Toronto International Film Festival unveiled the top 10 best features and top 10 best short films of 2011.  Canada’s Top Ten films are chosen from features, shorts, documentaries, animation and experimental films. Each film must have premiered at a major film festival or obtained a commercial theatrical release in Canada in 2011. The filmmaker must be a Canadian citizen or resident, and have a history of working in Canada or on Canadian-financed films.

Monsieur Lazhar, Canada’s Canada’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award     and audience favorite film at the just wrapped Whistler Film Festival made the list, along with Edwin Boyd, about the mid-century Canadian bank robber, and Starbuck, about a sperm donor who learns he’s fathered more than 500 children.

Canada’s Top Ten feature film selections for 2011 (in alphabetical order):

Café de flore — Jean-Marc Vallée (Alliance Films)
A Dangerous Method — David Cronenberg (Entertainment One)
Edwin Boyd — Nathan Morlando (Entertainment One)
Hobo With a Shotgun — Jason Eisener (Alliance Films)
Keyhole — Guy Maddin (Entertainment One)  
Marécages — Guy Édoin (Mongrel Media)
Monsieur Lazhar — Philippe Falardeau (Entertainment One)
Starbuck — Ken Scott (Entertainment One)
Take This Waltz — Sarah Polley (Mongrel Media)
Le Vendeur — Sébastien Pilote (Entertainment One)

Canada’s Top Ten short film selections for 2011 (in alphabetical order):

Choke — Michelle Latimer
Doubles With Slight Pepper — Ian Harnarine
The Fuse: Or How I Burned Simon Bolivar — Igor Drljaca
Hope — Pedro Pires (Phi Group)
No Words Came Down — Ryan Flowers and Lisa Pham
Ora — Philippe Baylaucq (National Film Board of Canada)
Rhonda’s Party — Ashley McKenzie
La Ronde — Sophie Goyette (Locomotion Films)
Trotteur — Arnaud Brisebois and Francis Leclerc (Phi Group and Cirrus Communications)
We Ate the Children Last — Andrew Cividino