This is a little bit of history with our Best of Fest season as Winter Kept Us Warm is regarded as the first LGBTQ+ film to screen at The Cannes Film Festival in 1966.
Celebrated as Canada’s first queer film release, David Secter’s debut film is a quietly confident exploration of friendship and desire. Set at the University of Toronto in the 1960’s and shot over the course of a snowy winter, the film captures the slow burn of an unrequited crush as Doug, a charismatic campus all-star falls for Peter, a shy, bookish freshman. The film screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1966 and left a lasting impact on Canadian cinema, paving the way for Canadian queer filmmakers such as Bruce LaBruce and Patricia Rozema, even inspiring a young David Cronenberg who cites Winter Kept Us Warm as the film that inspired him to become a director. Nearly six decades later, the film returns in a new 4K restoration, cementing its legacy in the queer cinema canon.
