From science fiction to romantic comedies, thrillers to documentaries, this year’s official selection showcases a diverse range of stories from Canadian and Indigenous filmmakers.
The Toronto International Film Festival’s 49th edition takes place from September 5 to 15, 2024. As always, Canada will be there with our Canada Pavilion, events, and exceptional Canadian and Indigenous films and coproductions.
First, fresh off the Cannes red carpet, we’ve got some exciting North American premieres at TIFF by famed filmmakers you know and love. Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson’s Rumours; Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language (Une langue universelle) – which took home the Chantal Akerman audience award for best Directors’ Fortnight film at Cannes; and David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds.
The TIFF Classics program features two of the 23 titles being digitized and/or restored through Telefilm Canada’s Canadian Cinema – Reignited digitization initiative, in partnership with TIFF. They are Atom Egoyan’s 1997 Oscar-nominated drama The Sweet Hereafter and Srinivas Krishna’s 1991 drama Masala.
From established directors to emerging talent, TIFF’s official selection also includes two first directorial features that were supported by Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch Program: Karen Chapman’s Village Keeper, which follows a mother processing her grief, and Arianna Martinez’s Do I Know You From Somewhere? – a multiverse rom-com that explores a couple’s ‘what-if’s.’ Another film for the sci-fi fans is Marie-Hélène Viens and Philippe Lupien’s You Are Not Alone (Vous n’êtes pas seuls), about a pizza-delivery man whose blossoming romance is disrupted by an alien.
Among the themes explored in our world premiere features are climate change, the environment, and our relationship to the land. Vancouver-based Ann Marie Fleming combines live action and animation in Can I Get a Witness?, which reunites the filmmaker and Sandra Oh, in a world where people die at age 50 to save the planet. In R.T. Thorne’s post-apocalyptic thriller 40 Acres, a Black family of farmers defend their homestead from a violent militia.
Ryan Cooper and Eva Thomas’s Aberdeen follows a climate change refugee from Peguis First Nation fighting for the stability of her grandkids. And in Seeds, the directorial debut of Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) actress Kaniehtiio Horn (who also stars in this comedy), an influencer protects her aunt’s cache of seeds from a home invasion.
Movies based on literature also take centre stage! Sophie Deraspe’s Canada-France coproduction Shepherds (Bergers) is an adaptation of Mathyas Lefebure’s D’où viens tu, berger?. Oscar-nominated Chloë Sevigny stars in Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse, a Canada-Germany coproduction that adapts Françoise Sagan’s 1954 novel.
Making its world premiere is Sook-Yin Lee’s Paying for It, an adaptation of a 2011 graphic novel written by Chester Brown. And based on Canadian writer Russell Wangersky’s short story “Whirl Away,” Jason Buxton’s thriller Sharp Corner stars Cobie Smulders and Ben Foster.
We’ve also got Amar Wala’s Shook, the documentary filmmaker’s first narrative feature about a writer in the fallout of his father’s health crisis; Johnny Ma’s Canada-Chile coproduction The Mother and the Bear which follows the antics of an overbearing mom as she cares for her comatose daughter; and much more…
Keep your eyes on our TIFF event page for news on our Canada Pavilion, events, and screenings. Here’s your roundup of Canadian films and coproductions at TIFF 2024!
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
- R.T. Thorne’s 40 Acres
- Sophie Deraspe’s Shepherds (Bergers) (Canada-France)
- Anne-Marie Fleming’s Can I Get a Witness?
- Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson’s Rumours
- Jason Buxton’s Sharp Corner
- José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço’s Young Werther
DISCOVERY
- Ryan Cooper and Eva Thomas’s Aberdeen
- Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse (Canada-Germany)
- Arianna Martinez’s Do I Know You From Somewhere
- J Stevens’s Really Happy Someday
- Kaniehtiio Horn’s Seeds
- Amar Wala’s Shook
- Karen Chapman’s Village Keeper
- Marie-Hélène Viens and Philippe Lupien’s You Are Not Alone (Vous n’êtes pas seuls)
CENTREPIECE
- Kazik Radwanski’s Matt & Mara
- Sofia Bohdanowicz’s Measures for a Funeral
- Melanie Oates’s Sweet Angel Baby
- Johnny Ma’s The Mother and the Bear
- Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language (Une langue universelle)
PLATFORM
- Sook-Yin Lee’s Paying for It
GALA PRESENTATIONS
- David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds (Canada-France)
PRIMETIME
- Tanya Talaga’s The Knowing
- Mike Downie’s The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal
WAVELENGTHS
- Rhayne Vermette’s A Black Screen Too
- Chris Kennedy’s Go Between
- Nicolás Pereda’s Lázaro at Night (Lázaro de noche) (Canada-Mexico)
- Daphne Xu’s Notes of a Crocodile
TIFF DOCS
- Halimah Elkahtabi’s Living Together (Cohabiter)
- Jen Gatien and Billy Corben’s Men of War (Canada-U.S.)
- Anastasia Trofimova’s Russians at War (Canada-France)
- Neil Diamond and Joanne Robertson’s So Surreal: Behind the Masks
- Santiago Esteinou’s The Freedom of Fierro (La Libertad de Fierro) (Canada-Mexico-Greece)
- Ali Weinstein’s Your Tomorrow
TIFF CLASSICS
- Srinivas Krishna’s Masala
- Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter
SPECIAL EVENTS
- Mina Shum’s Double Happiness
SHORT CUTS
- Omolola Ajao’s After Sunday
- Beza Hailu Lemma’s Alazar (Ethiopia-France-Canada)
- Catherine Bovin’s Anotc ota ickwaparin akosiin
- Bec Pecaut’s Are You Scared To Be Yourself Because You Think That You Might Fail?
- Arshile Khanjian Egoyan’s Before They Joined Us
- Mick Robertson’s Every Other Weekend
- Halima Elkhatabi’s Fantas
- Mo Matton’s Gender Reveal
- Amanda Strong’s Inkwo for When the Starving Return (Inkwo à la défense des vivants)
- Connor Jessup’s Julian and the Wind
- Torill Kove’s Maybe Elephants (Peut-être des éléphants)
- Pier-Philippe Chevigny’s Mercenaire
- Alicia K. Harris’s On a Sunday at Eleven
- Alexander Farah’s One Day This Kid
- Rachel Samson’s Out for Ice Cream (Crème à glace)
- Alison McAlpine’s perfectly a strangeness
- Miloš Mitrović’s Serve the Country
- James Rathbone and Mike Feswick’s Solemates
- Helen Lee’s Tenderness (Canada-South Korea)
- Ian Bawa’s The Best
- Theodore Ushev’s The Wolf (Le loup)
- shalan joudry’s welima’q
- Pierre Brouillette-Hamelin’s Who Loves the Sun
