Whistler’s 2026 Lineup Goes Mostly Canadian

Brad Bird's Ray Gunn opens, Vic Sarin's The Lightkeeper closes, and 16 Canadian features compete for the Borsos with single tickets now on sale.

By Casie Stewart November 5, 2026 3 min read

Photo: Elevation Pictures / Whistler Film Festival

Trailer: Ray Gunn. Cast, where to watch and more on the title page.

The last major stop on Canada’s festival calendar has shown its full hand, and it leans hard on home. The Whistler Film Festival, now in its 26th edition, runs 2 to 6 December in Whistler, B.C., with 103 films: 36 features and series and 67 shorts, roughly 70 per cent of them Canadian. Twenty are world premieres, 17 of those Canadian. Pass and ticket-pack holders could start choosing films on 3 November, and single tickets went on sale on Wednesday 4 November.

“Nearly three-quarters of our lineup is Canadian, and that isn’t us being Canadian polite,” said executive director Josh Epstein.

Opening and closing nights

Brad Bird opens the festival with Ray Gunn, an animated science fiction noir he wrote with Matthew Robbins. The voice cast includes Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Waits, Bobby Cannavale, Alan Tudyk, Matt Berry and Michelle Rodriguez. It screens at the Rainbow Theatre at 6 p.m. on 2 December, with a second show at 10 a.m. the next morning.

A first-look image from Brad Bird's animated feature Ray Gunn, the opening night film — In pictures 1

The festival closes on 6 December with the Canadian premiere of Vic Sarin’s The Lightkeeper, a Canada and Ireland co-production written by Ciaran Creagh, with Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon, Aidan Quinn and Sarah Bolger.

The Borsos Competition

Sixteen Canadian features compete for the Borsos, which carries $40,000 in cash and prizes across best Canadian feature, director, screenplay, performance, cinematography and editing. Mayumi Yoshida, Eva Thomas and Martin Fisher form the jury. The field includes The Lightkeeper; Chris Carter’s comedy Queens for a Day; Ron Murphy’s Back in Black, with Christopher Walken and Jane Curtin; and Nyla Innuksuk’s thriller In the Heart of the South, with Anna Lambe of North of North.

Ten of the 16 also make up the Essential Cinema program: Ancestral Beasts (Tim Riedel), How We Stand (Marie Clements), Inheritance (Camille Beaudoin), Lucky Weekend (Kevin Alves), Seahorse (Aisha Evelyna), Send the Rain (Hayley Gray and Kaayla Whachell), Seventeen (Justin Ducharme), Smudge the Blades (Cody Lightning), Strong Son (Ian Bawa) and Toy Gun Bandit (Rémi St-Michel). Angus Silver’s Insectasy and Arnold Lim’s family film The Bryce Lee Story round out the competition.

Special presentations and talks

The Special Presentations bring international titles west: Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, with Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti and Halle Bailey; Beth de Araújo’s Josephine, with Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan; Markus Schleinzer’s Rose, starring Sandra Hüller; and Orlando von Einsiedel’s The Cycle of Love, about a 1977 bicycle journey from Delhi to Sweden.

Adrian Buitenhuis’s documentary Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story comes with Hansen himself, who gives a Signature Series talk on 3 December, the United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Marie Clements leads a masterclass on 4 December and Chris and Dori Carter on 5 December, with George Stroumboulopoulos hosting the series. The World Documentary slate includes Sophie Deraspe’s The Final Act and Nuisance Bear, from Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman.

Where it fits

Whistler arrives after Montreal’s Cinemania and before awards season shifts into gear, and it remains one of the few places to see a large share of new Canadian features, many with Telefilm backing, in a single week. Short films get serious money too: the Screen BC Short Film Award package is worth $115,000, including up to $100,000 in production services. Year-round, see our guide to Canada’s independent cinemas.

Where to watch

In person: Whistler, B.C., 2 to 6 December. Single tickets on sale now through the Whistler Film Festival.
Ticket packs: The Borsos 6-Pack covers six Borsos films for $36.
Streaming: The festival lists all events as in person; no online screenings are announced.