Toronto Film Festival Adds 19 Canadian Films, 9 of Them Directed by Women

In addition to new films from Denys Arcand and Maxime Giroux, the festival announces participants in its Rising Stars and Filmmaker Lab programs

he Fall of the American Empire
"The Fall of the American Empire"

New films from Canadian filmmakers Denys Arcand, Maxime Giroux, Jennifer Baichwal and Bruce Sweeney have been added to  2018 Toronto International Film Festival lineup, which announced its slate of Canadian films on Wednesday.

Nine of the films are directed by women, fsix are debut features and 14 are world premieres.

Canadian features will include Arcand’s “The Fall of the American Empire,” Giroux’s “The Great Darkened Days” and Sweeney’s “Kingsway.”

The Canadian documentaries include Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky’s “Anthropocene,” Ron Mann’s “Carmine Street Guitars” and Thom Fitzgerald’s “Splinters.”

Three of the films – Gwaii Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown’s “Edge of the Knife,” Darlene Naponse’s “Falls Around Her” and Miranda de Pencier’s “The Grizzlies” – feature indigenous talent.

A special event will screen the documentary “Sharkwater Extinction,” the final film from director and conservationist Rob Stewart.

The Toronto festival also announced four Canadian actors and filmmakers who will participate in the TIFF Rising Stars program: Devery Jacobs, Lamar Johnson, Michaela Kurimsky and Jess Salgueiro. Salgueiro, Johnson and Kurimsky appear in the TIFF films “Mouthpiece,” “The Hate U Give” and “Firecrackers,” respectively, while Jacobs is an actor and filmmaker whose short film “Rae” won awards at shorts festivals.

It also revealed the six participants in the Telefilm Canada’s Pitch This! competition, and the 22 emerging filmmakers who have been chosen for the TIFF Filmmaker Lab, which this year will be headed by producer Cassian Elwes and Elizabeth Karlsen and directors Julie Dash and William Oldroyd.

In addition, TIFF announced two dozen Canadian shorts that will screen at the festival.

More films and programs will be announced in the coming weeks. The 2018 Toronto International Film Festival will begin on Sept. 6 and run through Sept. 16.

The complete list of new programs and participants is available at the festival website.

The Canadian features, by section:

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
“Anthropocene,” Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, Edward Burtynsky,
“The Fall of the American Empire,” Denys Arcand
“The Grizzlies,” Miranda de Pencier

SPECIAL EVENT
“Sharkwater Extinction,” Rob Stewart

TIFF DOCS
“Carmine Street Guitars,” Ron Mann
“Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz,” Barry Avrich
“What is Democracy?” Astra Taylor

DISCOVERY
“Clara,” Akash Sherman
“Edge of the Knife,” Gwaai Edenshaw, Helen Haig-Brown
“Firecrackers,” Jasmin Mozaffari
“Freaks,” Zach Lipovsky, Adam Stein

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
“Falls Around Her,” Darlene Naponse
“The Fireflies Are Gone,” Sébastien Pilote
“The Great Darkened Days,” Maxime Giroux
“Kingsway,” Bruce Sweeney
“Les Salopes or the Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin,” Renée Beaulieu
“Splinters,” Thom Fitzgerald

WAVELENGTHS
“Fausto,” Andrea Bussmann
“The Stone Speakers,” Igor Drljača

Comments