Canadian films at TIFF 2012

Antiviral

Director: Brandon Cronenberg

The debut film from Brandon Cronenberg is a prescient and chilling vision of a dystopian future where celebrity obsession has gone to literally sick extremes.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/antiviral

 

Bestiaire

Director: Denis Côte

Visionary filmmaker Denis Côté (Curling) offers a strikingly beautiful contemplation of the caged denizens of a zoo in this intriguing cinematic inquiry into the mysterious rapport and insuperable gulf between animals and humans.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/bestiaire

 

Blackbird

Director: Jason Buxton

An alienated teenager's posturing online threat ignites a firestorm of fear in a small community, in this disturbing and perceptive look at how our media-fuelled, post-Columbine culture of fear can transform typical teen angst into intimations of murder.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/blackbird

Camion

Director: Rafaël Ouellet

Montreal filmmaker Rafaël Ouellet (Le Cèdre penché, Derrière moi) returns to the Festival with this affecting, finely crafted drama about a working-class family that reconnects in the wake of a fatal road accident.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/camion

 

The Crimes of Mike Recket

Director: Bruce Sweeney

Bruce Sweeney (Last Wedding) returns to the Festival with this neo-noir police procedural — set against the backdrop of economic hard times — about a failed real estate agent (Nicholas Lea, in a bravura performance) whose recent attempt to turn things around makes him a suspect in a criminal investigation.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/crimesofmikerecket

 

Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang

Director: Laurent Cantet

The latest film from Palme d'Or winner Laurent Cantet (Entre les murs) is a vivid adaptation of the celebrated Joyce Carol Oates novel about a small-town girl gang in the 1950s.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/foxfire

Home Again

Director: Sudz Sutherland

Returning to a "home" they hardly know after being deported from their adopted countries for minor criminal offenses, three people from very different backgrounds try to make a new life for themselves, in Jamaica in this gutsy drama from writer-director Sudz Sutherland.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/homeagain

 

I Declare War

Directors: Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson

Summer war games between the neighbourhood kids turn deadly serious when jealousy and betrayal enter the mix, in this alternately hilarious and horrifying black comedy that mixes equal parts Lord of the Flies and Roald Dahl.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/ideclarewar

The End of Time

Director: Peter Mettler

Visionary filmmaker Peter Mettler (Gambling, Gods and LSD) traverses the globe to explore (and explode) our conceptions of time, in this entrancing combination of documentary and mind-expanding philosophical speculation.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/endoftime

Inch'Allah

Director: Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette

A Quebec doctor discovers the heartbreaking absurdity of life in Israel's divided West Bank, in this intense, politically-charged drama from the producers of the Academy Award®–nominated Incendies and Monsieur Lazhar.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/inchallah

 

Inescapable

Director: Ruba Nadda

Alexander Siddig, Joshua Jackson and Marisa Tomei star in this taut thriller about a man whose daughter disappears in Damascus, forcing him to return to the country he left behind more than three decades ago.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/inescapable

Krivina

Director: Igor Drljaca

A Bosnian immigrant who fled to Toronto after the civil war returns to his homeland in search of a missing friend who has been implicated in war crimes, in this quietly chilling and finely surreal meditation on confronting traumas of the past.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/krivina

Laurence Anyways

Director: Xavier Dolan

The third feature from Montreal's Xavier Dolan (J'ai tué ma mère, Les Amours imaginaires) centres on a young bohemian couple whose defiantly exclusive relationship is sent spiraling when the man, Laurence, confesses that he believes he's transgendered. This audacious and searing mediation on love and sexuality is shot in hyper-florid style and driven by gutsy performances.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/laurenceanyways

 

The Lesser Blessed

Director: Anita Doron

A teenage metalhead living in a remote community in the Northwest Territories grapples with the challenges of adolescence in this affecting adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel by Richard Van Camp.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/lesserblessed

Liverpool

Director: Manon Briand

An unexpected heroine is plunged into a world of forged identities, corporate intrigue and organized crime in this lively, genre-bending caper from award-winning Quebec director Manon Briand (2 secondes, La turbulence des fluids).

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/liverpool

 

Lunarcy!

