Telefilm Canada has launched Canada Now, a new portal devoted to highlighting Canadian content in the U.S. The site will add new titles each month to its portfolio, which ranges from recent films such as “My Salinger Year” and “Antigone” to Oscar nominees like “Barbarian Invasions” and “Monsieur Lazhar,” as well as some series.
The site, developed in collaboration with Telescope, features close to 5,000 productions available across more than 150 VOD platforms.
Canada Now’s monthly boutique curation will spotlight six different programming sections in addition to the searchable database of productions accessible within the U.S. Every month the site will feature a section on New Arrivals, Classic Films and a spotlight called Indigenous Voices.
For the month of May, it will focus on a celebration of Asian Canadians with films including Sandra Oh starring as a struggling single mother whose daughter decides that Taoist magic will make everything better, in Mina Shum’s “Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity”; Oh’s voice can also be heard as Rosie, a Chinese Persian Canadian poet invited to a life-altering poetry festival in Iran, in Ann Marie Fleming’s animated film, “Window Horses”; in Eisha Marjara’s witty comic drama of identity, “Venus,” transitioning woman Sid is surprised to learn that 14 years ago she became a father and now her son wants to get to know his lost parent; Ann Shin’s intense documentary, “The Defector: Escape From North Korea,” moves us through the shadowy worlds of human smuggling along the dangerous Chinese-North Korean border.
These additional curated sections will change every month to keep things fresh and offer new content.
Telefilm’s Canada Now is run in partnership with the Consulate General of Canada in New York and the National Film Board of Canada.
“After tremendous successes in Europe and other countries around the world Telefilm Canada has partnered with Telescope to develop and build a fully searchable database accessible on one platform. It offers a way to find fresh and inspiring new content as well as thousands of precious Canadian gems from first features to award winning films and series,” Christa Dickenson, executive director, Telefilm Canada, said.
“Beyond arthouse cinemas and film festivals, it is often a challenge to locate and watch Canadian film and television projects here in the U.S. This difficulty was the catalyst for Canada Now to build something new and we couldn’t be more thrilled to support it and share,” Khawar Nasim, acting consul general, Consulate General of Canada in New York, said.
