From zombie drama ‘Blood Quantum’ to Canadian Screen Award winner ‘Scarborough,’ movies to watch on National Canadian Film Day

April 20 is the annual celebration of National Canadian Film Day, a massive one-day, coast-to-coast-to-coast celebration of Canadian cinema. After two years of online presentations, this year will see the return of in-person events and screenings in 600 communities across Canada, as well as dozens of offerings on broadcast and streaming.

The 2022 spotlight is focused on Indigenous-made cinema by filmmakers from many diverse nations across Canada. Events include an in-person discussion in Toronto that will also be streamed online, featuring award-winning filmmakers Danis Goulet (Cree/Métis) and Tracey Deer (Mohawk). More information can be found at canfilmday.ca.

To celebrate National Canadian Film Day, check out this list of Canadian movies to stream and top picks to watch in theatres.

Movies to Stream

The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open

When Áila (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) encounters young Indigenous woman Rosie crying on a busy street after escaping her abusive boyfriend, she brings her home and the two navigate the aftermath of this traumatic event.

Where to Stream: Crave

Night Raiders

In a postwar future, a mother (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) joins an underground band of vigilantes to try to rescue her daughter from a state-run institution.

Where to Stream: Crave

Beans

This coming-of-age story about a young Mohawk girl (Kiawentiio) during the Oka Crisis, the Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990, was inspired by director Tracey Deer’s own experiences.

Where to Stream: Prime Video

Indian Horse

This film follows the life of Saul Indian Horse as he survives residential school and the racism of the 1970s. A talented hockey player, Saul must find his own path as he battles stereotypes and alcoholism.

Where to Stream: Hollywood Suite

The Grizzlies

An Inuit community in the Arctic is transformed when a high school teacher reignites his students’ passion for living through the game of lacrosse.

Where to Stream: CBC Gem

Blood Quantum

A zombie virus decimates all of Earth’s population except the Mi’kmaq community of Red Crow, whose Indigenous inhabitants are immune to the zombie plague.

Where to Stream: Prime Video

Movies to Watch in Theatres

Scarborough

Adapted from the critically acclaimed novel by Catherine Hernandez, “Scarborough” follows three low-income families as they struggle to endure within a system that has set them up for failure. The film recently won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Picture.

All My Puny Sorrows

Based on the international bestselling novel by Miriam Toews, “All My Puny Sorrows” is the poignant story of two sisters: Elf (Sarah Gadon), a concert pianist obsessed with ending her life, and Yoli (Alison Pill), a writer who is still trying to find herself.

Learn to Swim

Sparks fly when sax player Dezi (Thomas Antony Olajide) meets singer Selma (Emma Ferreira), but their temperaments make the road to romance bumpy at best.

Wildhood

When Link (Phillip Lewitski), who lives with his toxic father and younger half-brother Travis in a rural trailer park, discovers his Mi’kmaw mother could still be alive, they make a run for a better life. As the boys journey across Mi’kma’ki, Link finds community, identity and love in the land where he belongs.

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