Ancaster Film Fest

04/30/2026

Monday May 11, 2:00 p.m.
All That's Left Of You
145 minutes
Season Sponsor: Rastins Pharmacy
Film Date Sponsor: to be finalized
Proceeds to Canadian Red Cross
Tickets: www.memorialarts.ca/films/aff-may11-aft

All That’s Left of You, a multi-generational Palestinian epic, is the kind of accomplished, immaculately rendered film that’s indicative of a director who’s learned much and is ready to seize more. Robert Daniels/Roger Ebert.com

Though sometimes over-explanatory, the film gains in complexity as it progresses, raising thorny questions about the duty of victims to maintain their humanity. Liam Lacey/Original Cin

Monday May 11, 7:15 p.m.
Palestine 36
118 min
Season Sponsor: Rastins Pharmacy
Proceeds to Canadian Red Cross
Tickets: www.memorialarts.ca/films/aff-may11-eve

If “Palestine 36” is indeed a filmic history lesson, it’s one worth sitting through. That a traditionally realized historical drama with impeccable production value and consistently effective performances centers the Palestinian perspective makes for an essential endeavor. Carlos Aguilar/RogerEbert.com

As overdue tales of history go, “Palestine ‘36” is certainly more of a blunt instrument than a novelistic endeavor. But its broad strokes and rooted passions easily earn their place, and deserve to inspire more such stories. Robert Abele/Los Angeles Times

04/30/2026

$1000 will be donated to the De Mazenod Door Outreach from the April 20th Screenings. 270 paid attendance to The President's Cake and 167 to H Is For Hawk.

Ratings for The President's Cake (207 ratings)
5 Excellent 123
4 Very Good 50
3 Good. 28
2 Poor 5
1 Very Poor. 1

Ratings for H Is For Hawk (105)
5 Excellent 40
4 Very Good 39
3 Good. 23
2 Poor 2
1 Very Poor. 1

04/12/2026

Monday April 20, 7:15 p.m.
H IS For Hawk
128 min
https://www.memorialarts.ca/films/aff-april-eve
Season Sponsor: Rastins Pharmacy
Film Date Sponsor: Retired Women Teachers of Ontario-Hamilton Wentworth Branch
Proceeds to the Demazenod Door Outreach

Foy is exceptional throughout in a project that frequently requires her to share the frame with a beady-eyed, sharp-clawed killer and, crucially, to convey a combination of awestruck admiration and stultifying terror. Kevin Maher/The Times(UK)

Grief is an individual journey, but it's possible to see the universal agony of mourning a parent in this very specific, well-acted, intelligent tale of loss and recovery. Thelma Adams/AARP Movies for Grownups

H Is for Hawk concerns itself less with the healing of wounds, but rather with the prying open of them. Can we look so deep into the pulp that the fear of it eventually washes away? Clarisse Loughrey/The Independent(UK)

04/12/2026

Monday April 20, 2:00 p.m.
The President's Cake
105 min
Arabic with English Subtitles
https://www.memorialarts.ca/films/aff-april-aft
Season Sponsor: Rastins Pharmacy
Film Date Sponsor: Retired Women Teachers of Ontario-Hamilton Wentworth Branch
Proceeds to the Demazenod Door Outreach

This detail-rich and tremendously moving moral fable uncovers harsh realities in Iraqi society without departing from the earnest perspective of its knee-high protagonist, and without diminishing the dignity or value of her hopes and dreams. Isaac Feldberg/RogerEbert.com

It’s difficult to think of another debut that combines such crowd-pleasing sensibilities, political resonance, and cinematic sweep. Rory O'Connor/The Film Stage

The bonds of the children, Bibi, the postman, and a very few others in their circle endow “The President’s Cake” with a grandly humanistic warmth that’s all the stronger for the mighty pressure under which it’s forged. Richard Broder/The New Yorker

03/18/2026

Oscars unfolded pretty much as predicted with Sinners and Battle uncertainties for a few awards (Picture, Director, Editing, Cinematography). Biggest upset was probably Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Of course, the Shorts are always tough. Glad NFB and Canada won for the Girl Who Cried Pearls.

Top Three Animated Shorts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zanj0zDKfR8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtsrMcuyfjY
https://www.reddit.com/r/retirement/comments/1ruka7m/retirement_plan_oscar_nominee_for_best_animated/

One of the winners in long action short
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuOEEu--j2

What was your favourite result? My favourite result was Jessie Buckley winning as the first Irish woman to win Best Actress. Back in 2019 when I screened the wonderful Wild Rose I predicted that she would someday win Best Actress. I think she'll win again. I can'd think of anyone who speaks more eloquently, poetically and thoughtfully in her interviews. Her Oscar thank you speech follows.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WDtfFXDRRQI

That little laugh at the start and just the whole speech 👏 Jessie Buckley becomes the first Irish winner of the 'Best Actress' Oscar for her role in Hamnet,...

03/06/2026

Monday March 30, 7:15 p.m.
AFF presents the internationally acclaimed 'The Secret Agent' on Monday March 30, at 7:15 p.m. at the Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre
Nominated for 4 Oscars
Won 67 Awards, 125 nominations
161 min
Season Sponsor: Rastins Pharmacy
Film Date Sponsor: Patrick Orovan, Real Broker
Proceeds: Ancaster Community Services
Portuguese with English subtitles
https://www.memorialarts.ca/films/aff-march-eve

Fiery and relentlessly paced (its 158 minutes don’t contain a minute of bloat), the political thriller pivoting around themes of paranoia and resistance feels perfectly tuned to the moment. Barry Hertz/The Globe and Mail

Such confident skill, combined with the richness of the narrative and the impressively fluid storytelling, renders the film riveting for all 158 minutes of its running time. One is tempted to call it a masterpiece. Giovanni Marchia Camia/Sight and Sound

