Canadian films about hope

Elizabeth Thatcher, a cultured young teacher in 1910, fears leaving her comfortable world in the city. But when she accepts a teaching position in a frontier town, she finds new purpose and love with a handsome Royal Canadian Mountie.

In northern Canada, a young boy sets a goal for himself to to reunite an abandoned polar bear cub with its mother. Goran Visnjic joins the cast as Muktuk, a half Inuit and half Canadian, who knows the terrain where the polar bears live and who agrees to help the boy.

An unemployed doctor turned cab driver becomes a local hero when he converts his taxi into a mobile clinic.

An ex-con finds his plan to go straight foiled by a loan shark who manipulates his target into taking on one last heist.

Follows the dramatic journeys of video game developers as they create and release their games to the world. It's about making video games, but at its core, it's about the creative process, and exposing yourself through your work.

When a woman tries to outwit her husband's sexy young mistress, the unexpected consequences include starring as King Lear in a very amateur production - with the mistress, an aspiring actress, playing The Fool.

An overlooked middle child finds himself in the unexpected spotlight when he realizes his family's terrible Christmas day keeps repeating. As the only one experiencing the day over and over, he decides to use his unique gift to give the holidays a makeover and his family a Christmas they will never forget.

Kate & Humphrey and their three wolf cubs (Smokey, Claudette and Runt) are happily preparing to celebrate their first winter holidays together when their smallest cub, Runt, mysteriously disappears. They must now go on a new journey across the wilderness to find Runt before the winter festivities begin at home.

Maryse and her husband are desperate to sell a backhoe sitting abandoned in their suburban yard. Her brother, Benoit, is trapped in endless adolescence, sharing their childhood home with their invalid father. Benoit is enamoured with a single mom named Nathalie, and he's hoping to finally grow up by living with her... but Nathalie's son does not approve. A serious accident at the factory where Maryse works, a strange series of coincidences, and the arrival of a Man claiming to come from the future launch Maryse and Benoit on a life-changing road trip. Following up his acclaimed feature film Continental, a film without guns, filmmaker Stephane Lafleur once again brings us an ensemble of compelling characters, in a story where the ordinary and the fantastic collide

Toronto, August 2001. Commander Robert Piche left Pearson Airport heading for Lisbon on an Airbus 330. Due to a significant fuel loss, he was headed for an almost certain crash. However, he courageously kept his cool and skillfully glided the plane to a safe landing, saving the 306 passengers on board. Back in Canada, Piche's criminal past and extraordinary life came to light, explaining somewhat how he was able to commit this heroic act.

Hector is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara, he feels like a fraud: he hasn’t really tasted life, and yet he’s offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. So Hector decides to break out of his deluded and routine driven life. Armed with buckets of courage and child-like curiosity, he embarks on a global quest in hopes of uncovering the elusive secret formula for true happiness. And so begins a larger than life adventure with riotously funny results.

A group of actors putting on an interpretive Passion Play in Montreal begin to experience a meshing of their characters and their private lives as the production takes form against the growing opposition of the Catholic church.

Fed up with being censored in their post-Trailer Park Boys lives, the out of work stars/world-renowned 'swearists', Mike Smith, Robb Wells and John Paul Tremblay decide to start their own uncensored network on the internet.

Carrie Bishop, a successful event planner in New York City, is left unconscious after a car accident. In order to "pass over" to Heaven, she must help Scott Walker and his daughter Abby save their restaurant and find their Christmas spirit.

NYC, Central Park, 2010. Five young teenagers are violently assaulted. But they’re not your average teenagers… they’re prodigies. The trauma of the assault incites them to lash out against the world in a cold and calculating way. The five chillingly brilliant minds come together to concoct a perfect revenge. The only person aware of the pending doom is Jimbo Farrar, a sixth prodigy, who has gathered them. As long as he fights against his five counterparts with all his might, there’s hope for the world. But should he turn over to their side, it’s only a matter of time before a disaster of apocalyptic proportions ensues…

Three fanatical bird-watchers spend an entire year competing to spot the highest number of species as El Nino sends an extraordinary variety of rare breeds flying up into the U.S., but they quickly discover that there are more important things than coming out on top of the competition

After being dumped at the alter on her wedding day, Maggie Conway moves to the island town of Friday Harbor in Washington State, where she meets Mark Nagle, the local coffee shop owner.

Single mom Laura, along with her awkward 14 year-old son Henry is forced to drive Jack, her estranged, care-free pot dealing father across country after he's kicked out of yet another nursing home.

Missionary Father LaForgue travels to the New World in hopes of converting Algonquin Indians to Catholicism. Accepted, though warily, by the Indians, LaForgue travels with the Indians using his strict Catholic rules and ideals to try and impose his religion.

A young girl is transported into a magical world of gingerbread soldiers and an army of mice. In Disney’s magical take on the classic The Nutcracker, Clara wants a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box holding a priceless gift. A golden thread presented at her godfather’s holiday party leads her to the coveted key—which promptly disappears into a strange and mysterious parallel world. There Clara encounters a soldier, a gang of mice and the regents of three magical Realms. But she must brave the ominous Fourth Realm, home to the tyrant Mother Ginger, to retrieve her key and return harmony to the unstable world.

A young grandmother in a small Pennsylvania town raises her daughter's child after the girl disappears. All the while, a desperate search for her continues.

An up-and-coming attorney risks it all to help defend Santa when Christmas is in jeopardy of cancellation.

