2023 Festival

Directed by: Nisreen Baker / Canada (2023) / Documentary / All ages / Edmonton premiere / Length: 1hr 22min.

*** Director in attendance. plus  Q&A with director & cast! Opening night reception for ticket holders.

With unadulterated truth and complexity, Arab Women Say What?! paints an unparalleled portrait of Arab women living in Canada. The film offers a counter-mainstream narrative that embraces the unique experiences and perspectives of eight Arab women sharing their insights, cuisine and laughter. Amid the rhythm of poetry and music, they tackle issues of feminism, politics, exile and the yearning for a sense of belonging.

Animation Shorts Package

Directed by: Eva Colmers / Canada (2023) / Animation, shadow puppetry, live-action - music video / All ages / Length: 9 min.

*** Join us for a Q&A with the director!  

Wistful accordion music and stunning shadow imagery swirl together in this visually and acoustically lush short film about two dreamers that unite in a quest to help others.

Based on Oscar Wilde’s short story The Happy Prince, the images in Swallow, Dear Swallow are all handmade and a love letter to analog cinematography.

With a simple, transforming set, elements of live puppetry and minimal edits, the viewer is transported to different places following the brave little swallow - evoking the magic of a live performance.

Animation Shorts Package

Directed by: Wendy Tilby / Canada (1991) / Animation / All ages / Length: 10 min.

***Join us for a digital Q&A with this Oscar-nominated director!

This animated film paints a vivid portrait of two strangers intimately linked by the shared ceilings, floors and plumbing of their apartments. When an unexpected problem arises, these comfortable connections are compromised. Wendy Tilby uses a painstaking animation process involving painting on glass and stop-action filming. Strings is a film as beautiful as it is haunting. Without words.

Animation Shorts Package

Directed by: Wendy Tilby & Amanda Forbis / Canada (1999) / Animation / All ages / 1999 Oscar Nominee / Length: 10 min.

***Join us for a digital Q&A with these Oscar-nominated directors.

In this animated short, Ruby the pig seeks affirmation in the city around her after witnessing the accidental death of a stranger… and finds it in surprising places. With deft humour and finely rendered detail, When the Day Breaks illuminates the links that connect our urban lives, while evoking the promise and fragility of a new day. Winner of over 40 prizes from around the world, the film also features singer Martha Wainwright.

Animation Shorts Package

Directed by: Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby / Canada (2011) / Animation / All ages/ 2012 Oscar Nominee / Length: 13 min.

***Join us for a digital Q&A with these Oscar-nominated directors.

In 1909, a dapper young remittance man is sent from England to Alberta to attempt ranching. However, his affection for badminton, bird watching and liquor leaves him little time for wrangling cattle. It soon becomes clear that nothing in his refined upbringing has prepared him for the harsh conditions of the New World. This animated short is about the beauty of the prairie, the pang of being homesick and the folly of living dangerously out of context.

Animation Shorts Package

Directed by: Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby / Canada (2022) / 2D & 3D Animation / All ages / 2023 Oscar Nominee / Length: 8 min.

***Join us for a digital Q&A with these Oscar-nominated directors.

Two ships collide in a harbour, an explosion shatters a city, and a sailor is blasted skyward. With ears ringing, blood pulsing and guts heaving, he soars high above the mayhem and towards the great unknown. A bold blend of comedy, suspense and philosophy, The Flying Sailor is an exhilarating contemplation of the wonder and fragility of existence.

Directed by: Virginia Abramovich / Canada (2020) / Suspense, Thriller / 13+ / Edmonton premiere / 1hr 40min.

A woman pursues her missing lover, a quantum physicist, by crossing into a parallel dimension after his presumed death. Following a map and notebook left behind, she embarks on a journey to the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. Here she begins to untangle the truth of what really happened the night he disappeared.

Directed by: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn / Canada/Norway (2019) / Drama / 13+ / Official Selection Berlinale 2019 / 1hr 45min.

Two Indigenous women from vastly different backgrounds find their worlds colliding as one of them, Rosie, is fleeing a violent domestic attack. What begins as an urgent and terrifying escape, tentatively expands as the women weave a fragile bond in their short time together while navigating the complexities of motherhood and the ongoing legacy of colonialism.

Directed by: Shelley Thompson / Canada (2021) / Drama / 13+ / Edmonton premiere / 1hr 32min.

***Join us for a panel discussion with special guests following the screening.

Set on a Nova Scotia dairy farm, John Andrew has just lost his wife Miranda to cancer. When a young woman with a startling resemblance to Miranda appears on his porch, an odyssey towards understanding begins. John Andrew’s estranged son Donald is now Dawn, and she’s come home to mourn her mother and keep her promise to repair her relationship with her Dad.
Restoring the tractor her mother learned to drive on becomes a focus for the mechanically minded Dawn. John Andrew begins to realize that if he’s to reclaim this relationship, he has to come out with Dawn, and what better setting than the community tractor trials — an event Miranda created as a tireless village volunteer — where he proudly cheers for his daughter
Dawn, as she enters the arena at the wheel of the lovingly restored tractor.

Directed by: Marie Kreutzer / Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, France (2022) / Historical Drama / 18+ / 1hr 53min.

German with English subtitles

Vicky Krieps won Best Performance (Un Certain Regard) at Cannes for spellbinding turn as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Marie Kreutzer's exquisite period drama.