As with many great things, the idea for Reel Canada’s National Canadian Film Day (NCFD) was suggested initially as a joke.

The idea was spurred in 2012 when three Reel Canada events fell on the same day and the idea “National Canadian Film Day” was raised. And what seemed like a light-hearted joke at first has grown rapidly since, growing from 70 screenings in 2014 to 170 in 2015. Now tracking to more than double its numbers again, this year’s event will see more than 350 nationwide screenings of Canadian films. The event – which aims to make a Canadian film available to every Canadian, either through local screenings or via digital or broadcast – takes place this Wednesday, April 20.

This year sees more than 90% of last year’s partners returning again, according to Reel Canada’s executive director Jack Blum and artistic director Sharon Corder, as well as an additional 235 sponsors and partners compared to the previous year.

The ability of NCFD to grow has not been dependent on increased marketing spends, though, said Blum, but rather that additional partners have been reaching out to Reel Canada based on the buzz created by the event’s previous editions.

Reel Canada has been working to promote Canadian film throughout high schools for the past decade, but initially, the organization wasn’t sure that their strategy would translate to an adult audience. “We’ve seen how much enthusiasm there is for Canadian film when people are given the chance to see it. What we didn’t know was that same enthusiasm would be translatable into adults who are not sitting in a school,” Corder told Playback Daily.

The appetite for Canadian content in over-18 demos, said Corder, has been crucial in NCFD’s ability to grow.

Blum and Corder said that despite the rapid expansion of NCFD,  the events held in 2014, 2015 and 2016 are serving as pilot projects for next year’s event which ties in with Canada’s Sesquicentennial anniversary in 2017. “We’ve been considering these as pilots to build up our networks to see what is possible and what isn’t possible for next year,” said Blum. For next year, NCFD has already secured a major funding partner for 2017, which the organizers said will be announced in May.

Among the filmmakers taking part in this year’s event are Atom Egoyan, who is doing a Skype interview for a screening of The Captive in Sudbury, while Alan Zweig is presenting a screening of Hurt in Cambridge, Ontario, and Don McKellar will also host a Q&A session in the CBC Atrium in Toronto following a screening of The Grand Seduction. In addition, Deepa Mehta will be participating in a Skype Q&A in Ontario’s Brampton Square after a screening of Bollywood/Hollywood.

As well, actors Colm Feore and Patrick Huard are participating in a live-streamed Q&A from Heritage Regional High School in Montreal to more than 40 high schools across the country.

In future years, Blum and Corder said they would like to see the event incorporate premieres in order to further the profile and buzz surrounding NCFD and Canadian film in general.

Pictured L to R: Reel Canada’s artistic director Sharon Corder, filmmaker and Reel Canada board member Atom Egoyan and Reel Canada’s executive director Jack Blum.