‘You Had to Be There’ and ‘Forward’ to Open 25th Whistler Film Festival

You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution by Nick Davis and “Forward” by Nic Collar, will open the 25th anniversary edition of Whistler Film Festival running December 3–7, 2025.

“You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community That Changed the World (in a Canadian Kind of Way)” explores how that groundbreaking production — featuring Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Paul Shaffer, Dave Thomas, and Gilda Radner — became the cradle of a new era in television comedy, inspiring Saturday Night Live (by Canuck contemporary Lorne Michaels) and Canada’s iconic SCTV.

Forward is a Mountain Culture documentary that captures the thrill of adaptive adventure through the story of Clay March, a skier and surfer with cerebral palsy whose drive and innovation push the possibilities of human performance. Alongside his triplet brother Tanner March, Clay charges lines across snow and waves, offering an exhilarating portrait of skill and precision. His journey is both personal and universal — a reminder that adventure is where barriers end and the fun begins. The screening is co-presented with Whistler Adaptive Sports Program Society.

Closing the festival is British period piece The Choral, directed by Nicholas Hytner (The Crucible, The Madness of King George) and starring Ralph Fiennes in the drama set amongst World War I about music, loss, and resilience.

With media personality George Stroumboulopoulos serving as the festival’s 25th Anniversary Ambassador, WFF is shining a spotlight on Canadian creativity, featuring approximately 71 per cent Canadian films and the Borsos Award competition for Best Canadian Feature Film.

“Canadian cinema has never been stronger, and this year’s selection reflects a national creative confidence that resonates on the world stage,” said Robin Smith, director of programming at the Whistler Film Festival. “The Borsos program showcases the best of our country’s narrative feature filmmakers — diverse, daring, and distinctly Canadian.”

Ten Canadian features will compete in the 22nd annual Borsos Competition, named for filmmaker Philliip Borsos .

In Youngblood, Ontario director Hubert Davis reimagines the classic Rob Lowe hockey drama of the same name through a modern lens, placing a Black prodigy’s journey into the NHL draft at the centre of a story about identity, racism, resilience, and locker room politics.

Indigenous films include: Nika & Madison, directed by Eva Thomas, tells the story of two Indigenous women forced to go on the run after a violent encounter, while Starwalker, from Corey Payette, centres a Two-Spirit call boy seeking self-expression in Vancouver’s drag scene. Uiksaringitara | Wrong Husband by Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat/The Fast Runner) is a poetic Inuktitut fairy-tale of two teenage lovers promised to be wed — only to be pulled apart by sinister forces.

Women filmmakers are also represented: Mile End Kicks, directed by Chandler Levack is set against Montreal’s indie music scene in 2011; and Akashi, by Mayumi Yoshida, blends Japanese and English narrative threads in a cross-cultural tale of family and memory.

Other competing films include: Little Lorraine by Andy Hines, is a crime drama bubbling beneath the surface of bucolic seaside life; Influencers by Kurtis David Harder, is a psychological identity-theft thriller; Sk+te’kmujue’katik | At the Place of Ghosts from Bretten Hannam, highlights the quest of two brothers haunted by personal histories; and Gagne Ton Ciel | The Cost of Heaven by director Mathieu Denis, watches a father’s moral descent in Quebec’s sociocultural climate.