Since 2016, Seventh Row has spotlighted our 20 favourite acquisition films at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). We’ve checked in on these 60 films and tracked down where (or when) you can watch them.
For 2016 and 2017, this article focuses on the platforms you can rent, stream, or purchase the films from. We have included this information for the 2018 films if it is available, but also included more detailed information on rightsholders because several of the films are either still lacking distribution or only recently wrapped theatrical runs.
If the country is not specified in the parentheses after the platform, it is available there in all three countries we covered.
2018 TIFF acquisition films
Anthropocene (Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier)
This riveting documentary marks the third collaboration between Canadian director Jennifer Baichwal and legendary Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky (after Manufactured Landscapes and Watermark) about the ways humans have shaped the earth’s landscape. Anthropocene takes us around the world to see how humans have changed the physical landscape — through mining, landfills, deforestation, climate change, and more.
Taking inspiration from the Eames’ Powers of Ten, the film carefully shows us the scale of each operation, be it the machinery of mining or oil extraction or the magnitude of coral reef devastation. The film’s grating soundscape reminds us that the noise associated with these activities is itself destructive. This multisensory perspective gives a fuller picture of human impacts than Burtynsky’s photos alone.This is the directors’ first film to feature small portraits of locals so we can put a face to the people most affected. The film’s voice-over offers useful facts to frame the images we’re seeing without ever feeling preachy, which gives important context missing from Watermark.
Anthropocene doesn’t offer solutions so much as remind us of the breadth and extent of the problems. It can leave you depressed even as you are awed by the images of the earth’s natural beauty — coupled with how it’s being destroyed. It’s a useful update and a strong reminder of the global nature of a problem that cannot be isolated by borders. — Alex Heeney
Read our interview with the directors.
Where can I see it?: Kino Lorber purchased the US rights and theatrical run begins September 29. A Blu-ray is release forthcoming. Mongrel purchased the Canadian rights and have released the film on DVD/Blu-ray and on VOD.
Blind Spot (Tuva Novotny)
In her gutsy debut feature, Swedish actress Tuva Novotny proves that the possibilities of the one-take film haven’t been exhausted yet. Instead of relying solely on the impressive technical achievement alone, she uses it to support the film’s real heart: a story about a mother who realises that she didn’t know her daughter as well as she thought. As the camera never cuts away to show us the other sides of a scene or a moment, we realise that blind spots are always all around us: we cannot see the whole story just from our point of view. Despite this complex setup and the film’s dramatic central event, Novotny shows an intelligent restraint that lets us truly absorb the immediate implications and emotions of the situation. — Elena Lazic
Read our interview with Novotny.
Where can I see it?: Blind Spot is still awaiting distribution outside of Norway.
The Chambermaid (Lila Avilés)
Lila Avilés’ debut film asks us to see an occupation hotels try to make invisible: maids. Eve (Gabriela Cartol) is a young single mother who dedicates herself to her job as a maid at an upscale hotel in hopes of gaining a favourable promotion to the luxury floor. The entire film enfolds within the glass tower of the hotel, the camera exploring both the opulence of the public side and the grunginess of the maintenance and cleaning floors. Often told through long takes, The Chambermaid emphasizes the simultaneously alienating and highly personal experience of cleaning up other people’s mess. But even when maids and guests interact, as is the case when Eva is asked to watch a rich Argentinian woman’s baby for a few minutes, no human bond develops. The rich woman’s expectation of the role leaves her incapable of seeing Eve as a person, instead of as a maid. Avilés challenges us to look beyond the uniform and pay close attention to the lives of workers cleaning up the wealthier’s waste. — Brett Pardy
Distribution: Kino Lorber purchased the American distribution rights and a DVD/Blu-ray/VOD release is forthcoming. The Chambermaid is available on VOD through Curzon in the UK and a DVD will be released October 14.
The Crossing (Bai Xue)
Sixteen year old Peipei (Huang Yao) is desperate to make money to afford traveling with her rich friend. She takes advantage of her daily high school commute across the border from mainland China to Hong Kong to smuggle iPhones. However, she finds herself drawn further into the world of charismatic gangsters and increasingly risky hauls as money becomes addicting. The film takes us through us through the class geography of China, exploring rich kids’ parties, black market warehouses, working class shipping container homes, cramped apartments, and luxurious homes. First-time director Bai Xue has a vibrant style, skilfully controlling the pace to reflect Peipei’s two lives as student and smuggler. And the film has the year’s best shark scene! — BP
Distribution: CMC Pictures purchased the American rights, and Cine Asia the UK rights. The film had a limited release last March, but has not yet been released on VOD
Edge of the Knife (Gwaii Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown)
Edge of the Knife is the first feature film entirely in Haida dialects, the language of (what is now) BC’s North Coast – and now spoken by less than 20 people. Directed by Gwaii Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown, Edge of the Knife was produced by Isuma, the group, behind Inuit films like Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. In the early 19th century, an accident leads Adiits’ii (Tyler York) to become a Gaagiixiid/Gaagiid (wild man) when his village leaves for their winter home. When the community returns the next summer, the community resolves to heal him. Carver York excels in a physically rigorous performance. This film immerses the viewer in the pre-colonial world, without any hand-holding exposition for a non-Indigenous audience. The film finishes with a haunting coda about impending colonial invasion — BP
Read our interview with co-director Gwaai Edenshaw.
