OCan Spotlight is a series of feature-length and short films previously featured at the festival, now available on YouTube, Vimeo or popular streaming platforms like CBC Gem, and Tubi.
The OCan Spotlight page is part of the celebration of National Canadian Film Day 2024.
The Mayor of Comedy
Matt Kelly (Toronto, ON)
[ Documentary | Feature-length ]
An eye-opening documentary that follows Canadian comedian Sandra Battaglini as she travels the country interviewing the biggest names in the comedy business and attempts to discover why stand-up isn’t considered an artform in Canada.
More information on our 2019 Recap page.
Nose to Tail
Jesse Zigelstein (Toronto, ON)
[ Narrative | Feature-length ]
A talented but abrasive chef struggles mightily with his personal demons and the relentless pressures of running a high-end restaurant in downtown Toronto.
More information on our 2019 Recap page.
My Tree
Jason Sherman (Toronto, ON)
[ Documentary | Feature-length ]
A Canadian Jew goes to Israel to search for the tree that was planted there in his name 40 years earlier.
More information on our 2021 Recap page.
Trouble in the Garden
Roz Owen (Toronto, ON)
[ Narrative | Feature-length ]
Raven, a "60s scoop" survivor, is arrested for protesting development on unceded land. Long estranged from her adoptive family, she never imagined her brother Colin would be the one to bail her out.
More information on our 2019 Recap page.
Overgrowth
Christian Belisle (Ottawa, ON)
[ Narrative | Short ]
A couple take a hike to an old ruin and in the process discover how much their relationship has changed.
More information on our 2019 Recap page.
Andre the Anti-Giant
Kim Saltarski (Toronto, ON)
[ Documentary | Short ]
A 3-foot-something actor / comedian / disability advocate strives to retake the stage following a life-endangering diagnosis in this intimate and inspirational tale of hope, hardship, and hilarity.
More information on our 2017 Recap page.
It Could Be You
Cody Westman (St. John's, NL)
[ Narrative | Short ]
‘It could be you!’ says the big cardboard man in the convenience store. Bernie knows it will never be him. Still, as he trudges through life in a grey, dull world where people say as little as possible to each other.
More information on our 2018 Recap page.
Guardians of the Grasslands
Sarah Wray & Ben Wilson (Bashaw, AB)
[ Documentary | Short ]
Guardians Of The Grasslands explores the current state of one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems, the Great Plains grasslands, and the role that cattle play in its survival.
More information on our 2020 Recap page.
Hue Quilted Windowpane
Lasha Mowchun (Winnipeg, MB)
[ Experimental | Short ]
Imaginary love is better than real loneliness as a lonely woman finally finds love when Elvis Presley charms her through the television.
More information on our 2017 Recap page.
Away Home
Jana Stackhouse (Toronto, ON)
[ Narrative | Short ]
A man returns to his family home on the East Coast of Canada to unite his family and say goodbye to his terminally ill mother.
More information on our 2018 Recap page.
Heroes Manufactured
Yaron Betan (Toronto, ON)
[ Documentary | Feature-length ]
Canadian independent artists try to break into the comic book industry while dealing with fandom and the craze of comic book conventions.
More information on our 2017 Recap page.
Baba Yaga
Nicole Sitanski and Cheryl Taam (Vancouver, BC)
[ Animation | Short ]
A desperate mother with an incurably ill baby ventures into the dark woods long believed to be the home of Baba Yaga, a mystical witch with the power to change fate.
More information on our 2019 Recap page.
The Order of Things to Come
Tavit Melikian (Montreal, QC)
[ Narrative | Short ]
A petty criminal, recently released from prison decides to reconcile with his old crime boss. Needless to say that the visit doesn’t go as well as he planned.
More information on our 2019 Recap page.
Girl in the Hallway
Valerie Barnhart (Toronto, ON)
[ Animation | Short ]
Why does ‘Little Red Riding hood’ give Jamie nightmares? It’s been 15 years, and the girl in the hallway haunts him still. Not all girls make it out of the forest.