Director: Simon Ennis

In this irresistibly zany, sharp-witted documentary, director Simon Ennis introduces us to an unforgettable group of characters whose obsession with the moon and lunar colonization has given birth to utopian dreams of truly galactic proportions.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/lunarcy

Midnight's Children

Director: Deepa Mehta

Spanning decades and generations, celebrated Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta's highly anticipated adaptation of Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize®–winning novel is an engrossing allegorical fantasy in which children born on the cusp of India's independence from Britain are endowed with strange, magical abilities.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/midnightschildren

 

My Awkward Sexual Adventure

Director: Sean Garrity

A hyper-repressed and schlubby accountant (Jonas Chernick) strikes a deal with a worldly but disorganized stripper (Emily Hampshire): he'll help her with her crushing debt if she helps him become a better lover. Sharp direction by the versatile Sean Garrity and a very funny script by Chernick ensure for an uproarious — and surprisingly educational — sex comedy.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/myawkwardsexualadven

 

Picture Day

Director: Kate Melville

A rebellious teenager (Tatiana Maslany, Grown Up Movie Star) forced to repeat her last year of high school is caught between adolescence and adulthood — and between two very different male admirers — in this charming and vibrant debut feature from writer-director Kate Melville.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/pictureday

 

Rebelle

Director: Kim Nguyen

Kidnapped and forcibly inducted into a rebel army, a young girl finds herself haunted by premonitory visions in this heartfelt and helplessly moving portrait of a child soldier from Canadian director Kim Nguyen.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/rebelle

 

Revolution

Director: Rob Stewart

Rob Stewart follows his outstanding documentary Sharkwater with this impassioned, angry and enduringly hopeful call to arms against our destruction of our planet's precious marine life.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/revolution

The Secret Disco Revolution

Director: Jamie Kastner

Cheekily fun and intellectually absorbing, Jamie Kastner’s meticulously researched documentary casts a new light on the much-maligned musical genre, contending that the disco era represented a moment of mass liberation for women, African-Americans and gay men.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/secretdiscorevolutio

 

Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinsky

Director: Barry Avrich

Barry Avrich (Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project) recounts the life and troubled times of controversial Cineplex and Live Ent founder Garth Drabinsky, whose daring innovations and flamboyant personal style reshaped the Canadian entertainment industry.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/showstopperthetheat3

 

Still

Director: Michael McGowan

Michael McGowan's Still is an exquisitely mounted and deeply affecting love story about one man's determination to create a suitable home for his ailing wife. Veterans James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold are nothing short of magnificent as they mine the subtext in the story of a couple with a deep and complicated past.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/still

Stories We Tell (documentary)

Director: Sarah Polley

Sarah Polley (Away From Her, Take This Waltz) makes her maiden voyage into documentary with this exploration of a family’s secrets, and the varying narratives that each member has created to explain their tangled past.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/storieswetell

The Crimes of Mike Recket

Director: Bruce Sweeney

Bruce Sweeney (Last Wedding) returns to the Festival with this neo-noir police procedural — set against the backdrop of economic hard times — about a failed real estate agent (Nicholas Lea, in a bravura performance) whose recent attempt to turn things around makes him a suspect in a criminal investigation.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/crimesofmikerecket

 

The Lesser Blessed

Director: Anita Doron

A teenage metalhead living in a remote community in the Northwest Territories grapples with the challenges of adolescence in this affecting adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel by Richard Van Camp.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/lesserblessed

 

The Secret Disco Revolution

Director: Jamie Kastner

Cheekily fun and intellectually absorbing, Jamie Kastner’s meticulously researched documentary casts a new light on the much-maligned musical genre, contending that the disco era represented a moment of mass liberation for women, African-Americans and gay men.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/secretdiscorevolutio

Tout Ce Que Tu Possèdes
(All That You Posses)

Director: Bernard Émond

An obsessed scholar attempts to withdraw from the world but finds personal ties drawing him back into the family he had left behind, in this novelistic, beautifully modulated drama from acclaimed Québécois filmmaker Bernard Émond.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/toutcequetupossedes

 

Tower

Director: Kazik Radwanski
 
Already well-known at the Festival for his signature short films, Toronto filmmaker Kazik Radwanski makes his feature debut with this off-kilter and slyly funny character study about a thirty-something loner who tries to keep the world at arm’s length.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/tower