The Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film is an annual juried film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to a film judged to be the best Canadian feature film.[1]
As with TIFF's other juried awards, the jury has the discretion to name one or more honorable mentions in addition to the overall winner, but are normally expected to name a single winner. On only one occasion to date, in 1997, were two full winners of the award named in the same year.
From 2020 to 2022, the award was presented as one of three Amplify Voices awards rather than as a standalone category. The Amplify Voices awards are presented to three films overall, with one award open to all feature films made by Canadian directors and designated as the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Film, while the other two awards are open to any feature films, regardless of nationality, directed by BIPOC filmmakers; however, all three awards are selected and presented by the same jury. In 2023, this ceased and the award reverted to being presented separately from the Amplify Voices awards, although the same jury remained in charge of presenting both awards.
In 2024, concurrently with the reintroduction of the Best Canadian Discovery Award, TIFF announced a slight change to the award rules, whereby it will now only be open to films which are their filmmakers' third or later titles, while first or second films will be eligible only for the Discovery award.[2]