With a country as expansive and both geographically and culturally diverse as Canada's, film is one of the few means that Canadians have which can help us understand each other, even if we can't visit places or interact with one another in real life.

Since Canada is celebrating a momentous birthday, it's only appropriate that we enjoy a look back at some of Canada's celluloid history.

The annual Canada's Top Ten Film Festival will be coming to the Cinematheque in Vancouver, running from January 13 to 22, with its choice selection of feature film, short films, and student shorts.

As we previously mentioned, the selections include films by Vancouver filmmakers: Ann Marie Fleming's animated cross-cultural tale Window Horses, Kevan Funk's hockey drama Hello Destroyer, and Johnny Ma's Chinese thriller Old Stone.

There's also Xavier Dolan's French-language familial drama It's Only the End of the World and Zacharias Kunuk's Inuk tale Maliglutit (Searchers).

But there's even more going on.

Several Canadian film-related organizations have joined forces to launch Canada on Screen, a year-long retrospective series of Canada's cinematic classics.

The Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver's Cinematheque, Library and Archives Canada, and the Cinémathèque québécoise have compiled a list of 150 essential works, which will be shown across Canada.

The screenings of these works at the Cinematheque will be free and the series begins on January 6 with an opening screening of the 1985 coming-of-age film My American Cousin, to be introduced by the film's B.C. director Sandy Wilson.

Other films in the series, which will be shown approximately every two weeks, include the 1984 children's film The Dog Who Stopped the War (La guerre des tuques), Larry Kent's Vancouver-set 1963 drama The Bitter Ash, Jennifer Baichwal's visually stunning 2006 documentary Manufactured Landscapes, and Michel Brault's 1974 political drama Les Ordres (Orders).   

Visit the Cinematheque website for more information and full screening details on Canada's Top Ten Film Festival and Canada on Screen.