Where can I see it?: VOD, only through iTunes
Emu Runner (Imogen Thomas)
Gem, the eight-year-old Aboriginal protagonist of Imogen Thomas’s Emu Runner, has a habit of breaking into a run: in the opening sequence, she chases a wild emu; then, when her mother collapses, she sprints for help. Through her gait — her fast-pumping arms, audible breath, and steady step — we come to know Gem’s stamina and strength. In these respects, she resembles other members of her community in Brewarrina, a predominantly indigenous town some 500 miles from Sydney, Australia. After Gem’s mother dies, her father rises to the challenge of serving as primary caretaker for his three children, even as a dangerously overeager white social worker threatens to tear the family apart. Ultimately, Emu Runner is an uplifting tale of communal solidarity in the face of personal, yet politically charged, hardship. In the final scene, Gem runs a regional track race as her extended family members rise to their feet, urging her on. — Gillie Collins
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: Blind Spot is still awaiting distribution outside of Australia.
The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia (Arturo Infante)
For the second year running at TIFF, one of the most joyous films of the festival hails from Cuba and involves outer space. Last year, it was the sweet comedy Sergio & Sergei, about a ham radio enthusiast who befriended the last soviet astronaut on the MIR space station. This year, it’s the story of a middle-aged former teacher who works at the local planetarium, and who suddenly finds herself invited to visit an alien planet by her former neighbour — a woman so strange that Celeste is not surprised to discover she’s actually an alien.
In fact, a whole group of Cubans have been invited as a delegation on the alien planet, which means bureaucracy starts to take over. First, there are long queues to enter the draw for a spot on the spaceship. Then, Celeste finds herself at a remote and abandoned high school, sleeping in bunk beds and subjected to daily, regimented activities in preparation for the journey. Without ever seeing a single alien or even leaving planet earth, we completely buy that this future interstellar journey is real because of the sheer government might backing up all these activities.
What starts out as an absurd premise start to lose steam in the final act as the film focuses more on Celeste’s inward journey of self-discovery — and less on the light satire of Cuban bureaucracy. Still, it’s an utterly enjoyable ride and the perfect antidote to the many heavy films that dominate the festival.— AH
Where can I see it?: The Match Factory purchased the worldwide distribution rights, but VOD plans have not been announced.
Falls Around Her (Darlene Naponse)
Anishinaabe Kwe filmmaker Darlene Naponse sees a strong parallel between a toxic personal relationship and the colonialist approach to land use in Canada: both take and take, and there’s no end in sight. That parallel undergirds her beautiful new film, Falls Around Her, which follows Mary (Tantoo Cardinal), a famous but middle-aged musician who decides to stop touring and return to her grandmother’s home on a First Nations reserve.
Mary returns to the land to retreat from the vultures of the music business, sometimes including her fans, and to rediscover internal balance. Reintegrating into her community leads Mary to become involved with its inherent political activism : protecting its land from the local mining industry after the water was poisoned by a mine constructed without proper consultation.
Naponse’s film revels in the quiet beauty of the land and its subtle soundscape — the crunch of snow under Mary’s boot, the trickle of a stream or melting ice, and the wind in the trees. The land feels alive, and its tranquility brings Mary — and us — a sense of calm, without the noise and demands of the city. Much of the film is about watching Mary alone, rediscovering herself and her place in the world, reconnecting with old friends and family, and slowly forging new bonds.
With minimal dialogue, Naponse and Cardinal give us a portrait of a complex and sexual woman with desires and interests, a sad rarity in cinema. Above all, Mary possesses, immense capability: to captivate on stage, to run and fix her home off-the-grid, and to defend herself. By letting us experience the beautiful land, and its healing effects with Mary, Naponse’s film is a quiet rallying cry to stop environmental destruction. Losing or polluting this land becomes obviously criminal. — AH
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: Falls Around Her is available on CBC Gem and VOD in Canada, but does not have international distribution.
Firecrackers (Jasmin Mozaffari)
Disaffected teens, desperate to leave their dingy hometown, dream of escaping to the big city — a staple logline of the coming-of-age genre. Canadian director Jasmin Mozaffari’s debut feature, Firecrackers, tells this familiar story with a promising amount of passion and empathy. This time, we’re following Lou (Michaela Kurimsky) as she struggles to keep her savings for long enough to run off to New York with best friend Chantal (Karena Evans), leaving abusive families and exes behind.
Mozaffari’s volatile style immerses us in the mood swings of her protagonist. Over the course of a few days, Lou moves between the ecstasy of being so close to freedom and the devastating crash into loneliness and depression when that hope is taken away. Mozaffari evokes excitement with bright colours and a mobile, handheld style. Mozaffari often shoots their homes and hometown as a dark place of confinement — Chantal tells Lou that she feels she can’t breathe, and we feel that too. Crucially, Mozaffari also takes moments to slow down, sometimes cutting away from a scene a few beats late to evoke the bittersweet way you might glance back at a place you grew up before leaving it behind for good.
Kurimsky’s searing lead performance brings the whole thing together. We open on her boisterously fighting another girl in a parking lot (a scene that mirrors the opening of Fish Tank, as if Andrea Arnold’s influence needed to be clearer). But while Lou is initially presented as an extrovert, the time Mozaffari spends with her alone makes this character study so much more insightful. Kurimsky’s defences suddenly drop: Lou is pensive, quiet, thoughtful, and grappling with a faltering (but still burning) flicker of hope. Her extroversion in public is a front she’s developed in order to survive. — Orla Smith
Read our interview with director Jasmin Mozaffari and star Michaela Kurimsky.
