Super Channel and the Canadian Film Fest (CFF) are partnering for a fourth time for a hybrid festival that will screen nine features, 25 shorts and a digital series in cinemas and on TV.

This year’s CFF will run March 28 to April 1 and mark a return to in-person festivities at Toronto’s Scotiabank Theatre alongside programming on Super Channel Fuse, with feature offerings including the Canadian premieres of Shamim Sarif’s queer drama Polarized (pictured) and John Barnard’s zombie horror Wintertide, along with world bows of several shorts.

The festival will open with the Toronto premiere of Quebec-made comedy Babysitter (Montreal’s Amérique Film and France’s Phase 4 Productions) from director Monia Chokri and writer Catherine Léger, who adapted it from her play of the same name. It will open with the world premiere of short film Momma’s Boy by director Sonny Atkins.

Opening night will also include the world premiere of Fae Pictures’ short-form series Streams Flow From a River as an exclusive Super Channel presentation. Christopher Yip directed the six-episode drama, which will launch on Super Channel Fuse in Canada and on demand beginning April 1.

Sarif is the director, writer and coproducer of Polarized, which is also produced by Hanan Kattan of Ontario’s SK Enlightenment Films Canada and U.K.-based Enlightenment Productions, and Juliette Hagopian of Winnipeg’s Julijette Inc. APL Film acquired foreign sales rights to the feature earlier this month with plans to bring it to the European Film Market in Berlin.

Wintertide, which will close the festival, was directed by Barnard and written by him along with Carrie-May Siggins. The sci-fi drama is a Super Channel Original produced by Barnard, Kyle Bornais and Tony Wosk of Winnipeg-based Farpoint Films.

The other features in the lineup of what’s billed as an “indie-spirited festival dedicated to celebrating Canadian filmmakers” include the Toronto premieres of the award-winning Golden Delicious, directed by Jason Karman, written by Gorrman Lee and produced by Kristyn Stilling; and writer-director Connie Cocchia’s drama When Time Got Louder, produced by Cocchia, Ken Frith and Jason Bourque.

Other features making Toronto premieres at CFF include the Richard Lalonde-produced comedy How to Get My Parents to Divorce, directed by Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers, who also wrote it with Maryse Latendresse. It will open with the world premiere of the short film Sissy from directors Caleb Harwood and Simon Paluck.

There’s also writer-director Koumbie’s Bystanders, written by Koumbie along with Taylor Olson and Lisa Rose Snow, and produced by Halifax-based Picture Plant’s Terry Greenlaw in association with Super Channel; and Retrograde from writer-director Adrian Murray, who also produced alongside Sennah Yee and Priscilla Galvez.

A documentary is also on offer — Bloom by director Fanie Pelletier, who also produced alongside Audrey D. Laroche.

This year’s lineup includes 61% female and 54% Black, Indigenous and people of colour filmmakers, according to a news release. All of the feature films will be available on Super Channel and have a limited broadcast presentation during the festival’s run.

Photo courtesy of Enlightenment Films Canada