MONTREAL, July 9, 2026 — In a vivid example of how different nations and cultures can come together in a spirit of unity, celebration, and partnership through the medium of motion pictures, the 11th annual Canada China International Film Festival (CCIFF) gets underway in Montreal on July 10 and runs through August 9.
It all begins on Friday morning with the International Film & Creative Industry Exchange at the Hotel Armon Plaza Aeroport Montreal in Dorval from 10 a.m. to noon. This event will attract special guests, filmmakers, producers, cultural representatives from China, Canada and the United States, as well as local media and industry figures. The aim is to promote international film exchanges and creative collaborations in animation and intellectual property between Canada and China, and to focus on trending and emerging issues affecting the global film industry, such as artificial intelligence.
“This year’s program offers rich opportunities to explore international creative collaboration…and we look forward to sharing it with Montreal’s media and cultural community,” said CCIFF President and Founder Dr. Miao Song. Dr. Song is not only a filmmaker, writer and producer; she is also a creative technology researcher, a film and creative technologies educator at California State University in Fullerton and an international cultural strategist, in which she continually builds international partnerships that help to advance Canadian creative talent, innovation and cultural exchanges around the world.
The opening day programming continues Friday evening with the Opening Gala at the Cinema du Musee, located at 1379-A Sherbrooke Street West. It includes a cocktail reception and an awards ceremony, in which awards will be bestowed in 18 separate categories such as Best Feature Film, Best Documentary Film, Best Short Film and People’s Choice. The gala evening will culminate in the screening of the festival’s opening feature film, “Released”. It takes place in a small village in Tibet, where a young woman is determined to compete in a major horse race, but she lives in a society where women were traditionally forbidden to participate in horse racing.
Throughout the festival, there will be numerous scheduled film screenings — both online and in select cinemas — in Montreal, Toronto and Los Angeles.
For more information about the festival or to purchase tickets for the July 10 Gala and other festival happenings, visit cciff.ca.