Where can I see it?: Hoopla (Canada/USA) and Kanopy (Canada/USA).
The Fireflies are Gone (Sébastien Pilote)
Sébastien Pilote’s third feature is a buoyant, colourful, and often very funny coming-of-age story about a clever and cynical teenager, Léo (the wonderful Karelle Tremblay), who is coping with her parents’ divorce. To make matters worse, her new stepfather is a pompous right-wing talk radio host (“the king of the airwaves”) who helped to chase her father, the former union leader, out of town. To avoid her own problems, Léo strikes up a friendship with a middle-aged guitar teacher, which proves tender without ever problematically crossing boundaries. Tremblay’s Léo is a complex and uncommonly intelligent female protagonist, which puts Fireflies are Gone in the league of great teen films like Juno or The Edge of Seventeen. But Pilote’s interest in the complexities of the adults in Léo’s life, and the changing landscape of the town paints a broader picture beyond the confines of Léo’s teenage perspective. — AH
Read our interview with director Sébastian Pilote and star Karelle Tremblay.
Where can I see it?: DVD and VOD in Canada. Entertainment One has worldwide distribution rights, but no release plans have been announced.
Giant Little Ones (Keith Behrman)
17-year-old Franky (Josh Wiggins) occupies a comfortable in-between of high school life. He’s well-liked but far from the centre of attention. He watches a gay kid on his swim team get bullied, looking guilty yet doing nothing because he’s safe as he is: sensitive and quiet, yet adept at fitting in with a group of bros. Life is all lazy days in school classrooms, happy and aimless bike rides through suburban streets with his best friend Ballas (Darren Mann), and making out with his girlfriend on the couch. Franky appears relatively content. But about a third of the way through Keith Behrman’s Giant Little Ones, something happens that changes everything.
What unfolds is one of the most warm, thoughtful, and patient explorations of teen sexuality that the coming-of-age genre has to offer. In fact, the film flips the genre’s typical arc: most teen protagonists start out lost and eventually realise who they are. Franky starts the film pretty sure of who he is — but he learns to open himself up to not knowing. It’s a beautiful notion that ought to be espoused more often, and chiefly, it’s delivered here in a highly entertaining package, fit with a great soundtrack, compelling characters, and one unforgettable dick joke. — OS
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD and Hoopla (Canada/US)
The Great Darkened Days (Maxime Giroux)
Although Maxime Giroux’s (Felix and Meira) latest film has all the ingredients of an absurdist movie, its core is extremely sincere. Our anchor across the film’s many odd situations is a Charlie Chaplin impersonator (brilliantly played by Martin Dubreuil) who, as quirky as he may appear, turns out to be the most sane of all the people he meets. Among the beautiful and bare landscapes of the American west, our hero drifts from encounter to encounter, each more violent and unsettling than the one that came before — this chaotic world that seems to exist outside of time appears bent on destroying his kindness and his heart, as humble and small as it is. The Great Darkened Days is as unsettling as it is absorbing, as eye-pleasing as it is heart-wrenching. — EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: The Great Darkened Days is awaiting distribution outside of Canada and France.
Killing (Shinya Tsukamoto)
In stripping the samurai film back to its main components and placing it into a realistic setting, Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto crafts a potent and thrilling critique of violence and the traditions that justify it. Mokunoshin Tsuzuki (Sosuke Ikematsu) is a young ronin used to a tranquil life in the countryside: in a time of peace, he makes a living helping farmers with their daily chores. A skilled sword fighter, he appreciates sparring as a sport rather than as a means to an end: he doubts his ability and his desire to kill a man. This pressure he feels to live up to the idea of the bloodthirsty samurai is exacerbated by his meeting with Jirozaemon Sawamura (beautifully played by director Tsukamoto himself). This older, charismatic and cold-blooded samurai shames Mokunoshin into coming with him to a faraway battle, but they never get there. In the middle of the forest, far from the city where the traditions and rules of samurai honour make sense, Jirozaemo’s ruthless assassinations are the cruel and unnecessary murders of a sadistic killing machine. Tsukamoto’s film is a tense, moving, and visually inventive study of class, madness and violence. — EL
Where can I see it?: Killing is awaiting distribution outside of Japan
Our Body (Han Ka-Ram)
Korean filmmaker Han Ka-ram’s first feature is a thoughtful and sensitive look at late twenties malaise, female friendship, and the way both of these can turn into an obsession with the body. Ja-young (Moon Choi) is 31 but still living like a student, after spending years studying for a civil service exam that her mother wants her to take but that Ja-young has long since lost interest in. She doesn’t know what she wants, and she feels detached from her body, her family, and her life. But when she spots a beautiful runner, Hyun-joo (Ahn Ji-hye), Ja-young becomes obsessed with meeting and befriending her — the film leaves ambiguous whether Ja-Young wants to be Hyun-Jo or simply desires her. So Ja-young, who has barely left her apartment in year, takes up running, which helps her become more connected to her body and her life. And her friendship with the successful, seemingly together Hyun-joo helps Ja-young realise that nobody really has it figured out. — AH
Where can I see it?: Our Body is awaiting distribution outside of Japan
Out of Blue (Carol Morley)
A sinewy and complex riff on the gumshoe thriller, the latest film from British director Carol Morley is her most ambitious and hypnotic to date. New Orleans native Patricia Clarkson stars as a detective investigating the mysterious death of a renowned astrophysicist in modern day New Orleans — a case that quickly brings back buried memories for the usually very private and unemotional woman. Populated with distinctively oddball turns from amazing actors like James Caan, Jacki Weaver and Toby Jones, this atmospheric and haunting murder mystery of astronomical proportions evokes Lynch, Cronenberg and classic Noir, all the while retaining Morley’s own evocative style. — EL
Read our interview with director Carol Morley and star Patricia Clarkson.
