Every year in the early summer, Oakville Festivals of Film & Art brings us OFFA - our local film festival. Come late summer, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) takes place just a short drive away. But in the winter, there's another film festival in Halton that shines bright: Milton.
The Milton Film Festival (MFF) is a true diamond in the rough, showcasing great local movies and shorts while also programming some true blockbusters every year. Now that it's the last weekend of January, they are once again making their premiere.
2022 marks the ninth Milton Film Fest, and like the last two versions of the OFFA Online Film Festival, this year's event is all-digital, meaning it can be enjoyed from the comforts of your home.
This year, some of the headliner films include Danis Goulet's TIFF smash Night Raiders and the Oscar-buzzing Spencer starring Kristen Stewart. Also available for rentals are recent festival hits I'm Your Man, Mass and The Middle Man.
This year's event was supposed to be a combination of digital and in-person events at the John Elliot Theatre in Georgetown, but the latest set of restrictions for theatres due to Omicron forced them to move the event full digital, similar to last year's festival.
Fourteen feature films will screen over the next five days (the festival runs from today, Jan. 29, until next Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022), paired with one or more short films. Single tickets for each event are available, as are four and eight pick-your-own passes and an all-access 14-film pass.
- Single tickets are $12.50 plus tax each
- Build-your-own 4 film packages are $45 plus tax
- Build-your-own 10 film packages are $90 plus tax
- All-access tickets, with unlimited viewing of all events, is $130 plus tax
While there is a $1-2 price increase per movie this year, the prices above are also per household watching together - one ticket is valid for as many people who live at your home and are watching the movies together.
Unlike last year, however, there are a limited number of tickets for sale per movie. (Meaning once enough people have bought their digital ticket, sales can eventually run out.
One feature making the digital festival notably accessible is that films remain on-demand for seven days once an event starts. This means you can purchase a film even if its "start-time" in the festival has come and gone. Once you start watching a movie, you have 24 hours to finish it.
If this is your first time viewing a digital festival or using Eventive (the same movie platform that the Oakville Film Festival used in 2020 and 2021), Milton is offering an FAQ to help users new to the system.
So what are the movies playing at the Milton Film Fest this year? Here are the headliners:
MASS
Now Streaming
Years after an unspeakable tragedy tore their lives apart, two sets of parents talk privately in an attempt to move forward. Fran Kranz's writing and directing debut, examining grief, anger and acceptance, has an all-star cast of Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton. The movie has gained critical acclaim since its Sundance 2021 premiere.
I'M YOUR MAN
Streaming Sunday, Jan. 30 at 6:00 a.m.
This German sci-fi romantic comedy stars Marin Eggert and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Beauty & the Beast). Alma is persuaded to participate in an extraordinary study to obtain funds for her research. For three weeks, she must live with Tom, a humanoid robot designed to be the perfect life partner for her, tailored to her character and needs.
KÍMMAPIIYIPITSSINI: THE MEANING OF EMPATHY
Streaming Wednesday, Feb. 2 at 6:00 a.m.
The must-see documentary follows Canadian filmmaker Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (also in Night Raiders at MFF 2022). She creates an intimate portrait of her community and the impacts of the substance use and overdose epidemic. Witness the change brought by community members with substance-use disorder, first responders and medical professionals as they strive for harm reduction in the Kainai First Nation.
Kímmapiiyipitssini was the winner of the Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award and the Rogers Audience Award for Canadian Feature Documentary at the 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
SPENCER
Streaming Friday, Feb. 4 at 6:00 a.m.
Called "a fantasy based on a real tragedy," Kristen Stewart stars as Princess Diana in an imagining of what might have happened during those few fateful days before she divorces Prince Charles over Christmas 1995. Stewart is the frontrunner to win Best Actress at this year's Oscars, and this is a great chance to see the film if you missed it at Film.Ca Cinemas back in November.
NIGHT RAIDERS
Begins streaming Saturday, Feb. 5 at 6:00 a.m.
Hot from TIFF 2021, where it was one of the best-reviewed movies of the festival, Night Raiders is (in this author's opinion) one of the best movies of the year and a must-see event in Milton. This is the feature film debut by director Danis Goulet, winner of the Emerging Talent Award at TIFF 2021, and co-produced by Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit).
In 2043, a military occupation controls disenfranchised cities in post-war North America, and children are property of the State. A desperate Cree woman joins an underground band of vigilantes to infiltrate a State children's academy and get her daughter back. Night Raiders is a female-driven dystopian drama about resilience, courage and love.
The Full Schedule
Finally, here is a list of all 15 tickets on offer at the 2022 festival over the next nine days. Each screening is available to start watching at 6:00 a.m. EST on the day it begins.
Each title is paired with one or more short films (except the short film showcase, which is all shorts), and many have live, virtual Q&As with the filmmakers following the screening.
Saturday, Jan. 29:
- Mass
- The Lost Leonardo - a documentary about the most expensive painting ever sold
- Short Film Extravaganza - a collection of all 18 short films submitted for this year's festival
Sunday, Jan. 30:
- A Small Fortune - a Canadian thriller about a man who finds a bag of lost money off the shores of Prince Edward Island and decides to keep it
- I'm Your Man
Monday, Jan. 31 to Wednesday, Feb. 2:
- Lapsis, Mon. Jan. 31 - a sci-fi mystery about a man hired to move cables in a forest
- The Boathouse, Tues. Feb. 1 - a new Canadian thriller from director Hannah Cheesman (Firecrackers)
- Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy, Wed. Feb. 2
Thursday, Feb. 3:
- The Price of Cheap - a documentary in English and Hindi about modern enslaved people in textiles manufacturing supply chains
- Roads of Ithriyah - a Canadian war drama about a Syrian militant who wakes up shell-shocked and unable to remember his war alignment
Friday, Feb. 4:
- Spencer
Saturday, Feb. 5:
- Night Raiders
- Luzzu - a Maltese drama about a fisherman who must sell his boat or join a crime ring
Sunday, Feb. 6:
- The Middle Man - a Canada/Norway co-production from TIFF, a dark comedy about a town where lots of unlucky bad things happen
- Délicieux - the closing film, a French historical fiction about a baker in 1789 opening the world's first restaurant
Tickets are still available for all events of this week's festival and are available via Milton Film Fest, as is the full schedule of this week's events.