The TFCA Celebrates the Best Films of 2024
On February 24, 2025, at the Omni King Edward Hotel, the TFCA held its annual gathering, hosted by Tamara Podemski, to celebrate the best in Canadian and international film.
“The montage,” cut by Brian D. Johnson, is an annual highlight of the TFCA Awards gala.
Watch the compilation celebrating the winners and nominees for this year’s awards below.
ROGERS
BEST CANADIAN FILM
This award carries a cash prize of $50,000, courtesy of Rogers Communications.
Runners-up receive $5,000.
Rumours
Directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson
(Elevation Pictures)
It’s not an homage to German Expressionism, with Grand Guignol acting. In fact, it’s quite contemporary. It’s not even shot in Winnipeg. Are we sure this is a Guy Maddin movie? At least the weirdness factor checks out: G7 leaders, meeting in a German forest, encounter zombie bog mummies and a giant, pulsing brain. Maddin and co-directors Evan and Galen Johnson have their cast — including German Chancellor Cate Blanchett and Canadian PM Roy Dupuis — play against mysterious, apocalyptic events with delicious political triteness. If this is the filmmakers’ most mainstream movie, we like where the muse is taking them. Wherever that might be.
— Jim Slotek
Sherpherds (Bergers)
Directed by Sophie Deraspe
(Maison 4:3)
Old ways and modern realities converge on the alpine paths in Sophie Deraspe’s profound, immersive film. While travelling alone in southern France, a young Montreal ad exec (Félix-Antoine Duval, this year’s TFCA Outstanding Performance in a Canadian Film) decides to take up the herder’s staff. As the isolated milieu, gruelling rhythms and dark side of pastoral life begin fraying his resolve, Elise(Solène Rigot) arrives to join him. Sparked by co-writer Mathyas Lefebure’s 2006 roman à clef, shot on location, and enlivened by actual events — births! raging storms! the transhumance! — Shepherds captures the physical challenges and philosophical revelations of the pair’s transformative journey through exquisite visual storytelling and strong performances.
— Jennie Punter
Universal Language
Directed by Matthew Rankin
(Maison 4:3)
A charming mash-up of Abbas Kiarostami’s observational humanism and old-school Canadian absurdity, Universal Language reimagines our nation through an Iranian lens, where Farsi and French are the two official languages and Louis Riel is a national hero. (Not that he shouldn’t be!) In wintry Winnipeg, a tour guide takes his charges to unimpressive landmarks, while a depressed bureaucrat named Matthew Rankin (writer/director Rankin himself) returns from Montreal to visit a family he barely remembers. Their stories eventually intersect, but Rankin encourages us to enjoy the sights along the way: a world you can sink into, and recognize yourself in, even if their Tim Hortons menu is a little different.
— Norman Wilner
ROGERS
BEST CANADIAN DOCUMENTARY
This award carries a cash prize of $50,000, courtesy of Rogers Communications.
Runners-up receive $5,000.
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story
Directed by Michael Mabbott, Lucah Rosenberg-Lee
(National Film Board of Canada/Banger Films)
In the documentary Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee tell the trail-blazing icon’s story through her own words, showcasing her talent and how she broke barriers as one of the first out Black trans performers in Toronto’s R&B scene. Because there’s minimal video footage of Shane at the time, the Toronto filmmakers animate her journey set against her vocals, a storytelling device that effectively captures her soul and details the challenges she faced as a trans woman. The documentary is a poignant tribute to her music and the fame she deserved, but sadly never fully achieved in life.
— Marriska Fernandes
Yintah
Dirs. Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano, Jennifer Wickham
(EyeSteelFilm/CBC/Netflix)
An eye-opening and incendiary look at the lengths multinational corporations and the Canadian government take to build one of the world’s longest and most controversial oil pipelines, Yintah is a powerful work of embedded, deeply personal journalism. Standing alongside Howilhkat Freda Huson and Sleydo’ Molly Wickham — Indigenous leaders of the Witsuwit’en people, who never ceded their lands as part of any treaty — directors Michael Toledano, Jennifer Wickham, and Brenda Michell unwaveringly place themselves on the front lines of a dangerous, sometimes violent battle between ancestral
heritage and government-backed corporate interests.
