National Canadian Film Day is coming to living rooms everywhere on April 22

The World’s Largest Film Festival cancels 1000 live screenings and moves to an all-online social distancing edition

The seventh annual National Canadian Film Day (NCFD) on April 22nd will unite Canadians in a celebration of our cinematic culture by moving screenings and events online.

The centrepiece of the programming this year will be “CanFilmDay Live”: an interactive livestream broadcast from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST on YouTube and canfilmday.ca. It will feature engaging, interactive activities, conversations with filmmakers and other industry professionals, short videos submitted by Canadians, “Happy NCFD” messages from around the world, and more.

Confirmed guests who will take part in our livestream programming include Sandra Oh, Jay Baruchel, Colm Feore, Ethan Hawke, Atom Egoyan, Meghan Follows, Mina Shum, Philippe Falardeau, Don McKellar and many more.

There will be great Canadian films on CBC, CBC Gem, Encore+, Netflix, Hollywood Suite, Crave, the NFB and the many others. Audiences of all ages will be connecting with their friends, neighbours, classmates, colleagues, communities and fellow citizens through online Watch Parties and on the livestream.

“While there is a huge selection of pop-up home entertainments happening, we believe that Canadians are hungry for an opportunity to be part of something larger, and especially something Canadian. It’s a chance to come together and give each other a big virtual hug,” said Jack Blum, Executive Director of REEL CANADA. “And we’ve been thrilled by the warm response our plans have received from filmmakers and community partners alike.”

Special programming will be made available to more than150 retirement residences and long term care facilities, including video introductions from the filmmakers. We hope these offerings will bring some comfort and much-needed cheer to our most vulnerable citizens, who are in isolation and away from their families and loved ones.

There will also be a wealth of family-friendly programming during the day, to help Canadian parents looking for activities to do with their kids. We’ll have games, printable colouring pages, online scavenger hunts and other fun (and educational!) content, as well as a list of kid-appropriate films that Canadians can access for free.

Each year on NCFD, we have a significant online presence, with #canfilmday trending across Canada. This year, it’s all happening online, so in addition to the livestream, we encourage Canadians to explore and follow #canfilmday for a wealth of other ways to tune in. Other organizations and individuals will also be hosting their own NCFD activities, and we’ll be promoting them all on our social media channels.

Go to canfilmday.ca, where you’ll find our curated list of 20+20 films to give you a boost and ground you in reality. In the days to come, we will be posting a detailed schedule for the livestream as well as family-friendly activities, and a toolkit to help you organize your own “Canadian film watch party”.

Let’s keep each other company on April 22:

  • Watch a great Canadian movie
  • Tune into our livestream
  • Join the conversation on social media and use the hashtag #canfilmday

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