Where can I see it?: Hulu (USA), VOD (USA)
Ray & Liz (Richard Billingham)
The debut feature from celebrated British photographer Richard Billingham is one of our favourite discoveries of the year. Based on Billingham’s own childhood memories, the dreamlike film isn’t so much a walk down memory lane as a series of brief but momentous visits into the past. Billingham reinvents the genre of the kitchen sink drama, its social realist angle filtered through the processes of experiencing and remembering.
Ray, an old man living alone in a small and grey one-room flat atop a tall building, drifts into memories of his younger days. The contrast between these temporalities is brutal, making Ray’s remembrances all the more vivid and precious. Back then, life was busy and colourful, animated by the eccentric character of his wife Liz, and the naughty jokes of his two children (Billingham is one of them). But Ray & Liz, as visually striking and melancholy as it is, isn’t straightforwardly nostalgic: most of the moments we revisit from Ray’s past show parental negligence, violence, alcoholism, and loneliness. — EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray and VOD in the UK. Ray and Liz had a limited theatrical run in the US in July and should be on VOD soon.
Rosie (Paddy Breathnach)
Part I, Daniel Blake and part Two Days, One Night, Paddy Breathnach’s Rosie tackles the Irish housing crisis through the lens of one woman’s search for a place where her family can stay the night. Over the course of 24 hours, we anxiously watch Rosie (a captivating Sarah Greene) call number after number in the hope that one will come back with good news. The closest Breathnach’s film gets to overtly political is the newscast audio that plays over a black screen in the opening seconds. Otherwise, he decides that the best way to make a political point is by telling a human story: all we need is to spend some time in Rosie’s shoes. Greene plays her as kind, intelligent, and resourceful — she’s doing everything she can and more, which makes her ultimate helplessness against the system even more heartbreaking. — OS
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray and VOD in the UK. Rosie had a limited theatrical run in the US in July and should be on VOD soon.
Splinters (Thom Fitzgerald)
Based on the play by Canadian Lee-Anne Poole, Splinters is a quiet family drama about grief, acceptance, and trying not to repeat the past. Belle (a luminous Sofia Banzhaf) returns to her rural Nova Scotia home for her father’s funeral with complicated feelings: her parents were unaccepting when she came out to them as a teenager, and she blames her father for her mother’s stagnant life even as she misses him. Belle is also desperately trying to hide that she’s been in a relationship with a man for two years, concerned that her family will chalk up her past girlfriends to just a phase. Instead, Belle finds an unexpectedly accepting — if complicated — welcome. Shot by the incomparable Luc Montpellier, the film captures the beauty of Nova Scotia and keeps us steeped in the very specific Maritime culture. — AH
Read our interview with actors Sofia Banzhaf, Callum Dunphy, and Shelley Thompson.
Where can I see it?: Splinters is awaiting distribution
Stupid Young Heart (Selma Vilhunen)
Disaffected 15 year Lenni (Jere Ristseppä) gravitates toward a white nationalist group in a working class Helsinki suburb. Lenni believes he must become a “man” to support his pregnant girlfriend, but can only imagine this in terms of traditional, toxic examples. Director Selma Vilhunen (Little Wing) captures how hate groups lure: not through ideology, but through emotional appeals to isolated young men. Vilhunen avoids a trite redemption arc in favour of asking larger, troubling questions. Even in Finland, a country with one of the world’s most developed social safety nets, the hopelessness young people feel in finding work and housing can easily be co-opted by the worst of society. What hope do more conservative nations have? — BP
Read our interview with director Selma Vilhunen and screenwriter Krisikka Saari.
Where can I see it?: Stupid Young Heart is awaiting distribution in Canada, the UK, and the USA.
Vita & Virginia (Chanya Button)
Chanya Button’s second film, Vita & Virginia,, tells the story of two very different women, each radicals of their time, who had one of the most infamous affairs in literary history — Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki) and Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton). Arterton’s Vita is a rich, fabulously dressed 1920’s New Woman, a successful author who wants to experience everyone and everything, and has no interest in letting her husband slow her down. Debicki’s Virginia is more reserved and subdued, a brilliant woman with confidence in her intellect but less comfortable socially; she seems as fragile as she is ethereal. Though Virginia doesn’t have a sexual relationship with her husband, they are deeply entwined partners, offering mutual support and running a publishing house together.
Button builds up the meeting between these two women to feel like a momentous occasion, though the relationship that ensues is less exciting: the women desire each other, but fit together in bed better than they do in life. The film is smart about the difference between desire and need, between a relationship and an affair. Virginia’s soulmate is her husband; Vita’s soulmate is the world. Featuring gorgeous period costumes and a spunky 21st century score, Vita & Virginia is above all a showcase for its leads even as it repeatedly reminds us how ahead of their time these women were. — AH
Listen to our podcast on the film.
Where can I see it?: Vita and Virginia will be available on VOD August 30th.
