JANUARY 18-20, 25-26
FEBRUARY 1-4

SPECIAL GUEST — OPENING NIGHT, FRIDAY, JANUARY 18:
TIFF Artistic Director Cameron Bailey will introduce screenings of Stories We Tell and Rebelle

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The year’s best Canadian films are in the spotlight in The Cinematheque’s annual presentation of Canada’s Top Ten. Established in 2001 by the Toronto International Film Festival, this celebration of excellence in our national cinema showcases the year’s ten best Canadian feature-length films and ten best Canadian short films as chosen by two separate independent panels of filmmakers, festival programmers, journalists, academics and industry professionals drawn from across the country. The Cinematheque is pleased to present the panels’ distinguished selections for 2012.

"Canada’s population is tiny by global standards, yet Canadian filmmakers continue to take a prominent place on the world stage. In the past two years alone, Canadian films have been nominated for Academy Awards and selected into Competition at the world’s major film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Busan. Our own Toronto International Film Festival highlights select Canadian fiction, documentary, and experimental films each September, but it is TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten programme that truly gives audiences the opportunity to see the best Canadian cinema of the year. No role is more important to us than presenting outstanding Canadian achievements in filmmaking to Canadians, and to the world."  CAMERON BAILEY, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

"Now in its twelfth year, Canada’s Top Ten returns with its highly anticipated selection of Canadian features and shorts. As varied a pair of lists as any since Canada’s Top Ten began, this selection wouldn’t have been possible without the assistance of our partners in distribution, as well as numerous Canadian festivals that fed into the process. Special thanks must go to our panellists for all of their hard work and, of course, to our filmmakers, who consistently challenge and provoke audiences not only at home but around the globe. Every year, our Canada’s Top Ten panellists rave about the quality of the films and how difficult it is to winnow their individual lists down to ten. This year was no exception."  STEVE GRAVESTOCK, SENIOR PROGRAMMER, TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Members of this year’s feature panel were: Toronto documentary filmmaker Barri Cohen; Kerri Craddock , Senior Manager of Festival Programming at TIFF; Now magazine film critic and Toronto programmer Paul Ennis; Matt Galloway, host of CBC Radio One’s Metro Morning in Toronto; Judy Gladstone, for 15 years the director of the Bravo!FACT production grant program for Canadian short films and videos; Montreal actor-writer-director Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky); and Elizabeth Yake, president of B.C.-based True West Films.

Panellists for this year’s selection of short films were: Eileen Arandiga, former director of the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto; Laura Good, Programming Coordinator and short film programmer for TIFF’s Film Circuit; Matthew Hays, Montreal-based journalist, author, and Concordia University instructor; Jennifer Jonas, president of Toronto-based New Real Films; and Greg Klymkiw, film producer and Senior Creative Consultant and Producer-in Residence at the Canadian Film Centre.

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FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS
Cosmopolis (David Cronenberg)
The End of Time (Peter Mettler)
Goon (Michael Dowse)
Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan)
Midnight’s Children (Deepa Mehta)
My Awkward Sexual Adventure (Sean Garrity)
Rebelle (Kim Nguyen)
Still (Michael McGowan)
Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley)
The World Before Her (Nisha Pahuja)

SHORT FILMS
Bydlo (Patrick Bouchard)
Chef de meute / Herd Leader (Chloe Robichaud)
Crackin’ Down Hard (Mike Clattenburg)
Kaspar (Diane Obomsawin)
Ne Crâne pas sois modeste / Keep a Modest Head (Deco Dawson)
Lingo (Bahar Noorizadeh)
Malody (Phillip Barker)
Old Growth (Tess Girard)
Reflexions (Martin Thibaudeau)
Paparmane / Wintergreen (Joëlle Desjardins Paquette)

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Acknowledgments: For their very kind assistance in making the Vancouver presentation of Canada’s Top Ten possible, The Cinematheque is grateful to Steve Gravestock, Senior Programmer; Meaghan Brander, Manager, Film Circuit; Alex Rogalski and Magali Simard, Short Cuts Canada Programmers; and Lisa Goldberg, Coordinator, Festival Programming, of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Program notes adapted from texts provided by TIFF.