The festival will run across three nights. The first and second days will showcase a mixture of short films dealing with genres ranging from documentary to animation and drama. Screenings will include both English and French language films, with subtitles provided, and a number of films produced within the Ottawa region. The final night of the festival will showcase the feature film Stealing Vows, a comedic heist movie set in the South Asian wedding industry in the 1980s, the debut feature of Toronto-based director Bobby Singh Brown.
OCan is hosted by a non-profit organization and is volunteer-run. Films are selected from open submissions with an eye to highlighting pictures that reflect Canada’s diversity and provide exposure to emerging and unrecognized talent. The audience will be able to vote on one movie as a fan favourite. Festivals like this, often promoted through poster printing and social media, provide an opportunity to see future film talent and rare movies. OCan’s mission statement reads
“Through annual festival screenings at the Bytowne Cinema in November and activities throughout the year, we work to promote Canadian film as distinctive and vital to our country’s culture and the local economy.”
The 2024 Ottawa Canadian Film Festival will take place from November 7 to 9 at the ByTowne Cinema.