Movies to Inspire Your Next Canadian Adventure

In The Grand Seduction, the residents of the small Newfoundland fishing community of Tickle Head are struggling to keep their village alive after the collapse of the traditional fishing economy. When the possibility of attracting a factory offers hope for the community's future, there is one condition: they need a resident doctor. The villagers then launch an increasingly elaborate campaign to convince one reluctant physician that Tickle Head is exactly where he belongs.

The film was shot around Trinity Bay and the Bonavista Peninsula, and Newfoundland's rugged coastline, colourful outport communities and spectacular Atlantic scenery become an important part of the story. The humour and resourcefulness of the residents make the community itself as memorable as the landscape.

For travellers, The Grand Seduction offers an invitation to explore Newfoundland's coastal communities and discover the landscapes beyond the province's larger centres. The movie might inspire a road trip along the coast, a visit to historic fishing villages, a hike along dramatic cliffs or simply a slower journey through communities where the sea remains an important part of everyday life.

The Shipping News (2001)

Based on Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Shipping News follows Quoyle as he returns with his family to his ancestral home in Newfoundland after a series of personal tragedies.

There, he gradually becomes part of a community shaped by generations of stories, hardship, weather and the sea.

The film presents a harsher and more brooding Newfoundland than The Grand Seduction. Yet that is part of its appeal. Fog, cliffs, powerful seas and isolated settlements demonstrate how profoundly geography can shape life on the Atlantic coast.

For anyone drawn to dramatic coastal scenery, lighthouses, fishing villages and places where the weather remains part of daily conversation, The Shipping News offers a compelling invitation to explore Newfoundland more deeply.

Rare Birds (2001)

In Rare Birds, a failing Newfoundland restaurateur becomes involved in an increasingly eccentric scheme involving reports of an extraordinarily rare duck.

What follows mixes comedy, friendship and reinvention with just enough birding absurdity to make the premise irresistible.

Once again, however, Newfoundland itself becomes one of the stars. The coastal setting evokes the remoteness and wildness that make the province so appealing to nature travellers. The film is an especially fun choice for birders, hikers and anyone who understands the strange optimism of scanning an empty horizon in the hope that something unexpected might appear.

Newfoundland and Labrador's official tourism site also highlights Rare Birds among films showcasing the province's scenery, including Cape Spear. This film will definitely leave you wanting to explore the top birding places in Newfoundland for yourself.

Anne of Green Gables (1985)

Few screen stories are as closely associated with a Canadian landscape as Anne of Green Gables. Lucy Maud Montgomery's imaginative orphan transformed Prince Edward Island into a destination generations of readers and viewers have wanted to experience for themselves.

The appeal goes well beyond Green Gables, which visitors can explore at the Green Gables Heritage Place. Rolling farmland, country lanes, woodlands, red soil and the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence create a vision of an island best experienced slowly.

Anne notices everything around her and continually invests ordinary places with wonder. In many ways, that is also one of the pleasures of slow travel: learning to notice the landscape rather than simply passing through it.

A viewing can easily inspire a PEI staycation built around cycling the Confederation Trail, walking beaches, exploring small communities, visiting literary sites or simply giving yourself permission to travel at Anne's more observant pace.

The Dog Who Stopped the War (1984)

For generations of Canadians, The Dog Who Stopped the War is one of those movies that instantly evokes childhood winters.  In addition, the National Film Board of Canada has highlighted director André Melançon's contribution to Quebec cinema and the lasting impact of the film.

Set during the Christmas holidays, it follows two groups of children whose elaborate snowball war grows increasingly serious as they build a massive snow fort, establish rules and turn a snowy landscape into their own temporary world.

Much of the film was shot around Baie-Saint-Paul and Saint-Urbain in Quebec's Charlevoix region, where deep snow, wooded hills and small communities provide far more than a backdrop.

The landscape captures something distinctly Canadian: the possibility that winter itself can become part of the adventure rather than simply a season to endure.

For travellers, the film offers an invitation to rediscover Quebec in winter. A visit to Charlevoix can mean snowshoeing through forests, skiing or snowboarding down treed slopes with views of the St. Lawrence, exploring Baie-Saint-Paul, watching the frozen landscape along the St. Lawrence or simply experiencing the beauty of a region transformed by snow.

La Grande Séduction (2003)

Long before Newfoundland's The Grand Seduction, there was the original Quebec film La Grande Séduction.

The story follows residents of the fictional village of Sainte-Marie-la-Mauderne, where the collapse of the traditional fishing economy has left the community struggling to survive. When the possibility of attracting a new factory arises, the villagers discover they first need a resident doctor.

They then launch an increasingly elaborate campaign to convince one reluctant physician that their isolated community is exactly where he should remain.

The film was shot in Harrington Harbour on Quebec's Lower North Shore, an isolated community accessible by air and sea rather than by road. Its weathered wooden houses, boardwalks, rocky shoreline and expansive waters give the movie an extraordinary sense of place.

For travellers, La Grande Séduction opens a window onto a part of Quebec that many Canadians may scarcely know exists. The Lower North Shore stretches toward Labrador through remote coastal communities where travel is shaped by boats, ferries, weather and distance.

Indian Summer (1993)

A group of adults returns to the summer camp they attended as children and discovers that revisiting a beloved place can stir up memories they thought they had left behind.

Indian Summer is funny, nostalgic and occasionally bittersweet. Its real gift to Canadian travellers, however, is its setting.

The movie was filmed at Camp Tamakwa in Ontario's Algonquin Provincial Park, where director Mike Binder himself had spent childhood summers. Lakes, docks, forests and canoes create an instantly recognizable portrait of the Ontario wilderness experience.

