The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) announced Monday it greenlit 16 new productions and co-productions between January and September 2025.
Now underway at NFB production units across the country, the new projects include seven feature-length documentary films, five short docs and series, and four animated shorts.
Feature documentaries being produced by the NFB’s French Documentary Unit include Après les étoiles, directed by Guillaume Fournier and François Dubé, who are also co-producers alongside the NFB’s Mélanie Brière. Après les étoiles documents the journey of three iconic Quebec City restaurants and their chefs as they prepare for the historic arrival of the famous Michelin Guide in Quebec, and how the awarding of Michelin’s legendary stars is shaking up and transforming a vibrant yet precarious restaurant industry.
Also being produced by the NFB’s Brière is La friteuse à voyager dans le temps (The Time-Frying Machine), directed by Trois-Rivières filmmakers Renaud De Repentigny and Alex Dorval. This NFB doc gets to the heart of Quebec’s identity by exploring the history of poutine through the stories of roadside restaurant workers, potato cultivators, cheese makers, artists and poutine eaters from across central Quebec, the birthplace of this iconic dish.
Documentaries from the NFB’s Western Documentary Unit include Nakabingwit: First Comes Love, directed by Joella Cabalu and produced by the NFB’s Teri Snelgrove. This rom-com documentary follows three Filipinas and their white romantic partners, revealing the difficulties, nuances and opportunities for hope and growth as they navigate conversations about race and love.
Last Run: Save Our Salmon is a co-production by Andrew Connors, David Curtis and Jackie Olson of Sovereign Soil Film along with the NFB’s Shirley Vercruysse. This documentary follows Olson, a First Nations artist and community leader, and Curtis, a filmmaker and commercial fisher, on their quest to save sustainably fished Yukon River wild salmon, as a local food and a cultural and spiritual icon. Faced with the dramatic collapse of the chinook and chum salmon runs, they begin a journey to discover what is causing this ecological disaster.
Produced by the NFB’s Central Documentary Unit, Make This a River Again (working title) is co-written by Alex Wilson and director Kevin Settee and is produced by the NFB’s Alicia Smith. It connects the dots between conservation, colonial impact and ecological urgencies by highlighting indigenous perspectives on the health of the Saskatchewan River Delta, through the experiences of families who live there. In the face of an unprecedented water crisis, the film invites audiences to consider ways that indigenous knowledge offers solutions moving forward.
Other feature documentary projects greenlit by the NFB this year include: Prisonniers du temps, directed by Georges Hannan and produced by the NFB’s Christine Aubé, which examines our relationship to the eternal mystery of time and to our own mortality through heart-rending stories and poignant accounts from prisoners for whom every minute is an eternity; and Sticks & Rhinestones, from director Rachel Bower and NFB Eastern Documentary Unit producer Liz Cowie, which delves into the mysterious and ever-growing world of competitive baton twirling as it follows the rollercoaster ride that Canadian baton twirlers experience as they compete to qualify at international competitions.
Greenlit short documentaries and series include: Billy Gauthier, from director Jennie Williams and producer Liz Cowie, a short film that provides intimate access to Gauthier, an Inuk sculptor and activist from Northwest River, Labrador, as he carves one of his largest works to date in only five days; Le boucher furieux (The Angry Butcher), from director Guillaume Carlier and NFB producer Marie-France Guerrette, a short doc centred on a young francophone butcher in Calgary confronting tradition and culture shock as he challenges our relationship to meat and food ethics; Fat Camp, from director Layla Cameron and NFB producer Teri Snelgrove, a documentary short about four fat friends on a camping trip, trying to reconcile their feelings about the dominance of GLP-1 medications and what this cultural moment means for their relationships to their own bodies; Living Memory, from director Evelyn Pakinewatik and NFB producer Niki Little, a four-part docuseries that follows filmmaker Pakinewatik as they engage with four mentor artists and cultural knowledge carriers who have shaped their practice, exploring how indigenous art and knowledge remain alive through relationships, reciprocity and the responsibility of carrying stories forward; and Reines sur glace (Ice Queens), from director Yasmine Renaud and NFB producer Marie-France Guerrette, which follows Franco-Yukonnais filmmaker Renaud and her women’s hockey team in Dawson City, where courage, ambition and camaraderie mingle in the icy darkness of the North.
More information on these and other projects currently in production at NFB studios can be found here.
Photos of (clockwise from top left) Après les étoiles, La friteuse à voyager dans le temps, Le boucher furieux, Make This a River Again (working title), Last Run: Save Our Salmon and Nakabingwit: First Comes Love via the NFB website