The team of people who saved Winter's life reassemble in the wake of her surrogate mother's passing in order to find her a companion so she can remain at the Clearwater Marine Hospital.

The story of August Pullman – a boy with facial differences – who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.

An adaptation of Doblin's text to 2015 Berlin to tell the story of 30-year-old refugee Francis, the sole survivor of a boat which crossed the Mediterranean illegally. Without citizenship papers, Francis is drawn into the underbelly of the city.

In this modern telling of the classic tale, aspiring singer Katie Gibbs falls for the new boy at her performing arts high school. But Katie's wicked stepmother and stepsister are scheming to crush her dream before she can sing her way into his heart.

A stubborn idealist spies a bride on her way to her wedding and immediately falls in love with her.

Alexis Winston is a young girl who dreams of becoming a champion figure skater. While practicing, Alexis suffers a terrible accident that takes her sight and threatens to destroy her dreams. In the midst of feeling sorry for herself she falls in love with a handsome young man named Nick who (with help from her family) helps her to realize that she can still fulfill her dreams.

Alex, blind since the age of two, dreams of running for his school's cross-country team. His father, a probation officer, finds a running partner who spends his time 'running' from the law.

Three young Inuits set off in search of a promised land to save their clan from starvation.

ECSTASY is a dark romantic comedy, based on the controversial book, “Ecstasy”, by Irvine Welsh. “Ecstasy”, was translated into 20 languages and was a number one bestseller in over 20 countries. Mr. Welsh’s first book, “Trainspotting”, published in 1993, (and voted by Waterstone, Europe’s largest bookstore chain, as one of the Ten Best Books of the Century), sold over 1 million copies in the UK alone, and has its own Cinematic Cinderella success story.

Three women confront their pasts which changes their futures.

A Christmas elf accidentally takes off in Santa's sleigh, crash lands in a small town, and loses the magic toy bag. Beethoven must rescue the elf, recover the bag from greedy crooks, and return the sleigh to Santa in time to save Christmas.

Tommy, 10 years old, is well known by Social Services. He is considered a danger to society. Gilles, his guardian at this halfway house, sees potential for redemption in this kid driven by violence.

Decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, discovering he's involved in a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. He learns he's part of a top-secret experimental program that enables him to experience the final 8 minutes of another person's life. Colter re-lives the train incident over and over again, gathering more clues each time. But can he discover who is responsible for the attack before the next one happens?

A man searching for his childhood best friend — a Polish violin prodigy orphaned in the Holocaust — who vanished decades before on the night of his first public performance.

A meddling man and woman determined to stop a wedding for the good of the bride and groom instead wind up falling in love with each other.

Laxman Singh Bisht is nicknamed tube light by his neighbours because he is feeble-minded. Despite being special, Laxman lives by one life-lesson; keep your faith alive and you can do almost anything, even stop a war.

The story of a young, pregnant woman whose world falls apart when she loses her child in a hit and run accident. As her life unravels, Nathalie finds an unlikely protector in Henry, a down and out guardian angel who has followed her thread. But Henry is not quite the angel he seems...

A man coping with the institutionalization of his wife because of Alzheimer's disease faces an epiphany when she transfers her affections to another man, a wheel chair-bound mute who also is a patient at the nursing home.

The story of a pair of children born within moments of India gaining independence from England, growing up in the country that is nothing like their parent's generation. A Canadian-British film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel of the same name.

Fishing for direction in life, Elizabeth gets the opportunity of showing her dog in a fancy New York dog show. The judge, Donovan Darcy, comes across as aristocratic and rude, and a chain of misunderstandings unfold during the competition, complicating their attraction to one another.

After she spends all her money, an evil enchantress queen schemes to marry a handsome, wealthy prince. There's just one problem - he's in love with a beautiful princess, Snow White. Now, joined by seven rebellious dwarves, Snow White launches an epic battle of good vs. evil...

Sometimes the true heroes in our lives are those people who inspire us not with their superhuman accomplishments but simply by their refusal to give up in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and the dignity in which they go about their lives. Bill Porter is one of those heroes. Born with cerebral palsy, he was told for many years that he was unemployable. But with the unwavering support of a dedicated mother and an indomitable spirit that has become his trademark, Porter did support himself as a door-to-door salesman in Portland, Ore.

Set during World War II, an upper-class family begins to fall apart due to the conservative nature of the patriarch and the progressive values of his children.

A strange and destructive relationship develops between a chef and her neighbor, a former child actress.

The story of three pets, a cat and two dogs, who lose their owners when they are all on vacation. Can they find their way home?

Matthieu, a 33 year old Parisian who finds out that the father he never knew has died and decides to go to his funeral in order to meet his two siblings in Quebec. But once in Montréal, he realizes that nobody is aware of his existence or even interested in it. He is alone, in hostile territory…Filled with secrets, this story about one man’s coming to term with the foreign family he never knew he had is complex with interconnected themes such as masculinity, family, paternity and filial devotion coiling in the layers underneath.

One day the Aislings find themselves magically transported to a ship called the Unicorn. Here, they discover that they've been chosen to fulfill an incredible quest! They undergo an incredible journey of discovery in strange lands with enchanted creatures, but find their voyage is really one of the spirit, as they each learn faith and the power of love.

Marla is forced to abandon her carefully structured life to embark on an epic journey to find her younger brother Charlie who has disappeared into the vast and wondrous animated world of Playmobil toys.