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Canada's largest environmental film festival // October 20-25 2026 @paradiseonbloor

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The extraordinary documentary WE ARE STARDUST will have its North American premiere at Planet in Focus! @wearestardust_documentary

Sunday, October 25 at 3pm @paradiseonbloor ✨

Join us for a conversation with Director Elisabeth Rasmussen after the screening. @elisaborealis

What if the clues to our cosmic origins are hiding in the gutters beneath our feet and on the roofs of our homes? Norwegian jazz musician Jon Larsen has spent more than a decade investigating microscopic particles he believes came from beyond the earth, pursuing an idea that has repeatedly been met with skepticism from the scientific community. Director Elisabeth Rasmussen joins Larsen on his unlikely quest, following his search for evidence that could challenge what we think we know about where we come from.

But Rasmussen’s journey is also personal. As she accompanies Larsen, she traces her own Sámi heritage, connecting his search for stardust with her own search for origins and belonging. As their friendship evolves, the film moves between the vast mysteries of the cosmos and the intimate stories of ancestry, asking how different forms of knowledge might help us understand our place in the world – and what it means to remain curious in the face of doubt. by @planetinfocus

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Delighted to announce that my short animated film “The Music of the Spheres” will have its Canadian Premiere at @planetinfocus on Sunday, October 25th, 3 PM at the Paradise Cinema @paradiseonbloor My short precedes the feature film “We Are Stardust.” I couldn’t think of a more perfect pairing.

The Music Of The Spheres
Director: Jennifer Linton | Country: Canada | Canadian Premiere | 7 min

Three celestial beings contemplate a post-human Earth where newly hybridized lifeforms have evolved out of the debris of the Anthropocene.

#animation #2danimation #cosmology #ecology #plastic taken in Paradise by @planetinfocus

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Canadian filmmaker Maggie McPhee’s short film CONSTRUCTS screens with THE LAKE - Saturday, October 24 @paradiseonbloor 💙

This experimental found-footage film explores the relationship between extractive industry infrastructure and audiovisual materials in Canada’s colonial project. by @planetinfocus

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Planet in Focus is thrilled to present the Canadian Premiere of THE LAKE directed by Abby Ellis.

Saturday, October 24 // 9:00pm @paradiseonbloor

THE LAKE premiered at Sundance, where it won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change. @abbycelli

THE LAKE is an urgent documentary following a group of scientists and political insiders working to prevent the ecological collapse of Utah’s rapidly drying Great Salt Lake, long recognized as the largest natural saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere. This unique, ecologically fragile lake has been rapidly drying due to rising temperatures and overconsumption, exposing a lakebed laced with arsenic and other toxic minerals that now blow across the surrounding landscape.

Peabody and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Abby Ellis, a native of Utah, directs the film in a verite style, capturing the tireless efforts of microbiologist Bonnie Baxter, ecologist Ben Abbott, atmospheric sciences professor Kevin Perry, and Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed. The film tracks their work to build public awareness and move political leadership before time runs out. Ellis leans into her subjects’ contradictions: Abbott is a devout Mormon unwavering in both his faith and his role as a scientist, opening up a more inclusive dialogue between religion, science and climate change. Steed, meanwhile, works to bring in local farmers and community members across different backgrounds and political affiliations, turning ecological catastrophe into a bipartisan cause. The takeaway runs bigger than the fate of the Great Salt Lake itself – Ellis is ultimately making a case for unity, for people setting differences aside to confront environmental crises together. by @planetinfocus

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Shorts Program: CLEAR CUT - FILMS ABOUT LAND, LOSS AND RESILIENCE screens Saturday, October 24 at 6:30pm! @paradiseonbloor

This program brings six films to Toronto for the first time – each approaching landscapes and our relationship to them from distinct perspectives and across different regions. The films move between animation, intimate testimony, investigative documentary, dance, and experimental modes of storytelling. Together, they explore the beauty and complexity of our natural world, and the forces that transform, exploit, protect, and reshape it.

CONCRETE MOVES
Director: Fagamou Fama Ndiaye | Country: Senegal | Canadian Premiere I 12 min @fama_ndiay_

TIERRA
Director: Cristal Buemi | Country: Canada | World Premiere | 2 min @cristalclear_

Director Cristal Buemi in attendance.

QUINTE WEST
Director: Dan Sokolowski | Country: Canada | Ontario Premiere | 2 min @sokolowski.dan
Created at the Film Farm.

FUTURE
Director: Caleb Nii Odartey Aryee | Country: Ghana | Ontario Premiere | 7 min @odarteymango

HOW IT BEGINS
Director: Chloé Wasp | Country: France | Canadian Premiere | 12 min @chloe__wasp

WILD EAST
Director: Maia Wikler | Country: Canada, United States | Canadian Premiere | 36 min @wildeastfilm

Director Maia Wikler will be in attendance.
Gabriel Paun, Planet in Focus 2026 INTERNATIONAL ECO HERO and the protagonist of WILD EAST, will join us virtually from Romania. by @planetinfocus

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I am thrilled to announce that my new film tierra will have its World Premiere at @planetinfocus 🌎🌱

This stunning festival is Canada’s largest and longest- running environmental film festival and I am honoured to be a part of it! If you are in Toronto next weekend come view a collection of important shorts about Land, Loss and Resilience. I am so excited to share this new little film with you all. Special thanks to @toddmandolin who created the tender and quirky sound for the film.

