The film premiered at the 40th Montreal World Film Festival. The film was selected in the Perspective Canada program at Cannes in 2016. It was distributed under the banner Raven Banner Entertainment theatrically in Canada. The Northlander was lauded as one among "8 of indigenous cinema's most important films" by i-D magazine. The Northlander theatrically opened in over ten major cities across Canada between October 2016 and April 2017.