THE FILMS OF CINEMA SHIFT 2026.

Best Canadian AI Narrative Film

When I Became Me

Directed by Gary Thomas

A drone discovers what it is to be unique.

Legend

Directed by Ryan Patterson

In a fading world, an aging guardian teaches a young man to follow in his mother’s footsteps.

Best AI Narrative Film · Audience Choice

Sinuca de Bico (Cornered)

Directed by Odair Faléco and Davi Moori

Based on real life events, Sinuca de Bico is a raw, personal short about the quiet violence of work.

Memento Mori

Directed by Mike Bennion

A short film about loss.

Best Hybrid Film

Grandmère

Directed by Martin Haerlin

Inspired by childhood memories, a grandmother’s house, and the small ghosts of imagination that quietly disappear as we grow older.

Soar!

Directed by Richard Murray

Two kids — a future pilot and a drone-flying bully — learn that just maybe they are better when they soar together.

Dial-A-Mate

Directed by Catherine Hang-Hicks

A stop-motion style comedy riff on 1980s video dating programs, with animals.

The Stars

Directed by Afro Futcha

In a war-torn city, a young boy collects what he believes are stars in a glass jar, unaware that the beauty he is chasing is the violence surrounding him.

When Is It Yours?

Directed by Ben Chimoy

A short mockumentary about authorship, ownership, and creative intent in the age of generative AI.

Don’t Feed the Rats

Directed by Tiziano Fioriti

What you run from runs after you. Every fear you avoid learns how to chase you.

Ceremony

Directed by Mark Wachholz

In a near-future, the only survivor of a city erased in an apocalyptic strike is interviewed — and holds the key to a darker truth.

Hard Dayzzz

Directed by Max De Donato

A fly is thrown into a series of trials, each forcing it to question its place in a universe that seems determined to erase it.

Egg

Directed by C.E. Whitmore

Three needle-felted meerkats agree on almost nothing — especially not the glowing egg half-buried outside their burrow.

The Sea That Dreamed

Directed by Roxanne Ducharme

Adrift in a strange sea, a creature wanders until a forgotten jar reveals a hidden world within.

Loop and Gavel

Directed by Michael James Pearson

An experimental super-intelligent android navigates the birth of consciousness and its relationship to humanity.

Hard to Be a God

Directed by DT Yang

Set in near-future Taiwan, a young woman copes with her mother’s death and the looming threat of invasion by escaping into a digital world.