The 2017 Toronto International Film Festival starts today and runs through September 17. The unofficial theme of this year's festival is "fewer films."
We took a look at the upcoming Canadian films last month. Click here or below to see our preview.
TIFF 2017 Canadian films preview
There were a couple of last-minute adds to the list. Hochelaga, Terre des Âmes (Hochelaga, Land of Souls) tells 5 stories about the history of Montréal over 750 years traced back to the base of Mount Royal at Percival Molson Stadium. Karelle Tremblay and Caroline Dhavernas are part of the huge cast in the film directed by François Girard (The Red Violin).
Canadian director Mark Raso brings Kodachrome about the last shop in the United States that still accepts Kodachrome film. Shot in Toronto, the film stars Elizabeth Olsen, Ed Harris, Bruce Greenwood, and Jason Sudeikis.
We know The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan from Xavier Dolan will not be at TIFF 2017. You might want to circle Cannes 2018 for the world debut.
The American-dominated cast has been noted, but we should point out the film does have several Canadians in the cast, including Emily Hampshire, Sarah Gadon, Ari Millen, Leni Parker, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, and Jacob Tremblay.
Not every Canadian film of note gets the initial nod at TIFF.
Worst Case, We Get Married from the legendary director Lea Pool will be featured at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Sophie Nélisse plays a teenager roaming the streets of Montréal who meets a much-older musician. Karine Vanasse plays her mother. The story is from a novel by Sophie Bienvenu.
This sounds more appealing than most of the Quebecois films at TIFF 2017.
2016 TIFF Canadian film wrapup
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
If I were there at TIFF 2017, I would be keeping an eye on … .
- A Worthy Companion features two actresses that will take risks on screen in Evan Rachel Wood and Julia Sarah Stone. We'll have to see how well the touchy subject matter is handled by the directorial debut of Carlos Sanchez and Jason Sanchez.
- Black Cop from Cory Bowles from Trailer Park Boys is a satire on a very current subject.
- I've only seen one other Mina Shum film and that was 23 years ago. Sandra Oh is in Meditation Park with Liane Balaban and Don McKellar. Shum directed Oh in Double Happiness. I enjoyed that film very much but that was a long time ago.
- Mary Goes Round feels family-oriented but rough around the edges in a good way.
- Long Time Running, a documentary on the final tour for The Tragically Hip, might teach me more about a group that even a year after the final concert, I still don't know a lot about their story.
- Simon Lavoie loves long film titles with The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches (La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes). His films are supposed to be intense, normally a good thing.
- Porcupine Lake from Ingrid Veninger could be an underdog surprise.
- The short film Bird from Molly Parker is hopefully the start of a new aspect of her very fine career.
The 2017 Toronto International Film Festival runs through September 17. If you go, feel free to talk about what you liked and didn't like. No spoilers, please.
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