Film on legacy of residential schools in Canada nominated for best documentary at 2025 Oscars [Video]

Williams Lake First Nation Chief Willie Sellars cried — for the first time in a while — tears of joy on Thursday morning when this year’s Oscar nominees were announced. 

“I shouted tears of joy, and then I cried tears of joy,” he told CBC’s Daybreak Kamloops host Shelley Joyce. 

Sellars and his community were featured in Sugarcane, which details the legacy of residential schools in Canada, and in particular, that of the St. Joseph’s Mission near Williams Lake, B.C.

The film has been widely praised by audiences at film festivals around the world, and now it’s been nominated for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. 

Sugarcane is the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat, a member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq̓éscen̓, and follows him and his father as they learn about the history of the institution.  

Operated by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate from 1886 to 1981, St. Joseph’s Mission was just outside the Williams Lake …