Top 10 Canadian Films to Watch at the 2025 Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF 2025)

Running September 18–28, 2025, CIFF is widening its footprint across Calgary through the new Constellation model, installing CIFF-calibrated projectors in partner venues citywide, with the network set to grow year over year.

CIFF has become one of Western Canada’s best showcases for major international cinema, and a home for standout Canadian work. This list zeroes in on the latter – from the Centrepiece doc The Pitch to festival darlings like Blue Heron and Mile End Kicks, and the cult-comedy Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.

Here are ten Canadian films to prioritize at CIFF 2025.

10. The Pitch

Director: Michèle Hozer

Cast: Erin McLeod, Christine Sinclair, Diana Matheson

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

Filmed over the course of two years, director Michèle Hozer’s THE PITCH offers rare behind-the-scenes access to a bold attempt to change the game — a universal story of resilience, leadership and a refusal to play by the old rules. When Olympic soccer star Diana Matheson retires, she sets out — alongside fellow players — to build something that has never existed: a professional women’s soccer league in Canada. What follows is a modern David-and-Goliath story, as they confront institutional resistance, doubters and naysayers and the weight of doing something for the first time.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Growing up in Canada, many of us remember the collective thrill of watching our women’s soccer team compete on the Olympic stage. It’s one of those rare moments that unifies Canadians, especially when facing off against our southern neighbors. The Pitch taps into that same vein of passion and underdog spirit that feels distinctly Canadian. It’s not really about soccer. It’s about a group of women determined to carve out space for themselves in a landscape that’s never made it easy.

Director Michele Hozer and subjects Diana Matheson/Christine Sinclair will be in attendance at the September 23 screening.

9. Have You Heard Judi Singh?

Director: Baljit Sangra

Cast: Judi Singh, Tantoo Cardinal, Rae Dawn Chong, Emily Hughes

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

Filmmaker Baljit Sangra delivers a stylish, intimate portrait of Edmonton’s own starlet, highlighting a woman whose remarkable story has been long overlooked. Originally from Edmonton, gifted jazz singer Judi Singh defied expectations as a Black-Punjabi artist stepping onto the stage in the late 1950s. Though her ethereal voice captivated musicians and niche audiences, the music industry failed to give her the recognition she deserved—an all-too-familiar story for women and artists of colour. In this lively and deeply felt portrait, Singh’s daughter Emily Hughes and director Baljit Sangra retrace Singh’s life and music through archival recordings, intimate recollections, and the bohemian spaces she once inhabited. Weaving together moments of brilliance, struggle, and resilience, the film reintroduces a forgotten artist to the spotlight she always deserved.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Have You Heard Judi Singh? is an Alberta story, highlighting a long legacy of multiculturalism, but also how these diverse voices have often been overlooked. What makes it especially intriguing is the multigenerational lens it provides. We don’t just see Judi Singh’s past; we see how her musical legacy is passed down through her family and how this reclamation of her story is, in itself, an act of resilience. It’s a unique glimpse into Black-Punjabi Albertan culture, offering a voice that should be heard.

Director Baljit Sangra and documentary subject and Judi Singh‘s daughter Emily Hughes will be in attendance at the September 19 screening.

8. Still Single

Director: Jamal Burger

Cast: Masaki Saito, William Cheng, Tsuyoshi Yoshinaga

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

Filmmakers Jamal Burger and Jukan Tateisi offer an intimate look into the world of a Japanese culinary master, capturing the artistry of his kitchen, his humble beginnings in rural Japan and the intensity of his daily routine. Chef Masaki Saito, Canada’s first Michelin two-star chef, is celebrated for his transformative influence on Toronto’s food scene. Trained in Japan from a young age, and drawn to Toronto from New York City, the 36-year-old culinary visionary has redefined high-end Omakase dining. His bold approach—aging fish to the brink of freshness—reflects the same daring spirit that defines both his cuisine and his way of life.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Still Single started out looking like it would be a straightforward food documentary, but it evolved into something far more profound. It’s ultimately less about the food and more about the human. As someone who knows firsthand how perfectionist tendencies can be isolating, it’s easy to relate to the journey of Masaki Saito. The film deftly illustrates the sacrifices made in the pursuit of excellence and the loneliness that can come with it. While food lovers will appreciate the culinary artistry, the documentary’s real strength lies in its exploration of the human spirit.

Director Jamal Burger and producer Kevin Krikst will be in attendance at the September 19 screening.

7. Agatha’s Almanac

Director: Amalie Atkins

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

Shot by an all-female crew on 16mm film over the course of six years, AGATHA’S ALMANAC serves as a powerful conduit for often-overlooked stories, amplifying voices and rural perspectives. Agatha’s life offers a window into the experiences of a nearly lost generation. Their values and ways of living are at risk of fading as the world rapidly changes. Agatha Bock, a fiercely independent 90-year-old, lives alone on her ancestral farm. Despite health challenges, she defiantly tends her land. Cultivating heirloom seeds that have been passed down through generations, Agatha uses antiquated techniques, planting and harvesting by hand. Without a car, cell phone, running water, or a functioning landline, Agatha’s meditative routines stand in vivid contrast to the rapid pace of contemporary life. The film, made with sensory-sensitive viewers in mind, carves out a (mostly) calm space in a chaotic world.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Admittedly, I haven’t seen Agatha’s Almanac just yet, but the stills and insights from the filmmaker more than justify its place on this list. I’m a sucker for that dreamy 16mm aesthetic, and the idea of a film that explores time, both literally over its six-year shoot and metaphorically in terms of intergenerational connections, is right up my alley. It looks to be a gentle, meditative piece amid a festival lineup full of more intense films, plus it’s tough not to support an incredible all-female crew.

