Canadian cinema is in its comeback era.
The nominated films for this year’s Canadian Screen Awards prove the importance of investing in Canadian cinema.
Blue Heron (2025) is breaking hearts across the globe, Deux femmes en or (2025) is inviting sex back into comedy, and Endless Cookie (2025) is proving there are no limits to animation. But the key to sustaining this movement is access to federal and provincial funding.
Throughout film history, the Canadian government has played a pivotal role in suporting Canadian cinema. Continued investment in Canada’s arts and culture sector generates billions of dollars for our economy while empowering artists to stay here and create. However, austerity measures raise concerns over potential arts funding cuts, risking historical repeats.
In the 1970s, the government allowed producers to 100 per cent write-off their investments in Canadian tax-shelter films, which kicked off David Cronenberg’s career with the body horror, Shivers (1975). After changes to the tax code, the boom of Canadian film production fizzled out until a decade later.
Through the defunct Ontario Film Development Corporation, the Toronto New Wave saw the creation of Atom Egoyan’s Exotica (1997), John Greyson’s Lilies (1996), and Kingston-born Patricia Rozema’s I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987). But this corporation crumbled under after cuts under Mike Harris’ conservative leadership.
With the same power to financially sustain these film movements, the government can also ruin them— something Canada’s learnt the hard way. It’s been more than three decades since the rise and fall of the Toronto New Wave. If new filmmakers face similar budget constraints, the resurgence of Canadian cinema could meet the same abrupt end.
But, the Canadian Screen Award nominees prove the finale of Canadian cinema is nowhere in sight.
Blue Heron (2025)
Nominated for Best Motion Picture, Original Screenplay, and Achievement in Direction, Sophy Romvari’s first feature film, Blue Heron, opened at the Screening Room on May 15. This semi-autobiographical drama follows a Hungarian family adjusting to their new home on Vancouver Island. As the youngest daughter, Sasha, remembers her older brother’s mental health challenges, she must reckon with the system failing her family.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Romvari remarked,“When I started making work in Canada, I was not aware of the privilege of living in a country that has access to arts funding. The version of this film that I would’ve made within the American system would be very, very different — and I don’t know if that one would’ve gotten distribution.”
Romvari received funding from both Telefilm Canada and the National Film Institute of Hungary.
Although Telefilm Canada will receive $150 million over three years, their advocacy to achieve permanent funding has yet to be realized.
Two Women / Deux femmes en or (2025)
Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Achievement in Editing, Director Chloé Robinchaud and Writer Catherine Léger, received funding from Québec’s Société de Développement des Entreprises Culturelle ( SODEC) to adapt Claude Fournier’s sex comedy, Deux femmes en or (1970).
Out of jealousy, Violette confronts her neighbour, Florence, over her obnoxiously loud sex that mimics a murder of crows, but after discovering her sex life is nonexistent like hers, this awkward encounter sparks a friendship. Fantasies of screwing handyworkers as these women rediscover their sexualities through adulterous sexcapades.
Nominated for their performances, Laurence Leboeuf, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, and Juliette Gariépy convey the constraints of monogamy. For Yellowjackets and Heated Rivalry fans, Sophie Nélisse plays a supporting role as Jessica.
SODEC supports Québecois culture by investing in films that preserve Québec’s identity. In a press release regarding their 2026-27 budget, the Ministère des Finances promises to contribute “$429 million over five years to address challenges in the audiovisual sector, ensure the sustainability of Québec’s media ecosystem, and promote Québec cultural content.”
Endless Cookie (2025)
Nominated for Best Feature Length Documentary, half-brothers Seth and Peter Scriver creatively chronicle their family’s history through a chaotically animated exploration of identity, culture, and colonization. Seth, who is white, and Peter, who is Cree and a member of the Shamattawa First Nation, narrate pieces of their lives and present these stories over the course of a decade. Set in “Caca-Nada,” Seth travels from Toronto to ditch the culture of Pizza Pizza for a reunion with his brother, Peter, in Shamattawa.
The Scrivers received funding from Telefilm Canada, which is featured as a character in their film. The National Film Board did not finance their project and is satirized as the N.F.G, “No Fucking Good.”
Other Canadian Screen Award nominees include Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks (2025) and Matt Johnson and Jay McCaroll’s Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2025).
To keep cinema Canada down, let’s keep that funding up.
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Canadian, canadian film, Film, movie, Review
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