Marcelo’s story keeps everything connected and the humanity in the forefront, but the overall effect is still akin to surfing channels late at night, slipping from one delirious after-hours offering to the next. David Fear/Rolling Stone

03/06/2026

AFF presents The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes, on Monday March 30th, at 2:00 p.m. at the Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre
113 min
Season Sponsor: Rastins Pharmacy
Film Date Sponsor: Patrick Orovan, Real Broker
Proceeds: Ancaster Community Services
https://www.memorialarts.ca/films/aff-march-aft

The Brits do this kind of light and dark juggling act better than almost anybody, and the filmmakers and their cast deliver a movie that's perfect for viewing on a lazy Sunday afternoon at the movie theater. Odie Henderson/Boston Globe

The Choral is a beautifully made film with a great cast and impeccable credentials, a collaboration between writer Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner, as were The History Boys and The Lady in the Van. Liz Braun/Original Cin
A sprawling First World War period comedy drama about a British choir reaching for normalcy through performance, The Choral boasts a humorous approach to a community’s inability to directly speak about the horrors of war. Robert Daniels/Screen International

03/04/2026

Highly recommend watching the wonderful 'The Queen of Chess' doc on Netflix. The story of Judit Polgar, the world's greatest female chess player. Her father, a Hungarian educational psychologist, and mother, an Ukranian foreign language teacher, married after a long correspondence around the notion that genius could be developed. They later followed up with an experiment on their three young home-schooled daughters. Scroll the graphic for the trailer as well as a video clip on her speed game against Magnus Carlsen, the current top chess player.

We're thrilled to invite you to take part in yet anotherhistoric showdown against one of the living legends of the game! Face GM Judit Polgar, the strongest woman in history.

02/19/2026

AFF presents Marty Supreme
Monday February 23, 7:15 p.m.
Nominated for 9 Oscars
Won 35 Awards, 261 nominations
149 min
Season Sponsor: Rastins Pharmacy
Film Date Sponsor: Dorothy Richardson, Marion McQueen, Sandra Langton and Mabel Hickerson
Proceeds to Hamilton Out of the Cold
https://www.memorialarts.ca/films/aff-february-eve

Marty Supreme is a 2025 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Josh Safdie who co-wrote with Ronald Bronstein. Set in the 1950s, it follows fictional American table tennis player Marty Ma**er (loosely based on Marty Reisman) in his quest to become world champion. Timothée Chalamet stars as Ma**er, with Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary and Fran Drescher in supporting roles.

Marty Supreme is a rare film that will become a watershed moment in cinematic history, in the same way that Taxi Driver and Pulp Fiction did. It will be spoken of in reverent tones in years to come, and will be endlessly studied and then copied by lesser filmmakers. Bradley Gibson/Film Threat

Marty Supreme is a stunning achievement, a breathless yet precisely controlled joyride full of vivid characters, hairpin turns and did-that-just-happen moments – and a modernist fairy tale about big ambitions colliding with grubby street-level realities and capitalism’s seedy imperatives. This is a film that’s built to last. Phil de Semylen/Time Out

The result is a roman candle of a movie that feels like it was shot out of a cannon, despite being burdened with the gravity of an implausible dream; a totemic Jewish-American odyssey about where such dreams come from, where they might lead to, and where they’re liable to come apart at the seams along the way. David Ehrlich/Indiewire

02/19/2026

AFF Presents DJ Ahmet
Monday February 23, 2:00 p.m.
This film has been a big hit across the TIFF film circuit. Just last week it played, on one day, at the Collingwood Film Circuit to over 800 people with very positive reactions.
9 international awards, nominated for 10 others
Turkish and Macedonian with English subtitles
99 min
Season Sponsor: Rastins Pharmacy
Film Date Sponsor: Dorothy Richardson, Marion McQueen, Sandra Langton and Mabel Hickerson
Proceeds to Hamilton Out of the Cold
https://www.memorialarts.ca/films/aff-february-aft

Ahmet, a 15-year-old boy from a remote Yuruk village in North Macedonia, finds refuge in music while navigating his father’s expectations, a conservative community, and his first experience with love.

Seattle Film Festival: New Directors Competition
Sundance: World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award and Jury Prize
Seville Film Festival: Best Actor
South East European Highway (los Angeles):Audience Award, Jury Prize
Montenegro Film Festival: Grand Prix- Best Film
Desertscape International Film Festival: Best Film

The sort of film that urges one to tell everyone about it so that they too can bask in its wondrous pleasures, “DJ Ahmet” is a revelation in that it seamlessly straddles the line between laugh-out-loud crowd-pleaser and art-house gem with affecting gravitas. Carlos Aguilar/Variety

However it expertly weaves all of these things together into one very satisfying journey and I genuinely couldn't stop smiling from ear to ear all the way through. What a fantastic way to kick off this year's London Film Festival, definitely not one to miss! It's no wonder it previously made such a splash at Sundance. Kieran Battams/Voicemag.uk

Unkovski’s coming-of-age comedy finds much to smile about in a North Macedonian village where conservative traditions clash with modern times. Peter Howell/Toronto Star

01/26/2026

Announcement

UPDATE: TODAY’S 2PM ANCASTER FILM FEST SCREENING OF "SENTIMENTAL VALUE" IS STILL HAPPENING, BUT DUE TO WEATHER AND PARKING LOT CONDITIONS WE WILL BE REPEATING THE FILM AT 2PM TOMORROW (TUESDAY) FOR THOSE WHO PREFER TO STAY HOME TODAY. TODAY'S TICKETS ARE VALID FOR EITHER SCREENING. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT WILL ONLY SCREEN TODAY. STAY WARM, DRIVE CAREFULLY