North Bay Film Festival 2025 | November 14-16
2025 Juried Short Film Selections
Each year, the North Bay Film Festival is proud to showcase an incredible range of short films selected through our open call for submissions. These juried works represent diverse voices, bold storytelling, and innovative approaches to filmmaking from across Canada and beyond.
Our programming team and jury carefully review each submission to curate a lineup that reflects the creativity, craft, and spirit of independent cinema. This year’s official short film selections highlight emerging and established talent, offering audiences a snapshot of the exciting work being created today.
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the 2025 Short Film Jury for their time, insight, and dedication in helping to shape this year’s program:
2025 Jury Members:
- Austin Lindsay
- Evelyn Pakinewatik
- Sara Jade Alfaro
Student Showcase
Little Orange Bandages
Student Showcase – WINNER!
An experimental short film presenting a spoken word performance by a young Indigenous person expressing their frustration with the lack of meaningful reconciliation.
4 mins 13 secs
Canada, 2024
Dir. Kile M. George
Language: English
Screening Sunday, November 16, with Blood Lines.
Who Said Anything About Ghosts?
Students Showcase
Two boys summon a ghost out of curiosity, but the encounter leaves them with a haunting glimpse of their eternal existence they’d rather forget.
5 Mins 20s
Canada, 2025
Dir. Karthic Janarth
Language: English
Screening Friday, November 14, with North of Normal.
The Call
Student Showcase
Iris, a lonely and depressed young adult, just trying to make it through each monotonous day, gets their life upended by a mysterious being. They speak with the wisdom of someone who’s walked their path before. Iris is taunted by this ‘Other Self’, so when the work day ends and Other Self beckons for them to follow, they do, trying to figure out who they are and why they won’t leave them alone. When Iris confronts Other Self once more, they begin interrogating Iris – attacking their life, their job, their gender. Iris’ anger builds, and when they explode, Other Self disappears. Angry, curious, and desperate for the truth, Iris is led down two paths in an attempt to find Other Self, where they find – and finally accept – who they truly are.
11 Mins 30s
Canada, 2024
Dir. Silas Howse
Language: English
Screening Friday, November 14, with EVEL.
Hooked
Student Showcase
A short film exploring female sexuality through a young fish plant worker who becomes obsessed with a famous local fisherman revealing to the audience her delusional and addictive thoughts to his unfortunate demise.
9 Mins
Canada, 2024
Dir. Natacha Bianchet
Language: English
Screening Saturday, November 15, with Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery.
Under the Canopy (Sous la canopée)
Student Showcase
Under a dense canopy, a milk-like nectar flows out of the breast of a statue. Attracted by the fragrance of the mysterious liquid, a deer emerges from the fog.
1 Mins 15s
Canada, 2025
Dir. Marilou Ise Haeck
Language: French
Screening Saturday, November 15, with Frankenstein.
Canadian Shorts Showcase
Leili’s Photo (عکس لیلی)
Canadian Showcase – WINNER
8-year-old Leili needs to take a pinhole picture of her family for school the next day, but her parents and older brother will not cooperate.
7 mins 22 secs
Canada, 2024
Dir. Maral Mostafavi
Language: English, Persian
Can You Feel It Now?
Canadian Showcase
Set in a speculative future on Turtle Island, this poetic short follows the Welcomer, a vessel of First Nations resilience, and the Arrivant, a traveller from the African diaspora. As ancestral dreams shape reality, their paths converge to reimagine First Contact – not as a clash, but as a shared act of kinship and healing.
Through rhythmic storytelling rooted in Afro-Indigenous futurism, they forge a sanctuary of solidarity, where Black and Indigenous stories are entwined in resistance, memory, and hope.
8 Mins 53s
Canada, 2025
Dir. Isak Vaillancourt
Language: English
Screening Saturday, November 15, with Nouvelle Vague.
Razor Ruckus
Canadian Showcase
It’s 10pm and Gorbe arrives home from a long, EXHAUSTING day of work. She hears a buzzing noise. It’s an electric razor, left to charge on the counter of the washroom. But, the razor won’t turn off and the buzzin sound seems to be getting louder…
6 Mins 40s
Canada, 2024
Dir. APPI
Language: English
Screening Saturday, November 15, with Sweetness.
A Home In The Grass
Canadian Showcase
Since 1970, North America has lost 3 billion birds. As grassland bird populations continue to decline, one conservationist’s act of devotion represents hope in a world where natural habitats are disappearing every day.
6 mins 13 secs
Canada, 2024
Dir. Ryan Ward
Language: English
Screening Sunday, November 16, with Blood Lines.
Bug
Canadian Showcase
A Boy and a Bug find each other resting in a field, their lives and journeys begin to blur together as long forgotten memories are recalled as dreams.
4 mins 13 secs
Canada, 2025
Dir. Lily Zhang
Language: English