For anyone who grew up going to a cottage, paddling a canoe or spending summers around Canadian lakes, the scenery can be almost painfully familiar.

For those who didn't, it might be enough to inspire a first camping trip, canoe journey or autumn weekend in the Ontario wilderness. Algonquin Provincial Park remains one of Canada's classic destinations for hiking, paddling, camping, wildlife watching and outdoor adventure.

One Week (2008)

After receiving a cancer diagnosis, Ben Tyler buys a motorcycle and leaves Toronto on what becomes a deeply personal journey west across Canada.

Along the way, he passes some of the country's most recognizable landscapes and landmarks while confronting an uncomfortable question: if your time suddenly became limited, what would you do with it?

Few Canadian movies capture the pull of the open road quite as effectively. What makes One Week particularly useful for travellers is that the journey isn't simply transportation between two points. The stops, diversions, roadside attractions and unexpected encounters become the journey.

Canada unfolds gradually, from Ontario toward the Prairies, the Rockies and finally the Pacific. The movie makes a persuasive case for travelling across the country rather than flying over it.  The film's Toronto International Film Festival description emphasizes its cross-Canada journey and the iconic landscapes Ben encounters along the way.

It is difficult to watch without beginning to imagine your own version of a cross-Canada road trip.

500 Days in the Wild (2023)

Filmmaker Dianne Whelan set out from St. John's, Newfoundland, in 2015 to travel the Trans Canada Trail. Over six years, she hiked, cycled, paddled, snowshoed and skied approximately 24,000 kilometres across Canada.

The resulting documentary, 500 Days in the Wild, is simultaneously an adventure story, a personal journey and a meditation on our relationship with the land and one another.

Rather than rushing from landmark to landmark, Whelan travelled slowly enough to meet communities and observe the landscapes she passed through. The journey became an ecological and reconciliation pilgrimage as much as a physical adventure.

For travellers, perhaps its greatest lesson is that Canada doesn't have to be experienced all at once. The Trans Canada Trail connects thousands of communities, parks, rail trails, shorelines and natural spaces.

You don't need six years to begin discovering it.

Sometimes a Canadian adventure can start simply by walking the section closest to home. The Trans Canada Trail is an excellent place to begin exploring that idea.

The Grey Fox (1982)

Based on the story of real-life train robber Bill Miner, The Grey Fox follows an aging outlaw released from prison into a rapidly changing world at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Fascinated by the emerging possibility of robbing trains, Miner eventually heads west and becomes part of British Columbia history.

For travellers, the movie offers something different from the wilderness adventures elsewhere on this list. Historic railways, mountain valleys and heritage communities provide a glimpse into the landscapes through which British Columbia developed.

Filming included locations around Pemberton, Lillooet and Fort Steele, as well as sections of the former British Columbia Railway.

The Grey Fox is an appealing choice for travellers interested in railway history, heritage towns and the meeting point between Canadian history and landscape. For us, it sparked memories of the history and landscapes along the Kettle Valley and Columbia and Western Railways, two of our picks for the best rail trails in British Columbia.

The Snow Walker (2003)

Based on Farley Mowat's story Walk Well, My Brother, The Snow Walker begins when a bush pilot and a young Inuit woman become stranded after their aircraft crashes in the Arctic.

Survival gradually depends upon the pilot abandoning many of his assumptions and learning from the knowledge of his companion.

Much of the film's power comes from the immensity of the landscape. Filming took place around Churchill, Manitoba, and Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, among other Canadian locations.

The result is not an easy romanticization of northern travel. Instead, it is a reminder of the scale, beauty and demands of Canada's North.

It might inspire a traveller to experience northern Manitoba, see the shores of Hudson Bay or eventually venture farther into the Arctic. More importantly, The Snow Walker should encourage us to approach northern places with humility and curiosity, remembering that they are homelands, communities and cultural landscapes rather than simply wilderness.

The Grizzlies (2018)

Based on the true story of students in Kugluktuk, Nunavut, The Grizzlies follows a group of Inuit youth who begin playing lacrosse and gradually use the team to strengthen connections with one another and their community.

The movie deals with difficult subjects, including colonialism and intergenerational trauma. Ultimately, however, it is a story about resilience, young people and community.

The filmmakers made a significant effort to involve Inuit and Indigenous performers, creators and crew members. More than 91 percent of the cast and more than a third of the crew were Inuit or Indigenous, according to the film's production team.

For southern Canadians who have never travelled north of the 60th parallel, The Grizzlies offers something more valuable than spectacular Arctic scenery alone. It presents the North as a place where people live, build communities, face challenges, laugh, play sports and create futures.

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)

There may be no more important film on this list for anyone wanting to see Canada from a perspective rarely represented in mainstream cinema.

Directed by Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk and based on an Inuit legend passed through generations, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner tells a story of love, jealousy, betrayal, revenge and survival within an Inuit cultural world.

The film was made in Inuktitut and set in Igloolik, Nunavut. Its expanses of ice, snow and tundra are extraordinary, but they are not simply scenery. The land is inseparable from the story and from the people moving across it.

For travellers, that distinction matters. Visiting Canada's Arctic shouldn't simply be about reaching another geographic destination. It can also be an opportunity to listen, learn and encounter histories and cultures very different from those represented across much of southern Canada.

Atanarjuat is therefore more than a film that might inspire an Arctic trip. It can also encourage us to think differently about what it means to travel through a place and whose stories we are being invited to hear. Finally, the film is part of a much broader Indigenous film tradition, one that offers audiences opportunities to encounter Canadian stories from Indigenous perspectives.