#FIRSTLOOK: NETFLIX ACQUIRES AWARD-WINNING INDIGENOUS DOCUMENTARY “CEREMONY”

Today Netflix announced that it has acquired the rights to acclaimed Indigenous documentary feature, Ceremony in Canada.

The film has been honoured with multiple festival awards including the Documentary Spotlight Audience Award at SXSW, the DGC Special Jury Prize Canadian Feature Documentary at Hot Docs and the First Nations Award at Sydney Film Festival.

Following its premiere at SXSW in March 2026, the film will come to Netflix in 2027.

Quote from Banchi Hanuse: “Nuxalkmc [Nuxalk people] asked for this story to be told and that responsibility took 12 years because our truth isn’t an easy one to tell. It’s a story most Canadians have never heard. We made it for us and with Netflix, we’re sharing it beyond our valley.”

Logline: When the Nuxalk trace the vanished ooligan to a land claim filed the very day smallpox arrived, their radio station becomes courtroom, confessional and conjuring ground; an older law insists: the fish return when the people do.

Director: Banchi Hanuse

Writers: Banchi Hanuse (Before the Sun, Nuxalk Radio) and Jessica Mayhew (#Sti)

Producer: Banchi Hanuse

Production Company: Smayaykila Films

Run time: 82 minutes