Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...
to identify and promote the year's best
Canadian films.
["Canada's Top Ten awards will honour excellence in Canadian cinema". '']Welland Tribune
The ''Welland Tribune'' is a daily newspaper that services Welland, Ontario and surrounding area. The ''Tribune'' was one of several Postmedia Network newspapers purchased by Torstar in a transaction between the two companies which concluded on ...
'', November 23, 2001. The list was first introduced in 2001 as an initiative to help publicize Canadian films.
[ Normally announced in December each year, the 2024 list was not announced until early January 2025.][Carlos Diaz]
"Canada’s Top Ten: TIFF Celebrates the Best in Cinema for 2024"
''That Shelf'', January 8, 2025.
The list is determined by tabulating votes from film festival programmers and film critics across Canada. Films must have premiered, either in general theatrical release or on the film festival circuit, within the calendar year; although TIFF organizes the vote, films do not have to have been screened specifically at TIFF to be eligible.
Originally, only a single list of 10 films was released. Although both short and feature films were eligible, the list was dominated primarily by feature films. Accordingly, in 2007 TIFF expanded the program, instituting separate Top Ten lists for feature films and short films.["Cronenberg, Arcand make Hogtown film festival's top Canadian movies list". '' Daily Gleaner'', December 12, 2007.] However, both lists remain inclusive of both narrative fiction and documentary films.
In a 2022 article, Barry Hertz of ''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'' praised the program as a diverse overview of the creative risk-taking in Canadian cinema, and a worthwhile contrast to the limited scope of conventional commercial film distribution. Conversely, in 2025, Pat Mullen of ''Point of View
Point of View or Points of View may refer to:
Concept and technique
* Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the pronoun used in narration
* Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or ...
'' criticized the program for seemingly ignoring documentary
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
films, with only one feature and two short documentaries highlighted in that year's list.
Screening series
Each year's list was formerly screened as a Canada's Top Ten minifestival, held in January of the following year.["TIFF announces lineup for Canada's Top 10 Film Festival"]
CBC News
CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...
, December 7, 2016. Prior to 2010, the films were screened at the Art Gallery of Ontario
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...
's Jackman Theatre as part of TIFF's Cinematheque Ontario program;["TIFF's Top Ten". '']Vancouver Sun
The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...
'', December 17, 2008. following the opening of the TIFF Bell Lightbox
TIFF Lightbox is a cultural centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the first five floors of the Lightbox and Festival Tower on the northwest corner of King Street and John Street.
TIFF Lightbox features five cinemas, two restaurants, ma ...
in 2010, the festival was staged at that venue thereafter. For the 2014 festival, TIFF introduced a People's Choice Award for the feature film program, modeled on the existing Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award and conducted in the same manner.
In 2018, TIFF dropped the January festival, instead introducing a new model in which each film receives its own standalone theatrical run at the Lightbox in the following year. They subsequently dropped this model, and returned to screening the honored films at a dedicated Canada's Top Ten screening series in the winter programming season, although the series has not reintroduced a People's Choice award as of 2024.
Other activities
In 2024, following the death of influential Canadian film director Charles Officer in fall 2023, TIFF and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...
also announced the creation of the Charles Officer Legacy Award, to be presented at the Canada's Top Ten reception to a filmmaker whose body of work is reflective of Officer's values, artistry and vision.
Once per decade, TIFF also polls Canadian film critics and festival programmers to determine a list of the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time
The Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time is a list compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival ranking what are considered the best Canadian films. It was first published in 1984, typically assembled by polling a combination of Canadian criti ...
, separately from the annual Canada's Top Ten survey.
Unified list (2000-2006)
Feature films (2007-present)
2000s
2010s
Films highlighted in yellow below were the winners of the People's Choice award at the Canada's Top Ten minifestival.
2020s
Short films (2007-present)
2000s
2010s
2020s
Charles Officer Award
*2025 - Miryam Charles[Jamie Casemore]
"Miryam Charles receives inaugural Charles Officer award"
'' Playback'', February 6, 2025.
References
{{TIFF , state=collapsed
Toronto International Film Festival
Lists of Canadian films