A variety of genre-specific, regional and specialty film festivals take place throughout the year, with important festivals in this class including Toronto's
Hot Docs, the
Montreal International Documentary Festival and Vancouver's
DOXA for documentary films, Toronto's
Inside Out and Montreal's
Image+Nation for
LGBTQ-themed films, Montreal's
Fantasia for horror, science fiction and thriller genre films, and the
Ottawa International Animation Festival for animated films. In Saskatchewan,
Regina International Film Festival, based in Regina, and have referred to it as “The People’s Festival of Canada” for its emphasis on accessibility and community engagement. The primary "festival season", comprising the largest and most important general-interest film festivals, takes place almost entirely in the months of September and October, including the
Toronto International Film Festival, the
Vancouver International Film Festival, the
Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, the
Calgary International Film Festival, the
Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal and the
Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax. Many, though not all, Canadian films will screen at one or more of these festivals before going into commercial release later in the fall or sometime in the following year. The final significant film festival of the year is the
Whistler Film Festival in early December, whose
Borsos Competition provides a significant platform for independent films by emerging Canadian filmmakers. ==National==