2017 TIFF acquisition films
Sergio & Sergei (Ernesto Daranas Serrano)
One of this year’s true hidden gems, Sergio & Sergei is a warm comedy about connecting across borders and a critique of totalitarian regimes. Sergio is a Marxist Philosophy Professor in Havana and a ham radio enthusiast. Just as the USSR is dissolving, he unexpectedly makes radio contact with Sergei, the only cosmonaut still on the Russian Space Station MIR, and they become friends. Both suddenly find themselves isolated from the rest of the world: Cuba has lost its closest ally while Sergei finds the borders on the ground have changed in ways that seem arbitrary from outer space. Meanwhile, Cuban government agents are eavesdropping on Sergio’s transmissions when they discover he not only has an American friend (an Apollo conspiracy theorist) but a Russian one — at this time in politics! Hilarity ensues, but director Ernesto Daranas Serrano pays close attention to how political events impact day-to-day lives, focusing on the humanity of his characters and the importance of their relationships. It’s a crowd-pleasing delight. – AH
A podcast episode on this film is coming next week!
Where can I see it?: VOD
First Reformed (Paul Schrader)
Paul Schrader’s follow up to the crazed and violent comedy Dog Eat Dog is a meditative work on a theme that has fascinated him his entire career: the narcissism of human beings and their struggle to truly care about others. Heavily influenced by his strict Protestant upbringing, Schrader tackles the topic head-on with Toller, a reverend in a small church who struggles with self-hatred. The wonderfully precise filmmaking perpetually teeters between empathy and mockery towards its lead character, as Toller’s depression and his sudden interest in environmental activism could either be born out of genuine concern for the world, or from unjustified self-pity. Ethan Hawke is mesmerising in a role that requires him to be heartbreaking and pathetic in equal measure. Schrader’s ability to be both empathetic and judgemental is humane and moving to an overwhelming degree. – EL
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Crave (Canada), Kanopy (Canada/USA), Now TV (UK), Prime Video (USA), Sky Go (UK), VOD
Sweet Country (Warwick Thornton)
Shot and directed by Indigenous Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton, Sweet Country is a suspenseful and heartbreaking Western. Thornton centers the perspective of Indigenous characters, keeping them onscreen as observers for exchanges between colonizers that affect them, and hanging on their reactions to injustices. In an act of self-defense, Sam (Hamilton Morris) kills a local white sergeant (Ewen Leslie), forcing him on the run, even though he’s always staying one step ahead of the group of colonizers on his tail. As we await the final showdown and reckoning, Thornton upends expectations to tell a complex story of trauma, survival, and colonizers’ inability or disinterest in empathizing with those they consider beneath them. Featuring gorgeous vistas of the central Australian landscape, this is a visually impressive film, in which every frame is meticulously composed to reveal power structures. – AH
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Hoopla (Canada/USA), Kanopy (Canada/USA), Now TV (UK), Sky Go (UK), Prime Video (Canada/USA), VOD
Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (Bruno Dumont)
Bruno Dumont is back with a bang with his personal and intensely unique interpretation of the childhood of Joan of Arc. This singular musical gloriously combines gorgeous beachside settings, idiosyncratic non-actors, beautifully low-key singing, and heavy metal for one of the most joyous experiences the festival has to offer. – EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray (Canada/USA), Kanopy (Canada/USA), Prime Video (Canada/USA), VOD
Zama (Lucrecia Martel)
Legendary Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel surprises with her long-awaited return, a wild departure from her usual style: it beguiles as it baffles. Adapted from a short Argentine novel, the film follows the misfortunes of Zama, a colonialist in limbo — at the border between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil — waiting to go home. Martel’s gift for absurd comedy shines, and the film teeters between waking dream/nightmare and the awkward stillness of boredom. The casual cruelty of slavery stands in moving contrast with the beauty of the setting and the gorgeously composed frames. Out of the hypnotic rhythm of the film regularly bursts the harsh violence of colonialism. – EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Now TV (UK), Sky Go (UK), Prime Video (USA), VOD
Angels Wear White (Vivian Qu)
The violence and trauma that the women in Vivian Qu’s Angels Wear White experience happens offscreen because that’s how the society treats it: invisible, easy to ignore, unimportant. When twelve-year-old Wen is raped in the hotel where Mia works, Mia films the security footage to prove the perpetrator is a threat. But nobody cares about Wen’s trauma, treating her as a trollop rather than a victim, and Mia’s own precarious situation makes her hesitant to come forth and help Wen, even as we suspect Mia has had some kind of similar experience. Qu keeps the camera at the height of her two young female protagonists, effectively creating empathy with these young women whose feelings are too easily ignored by the people around them. – AH
Where can I see it?: DVD (Canada/USA), Kanopy (Canada/USA), VOD
Valley of Shadows (Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen)
Valley of Shadows is a haunting, atmospheric fable about ghosts, grief, and childhood. In rural Norway, one boy ventures into the dark woods to confront the monster savaging sheep – and the shadow hanging over his family. Director Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen takes us inside young Aslak’s perspective, imparting both the fears and the unquestioning dream-logic of childhood. Beautifully shot and scored, this deliberately paced mood piece should not be missed. – Mary Angela Rowe
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray (Canada/USA), Hoopla (Canada/USA), Prime Video (Canada/USA), VOD
On Chesil Beach (Dominic Cooke)
