- Emmy Award-winning director Pete Muller opens the Festival with the film Bucks Harbor exploring the lives of lobster fishermen, toxic masculinity, and the changing identity of coastal communities.
- New Neptune Night Market will serve globally inspired gourmet bites from 12 chefs while showcasing Nova Scotia’s world-class seafood sector.
- British Columbia-based chefs Ned Bell, sustainable seafood advocate and Michelin-starred chef Joël Watanabe of famed Kissa Tanto and Bao Bei, Ontario Chef with PEI roots, Charlotte Langley and founder of Nice Cans, Inuit Chef Ethan Angnatok from Northern Labrador, are joined by prominent chefs from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and Maine.
June 18, 2026, Wolfville, NS: Devour! The Food Film Fest, the world’s largest food film festival, invites guests to plunge into a bold new culinary adventure as it celebrates its 16th anniversary with Devour! The Sea on October 19 -25 in Wolfville. This year’sWOLFVILLE, NS — September 8, 2026: This fall, THE SEA, from the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic and Eastern Seaboard, is the star at Devour! The Food Film Fest. From October 19–25, the world’s largest food film festival will celebrate three coasts and one shared sea by bringing chefs, filmmakers and coastal food experts from across Canada to Wolfville for a week-long celebration. The festival will feature 50 new films and 60 events, including the Neptune Night Market presented by Nova Scotia Seafood, and audiences can discover new ways to cook and enjoy seafood while exploring the people, communities and conservation efforts behind what ends up on our plates. The full program and tickets are available now at devourfest.com.
The Neptune Night Market will showcase the latest seafood products and gourmet bites, from sushi and tuna poke to lobster rolls, while also providing a platform to showcase our province’s world-class seafood sector to consumers, chefs, and industry from across Canada. With support from the Province of Nova Scotia, Devour! The Sea will connect the province’s seafood producers and culinary community with audiences and industry partners beyond Nova Scotia.
“There are so many ways to experience Devour! The Sea this year,” says Michael Howell, Executive Director of Devour! The Food Film Fest and Studio. “You can watch as Vancouver Michelin-starred chef Joël Watanabe demonstrates the precision behind preparing a prized catch of tuna, or join Chef Stéphane Levac and Inuit chef Ethan Angnatok for a seaside foraging tour. Our hands-on workshops will get people into the kitchen, and our industry conversations will tackle some of the biggest questions facing our oceans. It’s delicious, it’s hands-on, it’s unexpected, and it’s exactly what Devour! does best.”
Big Screen: Stories of Lobster, Tuna, and the People Who Depend on the Sea
Over 405 film titles were considered, and lobster fishermen and bluefin tuna from Cape Breton are the stars of this year’s film program, which includes 50 films from 23 countries. Emmy Award-winning director Pete Muller opens the Festival with Bucks Harbor, set along the rugged coast of Downeast Maine, where generations of lobster fishermen navigate masculinity, family and survival in changing coastal communities.
The Thursday Spotlight Gala Film, Bite to Bite, from award-winning director Kelly Liscomb, follows a giant bluefin tuna from Cape Breton’s fishing grounds to Japan’s legendary Tsukiji Seafood Market. Muller and Liscomb will both attend the Festival and join the industry panel Beyond the Catch: Telling Ocean Stories That Inspire Change on Friday, October 23 at 9:30 a.m. at Devour! Studios. We are thrilled to share that Shane Harper, pastry prodigy turned self-taught farmer at Canada’s No. 1 Best Restaurant Pearl Morrisette in Ontario, will join us for the screening of Pirate Produce about his journey from the kitchen to regenerative farming on Friday, October 23 at 2 pm. Other notable films include Qajac Man, a film about British chef Mike Keen who kayaks 3,000 kilometres along Greenland’s west coast, living off the land and sea while embracing Inuit traditions. Canadian actor and comedian Shaun Majumder’s short film The Farmer’s Daughter, which delves into an overprotective father’s worst nightmare as his three daughters go on their first dates, will be screened as part of the signature Chefs & Shorts Gala Dinner.