— Andrew Parker
Your Tomorrow
Directed by Ali Weinstein (Blue Ice Docs)Your Tomorrow is a post-apocalyptic documentary with a twist: The “post” is now. It chronicles the final summer of Toronto’s once-storied Ontario Place, dormant since 2012, now closed for the construction of a massive spa. Filmmaker Ali Weinstein mixes archival, optimistic footage of its early, space-age popularity — it opened in 1971 —with present-day summer students, concertgoers, and a ragtag group of artists, birders, and nature enthusiasts who tried to stop Austria-based multinational Therme from moving in. Spoiler alert: They failed. A loving tribute to an attraction that was meant to last forever, and a reminder that nothing does.
— Chris Knight
BEST PICTURE
WINNER
Nickel Boys
(Warner Bros. Canada)
RUNNERS UP
Anora
(Elevation Pictures)
The Brutalist
(Elevation Pictures)
BEST DIRECTOR
WINNER
RaMell Ross
Nickel Boys
(Warner Bros. Canada)
RUNNERS UP
Sean Baker
Anora
(Elevation Pictures)
Payal Kapadia
All We Imagine as Light
(Films We Like)
OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE
WINNER
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Hard Truths
(Mongrel Media)
OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE
WINNER
Mikey Madison
Anora
(Elevation Pictures)
RUNNERS UP
Adrien Brody
The Brutalist
(Elevation Pictures)
Colman Domingo
Sing Sing
(Elevation Pictures)
Ralph Fiennes
Conclave
(Elevation Pictures)
Karla Sofía Gascón
Emilia Pérez
(Netflix)
Demi Moore
The Substance
(MUBI)
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
WINNER
Yura Borisov
Anora
(Elevation Pictures)
RUNNERS UP
Clarence Maclin
Sing Sing
(Elevation Pictures)
Zoe Saldaña
Emilia Pérez
(Netflix)
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
WINNER
Kieran Culkin
A Real Pain
(Searchlight Pictures )
RUNNERS UP
Jeremy Strong
The Apprentice
(Mongrel Media)
Denzel Washington
Gladiator II
(Paramount Pictures Canada)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE
IN A CANADIAN FILM
WINNER
Félix-Antoine Duval
Shepherds (Bergers)
(Maison 4:3)
RUNNERS UP
Deragh Campbell
Matt & Mara
(MDFF)
Roy Dupuis
Rumours
(Elevation Pictures)
BREAKTHROUGH
PERFORMANCE
WINNER
Clarence Maclin
Sing Sing
(Elevation Pictures)
RUNNERS UP
Karla Sofía Gascón
Emilia Pérez
(Netflix)
Mikey Madison
Anora
(Elevation Pictures)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
WINNER
All We Imagine as Light
Payal Kapadia
(Films We Like)
RUNNERS UP
Anora
Sean Baker
(Elevation Pictures)
Challengers
Justin Kuritzkes
(Warner Bros. Canada)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
WINNER
Nickel Boys
RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
Based on the book by Colson Whitehead
(Warner Bros. Canada)
RUNNERS UP
Conclave
Peter Straughn
(Elevation Pictures)
Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts
(Warner Bros. Canada)
BEST FIRST FEATURE
WINNER
Woman of the Hour
Anna Kendrick
(VVS Films)
RUNNERS UP
40 Acres
R.T. Thorne
(Mongrel Media)
Janet Planet
Annie Baker
(A24)
Vera Drew
(Altered Innocence)
ALLAN KING DOCUMENTARY AWARD
WINNER
Dahomey
Mati Diop
(MUBI)
RUNNERS UP
Occupied City
Steve McQueen
(Films We Like)
Soundtrack to a Coup d’État
Johan Grimonprez
(Films We Like)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
WINNER
Flow
Gints Zilbalodis
(Films We Like)
RUNNERS UP
Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot
(Mongrel Media)
The Wild Robot
Chris Sanders
(Universal Pictures Canada)
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
WINNER
All We Imagine as Light
Payal Kapadia
(Films We Like)
RUNNERS UP
Evil Does Not Exist
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
(Films We Like)
Green Border
Agnieszka Holland
(Kino Lorber)
Special Citation
No Other Land
Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
(Cinetic Media)
With an artfully urgent plea for peace, Palestinian journalist Basel Adra joins forces with Israeli reporter Yuval Abraham and filmmakers Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal to chronicle the history of forced house demolitions in his West Bank community, Masafer Yatta. No Other Land is an essential record of events preceding October 7, 2023 and devastating evidence of war crimes in Palestine. The Palestinian/Israeli collective’s meticulous feat of citizen journalism illustrates that there’s no chance for peace in one land while its neighbour endures relentless violence. Note to distributors out there: as of press time, No Other Land still needs a home. -Pat Mullen
