OCCFF Online Introduction and Disclaimer

Presented by: Canada-China Friendship Society is proud to launch the 4th Annual Ottawa Canada-China Film Festival as an on-line festival.

In 2017 we started our annual event with 3 films at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and plans to grow the annual Film Festival into a more significant event by 2020. In past years the Film Committee’s goal has been to find the “best” films that reveal aspects of life in China, its history or its culture plus films that explore the Chinese–Canadian reality. For our in-theatre presentations we would monitor film festivals around the world and typically filter a long list of over 50 films down to 3 or 4.

In this year of COVID-19 we are inviting you to join us as we explore films from international festivals as well as a multitude of streaming services and film archives.  The first films listed below are from CBC GEM’s Asian Heritage Month programming. We will continue to share links to other festivals and film collections as we find them.  While CBC GEM’s programme is free, many film festivals or streaming services charge a fee or require a membership.  The CCFS does not benefit in any way from these charges.

Given the time limited nature of film festivals it is not be possible for us to review the films in advance as we would do for our sit-in festival. In addition, viewers should be aware that film festivals are typically NOT required to have their films “rated” or to display warnings of content that is “mature” or “age appropriate”, or warnings of violent or sexual content.

To enhance the films we are exploring the possibility of presenting online interviews and Q&A sessions with film makers of the films we have identified.  We are also exploring the potential to “curate” our own recommendations from the 1,000s of films available online with a view to making it easy to find and enjoy the “best of” Chinese related films.

We expect to be adding new contents regularly, so be sure to return frequently for updates on interesting films with a Chinese or Chinese-Canadian twist.

Work is also continuing on the potential for an in-theatre festival in the autumn of 2020. To that end after you have watched one of the films identified below please return here to complete a short survey about the film.  We promise to read every review and to take them into account when we develop future Ottawa Canada-China Film Festivals.  The survey can be found here https://forms.gle/1VgEyLrBCcHR9ecg8. If you would like to suggest festivals, films or film makers for our consideration that information can also be including in the survey.

Thank you and enjoy the films.

Bulletin: Most film festivals limit the days when it is possible to watch the films they offer.  But some continue to make the films available for longer periods of time.  Others may change access process for some or all of their films and require the viewer to register, even when the service is free as with CBC Gem.  We review the links on our site periodically and remove the links that are no longer active.