North Bay Film Festival 2026 | November 13-15
2026 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 2026 Short Film Jury for their time, insight, and dedication in helping to shape this year’s program:
2026 Jury Members:
- Jackson Brotherton
- Lily Zheng
- Kirsten Kosloski
Student Showcase
Apple Pie
Student Showcase
A couple decides whether or not to order Apple Pie at a diner.
4 Mins 58s
Canada, 2025
Dir. Sean Thrawn O’Neil
Language: English
Screening Friday, November 14, with North of Normal.
Awakening Night
Student Showcase
Caught between annoyance and surrender, our protagonist finally caves, plunging into her sleepless night like one wanders into a forest. It’s a forced odyssey she really could have done without.
2 Mins 39s
Canada, 2025
Dir. Julie-Ann Déry
Language: No Dialogue
Screening Sunday, November 16, with Blood Lines.
People Live Here
Student Showcase
Montrealers enjoy parks, balconies, cafés, and biking, sharing in a rich cultural diversity. But a truck full of orange cones arrives, disrupting neighborhoods and leaving behind construction sites that reshape the city. Built heritage disappears, replaced by towers so tall they cast Montreal into shadow. In this cyberpunk era, streets are ruled by AI-driven towers, erasing the last traces of the past. A revolt emerges, demanding radical change. When the system collapses, nature reclaims its rights. Among the ruins, a solarpunk community rises — one where life adapts with its environment
10 Mins 54s
Canada, 2025
Dir. Gabrielle Côté
Language: English
Screening Friday, November 14, with EVEL.
Stitches
Student Showcase
When an elderly relative comes to stay with their family for the holidays, little Oli faces an insurmountable challenge: neither of them speak the same language. The two find a way to weave an unexpected connection without words
7 Mins 30s
Canada, 2026
Dir. Nathalie Cocq
Language: English, Vietnamese
Screening Saturday, November 15, with Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery.
Canadian Shorts Showcase
Endless Sunlight
Canadian Showcase
Centered around an audio recording of a conversation between kokum Penny Roan and Jennifer Houseman (Tyson’s grandmother and mother), kokum Penny tells a story about her kokum’s experience at a residential school in southern alberta, sharing that her uncle burned down the school when he was seven years old. Six generations of matriarchal lineage are weaved across time through images of a young woman, Osa Roan, who is Penny Roan’s granddaughter, harvesting birch bark at a camp in the summer
8 Mins 11s
Canada, 2025
Dir. Tyson Houseman
Language: English
Screening Sunday, November 16, with It Was Just An Accident.
Menders
Canadian Showcase
What story do the marks of time tell? “Menders” is a three-minute animation following a female art conservator restoring Velázquez’s “Rokeby Venus.” Using creative methods that reveal imperfections and embrace fragmentation, she navigates the tension between a polished ideal and an unvarnished history. As she reflects on both the artwork’s past and her own identity, she asks: Can the beauty of art be found in its scars? This film invites viewers to see restoration as a dynamic process of making, unmaking, and remaking.
3 Mins 58s
Canada, 2025
Dir. Martha Griffith
Language: English
Screening Saturday, November 15, with Nouvelle Vague.
Salma!
Canadian Showcase
As Hadi is swept into a flood of childhood memories from Lebanon, he steps into the dreamlike whimsical world of Salma Zahore. A creature that encapsulates both the conflicts of his life and his declaration of love to the world. Neither male nor female, neither devout nor an atheist, neither dutiful nor deviant, both sexual yet celibate. Faceless, yet the face of hope for so many around them.
7 Mins 56s
Canada, 2025
Dir. Mary Hanna
Language: Arabic, English
Screening Saturday, November 15, with Sweetness.
Sapling
Canadian Showcase
A young boy’s desire to live his life as a tree compels him to run away from home and plant himself in a nearby forest. There, his imagination takes root, unfolding a fantastical vision of a wooden existence.
5 mins 48s
Canada, 2026
Dir. Connor Yarish
Language: English
Screening Sunday, November 16, with Blood Lines.
The Fruit Machine: A Space Opera
Canadian Showcase
When a queer little space alien crashes to earth and looks for survival tips, she finds what she needs on television, a ready-made guide to the ins and outs of 20th century conformity. This tale is set against the true history of the Fruit Machine, a test for aberrant sexuality developed by the Canadian government in the 1960s.
6 Mins 14s
Canada, 2025
Dir. Lorri Millan, Shawna Dempsey
Language: English