“The ocean is dramatic, beautiful, unpredictable, and so are the stories in this year’s festival,” says Lia Rinaldo, Managing Director of Devour! The Food Film Fest. “We’re taking audiences from lobster boats in Maine and the rugged shores of Cape Breton to a Norwegian fjord terrorized by a giant kraken. But beneath the adventure are urgent stories about seafood, sustainability and the future of coastal communities around the world. With 28% Canadian content and 44% of films directed by women, this is a bold, surprising program that will entertain audiences while changing the way they see what’s on their plate and the waters it comes from.”
From the Atlantic to the Arctic: Coastal Chefs Bring the Sea to the Plate
From the Atlantic to the Pacific and Arctic, Devour! The Sea brings together chefs who represent the extraordinary diversity of Canada’s coastal food culture. They’ll put that diversity on the plate, sharing seafood techniques, sustainable cooking ideas, and flavours shaped by the places they call home. Chef Joël Watanabe draws on his French and Japanese roots to create unique dishes that reflect Vancouver’s multicultural spirit. At the Festival, he will take on one extraordinary bluefin tuna and will teach the art and precision behind preparing this prized catch, and guests will taste the results.
Among the culinary guests is Ned Bell, one of Canada’s leading sustainable seafood advocates, who has spent his career championing ocean stewardship through food. PEI-born chef Charlotte Langley, founder of sustainable tinned seafood company Nice Cans, brings a fresh perspective to one of the sea’s most humble and increasingly fashionable ingredients. Inuit Chef Ethan Angnatok of Nain, Labrador, will share cuisine
shaped by Inuit Nunangat and a deep connection to the land and sea. They’ll be joined by Atlantic chefs including Chef Laureate Chris Aerni, former Chef-owner of the Rossmount Inn, New Brunswick; Chef-owner Ken Pittman of Snow White Laundry in Newfoundland; Adam Loo of Ada Culinary Studio in Prince Edward Island; Renée Lavallée, chef-owner of The Canteen in Nova Scotia; Indigenous chef Stéphane Levac and chocolatier and pastry chef Julien Rousseau of ROUSSEAU Chocolatier; Martin Ruiz Salvador, Chef-owner of the Beach Pea Kitchen + Bar and four other seafood-forward restaurants in Lunenburg; along with additional culinary guests from across Canada.
Nova Scotia’s vineyards and coastline tell a shared story of place, shaped by cool climates, salt air and the people who work the land and sea. Devour! brings those worlds together with The Art of Pairing: Nova Scotia Wine & Seafood, celebrating the natural affinity between the province’s wines and its extraordinary seafood. For those exploring what’s beyond the bottle, the film Going Dry and a hands-on zero-proof cocktail workshop offer a spirited look at the rapidly evolving world of alcohol-free drinking.
Festival signature events include the Taste of NS Opening Gala, Chowder Smackdown, Tour de L’Acadie Bike Ride, the Lobster Fais Do Do, Golden Tines Awards Brunch and the Great Devour! Community Chicken Supper. For guests who don’t want to miss any films or events and have a personal concierge manage their Festival week, VIP All Star Access Passes are recommended. For those who want to try Devour! For the first time, our popular Day Passes are back and include a film, culinary workshop, community event, and a free film.
Devour! The Food Film Fest has welcomed more than 100,000 guests to Nova Scotia over 15 years, helping establish Wolfville and the Annapolis Valley as a destination for culinary and cultural tourism. The festival’s success also helped inspire the creation of Devour! Studios, the organization’s year-round culinary and cultural hub. Full program and tickets available at devourfest.com.
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About: Devour! The Food Film Fest
Devour! The Food Film Fest is the largest food film festival in the world. The annual week-long festival is a transformative food and film experience combining cinematic excellence with 70+ events, celebrated filmmakers, and high-profile chefs from around the globe.
About: Devour! Studios
From its humble origins as an apple warehouse, Devour! Studios is a culinary and cultural innovation hub. Home to Devour! The Food Film Fest, this unique, 24,000-square-foot multipurpose space housing a state-of-the-art teaching kitchen, an event hall, a performance venue, film and recording studios, and a viewing deck, will now be open year-round. As an innovative educational and programming space, it will serve as a vital breeding ground for our next generation of chefs, farmers, artists, musicians, and filmmakers.
Media Contact:
Natasha Compton; BeCurious PR; natasha.compton@becuriouspr.com; 902.499.4095