Adapting his own novella for the screen, Ian McEwan has crafted an understated script about a newlywed couple in the 1960s who are incapable of talking about sex and intimacy—and the mess that ensues because of it. Legendary British theatre director (his acclaimed Follies just opened at the National Theatre) Dominic Cooke’s feature debut belongs in the canon of British films about repressed sexuality alongside Remains of the Day and The White Countess. Shot to look like films of the period, with long takes and plenty of gorgeously blocked two-shots, Cooke allows his two very talented leads, Saoirse Ronan and newcomer Billy Howle, to really dig into the complex emotions in the material. With strong supporting work from a who’s who of character actors, including Anton Lesser and Anne-Marie Duff, the film proves Cooke is just as much of a talent to watch on screen as on stage. –AH
Read our special issue on the film.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Kanopy (Canada/USA), Netflix (Canada/UK), Prime Video (USA)
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (Sophie Fiennes)
Sophie Fiennes’ documentary is a no-frills and no-nonsense look at the daily life of the similarly uncompromising singer and artist, and rarely has a combination of filmmaker and subject been so thrillingly perfect. Fiennes’ low-key observational approach lets Jones’ bigger than life persona shine both on stage, in electric performances specifically set up for the film, and off stage between hotel rooms and in Jones’ native Jamaica. The level of respect and trust between singer and director, their friendship and deep understanding of each other, shows on screen and turns what could have been a reverential myth-building exercise into an earnest, funny, and profoundly inspiring collaboration. – EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Hulu (US), Kanopy (Canada/US), VOD
The Seen and Unseen (Kamila Andini)
A beguiling journey between the realms of the physical and the imagined, Kamila Andini’s latest feature follows a sister’s efforts to connect with her ill twin brother. The border between dream and reality progressively dissolves as Tantri’s visions about her brother Tantra come to dominate the film in fantastical sequences of a beautiful spontaneity and profound poetry. Tantri’s sense of loss is never explicitly uttered but strongly felt in the increasingly moving and imaginative costumed dances and performances that the grieving young girl imagines. – EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: Prime Video (Canada), VOD
Lean on Pete (Andrew Haigh)
Andrew Haigh’s first departure from relationship movies and first foray into the American canon is a triumph. Lean on Pete is the tale of Charlie (Charlie Plummer), a solitary teenage boy who has never had a proper home. When his father unexpectedly dies, he sets off on a journey across the country to find his only living relative and his place in the world. Along the way, he meets potential surrogate parents, including horse racer Del (Steve Buscemi), which is how he connects with the down-on-his-luck race horse Lean on Pete, also on the verge of abandonment. The superlative subjective sound design is crucial for creating empathy with Charlie, and it makes this an absolute must on the big screen. With beautiful vistas of Charlie’s journey through the landscape and Haigh’s trademark attention to mise-en-scene and character, the film leaves you almost unexpectedly gutted by the deck Charlie’s been dealt, but inspired by his resilience. – AH
Buy our Lean on Pete ebook.
Listen to our podcast episode on the film.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Kanopy (Canada/USA), Prime Video (UK/USA), VOD
I Am Not A Witch (Rungano Nyoni)
In her confident directorial debut, Rungano Nyoni masters a powerful blend of humour and anger in the story of a young girl accused of witchcraft in Zambia. As she finds herself used by the government and blamed for its failures, the young girl’s despair and hopelessness eventually burst out the seams of the film’s spare and careful filmmaking. – EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Hoopla (Canada/USA), Kanopy (Canada/USA), Netflix (UK), VOD
Oh Lucy! (Atsuko Hirayanagi)
Atsuko Hirayanagi’s directorial debut is the darkly comic story of a middle-aged Japanese woman in crisis. Under the guise of her English class alter-ego Lucy, a suddenly liberated Setsuko follows her dreamy American teacher all the way to the US, with disastrous but moving and unexpected consequences. – EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray (Canada/USA), Hulu (USA), Hoopla (Canada/USA), VOD (Canada/USA)
The Judge (Erika Cohn)
A remarkably straight-faced documentary about a controversial issue, The Judge centers on Kholoud Al-Faqih, the first woman appointed to a Shari’a court in the Middle East. Following the judge in her everyday life as she works on cases related to domestic and family matters, the film offers a rare insight into the reality of women’s rights in Palestine, dismantling cliches and revealing the real efforts from many to create sexual equality. Director Erika Cohn pragmatically and fairly addresses every side of the issue with inspiring assurance and clarity. – EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: Prime Video (Canada/USA/UK), VOD
Custody (Xavier Legrand)
Fresh from its Silver Lion Best Director win for Xavier Legrand at the Venice Film Festival last week, Custody screens in TIFF’s competitive Platform section. Told mostly from the perspective of a helpless young boy caught in his parents’ custody battle, the film is a suspenseful and heartbreaking look at domestic violence and the limitations of the legal system. – AH
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray (UK), Kanopy (Canada/USA), Prime Video (USA), VOD
Waru (Briar Grace-Smith & 7 other women)
The death of a young Maori boy, Waru, at the hands of his neglectful and potentially abusive parents, reverberates across the entire community in these eight vignettes all directed by and about Maori women. Each vignette is a single-take short, shot handheld and following its protagonist’s perspective on the day of Waru’s funeral. Waru’s teacher copes with the confusion about the boy’s disappearance amongst his friends; a Maori newscaster faces racist commentary on the events from her white coworkers; and a desperate single mother nearly becomes abusive toward her own children. Through these women’s stories, we get a sense of the tight-knit community, the lasting effects of colonialism, and how cycles of abuse perpetuate themselves. Though the film’s washed out aesthetic makes it seem somewhat amateurish, and its large cast of Maori actors isn’t always strong, these are important, emotionally impactful stories that are too rarely told. – AH
