Just announced: The #TIFF23 Rising Stars, featuring actors on the verge of making a large impact on the international stage: Adwa Bader, Almudena González, Amrit Kaur, Aria Mia Loberti, Cody Lightning, Kudakwashe Rutendo, Léah Aubert, Mark Clennon, and Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne. pic.twitter.com/AGx1C7fQLQ
— TIFF Press & Industry (@TIFF_Industry) August 29, 2023
We are always excited about new, or relatively new, Canadian talent that gets the spotlight at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival through the Rising Stars program.
In recent years, TIFF has used the Rising Stars program to showcase Canadian and international talent as seen in films shown at the festival. For our purposes, we only spotlight the Canadian talent.
Here are the Canadians in the 2023 TIFF Rising Stars. All bios courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival.
"Amrit Kaur is an artistic hyphenate: an actor, comedian, director, and writer. She believes in acting as a humanitarian art form with the power to heal, transcend, and empower. Kaur will star in Fawzia Mirza's The Queen of My Dreams opposite Hamza Haq and Nimra Bucha. The film, premiering at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, follows a Pakistani woman and her Canadian-born daughter as they come of age in two eras. The actor is best known for her breakout role on Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble's HBO Max hit series, The Sex Lives of College Girls."
"Cody Lightning is a world-class, generation-defining actor. Hailing from Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis, Alberta, Lightning began acting at age five in the film Geronimo. Since then, he has become one of Hollywood’s most active Indigenous actors, best known for his roles in Smoke Signals, The Brave, Brick, and many more. In 2023, Lightning will star in Marvel's upcoming Echo series. His debut feature film as a writer-director, Hey Victor!, sees Lightning revisit his iconic role in Smoke Signals."
"Kudakwashe Rutendo is a fast-rising actor from Fort McMurray, Alberta, currently based in Toronto. She was first introduced to the performing arts through LIVE poetry, and since then her passion for performance has only grown. … Rutendo landed a role starring alongside actor Tatyana Ali in the feature film Giving Hope: The Ni'cola Mitchell Story (Lifetime). She is also a theatre actor featured in productions such as Lost Heroes of Oro (Theatre by the Bay), and Vierge (Factory Theatre). Rutendo is expected to have her breakout role in the upcoming feature film Backspot (Page Boy Productions), starring opposite Devery Jacobs (Rising Stars 2018), Thomas Antony Olajide (Rising Stars 2021), and Evan Rachel Wood."
"Mark Clennon is a Jamaican-born artist whose art is expressed through various mediums. As a musician, he has garnered fans worldwide with music that The Recording Academy describes as “mesmerising,” MTV News recently described his art as “intimate and groundbreaking.” In 2022, Clennon made history with the first music video set and shot in Jamaica to depict a same-sex on-screen romance instantly highlighting him as one of Jamaica's only openly gay performers. Clennon began his career in entertainment as an actor, but took a hiatus to focus on music. I Don't Know Who You Are marks his triumphant return to acting, with which he is able to marry his love and passion for music."
2023 TIFF Canadian film preview
3 of the 4 Canadian films that feature the Rising Stars are from the Discovery section: Backspot, I Don't Know Who You Are, and The Queen of My Dreams. Hey, Viktor! is in the Centrepiece section.
Clennon is a writer on his film. Lightning directed and co-wrote the script for his film.
Your humble narrator has seen most of the recent films featuring past year's TIFF Rising Stars. Haven't seen the 2022 film (Bones of Crows) featuring Joshua Odjick, but saw him in Wildhood. Haven't seen Quickening featuring 2021 TIFF Rising Stars Arooj Azeem.
2022 TIFF Rising Stars
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
We will have a full preview of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, opening day of the festival.
TIFF Rising Stars
We profiled the 2023 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
2023 Amrit Kaur, Cody Lightning, Kudakwashe Rutendo, Mark Clennon
Twitter capture and photos credit: @TIFF_Net
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