Alias Grace Leads TIFF 2017 Canadian Offerings
The Toronto International Film Festival is officially underway!
The highly-anticipated miniseries Alias Grace, pioneering Indigenous documentarian Alanis Obomsawin’s Our People Will Be Healed and Oscar-nominated director Kim Nguyen’s Eye on Juliet are among the 26 Canadian offerings as part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s slate of home-grown flicks.
Both Alias Grace, based on the Margaret Atwood novel, directed by Mary Harron and written by Sarah Polley, starring Sarah Gadon, Anna Paquin and Paul Gross, and Obomsawin’s Our People Will Be Healed, in which the 85-year-old explores a Cree children’s education centre in rural Manitoba, make their world premieres at TIFF 2017. Alias Grace heads to CBC on Sept. 25 for a six-part airing following the fest.
Nguyen, meanwhile, who earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for his 2012 war feature Rebelle (War Witch), sees Eye on Juliet, a love story that crosses continents and political lines, make its North American Premiere at TIFF.
Simon Lavoie’s Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves took home the prize for Best Canadian Film at last year’s festival, and he returns this year with the world premiere of the family drama The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches (La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes), based on the novel by Canuck author Gaétan Soucy, which competed in the French version of the 2004 Canada Reads contest; documentary filmmaker Alan Zweig, whose films have wracked up honours and accolades at past TIFF’s, offers up his latest, There is a House Here; and Sean Menard explores how NBA All-Star Vince Carter impacted Toronto during his years as the Raptors’ franchise player in The Carter Effect.
As well, a number of first-time feature directors make their TIFF debuts this year, including Ian Lagarde’s Cuban resort-set comedy All You Can Eat Buddha, Molly McGlynn’s Mary Goes Round, which follows an addiction counsellor’s struggles with substances and family tragedy and Black Cop, a police satire from Trailer Park Boys actor Cory Bowles.
Other Canadian offerings for TIFF 2017 that were announced earlier in the year include the gala presentation of Long Time Running, a documentary about the Tragically Hip’s final tour in the summer of 2016 by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, and The Crescent, a Midnight Madness selection from Seth A. Smith.
The full Canadian slate, courtesy of TIFF, is as follows:
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Eye on Juliet, dir. Kim Nguyen, Canada
North American Premiere
MASTERS
Our People Will Be Healed, dir. Alanis Obomsawin, Canada
World Premiere
TIFF DOCS
The Carter Effect, dir. Sean Menard, Canada/USA
World Premiere
Living Proof, dir. Matt Embry, Canada
World Premiere
There is a House Here, dir. Alan Zweig, Canada
World Premiere
DISCOVERY
A Worthy Companion, dir. Carlos Sanchez, Jason Sanchez, Canada
World Premiere
All You Can Eat Buddha, dir. Ian Lagarde, Canada
World Premiere
AVA, dir. Sadaf Foroughi, Iran/Canada/Qatar
World Premiere
Black Cop, dir. Cory Bowles, Canada
World Premiere
Cardinals, dir. Grayson Moore, Aidan Shipley, Canada
World Premiere
Luk’Luk’I, dir. Wayne Wapeemukwa, Canada
World Premiere
Mary Goes Round, dir. Molly McGlynn, Canada
World Premiere
Never Steady, Never Still, dir. Kathleen Hepburn, Canada
World Premiere
CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
BLACK KITE, dir. Tarique Qayumi, Canada/Afghanistan
World Premiere
Don’t Talk to Irene, dir. Pat Mills, Canada
World Premiere
Les Affamés, dir. Robin Aubert, France/Canada
World Premiere
Meditation Park, dir. Mina Shum, Canada
World Premiere
Porcupine Lake, dir. Ingrid Veninger, Canada\
World Premiere
Public Schooled, dir. Kyle Rideout, Canada
World Premiere
Pyewacket, dir. Adam MacDonald, Canada
World Premiere
The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches (La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes), dir. Simon Lavoie, Canada
World Premiere
PRIMETIME
Alias Grace, dir. Mary Harron, Canada/USA
World Premiere
WAVELENGTHS
PROTOTYPE, dir. Blake Williams, Canada
North American Premiere
Ta peau si lisse (A Skin so Soft), dir. Denis Côté, Canada/Switzerland
North American Premiere
TIFF 2017 runs from Sept. 7-17. Click here for more information on film synopsis and times.