Where can I see it?: Prime Video (UK), VOD
Beast (Michael Pearce)
This debut feature from British director Michael Pearce, screening in TIFF’s competitive Platform section, is a compelling psychological thriller. TIFF Rising Star Jessie Buckley stars as Mol, a buttoned-up twentysomething still living with her overprotective parents. When she falls for the mysterious Pascale (Johnny Flynn), who may or may not be responsible for a series of recent murders of young girls in the otherwise idyllic Jersey, she starts to unwind and unleash her suppressed inner demons. The film is a fascinating look at the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves, the parts we play for other people, and the mix of freedom and danger that comes from cutting loose. – AH
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Prime Video (UK), Shudder (USA), VOD
The Other Side of Everything (Mila Turajlic)
For those who even remember the conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia, the lasting image of the various countries involved is one of blind abandon to hatred and separation. The idea that there might have been any resistance to that regime and to this war from within the divided country simply never comes to mind. Mila Turajlic’s documentary starts from the very apartment her mother Srbijanka grew up in and still occupies, a living space that was divided under communism to accommodate multiple families. Ever since, , Srbijanka has never dared open the door and return to the room she last saw as a child in 1945 — even though the people who lived on the other side of the door are now gone. This awkward situation reflects a country and its citizens dealing with complex wounds which cannot be easily healed. Through emotional and sometimes harsh interviews with her own mother, the filmmaker tells the story of a woman whose entire life has been dedicated to working for a fairer Serbia: from the communism of Tito, to the rise and fall of Slobodan Milosevic, and the political mess that followed. It’s a vivid and nuanced portrait of a country too often judged from the outside, still divided by what happened, and conscious of the fact that there can be no easy solutions. – EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: Prime Video (UK/USA), VOD
Suleiman Mountain (Elizaveta Stishova)
Set in the picturesque mountains of Kyrgyzstan, Elizaveta Stishova’s debut feature follows a group of people that only barely qualifies as a family. Unexpectedly reunited with a child that may or may not be his long missing son, charismatic yet despicable con artist Karabas embarks on a journey with his two very different wives and this child. Alternately fighting each other and enjoying themselves, the unconventional family stumbles across the land from disappointment to disappointment looking for ways to make the money they need to survive. A film full of unexpected twists and turns, Suleiman Mountain is a roller coaster ride that ends on a moving note of stillness. –EL
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: ANT!PODE Sales & Distribution purchased worldwide rights. No VOD plans have been announced, but it is on MUBI until September 17
Meditation Park (Mina Shum)
Mina Shum’s Meditation Park is an uplifting story of an elderly woman, Maria (Cheng Pei-Pei) who finds her independence and community after learning her husband is having an affair with a younger woman. As a Chinese immigrant living in Vancouver, who never fully learned to speak English despite being in Canada for decades, Maria has been socially isolated and entirely dependent on her husband. Her husband’s infidelity pushes her to find her place in Canadian society. With warmth and humour, Shum subtly addresses the trauma and isolation of the immigration experience, as well as the challenges faced by second generation immigrants because of their parents’ lasting trauma. – AH
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: Netflix (USA/UK), VOD
2016 TIFF acquisition films
Nelly (Anne Émond)
This unconventional biopic about Québécois author and sex worker Nelly Arcand is beautifully shot. Like Émond’s previous film, Our Loved Ones, it deserves a big screen. Don’t be fooled by the fact that eOne technically has Canadian distribution rights: Our Loved Ones only opened in Quebec before heading straight to VOD. — AH
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD (Canada), Prime Video (USA/UK), VOD
Carrie Pilby (Susan Johnson)
Though it stars Indie It Girl Bel Powley as a hyper-intelligent lonelyheart 19-year-old who’s estranged from her father (Gabriel Byrne), it’s just smart enough to be a hard mainstream sell. This sort of film is usually told with a young male protagonist, so it’s refreshing to see this more wholesome, less dysfunctional female version of Igby Goes Down. — AH
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD, Netflix, VOD
Sami Blood (Amanda Kernell)
Already one of the best films of the festival, Amanda Kernell’s film is about an Indigenous Sami girl in Sweden who’s caught between her family and the outside world that won’t accept her. It’s stirring, moving stuff, with more than a few echoes to Canada’s own shameful past treatment of its Indigenous peoples. — AH
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray (Canada/USA), Fandor (Canada), Hoopla (Canada/USA), Hulu (US), Kanopy (Canada/US), Prime Video (UK/US), Sundance Now (Canada/USA), Vudu (USA), VOD
The Levelling (Hope Dickson Leach)
This subtle, devastating take on a young woman and her estranged father grieving the loss of her brother makes great use of the beautiful and haunting English countryside. It also features a breakout performance by Ellie Kendrick. — AH
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray (UK), Kanopy (Canada/US), Prime Video (US), VOD
The Bad Batch (Ana Lily Amirpour)
Ana Lily Amirpour’s follow-up to her gorgeous, genre-bending debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, just picked up the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival — though not a distributor. Mixing cannibalism, spaghetti westerns, and more, it’s sure to be a highlight of the festival. — AH
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Netflix, VOD
Una (Benedict Andrews)
Playwright David Harrower adapts his play Blackbird, which took Broadway by storm earlier this year starring Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams, for the screen. Andrews is fresh of a multinational run of his Young Vic production of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Gillian Anderson, and makes his directorial debut here. This mostly two-hander starring Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelssohn has already been getting raves out of Telluride. — AH
