I half expected “best” to be an extraneous word, as in there only are 51 Canadian films. Lucky for me, I like to to fact check before letting my mouth leak. As it turns out, we recently produced three times that within the span of one year, and the National Film Board of Canada takes credit for over 13,000 films since 1939.
That does come with a caveat, however, in that the NFB runs on subsidy to the tune of ~$70m per year and isn’t really focused on mainstream, commercially successful entertainment. The numbers likely include “films” as short as 5 minutes, along with everything between that and feature length movies.
What’s my point? I, uh, didn’t get that far. Hopefully I’ve at least managed to pivot from parading my ignorance to acknowledging it.
Anyway, a few of the featured pique my curiosity (which I’m listing here for my own future reference):
BlackBerry (2023, was already planning on watching at some point)
Goon (2004)
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)
Seeds (2024)
Strange Brew (1983, hoping it’s more “Dumb and Dumber” and less “Dude, Where’s My Car?”)
Movies that aren’t really Canadian:
Navalny (2022)
Turning Red (2022)
Well now it feels like I’m parading my lack of culture. 🤷♂️
I took a pass on that when it released. Horror, and especially psychological horror, are really not my jam. The closest I ever got to enjoying something like that is Resident Evil. That’s why The Fly isn’t on my list either. But that reminds me of another Canadian movie that caught my interest after watching a video essay about it: Blood Quantum (2019).
I half expected “best” to be an extraneous word, as in there only are 51 Canadian films. Lucky for me, I like to to fact check before letting my mouth leak. As it turns out, we recently produced three times that within the span of one year, and the National Film Board of Canada takes credit for over 13,000 films since 1939.
That does come with a caveat, however, in that the NFB runs on subsidy to the tune of ~$70m per year and isn’t really focused on mainstream, commercially successful entertainment. The numbers likely include “films” as short as 5 minutes, along with everything between that and feature length movies.
What’s my point? I, uh, didn’t get that far. Hopefully I’ve at least managed to pivot from parading my ignorance to acknowledging it.
Anyway, a few of the featured pique my curiosity (which I’m listing here for my own future reference):
Well now it feels like I’m parading my lack of culture. 🤷♂️
Turning Red was written-directed by a Canadian and set in Canada, so it’s at least Canadian adjacent.
“Cube” is a really fun sci-fi horror, and I was happy to see it on the list. Very low-budget, but one should never hold that against Canadian cinema.
I took a pass on that when it released. Horror, and especially psychological horror, are really not my jam. The closest I ever got to enjoying something like that is Resident Evil. That’s why The Fly isn’t on my list either. But that reminds me of another Canadian movie that caught my interest after watching a video essay about it: Blood Quantum (2019).
Cube is fantastic. I like to rewatch it every now and then. The sequels, not as good, imo.
Blackberry is a great movie. Love Baruchel and Howerton in their roles.
Also enjoyed many Cronenberg and Villeneuve movies too.