Xavier Dolan. Deepa Mehta. Bruce McDonald. Kim Nguyen. Anne Émond. We have a few recognizable names from the Canadian film lineup of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
The focus will be on the Cannes Grand Prix winner It’s Only the End of the World, even if the film feels more about France than Quebec. Dolan is shooting his first film in English: The Death and Life of John F. Donovan.
A pair of films on our radar are the Kim Nguyen project Two Lovers and a Bear with Tatiana Maslany and Bruce McDonald working again with Molly Parker on Weirdos set in 1976 in Nova Scotia. Nguyen, who directed the Oscar-nominated War Witch, switches from Africa to the North Pole in the film that played at the Cannes Film Festival.
Here are some of the highlights of the 26 full-length feature films that will play in the festival.
- Mean Dreams from Nathan Morlando played at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Sophie Nélisse and Josh Wiggins are teenagers from broken homes who take off with drug money. Colm Feore is one of those chasing the teens in the film shot around Sault Ste. Marie.
- Anne Émond is once again at TIFF with Nelly on the prostitute-turned-novelist Nelly Arcan. The film features Mylène Mackay and Sophie Nélisse, two of TIFF’s Rising Stars this year. We wrote about her film Our Loved Ones last year.
- Window Horses from Anne Marie Fleming is an animated feature that follows the journey of a young Canadian poet featuring the voice work of Sandra Oh and Don McKellar.
- Below Her Mouth from April Mullen is about two women in an unexpected affair that inevitably derails their lives.
- Hello Destroyer from Kevan Funk stars TIFF Rising Star Jared Abrahamson as a young junior hockey player whose life is torn apart after an in-game act of violence.
- Boundaries (Pays) is about a female president (Macha Grenon from The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom) in an imaginary country. Chloé Robichaud, who also directed Sarah Prefers to Run, shot the film in Newfoundland.
- Deepa Mehta is back with Anatomy of Violence about a gang rape in New Delhi.
- Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice examines the 2007 court case of the Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations against the Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada.
This list does not include the Canadian premiere of Arrival from Denis Villeneuve. The science fiction film stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker.
In addition to the 26 full-length films, there will be 37 short films by Canadian directors. For a complete list and description of the Canadian films at TIFF 2016, click here.
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
Toronto International Film Festival also announced its TIFF Rising Stars for 2016. Grace Glowicki is the only one we didn't mention earlier; Glowicki is joined by Jared Abrahamson, Mylène Mackay, and Sophie Nélisse. Nélisse, who won a Genie for her role in Monsieur Lazhar, is in a pair of films in TIFF 2016. She will begin filming her latest role in Lea Pool's Et Au Pire On Se Mariera.
Some notable past winners include Orphan Black veterans Tatiana Maslany (2012) and Evelyne Brochu (2013), Alexandre Landry and Julia Sarah Stone (2014), and Stephan James and Karelle Tremblay (2015)
For more details on this year's Rising Stars, click here.
The 2016 Toronto International Film Festival runs September 8-18.
video credit: Movieclip Trailers
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