Canadian Special Presentations at TIFF 2024
By Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(August 5, 2024 – Toronto, ON) The 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) kicks off exactly one month from today and it’s time for us to take a look at some of the Canadian films screening this year.
Those films selected for Gala Presentations are given a slightly more chichi position in the competitive world of filmmaking. TIFF earlier announced a long list of World and Canadian Premiere films, but the only Canadian film in the Gala list was David Cronenberg’s Shrouds. There may be additions to the list when TIFF releases its full schedule on August 13.
Today we’re looking at the Canadian films screening in the Special Presentations programme. The first title to catch my eye was Ann Marie Fleming’s sci-fi-fiction opus Can I Get a Witness? Running almost two hours (110 minutes), Sandra Oh costars with Keira Jang and Joel Oulette in a feature that blends live-action with animation. Can I Get a Witness? is set in the near future when technology and travel are almost completely banned, and nobody is allowed to live past age 50. Known more for her work on the small screen, what caught my attention was a chance to see Oh on the big screen. (Keira Jang is pictured above as Kiah courtesy of CIGAW Productions).
R.T. Thorne’s 40 Acres will have its World Premiere in the Special Presentations section. This feature is set in a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce, the last descendants of a Black family of farmers who settled in Canada after the American Civil War must protect their homestead from an organized militia hell-bent on taking their land. This film is in English and Cree.
Co-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods bring their psychological horror feature Heretic to TIFF for its World Premiere. Costarring Hugh Grant, the 113 minute feature centres on two missionaries (Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Distributed by A24, Heretic is scheduled for release on November 15 of this year, but if that’s too long to wait, see it first at TIFF 2024.
I haven’t seen a preview but I can say with some authority that you should never pass up a chance to see a Guy Maddin film. His newest, with co-directors Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson brings Cate Blanchett into his special realm of filmmaking. Labelled as a comedy, this one is titled Rumours. Blanchett joins an ensemble cast playing the role of the German chancellor in an absurd satire of a G7 world leaders meeting that spins wildly out of control. The 103 minute feature is in English, French, Swedish and German. We assume with subtitles.
Sophie Deraspe has adapted Mathyas Lefebure’s semi-autobiographical novel D’où viens tu, berger? into the film Shepherd (Bergers in French). It stars stars Félix-Antoine Duval as Mathyas, a burned-out advertising executive from Montreal who moves to Provence to become a shepherd. A visit from Elise, a civil servant who boldly quit her job, gives Mathyas’ quest a new direction. Together, they face the challenges of the mountains, and with a herd to take care of, they forge a new life for themselves. The cast also includes Solène Rigot, Younes Boucif, Bruno Raffaelli, Véronique Ruggia, Michel Benizri, Guilaine Londez and David Ayala. From Avenue B Productions and micro_scope, Bergers is scheduled to open in Quebec in November. Read more about Deraspe in this Inside Quebec article from the fall of 2019.
Finally for Canadian films in the Special Presentations programme, Sharp Corner is a Canada-Ireland copro with Jason Buxton directing this 110 minute thriller. A dedicated family man becomes obsessed with saving the lives of the car accident victims on the sharp corner in front of his house – an obsession that could cost him everything. Costars include Ben Foster, Cobie Smulders and William Kosovic.
There’s lots more to come and, as mentioned, TIFF will release its full schedule on August 13. The Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5 to 15.
Ralph Lucas is a former broadcast executive and award-winning director in high-end corporate video production. The founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca, online since 1998, he began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.
