Wilting at the Roots is a Canadian science fiction drama film, directed by Caleb Gales and released in 2024. The film stars Adam Zimmerman as Charlie Plater, a newspaper editor whose wife has recently passed away. While struggling to come to terms with his loss, he discovers a medication called Berenalin that promises to relieve him of his grief, but its effects begin to drive a wedge between him and his daughter, Dani.

The film was funded by the Jeff Barnaby Award for Film Production, a grant awarded to one graduating student from Dawson College per year. Caleb Gales was the first-ever recipient of this award in its introductory year of 2023,^[1] thus Wilting at the Roots was the first film created with its financial backing.

The film premiered at a dedicated screening at Dawson College on May 3, 2024.^[2] Here, Gales introduced the film and spoke with the audience afterwards in a Q&A session.

In July 2024, Adam Zimmerman won the award for Best Actor at the Toronto Couch Film Festival for his performance in Wilting at the Roots, which was nominated for Best Drama Film at the same festival.^[3]

It was a runner-up at the Varsity Film Expo in the Best Live Action Short category.

It was screened at the Kuala Lumpur International Film Awards as well as the Kalakari Film Festival.

Filming began on October 6, 2023 in Phelpston, Ontario.

On October 9, 2023, the cast and crew traveled to La Pêche, Quebec to continue filming interior scenes.

Shooting wrapped on October 14, 2023.

Paul Hannouche (also known as Noo Jii) entered the post-production team on January 12, 2024 as the music composer.

The animated dream sequences were created March 22–26, 2024, using a mixed-media method of printing out each individual frame and using paint to black out the woman's silhouette, and then scanning the frames back into a video.

Wilting at the Roots was completed on April 12, 2024.

• May 3, 2024 - premiere screening.
• May 3, 2024 - digital release.