Netflix sets 2027 release for Indigenous documentary 'Ceremony'

Ceremony, an award-winning Canadian documentary about the Nuxalk Nation's fight to reclaim its ancestral territory in British Columbia, is heading to Netflix in 2027.

The streaming service has acquired the Canadian rights to the 2026 film, directed and produced by Nuxalk filmmaker Banchi Hanuse. The announcement comes after a successful festival run that included screenings at South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

Ceremony examines the disappearance of the ooligan, a small fish also known as candlefish, from the Bella Coola River. The fish has not returned to the river in 26 years, disrupting an important part of the Nuxalk Nation's cultural traditions and relationship with its ancestral lands. Through broadcasts from Nuxalk Radio, a community station co-founded by Hanuse, the film traces the connections between the vanishing fish, colonial dispossession and a historical land claim filed on the same day smallpox arrived in Nuxalk territory.

The documentary also follows a family attempting to rebuild a home in an ancestral village that was emptied generations ago. Despite receiving an order to leave, the family continues its efforts to reclaim the land.

Hanuse spent 12 years developing the documentary, which combines archival footage, personal testimonies, scientific research, traditional knowledge and watercolour animation to tell the story. The filmmaker said the project was made for the Nuxalk people before it was intended for a wider audience.

"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," Hanuse said in a statement announcing the Netflix acquisition. "We made it for us and with Netflix, we're sharing it beyond our valley."

Ceremony premiered at SXSW in March, where it received the Documentary Spotlight Audience Award. It subsequently won the Directors Guild of Canada's Special Jury Prize for Canadian Feature Documentary at Hot Docs and the First Nations Award at the Sydney Film Festival.

Hanuse previously directed Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun, a 2023 documentary following Indigenous professional bull rider Dakota Brant.

Netflix has not announced a specific release date for Ceremony, but the film is expected to become available to Canadian subscribers sometime in 2027.