Supported by Hollywood Suite
May | Canadian Silver Screen Legends
Discover and relive some of the stories that have helped shape this generation of Canadian artists, with these stunning feature film achievements from past decades. This collection features home-grown icons both in front of and behind the camera.
Watch The 2024 Canadian Screen Awards hosted by Mae Martin on Friday, May 31 at 8:00 PM (9 AT / 9:30 NT) only on CBC and CBC Gem. For the full Canadian Screen Week 2024 schedule, click here.
Content Warning:
Some of the projects included in this collection deal with topics that may be distressing. Viewer discretion is advised – please check ratings and warnings on individual selections before engaging.
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Director: Ted Kotcheff
In this 1974 adaptation of Canadian author Mordecai Richler’s novel, Duddy Kravitz yearns to make a name for himself in society. Set in Montreal, the film chronicles Duddy’s short and dubious rise to power, his relationships with family and friends, and explores themes of insidious anti-semitism.
Selected by Hollywood Suite
Away from Her
Director: Sarah Polley
Away from Her stars Gordon Pinsent as a man coping with the institutionalization of his wife due to Alzheimer’s disease, who faces an epiphany when his wife transfers her affections to another man, Aubrey, who is also a patient at the nursing home.
Also available on Netflix Canada
Bon Cop Bad Cop
Director: Érik Canuel
Two Canadian detectives, one from Ontario and the other from Quebec, must work together when a murdered victim is found on the Ontario-Quebec border. Colm Feore and Patrick Huard lead the film in a hilarious and unforgettable pairing.
Café de Flore
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Jean-Marc Vallée’s romantic drama takes us through the parallel fates of Jacqueline, a young mother with a son who has Down Syndrome in 1960s Paris, and Antoine, a recently divorced DJ in present-day Montreal.
Also available on Crave
Crash
Director: David Cronenberg
After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims who use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.
Exotica
Director: Atom Egoyan
Exotica, a strip club, is a faux-tropical hothouse where young female dancers cater to their customers’ sexual and psychological needs. Among the regulars is Francis, a troubled taxman haunted by Christina, a young stripper. As the film hypnotically unfolds, their relationship is slowly explored, the narrative dovetailing with the stories of a gay pet shop owner, the Exotica’s pregnant owner, and its embittered DJ.
Incendies
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Nawal, a dying Arab woman living in Montreal, leaves separate letters to her twin children to be read once she passes away. Jeanne is to deliver hers to the father the twins never knew, and Simon is to give his to the brother they never knew they had. The siblings travel to their mother’s home country separately, where they each experience acts of brutality, uncover a startling family history, and have revelations about themselves.
Also available on Prime Video
Murder by Decree
Director: Bob Clark
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate murders committed by Jack the Ripper and discover a conspiracy to protect the killer. An all-star cast of stage and screen notables including Christopher Plummer and Donald Sutherland powers this 1979 mystery/thriller.
Selected by Hollywood Suite
Nurse.Fighter.Boy
Director: Charles Officer
This risky, rewarding drama blends emotional naturalism with a formal style in the story of its three titular characters – a young Jamaican-Canadian mother with sickle-cell anemia, an ex-boxer looking for a human connection, and a 12-year-old boy. Nurse.Fighter.Boy was Charles Officer’s feature directorial debut.
Also available on Crave
Rhymes for Young Ghouls
Director: Jeff Barnaby
A Mi’gMaq teenager plots revenge against the sadistic agent who imprisoned her in a residential school where rape and abuse are common. This was the breakout leading role for Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs.
Also available on Netflix Canada
