The TIFF Rising Stars programme provides emerging actors with an exclusive opportunity to experience the Festival and access professional development sessions, red carpets, and industry events.
— TIFF Press & Industry (@TIFF_Industry) August 23, 2022
Meet the #TIFF22 Rising Stars: https://t.co/KlzTlpAFej pic.twitter.com/y9kcwEcqrX
The TIFF Rising Stars program gives a showcase to rising, young talent as seen on the screen at the Toronto International Film Festival. The beauty of making the list is potential.
They could do very well in their careers, such as Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (2018), Shamier Anderson (2019), and Sophie Nélisse (2016).
There are 9 Rising Stars overall on the 2022 list. Our tradition is to spotlight Canadian talent from the list in Canadian films. All bio information courtesy of TIFF.net.
Natalia Aranguren (So Much Tenderness) Natalia Aranguren (left) is a Colombian Canadian actor based in Toronto. At a young age, she trained in musical theatre, followed by graduating from a program for Acting for Film and TV. She won the award for Best Female Performance at TFS Festival and was nominated for Best Actress in a Lead role at UWPG Film Festival.
Aranguren has been selected for TIFF Rising Stars 2022 and TIFF Share Her Journey Fellowship for her performance in So Much Tenderness, her feature-film debut.
Isaiah Lehtinen (I Like Movies) Isaiah Lehtinen was born and raised in Nanaimo, British Columbia, before moving to Vancouver, where he fell in love with acting at a young age after responding to an open call on Craigslist.
He went on to book roles in projects including The Good Doctor and Story of a Girl before stealing scenes in the Russo Brothers' Deadly Class and the Quibi series When the Streetlights Go Out.
Lehtinen also starred in the short film River Boy Blues, which was met with critical acclaim at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema. He will next be seen as the lead of the feature film I Like Movies, which will premiere later this year.
Carmen Madonia (Something You Said Last Night) Carmen Madonia is an up-and-coming performer from Toronto. She stars in award-winning writer and director Luis De Filippis' debut feature film Something You Said Last Night. Madonia worked with De Filippis and acting coach Vivien Endicott-Douglas for a year and a half in preparation for the role. Something You Said Last Night marks Madonia’s on-screen debut.
Joshua Odjick (Bones of Crows) Indigenous actor, Joshua Odjick is of Algonquin-Anishinabe/Cree heritage and comes from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nations Reserve. Odjick won both the Canadian Screen Award and the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award (2022) for Best Supporting Actor in the multi-award winning feature Wildhood, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (2021).
This year at TIFF, Odjick appears in the feature film Bones of Crows. Most recently, he acted alongside Britt Lower in the feature The Incident Report, is a co-host in the APTN series Warrior Up!, and in August 2022 commences filming a lead in a yet to be announced feature. Slated for release in early 2023, Odjick stars in the international series The Swarm, an ecological thriller from Primetime Emmy Award winning producer, Frank Doelger (Game of Thrones). He landed his first series regular role in the series Unsettled and has since appeared in the award-winning feature Bootlegger and several shows, including Little Bird, Three Pines, Pour Toi Flora, Bones of Crows and portrays Tom Longboat in a Heritage Minute. Industry professionals have found that Odjick possesses a deep presence that is rare in an actor, going so far as to dub him the “Native Brando.”
Having grown up with survivors of residential/day schools, Odjick’s work reveals the authentic joy, love, vulnerability, and brokenness of his characters. He approaches everything from a place of Spirit and holds a powerful connection with his creator, his guardians and the land. Odjick is grateful for the platform of film and television to tell the stories, teachings, and traditions of his people.
Canadian film review: Wildhood
We have a step up on Odjick with his performance in Wildhood, which we reviewed.
We do have a footnote of sorts for Gabriel LaBelle, who is a dual citizen with Canada and the United States. LaBelle is starring in a non-Canadian film.
As for the 2021 list, we have now seen 3 of the 4 TIFF Rising Stars in their Canadian films. Phillip Lewitski starred in Wildhood while Emma Ferreira and Thomas Antony Olajide were the leads in Learn To Swim. Our review of the latter film will be out fairly soon.
We saw Madeleine Sims-Fewer (2020) in Violation. We've seen all 4 of the 2019 people (Kacey Rohl, Mikhail Ahooja, Nahéma Ricci, Shamier Anderson) and 3 of the 4 people from the 2018 list (Devery Jacobs, Michaela Kurimsky, Jess Salgueiro).
The list in recent years has been tied to films within that year's Toronto International Film Festival.
2022 TIFF Canadian film preview
2021 TIFF Rising Stars
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
TIFF Rising Stars
We profiled the 2022 class of TIFF Rising Stars. Here is the list from all the years.
2011 Sarah Allen, Katie Boland, Sarah Gadon, Keon Mohajeri
2012 Tatiana Maslany, Connor Jessup, Charlotte Sullivan, Charlie Carrick
2013 Megan Park, Johnathan Sousa, Evelyne Brochu, Cara Gee
2014 Shannon Kook, Sophie Desmarais, Alexandre Landry, Julia Sarah Stone
2015 Deragh Campbell, Stephan James, Aliocha Schneider, Karelle Tremblay
2016 Jared Abrahamson, Grace Glowicki, Mylène Mackay, Sophie Nélisse
2017 Daniel Doheny, Mary Galloway, Théodore Pellerin, Ellen Wong
2018 Devery Jacobs, Lamar Johnson, Michaela Kurimsky, Jess Salgueiro
2019 Kacey Rohl, Mikhail Ahooja, Nahéma Ricci, Shamier Anderson
2020 Madeleine Sims-Fewer
2021 Arooj Azeem, Emma Ferreira, Phillip Lewitski, Thomas Antony Olajide
2022 Natalia Aranguren, Isaiah Lehtinen, Carmen Madonia, Joshua Odjick
Twitter capture: @TIFF_Industry
photos credit: @TIFF_net
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