IMDb Adds Michif as a Title Language After Métis Filmmaker’s Campaign
IMDb has added Michif to its recognised title-language options, according to an October 28, 2026, announcement from Hammer & Sash. The change gives the Métis language a dedicated label in the way film and television titles are recorded.
Vancouver-based Métis filmmaker Jordan Waunch and his team spent years asking for the update. Their 2022 series, Shadow of the Rougarou, is now the first Métis production with a Michif title-language credit on IMDb, the team says.
What changed on IMDb
IMDb holds separate information about title names and the languages heard on screen. Its alternate-title records can include versions of a production’s name tied to different countries or languages. The new Michif option concerns that title information.
This is not a new Michif version of IMDb’s website. It also does not mean every production with Michif dialogue will automatically receive the label. Filmmakers and contributors still need to submit or update title details.
For Métis creators, that metadata can affect how their work appears in film records. Waunch’s campaign asked for Michif to appear as a named language, with the same kind of classification available to other languages. IMDb explains the distinction between primary and alternate film titles in its submission guidelines.
The series behind the campaign
Shadow of the Rougarou first appeared in 2022 and draws on Métis storytelling and supernatural horror. Its central character, sâkowêw, is a Métis-Cree fur trapper returning home to recruit people during the 1885 North-West Resistance.
Her journey brings back memories of a terrifying Rougarou and the events that changed her life. The production features dialogue in Michif, Cree and Chinook Wawa, according to the announcement. Those languages form part of the story’s setting and characters.
Support for the project came from the Indigenous Screen Office, Creative BC, the Bell Fund and APTN, according to the announcement. Bell Fund records name From the Shadows TV Production as the producer.
Using Michif in the series also exposed a separate issue with screen credits. Audiences could hear the language, but Waunch and his team still wanted a way to identify it in IMDb’s title-language records.
Waunch credits Elders and Language Keepers
Waunch has stressed that this campaign involved more than one filmmaker. He credited Stella Erasmus Johnson, Bruce Dumont, Don Campbell, Theodore Starr, Lisa Shepherd, Douglas Robertson and Ray G. Thunderchild for their contributions to the series and to language preservation.
“Seeing it recognized on IMDb gives our language a visible place in the global record of cinema,” Waunch said in the announcement. He tied the achievement to the work of the Elders and Language Keepers who helped bring the production to screen.
His other projects span Indigenous horror and science fiction. In 2025, the Sundance Institute selected Waunch for its Native Lab, where he developed a separate science-fiction project called Hyperia.
Michif includes several distinct varieties
Michif is closely tied to Métis history and identity, but it does not describe just one uniform way of speaking. Métis Nation British Columbia identifies Southern Michif, Northern Michif and Michif French as three distinct varieties.
Those forms can differ significantly, with further regional dialects across communities. The organisation’s language revitalisation plan recognises the value of each and the importance of supporting their speakers.
Waunch says IMDb’s next challenge is to account for that range, rather than stop at a single broad label. He also wants comparable recognition for Indigenous languages that still lack their own title-language classifications.
A film database cannot carry out language revitalisation on its own. Accurate catalogue entries can, however, help viewers and screen professionals identify the languages connected to the stories they watch.
Where to watch Shadow of the Rougarou
The production announcement says Shadow of the Rougarou is available on APTN+. APTN also lists it among the titles on APTN Beyond, its free streaming channel carried by Pluto TV and The Roku Channel in Canada.
Check APTN’s current viewing options before watching. Adding another language to a database field sounds minor. For future Métis-language productions, it gives filmmakers one more way to credit their work accurately.
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