The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) announced Monday it is adding two new short films to its streaming platforms in February, in addition to expanding its Black Communities in Canada channel and launching the all-new Democracy Under Pressure channel.
Starting Feb. 9, Martine Frossard’s animated short Hypersensitive recounts the turbulent, surrealistic journey of a young woman struggling to rebuild herself in the aftermath of grief, in defiance of social norms that tell us to repress our emotions. Hypersensitive was the only Canadian short in Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025, and it has been selected for 30 festivals in Canada, the U.S., Asia and Europe.
Beginning Feb. 19, Alexandra Knowles’s short documentary My Knitting Circle shows how the filmmaker finds warmth in a knitting store during a Yukon winter. My Knitting Circle will have its world premiere at the Available Light Film Festival in Whitehorse, taking place from Feb. 6 to 15.
To mark Black History Month, the NFB’s Black Communities in Canada channel is newly expanded, with the addition of Stefan Verna’s Night Watches Us, Will Prosper’s reXistence, and Wylem Decaille’s Jireh Gospel: Hearts in Chorus. The channel offers a collection of more than 45 films by award-winning Black filmmakers, creators and allies of the Black community, detailing a rich history to help us better understand the present.
The new Democracy Under Pressure channel offers a selection of films that explore democracy and its challenges, both in Canada and internationally. Documentaries include In the Room (2025) by Brishkay Ahmed, What is Democracy? (2018) by Astra Taylor, This is Not a Movie (2019) by Yung Chang, Prosecutor (2010) by Barry Stevens, and Grassroots in Dry Lands (2015) by Helene Klodawsky.
The NFB’s online platforms include nfb.ca and NFB Apps for mobile devices and TV as well as YouTube, where collectively more than 7,000 films are available to stream free of charge, including The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, nominated for this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Images via the National Film Board of Canada’s website
