National Canadian Film Day, a local and global celebration of homegrown movies set for April 16, has received a burst of support from an unlikely source: Donald Trump. The U.S. president’s escalating tariff war and talk of turning Canada into the “51st state” is driving a surge in grassroots support for the annual celebration of Canuck cinema.
The event began in 2014 and now finds itself part of the defiant “Elbows Up, Canada!” campaign. The movement, which takes its name from a defiant ice hockey gesture made famous by Canadian NHL legend Gordie Howe, has seen its slogan become a rallying cry nationwide against the U.S. President’s trade war and threats of annexation.
“Suddenly, we’re in a place where we can say, we have our elbows up. Come join us. Stand up for Canada by sitting down to a great Canadian film,” says Jack Blum, co-founder of Canadian Film Day, which is organized by Toronto-based non-profit Reel Canada.
Americans are becoming increasingly familiar with “Elbows Up,” thanks in part to Mike Myers mouthing the words and tapping his left elbow during a recent Saturday Night Live appearance and in a droll political ad for Canada‘s Liberal party in which the Wayne’s World star chats with new Prime Minster Mark Carney (while in a hockey rink, natch).
This year, Canadian Film Day promises to fill screens across the country with Canadian movies, in cinemas and online, with 2.5 million Canadians expected to take part, according to Reel Canada. Local filmmakers and distributors see the Trump-driven surge in Great North patriotism as a unique opportunity to get their local indie titles in front of movie-going audiences nationwide.
“Canadians are being more patriotic across the board, whether it’s what they’re watching or what they’re supporting,” says Noah Segal, co-president of Toronto-based distributor Elevation Pictures. “It’s less about rejecting Hollywood, and more about embracing what feels like ours.”
Reel Canada plans over 1,700 pop-up screenings of Canadian films across the country at libraries, Royal Canadian Legion Halls, museums, art galleries, schools, military bases and retirement homes, in addition to film screenings at overseas embassies and consulates.
The Canadian films scheduled to unspool during the event include Matthew Rankin’s Winnipeg-set deadpan comedy Universal Language, Danis Goulet’s indigenous horror pic Night Raiders, and Michael Mabbot and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s acclaimed 2024 doc Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story about the life of the pioneering trans singer.
There will also be classroom screenings of The Grizzlies, an inspirational drama about Inuit youth in a depressed Arctic town transforming their lives through the sport of lacrosse, followed by a live-streaming event led by The Grizzlies break-out star Anna Lambe.
Former Toronto Film Festival CEO Piers Handling says Canadians are well aware of the gravity of the current situation and events like Canada Film Day offer an opportunity to express support for their own culture, akin to choosing local goods over American-made products.
“All the talk of tariffs and annexation are going to affect every part of Canadian life for the next short while until it’s resolved,” says Handling. “That includes the economy, obviously, the way people spend their money, buy their groceries, whether they cut off Netflix, Amazon, whether they decide to be more supportive of Canadian culture, film, television. Canadians are pulling together and realizing the national institutions we’ve built up over the years need to be strengthened.”
Cinema and TV screens given over to homegrown movies on April 16 follow a “Buy Local” movement that sprung up countrywide in response to Trump’s tariffs and sovereignty threats. Stores across Canada have slapped maple leaves on price tags to denote locally made or sourced products. Canadian filmmakers are beginning to debate how to get Canadians to also opt for local movies and TV series over dominant U.S. entertainment content.
“Right now, we have an interest in paying closer attention to that which is ours,” says veteran Canadian stage and screen actor Colm Feore (Umbrella Academy, The Red Violin). “Why don’t we just buy it here? We’ve got that cultural activity, we’ve got TV shows, movies, rock and roll, whatever it is. And so let’s pay closer attention.”
“Obviously, if you’re committed to supporting Canadian products, it’s wise to ‘shop Canadian’ and we have plenty of alternatives in this regard,” adds Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan, whose Oscar-nominated 1997 classic The Sweet Hereafter will screen as part of Canada Film Day.
Toronto-based actress Tiffany Branton, who is coming off a starring role in indie horror pic Doom Boogie and is set to star in and produce a short film this summer, says now is a good time to launch a homegrown movie for Canadian audiences.
“There’s so much talent in this country being lost in the shuffle of American productions shooting north of the border,” says Branton. “But if you dig deeper into indie movies like you examine packages at the grocery store, you’ll find so many Canadian-made and Canadian-produced options.”
That’s a sentiment shared by Handling, who says fired-up Canadians are looking for a local version of virtually anything that originates in the States: “People are looking to stop buying American groceries, not taking trips to the States. So they’re looking for homegrown substitutes. And of course, they will begin to look more seriously at Canadian cultural products.”
Of course, how to practically put a “maple leaf” tag on homegrown media content is no easy feat. “In a globalized world, you don’t pay attention to the source of where and what you’re buying, where it’s being manufactured,” Handling observes.
But he feels that “it’s inevitable” that as the sense of Canadian unity and patriotism rises in the face of Trump’s heated rhetoric, there will be an increased focus on locally sourced entertainment. “There will be more identification of everything that we have produced here in Canada [from] maple syrup, through to the beef we eat, the vegetables we eat in the summer, and to [our] cultural products,” he says.
For many, an added upside is an increased exposure to a vibrant national culture all too often overshadowed by its southern neighbor.
Says Feore: “Canadians are willing to pay closer attention. They’re making informed decisions about what they consume, be it strawberries or cinema, and that will benefit Canadian art, Canadian artists, Canadian stories and culture.”