Director Amalie Atkins will be in attendance at the September 20 screening.

6. Nika & Madison

Director: Eva Thomas

Cast: Shawn Doyle, Jennifer Podemski, Billy Merasty, Ellyn Jade, Star Slade, Amanda Brugel, Gail Maurice

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

This tense and emotionally charged feature debut from director Eva Thomas examines themes of resilience, loyalty and the unbreakable bond of shared roots. Adapted from Eva Thomas’ award-winning short film REDLIGHTS. Madison, an ambitious University of Toronto student, is sexually assaulted by a predatory policeman while visiting her hometown. Her childhood friend Nika intervenes to save her, but the violent encounter leaves the officer critically injured. Fearing they won’t be believed, the two young Indigenous women go on the run, first seeking refuge on the reserve and then deep within the Canadian wilderness. Two sharp-eyed Toronto detectives begin to uncover the truth and see that the women were likely acting in self-defence. However, when the case involves one of their own, the justice system reveals its deeply ingrained biases, blurring the lines between right and wrong.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Nika & Madison marks the confident next step for director Eva Thomas, as she has been honing her craft over the past few years. In 2023, she brought her short film “Redlights” (on which this feature is based) to the festival circuit. In 2024, she co-directed her first feature, Aberdeen, and now, in 2025, with Nika & Madison, she is bringing her first solo feature to CIFF. Here, the film’s emphasis is on the friendship between two Indigenous women, and this sort of deep bond isn’t often foregrounded in films, even those that deal with Indigenous identities. It’s that portrayal of shared Indigenous and female experience that makes Nika & Madison really worth watching.

5. Meadowlarks

Director: Tasha Hubbard

Cast: Michael Greyeyes, Carmen Moore, Alex Rice, Michelle Thrush

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

Inspired by her own acclaimed documentary BIRTH OF A FAMILY (CIFF 2017), Tasha Hubbard’s (NÎPAWISTAMÂSOWIN: WE WILL STAND UP, CIFF 2019; SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO, CIFF 2024) narrative directorial debut tells the story of four Cree siblings, separated since childhood and now in their fifties, who agree to meet for the first time over a holiday weekend in Banff. Without the usual markers of familiarity, or a shared sense of cultural belonging, Anthony (Michael Greyeyes, THE ABANDONS; 40 ACRES, CIFF 2024), Connie (Carmen Moore), Marianne (Alex Rice) and Gwen (Michelle Thrush, DO US PART, CIFF 2025) discover unexpected moments of joyous synchronicity, conflict, and connection. With further guidance from the warmth of a newly discovered community, a fledgling family is invited to heal. Excited and curious, but also scared and afraid of rejection, the siblings must contend with where they have been and who they will become.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Meadowlarks is another powerful entry from Tasha Hubbard, a director who’s no stranger to CIFF audiences. With this latest project, she demonstrates her ability to transcend both documentary and narrative forms. Meadowlarks is a fictional narrative, but it’s woven from the very real pain and resilience of Indigenous families through the 60s scoop, making it both a compelling story and a genuine reflection of lived experience. Beyond that, we also have an incredible cast of Indigenous talent, including the likes of Michael Greyeyes.

Director Tasha Hubbard and guests will be in attendance at the September 27 screening.

4. Blue Heron

Director: Sophy Romvari

Cast: Preston Drabble, Amy Zimmer, Eylul Guven, Iringó Réti, Ádám Tompa, Edik Beddoes, Liam Serg

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child. With its delicate balance of tenderness and tension, BLUE HERON captures the fragile bonds that hold a family together, and the quiet moments that threaten to pull them apart. Canadian-Hungarian filmmaker Sophy Romvari has received recent critical acclaim – her short film STILL PROCESSING received a Canadian Screen Award nomination, Criterion Channel launched a retrospective of her work, and her incredibly accomplished debut feature BLUE HERON just had its World Premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival 2025.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Blue Heron has been one of the greatest surprises on this year’s festival circuit. What started as a relatively quiet, under-the-radar project from an emerging director has quickly blossomed into an international sensation. It’s already found its way onto many critics’ top films of 2025 lists, and not just in Canada, but internationally as well. I’ll acknowledge my own bias for 16mm film again here. Still, Blue Heron is a gorgeous example of how that format can create a visually and thematically textured, emotionally layered space. It’s already popping up on several “best films of 2025” lists, so don’t be too late to the indie party.