🍃 Saturday October 24th @ 6:30pm
💚 Paradise Theatre by @planetinfocus

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Thrilled to share our 2026 Festival Trailer!! Thank you to dancer and editor @neillordson for his wonderful work. Join us on Oct 20-25, 2026 at @paradiseonbloor to experience these extraordinary films. ✨ by @planetinfocus

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5 days ago

Dear friends in Toronto,

It is with great joy that we invite you to the Ontario Premiere of The Wind’s Thirst, an Official Selection of @planetinfocus 2026 🌬️

This film was born from the wind, the land, and the memory of those who live there. After its journey through Sheffield, Vancouver and Colombia, we are so happy to share it with you on the big screen.

It would mean the world to have you with us that night. Come, bring someone you love, and stay to talk with us after the screening 🤍

📅 Friday, October 23 · 6:30 PM
📍 Paradise Theatre · 1006 Bloor St. W
🎟️ Tickets at the link in bio
✨ 25 & under: free festival pass with code 25&under

#TheWindsThirst #LaSedDelViento #PlanetInFocus CineColombiano CurareFilms taken in Toronto, Ontario by @planetinfocus

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✨ Our North American premiere! ✨

We Are Stardust is heading across the Atlantic for its first screenings outside Europe, at Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. 🌎✨ It is Canada’s longest-running environmental film festivals, founded in 1999.

A film about Jon Larsen’s hunt for stardust, the origins of the universe, the wonders hidden in the dust beneath our feet, and our place in the cosmos feels right at home at a festival exploring our relationship with the planet we call home.

For me, it will also be a first: my first time in Canada! I’m so looking forward to meeting fellow filmmakers, connecting with the documentary community, and discovering new conversations around the film.

From European gutters to a new continent - the Stardust journey continues 💫❤️

🎬 North American Premiere
📍 Paradise Theatre, Toronto
🗓 Sunday, 25 October 2026
🕒 3:00 pm
🎤 Followed by a conversation with director Elisabeth Rasmussen

#WeAreStardustfilm #PlanetInFocus #NorthAmericanPremiere #DocumentaryFilm #femaledorector @filmfatalesorg @wearestardust_documentary @planetinfocus by @planetinfocus

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The wonderful REPLANTING A GARDEN screens with IN THE PATH OF GIANTS on Saturday, October 24 at 3pm. @paradiseonbloor

Director: Anthony W Wallace | Country: Canada | Canadian Premiere | 14 min

In the wake of a devastating coral bleaching event, a group of Jamaican fishers, scientists, and marine wardens come together to restore their reef and the community that depends on it. REPLANTING A GARDEN follows the grassroots work of the Oracabessa Bay Fish Sanctuary as its members search for resilient coral, fragment and replant damaged reefs, and protect one of the Caribbean’s most threatened marine ecosystems.

Told through the voices of those who live and work on the water, the film draws a clear parallel between coral restoration and community gardening. Like a garden, the reef requires constant care, patience, and collective responsibility. The work is physical and ongoing, and its benefits extend beyond the environment itself. As coral returns, fish populations recover, livelihoods stabilize, and a shared sense of purpose grows within the community.

Rather than framing conservation as a distant or abstract solution, REPLANTING A GARDEN shows how environmental stewardship can strengthen social bonds and support local survival. The film highlights how science, traditional knowledge, and cooperation come together through hands-on labor, demonstrating that caring for the ocean is also a way of caring for one another. by @planetinfocus

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Planet in Focus is very proud to present the Canadian premiere of IN THE PATH OF GIANTS.

Saturday, October 24 // 3:00pm @paradiseonbloor
Directors: Kirsty Anna Wells, Fayed Khan | Country: Singapore, United Kingdom @kirstywells_film @fayedmayed

Set in Bangladesh, where the sprawling Rohingya refugee camp meets the edge of the forest, the last migratory corridor for endangered Asian elephants in the region has been cut off, leaving the elephants no alternative but to forage through farm fields. IN THE PATH OF GIANTS examines the complex, often dangerous, and heartbreaking conflict between elephants, refugees, Bengali villagers, and Indigenous farmers. Elephants sit at the center of a layered story shaped by displacement, political violence, and the unintended fallout of vanishing land.

Beginning in 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled persecution in Myanmar and settled in neighboring Bangladesh, setting off a chain of events that disrupted migration routes elephants had followed between the two countries for generations. Elephants are often cast as majestic, gentle giants, but they’re equally capable of destruction and pose real danger to human life. Directors Kirsty Anna Wells and Fayed Khan show how closely the fate of elephants is bound with the people around them, as everyone involved competes for a piece of rapidly shrinking land. The film makes the case that protecting wildlife can’t be separated from supporting the human communities living alongside them – each side depends on the other for safety and survival, and for any chance of saving the Asian elephants they revere.

IN THE PATH OF GIANTS premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London and won the Living with Wildlife Award at the International Wildlife Film Festival. by @planetinfocus

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Join us for a FREE FAMILY DAY PROGRAM Saturday, October 24th!

Thank you to EY for their generous support for our Family Program. @eycanada_

Doors open at 11:30am for coffee and snacks followed by a program of international short films at 12:00pm @paradiseonbloor

A SMALL GARDEN BY THE WINDOW @architect_a_office
Director: Jonghoon LEE | Country: South Korea | Ontario Premiere | 4 min

SPARK
Director: Rylie Prentice | Country: Canada | 3 min

IRIDESCENT
Director: A.B. Osborne | Country: United States | Ontario Premiere | 9 min

DOLPHIN DUDE @dolphindude.official
Director: Ashoke Mohanraj | Country: Canada | 7 min

WILD ASIA @bbcearth
Director: Matthew Wright | Country:United Kingdom | Toronto Premiere | 42 min by @planetinfocus

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