TIFF Announces Canadian Films for 2022 Festival

31 Canadian features (dramas and docs) to play TIFF '22

Twenty-six dramatic features and six features documentaries will represent the maple lead at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF announced the full Canadian slate for this year’s festival today in an event at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Highlights announced today include Stellar, a film about cosmic connections directed by Darlene Naponse and starring Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Rossif Sutherland.

Also announced today was the North American premiere of Charlotte Le Bon’s dramedic French-Canadian co-production Falcon Lake following a premiere at Cannes and win at Deauville. The films announced today generally appear in the Contemporary World Cinema and TIFF Docs line-ups following selections announced in the previous weeks. TIFF’s selection is a promising field of new and mid-career filmmakers.

TIFF Canadian Films in CWC

Meanwhile, The End of Sex directed by Sean Garrity, reunites Emily Hampshire and Jonas Chernick of My Awkward Sexual Adventure. Also joining the CWC slate is the North American premiere of Graham Foy’s The Maiden (pictured). The film is a dark tale of a fateful summer that connects the lives of three teenagers. The Maiden will bow at Toronto following its debut at the Giornate degli Autori (Venice Days) sidebar at the Venice Film Festival. The last Canadian film to screen at the prestigious line-up was Jean-Marc Vallée’s Café de flore in 2011.

Festival favourite Lina Rodriguez, meanwhile brings her new drama So Much Tenderness to TIFF. This follows the acclaimed run of her documentary Mis dos voces at Berlin and Hot Docs this year. Also bringing one for the art crowd is Katherine Jerkovic with Coyote.

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Other new Canadian films tapped for TIFF include The Swearing Jar from Wet Bum director Lindsay MacKay. The film features screen icon Kathleen Turner alongside Canadian actors Patrick J. Adams and Douglas Smith. Marie Clements, meanwhile, brings one of the biggest Indigenous productions ever to the festival with the feature film version of Bones of Crows. The drama about the history of colonial violence in Canada will also air as a broadcast series later in the season. While TIFF’s Canadian slate favours the next generation of filmmakers, the dramatic front also features the latest work from veteran Don Shebib. The 84-year-old director of Goin’ Down the Road will debut his new cop film Nighttalk.

 

TIFF Docs and Dollars

On the documentary front, TIFF features music docs about icons Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tanya Tagaq. Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carrie It On, directed by Madison Thomas, celebrates the Oscar winner’s legacy. Ever Deadly, meanwhile, marks Tagaq’s first feature as a co-director alongside Chelsea McMullan. The film crosscuts between a Toronto-shot concert and Tagaq’s life up north. Other documentaries added today include Nisha Pahuja’s To Kill a Tiger about a chilling gang rape in India, Brian D. Johnson’s The Colour of Ink about artisanal ink foragers, and Babak Payami’s 752 Is Not a Number about the downed Ukrainian passenger flight.

These films join previously announced Canadian selections like the Platform competition titles Riceboy Sleeps and Viking and Clement Virgo’s Brother in Special Presentations. TIFF announced the Canadian Discovery titles last week to highlight first-time filmmakers. Titles in that list include, but are not limited to, Luis De Filippis’s Something You Said Last Night, Gail Maurice’s Rosie, and Joseph Amenta’s Pussy.

Today’s event at TIFF Bell Lightbox included some significant news for the festival as Toronto MP Marco Mendicino announced at TIFF would receive $10 million in support from the federal government. Interim executive director of Telefilm Canada Francesca Accinelli also revealed that the public funder pledged an additional $700,000 to ensure that Canadian audiences could enjoy films as they were meant to be seen: on the big screen. The festival event also featured a special round of applause for outgoing senior Canadian programmer Steve Gravestock, who is retiring after 25 years with the festival.

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