

Billed as the third part of a trilogy that began with Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn’s Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner and continued with their The Journals Of Knud Rasmussen, the melancholy drama Before Tomorrow features a different writer-director team, but has a look and mood similar to the earlier films. Co-directors Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (working from a novel by Jørn Riel) follow an Inuit tribe in 1840 as they go about their seasonal rituals of celebration, fishing, and storage, all while whispering among themselves about the strange ways of the white folks that ...

'Indigenous cinema' will be celebrated in Toronto at the 10th imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, Wednesday, October 14th to Sunday, October 18th, 2009, showcasing global aboriginal filmmakers and media artists, with more than 125 works of innovation in film, video, radio and new media. "The celebration of imagineNATIVE.s 10th anniversary offers an important occasion to reflect on the accomplishments of the last 10 years and the exciting opportunities ahead of us," said Executive Director Kerry Swanson. "In 10 years we have seen an incredible explosion of growth in Indigenous-produced film and media art and, as a result, a surge of interest and recognition for the unique and groundbreaking work shown at the festival." "The films programmed this year," said Director of Programming Michelle Latimer, "speak to the contemporary experience and reflect the fact that today's Indigenous filmmakers are reclaiming the medium of film and transforming the world-view of Indigenous people by voicing our...

Nashville Film Festival ~ Day 2

Began the day with the Inuit drama Before Tomorrow and fantastical optimism. Basically I was expecting another Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. Atanarjuat, one should know, is nearly impossible to repeat. Followed that with a tiny indie called Mothers & Daughters (so tiny it doesn't have an IMDb page) which... I hesitate to talk about. It was so in love with its actresses that I imagine it would be the type of movie I would make (warts and all) if someone handed me production equipment and several eager actresses eager to chew on scenery. Not that anyone should hand me those.

You'd probably be more interested to hear that it was preceded by a short called Water Pills which starred none other than Winona Ryder. She played a shaky sweating desperate hot mess of a former actress / addict. Um... ouch. She attacked the role so aggressively that I...

TORONTO -- The Toronto International Film Festival on Wednesday said the world premiere of Canadian Inuit- and Danish-language film The Journals of Knud Rasmussen will open its 31st edition Sept. 7. The gala opening-night film from directors Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn is the follow-up to the duo's 2001 Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, a film based on an ancient Inuit legend that won the Camera d'Or for best first feature at Cannes before going on to win critical acclaim and surprise boxoffice success. The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, a Canadian-Denmark co-production, explores the history of the Inuit people in Canada's Arctic north by portraying the encroachment of Christian European influence on the community of Igloolik.

TORONTO -- The Toronto International Film Festival on Wednesday said the world premiere of Canadian Inuit- and Danish-language film The Journals of Knud Rasmussen will open its 31st edition Sept. 7. The gala opening-night film from directors Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn is the follow-up to the duo's 2001 Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, a film based on an ancient Inuit legend that won the Camera d'Or for best first feature at Cannes before going on to win critical acclaim and surprise boxoffice success. The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, a Canadian-Denmark co-production, explores the history of the Inuit people in Canada's Arctic north by portraying the encroachment of Christian European influence on the community of Igloolik.

The trailer for New Line's About Schmidt led the Golden Trailer awards Thursday evening, gathering four wins including Best of Show. Other honors given out at the fourth annual ceremony, held at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, went to Spirited Away, The Hours and Bowling for Columbine.

Best Comedy: About Schmidt

Best Documentary: Bowling for Columbine

Best Family/Animation: Spirited Away

Most Original: Read My Lips

Best Romance: Secretary

Trashiest: The Rules of Attraction

Best Foreign: Read My Lips

Best Trailer No Movie: 12 Twisted Tricks

Best Voice Over: About Schmidt

Golden Fleece (trailer that made the movie look better than it was): Blue Crush

Best Independent: The Fast Runner

Best Horror/Thriller: The Ring

Best Drama: The Hours

Best Music: About Schmidt

Best Action: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Best of Show: About Schmidt...