March 2, 2026

The semi-autobiographical Blue Heron has won the Toronto Film Critics Association’s 2025 Rogers Best Canadian Film. Its companion prize, Rogers Best Canadian Documentary, was awarded to the surrealist animated doc Endless Cookie.

A double genre winner, Seth Scriver and Peter Scriver’s Endless Cookie previously was awarded Best Animated Feature by the TFCA in December. It tells the story, in artfully and comically illustrated style, of half-brothers, a white Torontonian and a Cree who lives on a remote reserve in Northern Manitoba, respectively. The siblings co-directed the film.

Blue Heron, meanwhile, is Sophy Romvari’s film about growing up as a Hungarian immigrant on Vancouver Island, in a household grappling with the chronic behavioral problems of the eldest son. Romvari previously won Best First Feature in the main slate of TFCA Awards revealed in December, and joins Sarah Polley and Zacharias Kunuk as the only filmmakers to win both the TFCA’s Best Canadian Feature and Best First Feature in the same year.

The richest annual film prize in Canada was shared by narrative and documentary features, with $50,000 to each winner, courtesy of Rogers.

Filmmaker/writer/actor Don McKellar and Robin Mirsky, Executive Director of the Rogers Group of Funds, presented the narrative award to Blue Heron writer/director Romvari. Mirsky and Toronto International Film Festival CEO Cameron Bailey presented the doc prize to Endless Cookie’s Seth Scriver and Chris Scriver, Peter’s son, who lends his voice to the film.

Drawing from animation influences as diverse as anime and Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Endless Cookie has been widely applauded, with award nominations at events including the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs. Romvari’s intensely personal Blue Heron has also made the festival rounds, winning the Best Canadian Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Grand Prix for Best Feature Film at the Montréal Festival du Nouveau Cinema.

Runners-up in both categories received a $5,000 prize from Rogers Communications. Nominated in the dramatic category were Matt Johnson (Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie) and David Cronenberg (The Shrouds). Virginia Tangvald (Ghosts of the Sea) and Jean-François Poisson (Who Killed the Montreal Expos?) were runners-up in the documentary race.

Hosted by actress Tamara Podemski (Youngblood, Bloodlines), the ceremony took place at a gala dinner held March 2, 2026 at The Omni King Edward Hotel in Toronto, featuring a Prime Video cocktail party, a Netflix dinner, and a Prime Video After Party.

“Both of this year’s Rogers Prize-winning films speak so eloquently to our present moment,” Robin Mirsky, Executive Director, Rogers Group of Funds, said. “Blue Heron addresses the timeless subjects of immigration, belonging, family, memory, and the ache of love in such a timely way. And Endless Cookie layers urgent ideas about isolation, addiction, colonialism and economic disparity under great warmth, humour and originality. Both are about searching for home – specifically, searching for home in Canada – and we’re proud to celebrate them, along with all the nominees.”

“Our six Rogers nominees this year are about as different from one another as six films could be,” Johanna Schneller, TFCA president, said. “That is thrilling to me, because it shows the remarkable range of talent in this country. But I’m delighted to single out Endless Cookie and Blue Heron. You couldn’t possibly distill either film into a tidy elevator pitch — they’re each too wonderfully singular for that. But they do have this in common: They both take you on an unforgettable journey, though neither takes you where you think it will.”

At the gala, Actor Jennifer Robertson (Schitt’s Creek, Ginny and Georgia) presented a moving tribute to three industry giants we lost in the past year – Ted Kotcheff, Graham Greene and Catherine O’Hara.

Tamara Podemski and Dani Kind (I Used to Be Funny) introduced video acceptance speeches from TFCA Award winners Rose Byrne (Outstanding Lead Performance, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Ethan Hawke (Outstanding Lead Performance, Blue Moon), Nina Hoss (Outstanding Supporting Performance, Hedda), Benicio del Toro (Outstanding Supporting Performance, One Battle After Another), Joan Chen (Outstanding Lead Performance in a Canadian Film, Montreal, My Beautiful), Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Canadian Film, Sweet Angel Baby), director Ryan White (Allan King Documentary Award, Come See Me in the Good Light), and director Oliver Laxe (Best International Film, Sirāt). They also read out an appreciation email from director Paul Thomas Anderson (Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, One Battle After Another).

Amanda Brugel (The Handmaid’s Tale) presented the Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist to filmmaker Xiaodan He, whose acclaimed filmic love letter Montreal, My Beautiful is about a middle-aged Chinese emigre who finds the inspiration to finally belong in the city she’s lived in for decades.

In its mission to recognize new voices in film criticism, the TFCA gave Nirris Nagendrarajah the seventh annual Telefilm Canada Emerging Critic Award, presented to him by actress Kate Hallett (Women Talking). Nagendrarajah has contributed to outlets including MUBI Notebook, Little White Lies, The Film Stage and Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. The award comes with a prize, which Telefilm increased this year from $1,000 to $5,000.

The Company 3 Luminary Award was presented by filmmaker Atom Egoyan to Ron Mann, the prolific and eclectic documentarian and founder of the indie-focused distribution company Films We Like. A pay-it-forward initiative, the award allows the recipient to donate $50,000 in post-production services from Company 3 to another filmmaker. Mann’s recipient is Jacquelyn Mills, the Montreal-based documentarian, whose artistically rendered Geographies of Solitude – about environmentalist Zoe Lucas and the wild horses on Sable Island – won 35 international awards and a place in the Harvard Film Archives.

The TFCA is extremely grateful to founding sponsor Rogers Communications for the Rogers Best Canadian Film and the Rogers Best Canadian Documentary. TFCA thanks returning sponsors Netflix as Dinner sponsor, Prime Video as Cocktail Reception and After Party sponsor and Air Canada as Official Airline. TFCA salutes Telefilm Canada as Telefilm Canada Emerging Critic sponsor and Company 3 as Company 3 Luminary Award Sponsor, and welcomes new sponsors McCain Foods , A/V sponsor The Magen Group and Sparkling sponsor Luc Belaire. The TFCA also thanks sponsors Omni King Edward Hotel and salutes stalwart supporters, Zoomer Magazine, L’Eat Catering, The Printing House, Element Event Solutions.