Ottawa Canadian Film Festival (OCan)

  

OCan is an IMDB qualifying festival, and is listed among qualifying festivals for the Canadian Screen Awards by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

Check out our filmfreeway page for more reivews.

OCan is a Film Festival in Ottawa that celebrates Canadian film. Through annual festival screenings at the Bytowne Cinema in November and activities throughout the year, we work to promote Canadian film as distinctive and vital to our country’s culture and the local economy.

OCanFilmFest is a registered charity that is artist and volunteer-run, and is strongly committed to fostering diversity in its approach to programming. We strive to achieve this by encouraging film submissions from under-represented independent artists including those who identify as women, non-binary, Black, Indigenous, Persons of Colour (BIPoC), persons from the 2SLGBTQ+ community, and persons with disabilities. We recruit diverse members and voices to our Board of Directors and film selection juries.

OCan is an IMDB qualifying festival, and is listed among qualifying festivals for the Canadian Screen Awards by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

Check out our about page for more about our vision and history.

OCan Film Festival Board

Blair Campbell

Board Member
Co-founder

Lorelei E. Miller

Board Member
Treasurer, Event Planner

Ben Bergeron

Board Member, Secretary

Colin Ziraldo

Board Member

2025 OCan Film Festival Jury

Zachary Chabot

Jury President

Daniel Perras

Jury Member

Nicole Bedford

Jury Member

What makes OCan different from other film festivals in Ottawa?

Ottawa is fortunate to host a variety of film festivals thoughout the calendar year at both indoor and outdoor venues throughout the city. Here are some of the differentiating features of the Ottawa Canadian Film Festival:

• Films at OCan are jury-selected from submitted work that is already produced and completed.
• All featured films are Canadian. Films are written or directed by Canadian filmmakers.
• There are no genre, theme or duration requirements. Selected films are usually a mix of short films, feature-length films and those that fall in between those two categories. Films can be narrative (fiction), documentary or experimental. There may even be a sprinkiling of dance films, music videos and cine-poetry.
• There is no premiere requirement. A film you see at OCan may be the first time it is shown to an audience outside of the filmmakers, or it may be Canadian movie that has had incredible buzz on the festival circuit elsewhere but not yet widely available. You may see a short film or two that was made in response a "catch" or featured at another festival held in Ottawa or elsewhere earlier in the year or a few years ago. You may also see a film that has been available on a streaming platform getting its big-screen theatrical debut.
• Artist Fees (also referred to as Screening Fees) are paid to filmmakers for all films selected to screen at OCan.
• Festival audience select one film as the audience favourite every year.
• A Jury Prize is also awarded to one film that the Jury selects for excellence in filmmaking.

How can I submit a film to screen at OCanFilmFest?

Filmmakers from across Canada are invited to submit films to OCanFilmFest via FilmFreeway. The Call for Submissions lists all criteria and is usually opened in January each year, with various discount periods posted with the call. The jury watches and evaluates films over the Spring and official selections usually announced in September.

Visit our FAQ page for more questions and answers about OCan.

We host annual in-person festival screenings at the Bytowne Cinema in Ottawa in November. The 9th annual festival will take place from November 6-8, 2025.

Other Activities and Events

In addition to our annual screenings, OCan programs a number of events including curated online and in-person screenings and fundraising events in collaboration with local filmmakers and other festivals.

• The OCan Newsletter an email digest of articles, news, events, fundraisers, and links related to Canadian film and filmmakers, arriving in your inbox about once a month.
• We publish film reviews, filmmaking and film promotion tips, and articles related to film and film appreciation on Our companion blog, film613.ca.
• We highlight feature-length and short films previously featured at the festival, now available on YouTube, Vimeo or popular streaming platforms like CBC Gem, and Tubi on the OCan Spotlight page.
• From time to time, the board curates and spotlights locally produced content in a series called OCan Presents.

OCanFilmFest proudly accepts entries on FilmFreeway, the world’s #1 way to enter film festivals and creative contests.