Canadian talent is set to make waves at the Toronto International Film Festival, whose 48th edition takes place from September 7 to 17, 2023. With more than 50 Canadian projects selected for the prestigious festival, here’s everything you need to know about our homegrown premieres!
Discover Canada’s official selection
From Indigenous stories to 2SLGBTQIA+ content, animated shorts to documentaries, comedy to drama and everything in between, discover all things Canadian at TIFF 2023!
Women directors from Quebec feature prominently in TIFF’s world premiere lineup: Sophie Dupuis’s Solo (a complex drag scene love story); Chloé Robichaud’s Days of Happiness (Les jours heureux); and Louise Archambault’s Irena’s Vow (a Canada-Poland coproduction based on the true story of a Polish woman who hid 12 Jews in Nazi occupied-Poland).
Making its North American premiere is Ariane Louis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant). Also selected is Monia Chokri’s The Nature of Love (Simple comme Sylvain) (Canada-France) which premiered at Cannes earlier this year.
Indigenous filmmakers shine bright, including the world premieres of Kim O’Bomsawin’s four-part documentary series Telling Our Story , Carol Kunnuk’s Tautuktavuk (What We See) and the Canadian premiere of Cody Lightning’s mockumentary Hey Viktor!.
Canadian 2SLGBTQIA+ stories in world premiere at TIFF include Dominic Savage’s Canada-U.K. coproduced Close to You, starring Elliot Page; D.W. Waterson’s Backspot; M.H. Murray’s I Don’t Know Who You Are; and Fawzia Mirza’s The Queen of My Dreams.
Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames makes its North American debut, while the new smartphone-filmed doc by renowned Canadian director Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja about a trans woman in India, I Am Sirat, makes its world premiere!
More of Canada’s iconic filmmakers take the TIFF spotlight, with the world premiere of Atom Egoyan’s opera-themed drama Seven Veils (starring Amanda Seyfried). Denis Côté’s Mademoiselle Kenopsia will make its North American premiere.
Tales examining the immigrant experience are also in world premiere: Charles-Olivier Michaud’s Ru tells the story of a young Vietnamese girl and her family’s arrival to Quebec, and Henri Pardo’s Canada-Luxembourg coproduction Kanaval is about a boy emigrating from Haiti to Canada.
The world premiere of Chelsea McMullan’s Swan Song takes us behind the scenes of the National Ballet of Canada’s Swan Lake. Other world premieres include Christian Sparkes’s thriller The King Tide and Meredith Hama-Brown’s Seagrass, and the Canadian premiere of Molly McGlynn’s Fitting In.
For TIFF updates, stay tuned to our event page. Meanwhile, here’s your list of Canadian projects at TIFF 2023!
CENTERPIECE
- Henri Pardo’s Kanaval (Canada-Luxembourg)
- Louise Archambault’s Irena’s Vow (Canada-Poland)
- Cody Lightning’s Hey Viktor!
- Molly McGlynn’s Fitting In
- Zarrar Kahn’s In Flames
- Ariane Louis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant)
- Monia Chokri’s The Nature of Love (Simple comme Sylvain) (Canada-France)
PLATFORM
- Christian Sparkes’s The King Tide
GALA PRESENTATIONS
- Sophie Dupuis’s Solo
- Chelsea McMullan’s Swan Song
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
- Chloe Robichaud’s Les jours heureux (Days of Happiness)
- Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils
- Dominic Savage’s Close to You (Canada-U.K.)
- Charles-Olivier’s Michaud’s Ru
DISCOVERY
- Meredith Hama-Brown’s Seagrass
- D.W. Waterson’s Backspot
- M.H. Murray’s I Don’t Know Who You Are
- Fawzia Mirza’s The Queen of My Dreams
- Carol Kunnuk’s Tautuktavuk (What We See)
TIFF DOCS
- Robert McCallum’s Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe
- Jennifer Markowitz’s Summer Qamp
- Deepa Mehta’s I Am Sirat
PRIMETIME
- Will Prosper’s and Duan Crichton’s Black Life: Untold Stories
- Sasha Leigh Henry’s Bria Mack Gets a Life
- Kim O’Bomsawin’s Telling Our Story
WAVELENGTHS
- Denis Côté’s Mademoiselle Kenopsia
- Isiah Medina’s He Thought He Died
- Blake Williams’s Laberint Sequences
- Steve Reinke’s Sundown
SHORT CUTS
- Catherine Boivin’s 6 minutes per kilometer
- Anubha Hudson’s Aftercare
- Miryam Charles’s All the Days of May
- Marielle Dalpé’s Aphasia
- Alisi Telengut’s Baigal Nuur : Lake Baikal
- Kasey Lum’s Bloom
- Ivan D. Ossa’s Express
- Zoé Pelchat’s Gaby’s Hills (Gaby les collines)
- Ryan McKenna’s I Used to Live There
- Eric K. Boulianne’s Making Babies (Faire un enfant)
- Atefeh Khademolreza’s Meteor
- Karsten Wall’s Modern Goose (Oie urbaine)
- Jasmin Mozaffari’s Motherland
- Edith Jorisch’s Mothers and Monsters
Eva Thomas’s Redlights - Andrea Nirmala’s Sawo Matang
- Halima Ouardiri’s The Skates (Les patins)
- Marni Van Dyk’s This is Not About Swimming
- James Michael Chiang’s Xie Xie, Ollie
- Bertrand Bonello’s La bête (France / Canada)
TIFF CLASSICS
- Brigitte Berman’s Artie Shaw: Time is All You’ve Got
