International Film Festival of Ottawa 2025

IFFO’s closing night featured one of the most eclectic, challenging and moving works of the whole festival.

Taking a brief interlude from screening brand-new international films, IFFO turned its attention to an important piece of Canadian cinema history near the end of the festival’s run – a 4K restoration of the early queer film by David Secter, Winter Kept us Warm (1965).

The Ottawa Art Gallery screened Rêver en néon and Café des cauchemars on March 21, 2025 as part of the International Film Festival of Ottawa, which ended on March 23.

Something must be in the water in Naples—the single Italian city has a long history of young filmmakers coming out of the gate with fully formed artistic sensibilities and remarkably refined work. This phenomenon can be traced from old masters like Vittorio De Sica to contemporary artists like Paolo Sorrentino and Mario Martone.

Borrowing the central conceit from the Italian classic Bicycle Thieves, Lebanese filmmaker Mira Shaib creates an eclectic and endearing tribute to her home city of Beirut in her feature debut, Arzé.

To A Land Unknown, Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel’s first narrative feature, could at first be mistaken for another of the documentaries for which he is known. The film’s grittiness and uncompromising, in-your-face realism, not to mention the story’s parallels with Fleifel’s life, could so easily be reality that it takes a moment to realize it is not.

Grand Tour is one of the highest-profile films playing at IFFO this year thanks to the notable names involved. The Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes has been a mainstay on the festival circuit since his 2012 breakout hit, Tabu.

I was shocked! Shocked when I went through the ByTowne’s and the Mayfair’s calendars for the second half of March and tallied up 24(!) films I wanted to recommend to you. That’s more than I’ve ever recommended in one Magic in the Dark article. I’m positive that you’ll find films that will delight you no matter what your tastes are in cinema.