Well, here we are. It’s the heart of the film festival season or as some would say the start of Oscar season. This is the time when loads of films are being showcased at the Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival and now the Toronto International Film Festival (aka TIFF). Although some Oscar contenders have been shown already such as Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flowers, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, there are plenty of films looking to get distribution, good buzz or any attention that gets them in the race.

Among the films coming to TIFF in that are getting attention are Anatomy of a Fall, which won the Palme d'Or and the Palm Dog Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Les Indésirables, which is director' Ledj Ly’s follow-up (but not a sequel) to his 2019’s Oscar nominated film Les Misérables, and Ava DuVernay’s Origin, which was a late entry to the festival following its World Premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Fresh from getting good buzz at Telluride and a legitimate contender for Best Actor is Colman Domingo for his performance in George C. Wolfe’s Rustin. Along with his other film Sing Sing playing there , the festival will honor Domingo with the TIFF Tribute Performer Award.

Sadly, because of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, we won’t have the presence of actors and writers at the festival unless they were given an exemption. That means Jamie Foxx won’t be in attendance for his latest film The Burial, which is Maggie Betts’ first feature since her Sundance award winning film Novitiate in 2017. Documentary directors Raoul Peck and Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams have new films with Silver Dollar Road and Stamped From The Beginning respectively. They both competed opposite each other at the 2017 Oscars.

Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction has a slew of talent with Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross and Issa Rae to name a few. Expect Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) and DeWanda Wise (The Poolman) to shine in their films.

In terms of Black talent and films, there ‘s a great deal of directors (22) with films at the festival, including Ava DuVernay, Cord Jefferson, Maggie Betts, Ladj Ly, George C. Wolfe, Raoul Peck, Roger Ross Williams, Ramata-Toulaye Sy, Ishaya Bako, Henri Pardo, Monica Sorelle, Apolline Traoré, Lonzo Nzekwe, Duane Crichton, Will Prosper, Leslie Norville, Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, Sasha Leigh Henry, Rosine Mbakam, Djibril Diop Mambéty, Mati Diop, and Ousmane Sembène. The latter three are having their films shown in the Classics section of the festival.

Here’s a good selection of 2022 TIFF films directed by, produced by, starring and featuring Black talent in prominent roles. The synopsis comes from the TIFF guide.

GALA PRESENTATIONS

Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero - Carlos López Estrada, Zac Manuel

He conquered the pop music world with his first hit. He trampled the border between country and hip hop. And he invited absolutely everybody along on his big, bright, queer celebration of life as an industry baby. He’s not yet 25.

Lil Nas X, born Montero Lamar Hill, is an unprecedented artist and a singular phenomenon in pop culture.

Since his instant rise to fame in 2019 when he released “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X upended the music industry. The single with Billy Ray Cyrus became the longest running #1 single in Billboard Hot 100 history after 19 weeks atop the chart. The 16-time Platinum hit was recognized with numerous awards including two GRAMMYs. In March 2021, Lil Nas X released the culture-shifting, five-time Platinum hit “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name).” The queer anthem debuted at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained atop of the Spotify Global chart for over a month straight. After releasing his debut album Montero in September 2021, it went on to boast the five-time Platinum hit “Industry Baby,” which became the #1 most streamed hip-hop song of the 2020s on Spotify. It’s this success that has propelled Lil Nas X to be one of only a few artists who have had three songs surpass more than one billion streams on Spotify and create bombastic performances that have been hailed – according to NME – “undoubtedly a watershed moment for queer pop.”

Origin - directed by Ava DuVernay

Cast: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jon Bernthal, Connie Nielsen, Niecy Nash-Betts, Audra McDonald, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Finn Wittrock, Myles Frost, Victoria Pedretti, Isha Blaaker, Donna Mills, Leonardo Ham, and Gisssette Valentin

Origin, directed by DuVernay from a screenplay she co-wrote with Isabel Wilkerson, is an adaptation of Wilkerson’s seminal, Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

Already established as the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for her journalism, Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis) is confronted by the question of race once again when a colleague asks her to write about Trayvon Martin’s death. Her husband, Brett (Jon Bernthal), encourages her to tackle the case, but she’s more interested in the core of where racial injustice comes from.