Special Citation
Serena Whitney
and the Revue Film Society
To understand why Canadians rallied around Toronto’s Revue — the city’s oldest operating movie theatre — as it faced eviction last year, consider how head programmer Serena Whitney helped the single-screen cinema buck industry trends in a streaming-centric world. Thanks to Whitney’s keen eye for films and curators, the Revue boasts more than 1,000 paid memberships, its screenings are regularly sold out, and some of our best-known filmmakers, including BlackBerry’s Matt Johnson and Infinity Pool’s Brandon Cronenberg, sing its praises. This past September, the cinema signed a new five-year lease. Let’s hope the show goes on for even longer. – Barry Hertz
COMPANY 3
LUMINARY AWARD
Tonya Williams has been an undeniable force in the Canadian and American film and television industries for 45 years. Though she’s best known for her work on The Young and the Restless and Polka Dot Door, it’s her unrelenting advocacy for racial equality that truly makes this award-winning actress, producer, and director a luminary. If the measure of a person is judged by where they stand in challenging times, then Williams’ career warrants all the praise she has received. Long before diversity and inclusion became trendy initiatives, she was fighting against the imbalance of power within the Canadian entertainment industry.
As founder and executive director of the Reelworld Screen Institute, Reelworld Film Festival, and Reelworld Foundation, Williams took it upon herself to forge the type of meaningful change she wanted to see. These organizations, and initiatives such as Access Reelworld, a national database for racialized creators and industry professionals, have created spaces for marginalized voices to access valuable professional development opportunities. A co-founder of the Black Screen Office and member of numerous industry boards, Williams continues to be a beacon for change. Her light and impact will shine for generations to come.
— Courtney Small
JAY SCOTT PRIZE
For an Emerging Artist
J Stevens’ debut feature film, Really Happy Someday, is a testament to community, identity, and self-discovery. This moving portrait – produced, shot, and directed by Stevens and co-written with breakout star Breton Lalama – follows a stage musical performer’s journey to find their voice after transitioning. Akin to a trans-Boyhood, told with humour, sensitivity, and most importantly, joy, the film exemplifies Stevens’ commitment to showcasing diverse stories within the 2SLGBTQ+ community. Stevens’ dedication to representation extends beyond the camera, reflecting their work with the Spindle Films Foundation, which supports trans, non-binary, and gender diverse creatives through mentorship and development opportunities. With their creative vision, engaging storytelling, and commitment to inclusivity, J Stevens is a rising talent whose future in film is bright. We can’t wait to see what they do next.
— Rachel West
TELEFILM CANADA EMERGING CRITIC AWARD
Over the past year, Alex Mooney, who is currently completing his degree incinema studies at the University of Toronto, has generated an impressive range of bylines in Toronto, reviewing new releases and local retrospectives for alternative publications including Exclaim! and In the Mood, as well as essays and dispatches for respected American websites such as Screen Slate, In Review Online, and MUBI Notebook. These pieces are funny and trenchant, and sensitive to questions of form and representation. Taken together, they suggest a writer whose critical intelligence is already well beyond his years, with more fine work to come.
— Adam Nayman
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 the Telefilm Canada Emerging Critic sponsor and Company 3 as the Company 3 Luminary Award Sponsor. The TFCA also thanks sponsors Omni King Edward Hotel and salutes stalwart supporters, G.H. Mumm Champagne, L’Eat Catering, Zoomer Magazine, The Printing House, Element Event Solutions and Pinnacle Live.