Read our interview with the director.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Netflix (Canada/USA), VOD
Home (Fien Troch)
One of three films directed by women to be selected for TIFF’s second annual Platform competition, Home just picked up the Best Director prize at Venice. The film follows three adolescent boys whose friendship and self-control are tested by a traumatic event. — AH
Where can I see it?: VOD
The Bleeder (Philippe Falardeau)
Falardeau’s follow-up to last year’s oh-so-Canadian My Internship in Canada sends him to the States to work on someone else’s script with big name movie stars: Liev Schrieber and Naomi Watts. Easily one of Canada’s best working directors, whom I dubbed a “national treasure” earlier this year, Falardeau is sure to give us another winner with this boxing picture. — AH
Where can I see it?: Released under the title Chuck. DVD (Canada, USA), Netflix (USA), Prime Video (UK), VOD
A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies)
With A Quiet Passion, Terence Davies continues to smash the patriarchy with his depiction of strong women who won’t let men run their lives. His focus here is on American poet Emily Dickinson, underappreciated in her time, who refused to conform to conventional mores, even if it meant spending life as a spinster. Like all Davies films, it’s also about the passage of time, and is shot with a gorgeous, painterly touch. — AH
Read our special issue on the film.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Prime Video (US), and VOD
The Stairs (Hugh Gibson)
Hugh Gibson’s documentary The Stairs, about recovering drug addicts in Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood, is a bracing, compassionate look at an often forgotten Toronto population. Police brutality is a forgone conclusion for these people, who are struggling to get by and clean up their lives. Easily one of the best documentaries of the year, and an important Toronto film, it’s not to be missed at the festival. — AH
Distribution: Available on DVD (Canada/USA), Kanopy (Canada/US), and VOD
Planetarium (Rebecca Zlotowski)
From the trailer, it seems this Natalie Portman vehicle is a quirky look at a pair of sisters who talk to the dead, and do it for show. But if Personal Shopper is any indication, a dumb-sounding plot in the right hands can produce a smart and emotional film. If nothing else, the period production design and costumes look to die for. — AH
Where can I see it?: Netflix (Canada/USA), Prime Video (UK), and VOD
Goldstone (Ivan Sen)
David Gulpilil, whose performance as the eponymous Charlie in 2014’s Charlie’s Country was one of the best of the year, returns to TIFF with the outback thriller Goldstone, bowing in the Platform competition. — AH
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray (UK), BFI Player UK), Netflix (Canada/US), VOD
Maliglutit (Searchers) (Zacharias Kunuk)
The story itself may be conventional and even outdated — it’s an arctic take on John Ford’s Western, Searchers, (a Northern, if you will). But it’s entirely worth it for the gorgeous vistas and insight into Inuit culture. Seeing Igloos get built, food prepared, and people readying for bed is fascinating enough, but the film finds a multitude of new ways to look at landscapes of snow and rock that go for miles. — AH
Where can I see it?: VOD, only through iTunes
Prevenge (Alice Lowe)
One of several films directed by women to screen in the festival’s sophisticated genre showcase, the Vanguard section, this pregnancy revenge thriller has already been getting raves out of Venice. Written, directed by, and starring a very pregnant Lowe, it’s sure to be unlike anything committed to film to date. — AH
Read our interview with writer-director-star Alice Lowe.
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-Ray (UK), Shudder (Canada/USA), VOD
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (Matt Tyrnauer)
It’s hard to imagine this Jane Jacobs documentary not being a hit with Toronto audiences, as this is both her hometown and a city full of urban planning enthusiasts. But it’s still seeking North American distribution. — AH
Where can I see it?: DVD, Crave (Canada), Hulu (USA), and VOD
After the Storm (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Kore-eda specializes in gentle, humane family dramas; his recent gem Our Little Sister hit cinemas shortly before the festival. I suspect After the Storm, which bowed in Un Certain Regard at Cannes earlier this year, will be no exception, receiving positive notices at the festival. — AH
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-Ray, Hoopla (Canada/USA), Kanopy (Canada/USA) , and VOD
Daguerrotype (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Although a major auteur on the international festival scene, Kurosawa’s previous effort, Journey to the Shore, which screened at TIFF last year, went straight to VOD. Bowing in TIFF’s Platform section, it looks sure to have sumptuous visuals, if nothing else, and it may be your only chance to see it on the big screen. — AH
Where can I see it?: Hoopla (Canada/USA) and VOD
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonnello)
One of several films about terrorism to be featured at TIFF this year, Nocturama has already proved a favourite among critics at the festival. Passed over by Cannes and Venice, for reasons unknown given how well it’s been received — many citing it as Bonnello’s best and an extremely important film — it’s a boon for TIFF’s Platform competition. — AH
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-Ray, Netflix, and VOD
In Between (Maysaloun Hamoud)
This marvelous, patriarchy-smashing debut from Hamoud finds three Palestinian women living together in an apartment in Tel Aviv. Each of them has different relationships to their heritage and approaches to conservatism. Together, they find the strength to recover from a violent event and face an unfair, sexist world without losing themselves. — AH
Where can I see it?: DVD, Kanopy (Canada/USA), VOD
Heal the Living (Katell Quillévéré)
Boasting a score by Alexandre Desplat, Heal the Living has already gotten positive buzz out of Venice, as a smart film with a twist on a familiar premise. It will also bow in the Platform competition. — AH
Where can I see it?: DVD/Blu-ray, Kanopy (Canada/USA), and VOD