More information on our 2019 Recap page.
Life Via Rail
Jonny Micay (Toronto, ON)
[ Documentary | Short ]
Jason Shron, a train enthusiast from Canada who abandoned a prestigious phD program to pursue his dream of a career in the model train industry.
More information on our 2019 Recap page.
World Of The Fluffs
Chaisi Glover (Vancouver, BC)
[ Stop-motion Animation | Short ]
This is the documentary of a sentient piece of fluff and his journey to build a home.
More information on our 2020 Recap page.
Miracle, Baby
C Hudson Hwang (Toronto, ON)
[ Documentary | Short ]
In the ultra-competitive world of professional sports, for Tampa Bay Lightning forward Cory Conacher dealing with type 1 diabetes is just one of the many significant challenges he has had to face head-on, and overcome.
More information on our 2020 Recap page.
Newborn
Ray Savaya (Toronto, ON)
[ Narrative | Short ]
A couple welcomes their first born son into the world. Tensions slowly arise over a disagreement which lead them into questioning their identity.
More information on our 2019 Recap page.
Night Drive
Arjan Atwal (Ottawa, ON)
[ Experimental | Short ]
A mixtape triggers memories of a past romance and a haunting past.
More information on our 2019 Recap page.
Poison in the Water
Romeo Candido (Toronto, ON)
[ Narrative | Short ]
A father and his 10-year old son while discussing art history and analyzing paintings develop a beautiful bond between each other.
More information on our 2017 Recap page.
Social Mediation
Matt Pittroff
[ Narrative | Short ]
Neil and Charlotte have shared an exciting life and a very carefully curated version of that life on social media. Now it’s up to two attorneys to navigate the process of fairly dividing that public facing life into two lives.
More information on our 2020 Recap page.
Vessel
Ethan Godel (Toronto, ON)
[ Narrative | Short ]
VESSEL is a sci-fi comedy that follows two lonely romantics as they go to absurd lengths to be anybody but themselves.
More information on our 2020 Recap page.
Company Town
Peter Findlay (Toronto, ON)
[ Documentary | Feature-length ]
When GM announces it’s closing its plant, the autoworkers of Oshawa are in for the fight of their lives.
More information on our 2021 Recap page.
Curbside Pickup
Hingman Leung (Ottawa, ON)
[ Narrative | Short ]
What if the hardest thing about dating in 2020 wasn't the pandemic?
More information on our 2021 Recap page.
End of the Night
Tavit Melikian (Montreal, QC)
[ Narrative | Short ]
After the accidental death of his best friend, Jimmy comes to believe that the friend now haunts his car, but selling it – even with the brother’s help – takes them to a very dark place.
More information on our 2018 Recap page.
Unfinished Manuscript
Vincent Valentino
[ Narrative | Short ]
A writer spends his life chasing that one thing that will define him, eventually coming to terms with what he has gained and what he has lost.
More information on our 2021 Recap page.
The Talk
Tyler Boyco (Toronto, ON)
[ Narrative | Short ]
Neil and Charlotte have shared an exciting life and a very carefully curated version of that life on social media. Now it’s up to two attorneys to navigate the process of fairly dividing that public facing life into two lives.
More information on our 2017 Recap page.
Pinball & Perogies
Sammy J. Lewis (Ottawa, ON)
[ Documentary | Short ]
Ottawa small business/live music venue, ‘House of Targ’, struggles to stay afloat through the global pandemic. What does this mean for the owners and the local Ottawa community? Is there more than just a small business at stake?
More information on our 2021 Recap page.
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 not-for-profit that is artist and volunteer-run, and is strongly committed to fostering diversity in our 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.
Our Calls for Submissions are published on FilmFreeway.
Looking for information about an OCan film? Here is a list of all films featured at the festival.
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