3. Dead Lover / Honey Bunch

3a. Dead Lover

Director: Grace Glowicki

Cast: Leah Doz, Lowen Morrow, Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

DEAD LOVER is a horny, hilarious, and unhinged Frankensteinian romance about grief, devotion, and going way too far for love. The sophomore film from actor-director Grace Glowicki features Ben Petrie (HONEY BUNCH, CIFF 2025), Leah Doz, and Lowen Morrow in a variety of roles mimicking the style of great romps such as Monty Python and DR. STRANGELOVE. A lonely gravedigger who reeks of death (Grace Glowicki, HONEY BUNCH, CIFF 2025) finally meets the man of her dreams, only to lose him to the ocean. Devastated by this great loss, she turns to wild science to bring back her dead lover.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Dead Lover is one of the most unique films at the festival. Directed by Grace Glowicki, it’s the kind of wild, black-box-theatre-style movie that you don’t quite see coming – especially given how down-to-earth and lovely Glowicki is in person. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, gross, twisted, and absolutely a midnight film in the best sense.

3b. Honey Bunch

Director: Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli

Cast: Kate Dickie, Jason Isaacs, India Brown, Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

Following their debut feature VIOLATION (winner of the RBC Emerging Canadian Artist Award, CIFF 2020), co-directors and writers Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli return with their sophomore feature, HONEY BUNCH. This atmospheric, creative, and darkly entertaining period genre film pays homage to the style of the 1970s. Having had its world premiere at Berlinale, this wildly inventive film is sure to spark conversation long after the credits roll. After an accident takes Diana’s memory (Grace Glowicki, SUCK IT UP, CIFF 2017; STRAWBERRY MANSION, CIFF 2022) and leaves her in crippling pain, her husband Homer (Ben Petrie, BLACKBERRY; HER FRIEND ADAM, CIFF 2016) takes her to an experimental treatment facility that reveals the sinister realities of their marriage.

CIFF audiences can also catch Ben Petrie and Grace Glowicki this year in DEAD LOVER, and Petrie makes a triple festival appearance in NIRVANNA: THE BAND, THE SHOW, THE MOVIE.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Compared to Dead Lover, Honey Bunch may be a bit more on the mainstream side, but it is wonderfully strange and unique in its own right. It’s a psychological tale with a touch of dark humour, beautifully shot and offering another chance to see Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie showcase their range together. Pairing the two films would make for a fantastic double feature at CIFF.

2. Mile End Kicks

Director: Chandler Levack

Cast: Barbie Ferreira, Juliette Gariépy, Devon Bostick, Jay Baruchel, Stanley Simons, Emily Lê, Robert Naylor, Hasani Freeman, Magi Merlin

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

World premiering at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, MILE END KICKS is the highly anticipated second feature by Chandler Levack, winner of the RBC Emerging Canadian Artist Award at the 2022 Calgary International Film Festival for her feature film directorial debut I LIKE MOVIES. Barbie Ferreira (BOB TREVINO LIKES IT, CIFF 2024) stars in this semi-autobiographical story of a young music critic aspiring to write a book about Alanis Morissette while spending an idyllic summer in Montreal in the 2010s. Her blissful escape is soon interrupted by mounting deadlines and complicated by all-consuming indie rock band love interests—forcing her to confront her own ambivalence toward the work she desperately wants to pursue in a male-dominated world.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Chandler Levack is now undeniably a director who deserves your attention. She’s quickly becoming one of Canada’s strongest emerging filmmakers, and Mile End Kicks is a testament to that. Following up on the acclaimed success of her earlier film I Like Movies, which also played at CIFF, Levack’s latest project is a bold, vividly realized depiction of Montreal’s indie music scene. The film captures your attention from frame to frame and is elevated by some strong performances, most notably from Barbie Ferreira. And of course, it wouldn’t be a true “Canadian films to watch” list without a spot for Jay Baruchel.

1. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Director: Matt Johnson

Cast: Jay McCarrol, Matt Johnson

What It’s About (From CIFF 2025)

Officially adding “THE MOVIE” to the NIRVANNA: THE BAND – THE SHOW string of titles marks a momentous occasion for fans of this cult comedy directed by Matt Johnson (OPERATION AVALANCHE, CIFF 2016; BLACKBERRY). Winning both the Midnighter Audience Award at SXSW 2025 and the hearts of fans who had waited many years for another highly Torontonian, yet universally resonant, adventure, this uniquely Canadian time travel mockumentary celebrates friendship and the creators’ love for the movies and shows that shaped them. When their plan to book a show at the Rivoli goes horribly wrong, Matt and Jay accidentally travel back to the year 2008, a better moment in history where Orbitz were abundant, and friendships were intact.

Why It’s Worth a Watch

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie has been years in the making from Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol, with its roots in their cult-favourite web series. After a long struggle to secure funding (something they only achieved after the success of BlackBerry), they’ve finally brought this delightfully meta tale to the big screen. And it’s safe to say it’s been worth the wait. The film has already scooped up Audience Choice awards at both SXSW and TIFF, and it wouldn’t be surprising if it does the same at CIFF. You do not want to miss it.

Cinematographer Jared Raab will be in attendance at the September 20 screening.