The Dog Who Stopped the War (1984)

La Guerre des tuques Ask almost anyone who grew up in Quebec about this one. Two gangs of village kids spend their winter break fighting a war game armed with snowballs, shields and wooden swords, with an extraordinary ice fortress as the prize, and the game slowly gets more serious than any of them meant it to. André Melançon directs the children so naturally that the rivalries, crushes and wounded pride all feel real, and the ending lands harder than you expect from a family film. It was the first of Rock Demers's Tales for All series and earned the Golden Reel for the highest domestic box office of its year. The one to watch with kids, or to understand a whole generation's nostalgia.