Smudge the Blades, a film by Edmonton director Cody Lightning, will open the 40th Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF), following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where it received critical acclaim and the Best Canadian Discovery Award. The award recognizes the best first or second feature by an emerging Canadian director. The film’s success comes as Lightning grieves his mother, Georgina Lightning, who died days before its TIFF premiere.

“My mom showed me every single thing about this industry,” Cody Lightning said. “It’s just so heartbreaking … To be put on these platforms that I am, because of her, it just means so much. I’d be nothing without her.” Georgina Lightning, a film director, screenwriter and actor from Samson Cree First Nation, died on Sept. 5 in an equestrian accident during a rodeo in Enoch.

Georgina Lightning was the first North American Indigenous woman to direct a major feature film. Her 2008 supernatural thriller was Older than America. Cody Lightning dedicated Smudge the Blades to his mother in his TIFF award acceptance speech and told reporters in Toronto that she had spent a lot of time on set while the film was being made.

“I know that she’s very, very proud of this work,” he said. The film was shot in Edmonton and features Ed Helms, known for The Office and The Hangover, alongside Paulina Alexis of Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and Jana Schmieding. Alexis and Schmieding both appeared in the television series Reservation Dogs.

The story follows the Treaty 6 Blades, an all-Indigenous youth hockey team coached by Helms. After the underdog team is expelled from its league, the local arena’s Zamboni driver, played by Lightning, takes the players under his wing. Lightning said the film honours young people he has coached over the years.

“I’ve coached so many of our kids and I did the best that I could, even when I wasn’t feeling the best, I was still there for them, and you’ll see that in the film,” he said. “It’s not a celebration of me. It’s a celebration of them.”

EIFF artistic director Vincent Brulott booked the film before it won at TIFF. “We’re really thrilled to be sharing Cody’s newest vision,” Brulott said. “We love films that can represent Edmonton and Edmonton filmmakers … It’s our 40th year so we wanted something truly special, and as the people at TIFF found out, and as the people will find out in Edmonton, Cody’s film is something truly special.”

The festival’s other selections include Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid and Fjord, winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or. For its 40th year, EIFF is screening 40 feature films, along with more than 100 short films, over 10 days at Landmark Cinema City Centre and Metro Cinema. Tickets are available online, with some still available for Tuesday’s screening of Smudge the Blades. The report included files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa and The Canadian Press.

Based on reporting by CTV News Edmonton.