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Ottawa Canadian Film Festival

The Ottawa Canadian Film Festival is an evolution of the Treepot Film Festival, independent filmmaker Jith Paul’s series of public screenings that showcased over 150 Canadian independent films at movie theatres, universities, colleges, and parks in downtown Ottawa between 2011 and 2014. Although successful and popular with local audiences, Paul decided it was time to take the Treepot screenings to the next level. He wanted to further promote independent filmmakers and their work to larger and broader audiences, in a more formalized, sustainable structure. The result is the Ottawa Canadian Film Festival, founded in 2015, with its first annual screenings in 2017. Since then the festival has presented Canadian films of various genres and durations from filmmakers across the country at both in-person and online screenings.

The next annual screenings, OCan24, will take place on November 7-9, 2024 at the Bytowne Cinema in Ottawa.

OCan24 Tickets

 
OCan23 festival poster2023 Recap

2023


Festival screenings for OCan23 took place on November 2-4, 2023 at the Bytowne Cinema in Ottawa. The festival programme consisted of 18 films — 1 feature-length film and 17 short films.

The short film Life After... by director Stephanie Lalonde from Ottawa, Ontario was awarded Audience Favourite.

 
 
OCan22 festival poster 2022 Recap

2022


Festival screenings for OCan22 took place on November 3-5, 2022 at the Bytowne Cinema in Ottawa. The festival programme consisted of 12 films — 2 feature-length films and 10 short films.

The feature-length film Tehranto by director Faran Moradi from Toronto, Ontario was awarded Audience Favourite

 
 
OCan21 festival poster2021 Recap

2021


Our 2021 Annual Festival, OCan21, was streamed online from November 12 to 21, out of an abundance of caution due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The film festival programme consisted of 14 films —7 feature-length and 7 short films.

The feature-length film Blue Hour by director Jesse Pickett from Red Deer, Alberta was awarded Audience Favourite.

 
 
OCanFilmFest 2020 festival poster2020 Recap

2020


Our 2020 Annual Festival, OCanFilmFest2020, was streamed online due to the COVID-19 pandemic and out of an abundance of caution. The film festival programme consisted of 18 films—3 feature-length and 15 short films—presented over three weekends in November.

The short experimental film and also, for youth by director Eamon Hillis from Harrowsmith, Ontario was awarded Audience Favourite.

 
 
OCanFilmFest 2019 festival poster2019 Recap

2019


Our 2019 Annual Festival took place on November 1 and 2 at the Arts Court Theatre in Ottawa. The film festival programme consisted of 14 films—3 feature-length and 11 short films.

The short film The Still Life of Annika Myers by director Matthew Blecha from Victoria, BC was awarded Audience Favourite.

 
 
OCanFilmFest 2018 festival poster2018 Recap

2018


Our 2018 Annual Festival took place on November 3 at the Arts Court Theatre in Ottawa. The film festival programme consisted of 13 films—2 feature-length and 11 short films.

 
 
OCanFilmFest 2017 festival poster2017 Recap

2017


Our inaugural annual festival took place on June 3, 2017 at La Nouvelle Scène in downtown Ottawa. The film festival programme consisted of 10 films—4 feature-length and 6 short films.

 

2015-2017


We partnered with other festivals and community organizations and experimented with providing unique independent film experiences prior to launching our first series of annual screenings in 2017.

 
Treepot poster
One World Film Festival,
Ottawa National Gallery
Treepot poster
Ottawa Champions,
Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Baseball Park
Treepot poster
Ottawa Indie Fest: The Bytowne Museum Screenings
Bytowne Museum
Treepot poster
Ottawa Champions 2,
Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Baseball Park
Treepot poster
Ottawa Champions 3,
Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Baseball Park
 

2011-2014


Treepot Film Festival - The Ottawa Canadian Film Festival is an evolution of the Treepot Film Festival, independent filmmaker Jith Paul’s series of public screenings that showcased over 150 Canadian independent films at movie theatres, universities, colleges, and parks in downtown Ottawa between 2011 and 2014.

Treepot1 poster
Treepot1, 2011.09.22,
Mayfair Theatre
Treepot2 poster
Treepot2, 2012.03.29,
Bytowne Cinema
Treepot3 poster
Treepot3, 2012.08.10,
Dundonald Park
Treepot4 poster
Treepot4, 2012.10.04,
Bytowne Cinema
Treepot5 poster
Treepot5, 2013.07.20,
Dundonald Park
Treepot6 poster
Treepot6, 2014.02.08,
Alumni Auditorium,
University of Ottawa
 
Treepot7 poster
Treepot7, 2014.08.15,
Dundonald Park
Treepot Double Bill poster
2013.02.23,
Treepot Double Bill,
Algonquin Commons Theatre
Treepot Cliffhanger poster
Treepot Cliffhanger,
2014.06.25,
Mayfair Theatre
A Clean Slate premiere poster
A Ckeab Slate premiere,
2014.09.13,
Club SAW