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Rogers Best Canadian Film Award
The Rogers Best Canadian Film Award is presented annually by the Toronto Film Critics Association to the film judged by the organization's members as the year's best Canadian film. In 2012, the cash prize accompanying the award was increased to $100,000, making it the largest arts award in Canada. Each year, two runners-up also receive $5,000. The award is funded and presented by Rogers Communications, which is a founding sponsor of the association's awards gala.
In 2023, the TFCA announced changes to the award. Instead of a single $100,000 prize presented to a mixed shortlist of narrative and documentary films, the organization will now present two $50,000 prizes, one for narrative features and one for documentaries.
Unlike the other Toronto Film Critics Association awards, whose winners are announced in mid-December each year, the Best Canadian Film award only has its finalists announced at that time, and the winner of the award is then announced at the organization's gala in March.
Prior to the official launch of the Toronto Film Critics Association in 1997, film critic Wyndham Wise coordinated two polls of Torontonian film critics in 1995 and 1996 through his magazine Take One to select the year's best Canadian films; upon the launch of the TFCA, this poll was discontinued and superseded by the TFCA's annual awards.
| Category | Winners and nominees | Ref |
|---|---|---|
| Best Film | Rude — Damon D'Oliveira, Karen King | |
| Double Happiness — Steve Hegyes, Rose Lam Waddell | ||
| When Night Is Falling — Barbara Tranter | ||
| Louis 19, King of the Airwaves (Louis 19, le roi des ondes) — Richard Sadler, Jacques Dorfmann | ||
| Best Director | Clement Virgo, Rude | |
| Mina Shum, Double Happiness | ||
| Charles Binamé, Eldorado | ||
| Patricia Rozema, When Night Is Falling | ||
| Best Actor | Maury Chaykin, Whale Music | |
| Clark Johnson, Rude | ||
| Maurice Dean Wint, Rude | ||
| Peter Williams, Soul Survivor | ||
| Best Actress | Sandra Oh, Double Happiness | |
| Pascale Montpetit, Eldorado | ||
| Pascale Bussières, Eldorado | ||
| Tracy Wright, Wasaga | ||
| Best Screenplay | Mina Shum, Double Happiness | |
| Clement Virgo, Rude | ||
| Émile Gaudreault, Sylvie Bouchard and Michel Michaud, Louis 19, King of the Airwaves (Louis 19, le roi des ondes) | ||
| Bruce McDonald, Don McKellar and John Frizzell, Dance Me Outside |
| Year | Film | Director(s) | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | The Sweet Hereafter | Atom Egoyan | |
| The Hanging Garden | Thom Fitzgerald | ||
| 1998 | Last Night | Don McKellar | |
| Nô | Robert Lepage | ||
| The Red Violin | François Girard | ||
| 1999 | Set Me Free | Léa Pool | |
| Felicia's Journey | Atom Egoyan |
| Year | Film | Director(s) | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | waydowntown | Gary Burns | |
| Maelström | Denis Villeneuve | ||
| 2001 | Last Wedding | Bruce Sweeney | |
| Ginger Snaps | John Fawcett | ||
| The Uncles | James Allodi | ||
| 2002 | Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner | Zacharias Kunuk | |
| FUBAR | Michael Dowse | ||
| Soft Shell Man (Un crabe dans la tête) | André Turpin | ||
| 2003 | Spider | David Cronenberg | |
| 2004 | The Triplets of Belleville | Sylvain Chomet | |
| 2005 | A History of Violence | David Cronenberg | |
| 2006 | Manufactured Landscapes | Jennifer Baichwal | |
| The Journals of Knud Rasmussen | Zacharias Kunuk | ||
| Monkey Warfare | Reginald Harkema | ||
| Six Figures | David Christensen | ||
| 2007 | Away from Her | Sarah Polley | |
| Eastern Promises | David Cronenberg | ||
| Radiant City | Gary Burns, Jim Brown | ||
| 2008 | My Winnipeg | Guy Maddin | |
| Continental, a Film Without Guns (Continental, un film sans fusil) | Stéphane Lafleur | ||
| Up the Yangtze | Yung Chang | ||
| 2009 | Polytechnique | Denis Villeneuve | |
| The Necessities of Life (Ce qu'il faut pour vivre) | Benoît Pilon | ||
| Pontypool | Bruce McDonald |
| Year | Film | Director(s) | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Incendies | Denis Villeneuve | |
| Splice | Vincenzo Natali | ||
| Trigger | Bruce McDonald | ||
| 2011 | Monsieur Lazhar | Philippe Falardeau | |
| Café de Flore | Jean-Marc Vallée | ||
| A Dangerous Method | David Cronenberg | ||
| 2012 | Stories We Tell | Sarah Polley | |
| Bestiaire | Denis Côté | ||
| Goon | Michael Dowse | ||
| 2013 | Watermark | Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky | |
| The Dirties | Matt Johnson | ||
| Gabrielle | Louise Archambault | ||
| 2014 | Enemy | Denis Villeneuve | |
| The F Word | Michael Dowse | ||
| Mommy | Xavier Dolan | ||
| 2015 | The Forbidden Room | Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson | |
| My Internship in Canada (Guibord s'en va-t-en guerre) | Philippe Falardeau | ||
| Sleeping Giant | Andrew Cividino | ||
| 2016 | The Stairs | Hugh Gibson | |
| How Heavy This Hammer | Kazik Radwanski | ||
| Operation Avalanche | Matt Johnson | ||
| 2017 | Werewolf | Ashley McKenzie | |
| Hello Destroyer | Kevan Funk | ||
| Wexford Plaza | Joyce Wong | ||
| 2018 | Anthropocene: The Human Epoch | Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, Edward Burtynsky | |
| Ava | Sadaf Foroughi | ||
| Maison du Bonheur | Sofia Bohdanowicz | ||
| 2019 | The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open | Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers | |
| Antigone | Sophie Deraspe | ||
| Firecrackers | Jasmin Mozaffari |
| Year | Film | Director(s) | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Anne at 13,000 Ft. | Kazik Radwanski | |
| And the Birds Rained Down | Louise Archambault | ||
| White Lie | Yonah Lewis, Calvin Thomas | ||
| 2021 | Beans | Tracey Deer | |
| Night Raiders | Danis Goulet | ||
| Scarborough | Shasha Nakhai, Rich Williamson | ||
| 2022 | Riceboy Sleeps | Anthony Shim | |
| Brother | Clement Virgo | ||
| Crimes of the Future | David Cronenberg | ||
| 2023 | BlackBerry | Matt Johnson | |
| Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant) | Ariane Louis-Seize | ||
| Solo | Sophie Dupuis | ||
| 2024 | Universal Language | Matthew Rankin | |
| Rumours | Guy Maddin | ||
| Shepherds | Sophie Deraspe | ||
| 2025 | Blue Heron | Sophy Romvari | |
| Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie | Matt Johnson | ||
| The Shrouds | David Cronenberg |
| Year | Film | Director(s) | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Swan Song | Chelsea McMullan | |
| Rojek | Zaynê Akyol | ||
| Someone Lives Here | Zack Russell | ||
| 2024 | Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story | Michael Mabbott, Lucah Rosenberg-Lee | |
| Yintah | Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano | ||
| Your Tomorrow | Ali Weinstein | ||
| 2025 | Endless Cookie | Seth Scriver, Peter Scriver | |
| Ghosts of the Sea (Les enfants du large) | Virginia Tangvald | ||
| Who Killed the Montreal Expos? (Qui a tué les Expos de Montréal?) | Jean-François Poisson |
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