The National Film Board of Canada has released statistics about online viewership from the past year of its movies, which are made free to the public. The NFB uses open source software to spread and share full-length movies, animated features, documentaries, and more. Over the past year, viewers have been taking advantage of the NFB’s site and iPhone application, bringing the number of film views from 3,000 per day at the beginning of 2009 to over 20,000 per day today. The most shocking statistic—what time of day users are watching the films—seems to suggest that viewers are turning to the NFB’s offerings during what is normally television’s prime-time hours.

The 10 most popular films on the site this year (Note the running times for each film).

A Sunday at 105, (13:20) 155,183 views
The Cat Came Back, (7:41) 87,735
Carts of Darkness, (59:34) 82,230
The Log Driver’s Waltz (3:00) 71,148
The Sweater (10:21) 39,404
The Big Snit (9:54) 39,161
Ryan (13:57) 37,371
RiP! A Remix Manifesto (Chapter 1) (5:23) 37,212
Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (93:33) 34,937
How to Build an Igloo (10:32) 30,996

The NFB of Canada does pretty amazing things when it comes to bringing great films to the people. Be sure to check out their blog for exciting new updates and films.