After a tragedy forces her to reorient her life, Isabel begins a research project which spans the globe, as she travels to Germany and India where she investigates the disenfranchisement of Jewish people during the Third Reich and the marginalization of Dalit “untouchables.” While initially struggling to explain her theory to family and colleagues, Isabel breaks down a codified framework of dehumanization for her book, making the argument that race and caste aren’t simply synonyms.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

American Fiction - directed by Cord Jefferson

Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David, Issa Rae, Sterling K. Brown

Adapted from Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut centers on Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Wright), a respected author and professor of English literature. But his impatience with his students’ cultural sensitivities is threatening his academic standing, while his latest novel is failing to attract publishers; they claim Monk’s writing “isn’t Black enough.” He travels to his hometown of Boston to participate in a literary festival where all eyes are on the first-time author of a bestseller titled We’s Lives In Da Ghetto, a book Monk dismisses as pandering to readers seeking stereotypical stories of Black misery. Meanwhile, Monk’s family experiences tragedy, and his ailing mother requires a level of care neither he nor his trainwreck of a brother (Sterling K. Brown) can afford.

One night, in a fit of spite, Monk concocts a pseudonymous novel embodying every Black cliché he can imagine. His agent submits it to a major publisher who immediately offers the biggest advance Monk’s ever seen. As the novel is rushed to the printers and Hollywood comes courting, Monk must reckon with a monster of his own making.

The Burial - directed by Maggie Betts

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones, Jurnee Smollett, Alan Ruck, Mamoudou Athie, Pamela Reed, Bill Camp

As he turns 75, Biloxi, Mississippi funeral director Jeremiah O’Keefe (Jones) feels blessed by his wife and children and the legacy he’s proud to leave to them. But debts force Jeremiah to sell parts of his business to a corporation rapidly buying up funeral homes, cemeteries, and insurance companies to profit from what its CEO, Ray Loewen (Bill Camp), refers to as “the golden age of death.”

When Jeremiah’s contract with Ray is in dispute, he solicits the services of Willie E. Gary (Foxx), a flamboyant personal-injury lawyer who hasn’t lost a case in 12 years — but who doesn’t know a thing about contract law. After Ray hires a hotshot defence team, it becomes clear the odds are stacked against Jeremiah and Willie. But despite their different backgrounds, they recognize qualities in each other they feel certain will see them through: faith, integrity, and a tireless fighting spirit.

The Holdovers - directed by Alexander Payne

Cast: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa

Barton men don’t lie. This is just one of the many rules Professor Hunham (Paul Giamatti) takes much too seriously as he hands out poor grades at an elite boarding school in 1971. As he dismisses the politics that come along with educating the children of people in high places, he’s punished by the headmaster who gives him a most undesirable assignment for the winter break: to stay at the school and supervise the students who are unable to go home.

Hunham resolves to have the students suffer with him, forcing them to start studying next semester’s curriculum ahead of time. Among them, 15-year-old Angus (Dominic Sessa), bright but belligerent, makes a ruckus. Teacher and student become foes, antagonizing one another and tiring themselves out, as Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school cafeteria manager, observes from the sidelines, herself alone after recently losing her son in the Vietnam War. As the petulant pair succumb to the depressing truth that they’ve got little else but each other this holiday season, Professor Hunham starts to soften up and they begin to see themselves in one another.

Les Indésirables - directed by Ladj Ly

Cast: Anta Diaw, Alexis Manenti, Aristote Luyindula, Steve Tientcheu, Aurélia Petit, Jeanne Balibar

Set largely in an underprivileged Parisian suburb, Ladj Ly’s follow-up to his Cannes Jury Prize–winning debut, Les Misérables (TIFF ’19), is an incendiary indictment of racist policies that force the poor into unsafe and inadequate living conditions. Featuring a powerhouse ensemble led by newcomer Anta Diaw, Les Indésirables dramatizes some of the most divisive social themes of our time.

When the existing mayor suddenly dies, family doctor Pierre (Alexis Manenti) finds himself chosen as interim mayor. But Pierre is woefully unfamiliar with the less affluent members of his constituency and soon realizes he’s in over his head.

Haby (Diaw), meanwhile, is Pierre’s opposite: president of a public housing association, she herself lives in one of the city’s “10-storey favelas.” As Pierre’s administration unleashes an aggressive campaign targeting immigrants, Haby decides to put herself forward as a candidate in the forthcoming mayoral election. But can she and her team act fast enough to prevent their community from being evicted wholesale?

Poolman - Chris Pine

Cast: Chris Pine, Annette Bening, Danny DeVito, DeWanda Wise, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Every morning, Darren (Pine) inspects and cleans the pool of his low-rise apartment block — a Zen ritual he performs with exacting precision, partly because it’s the one thing that he can actually nurture in his beloved city. He looks up to Erin Brockovich’s example of social justice, writing daily letters to her about his (failing) fight for a better bus schedule. But after an embarrassing scuffle at a city council meeting, he hits rock bottom — until a femme fatale named June Del Rey (DeWanda Wise) shows up at his pool step with an intriguing piece of information. Darren sees it as an opportunity to save Los Angeles. To get to the bottom of the case, he ropes in his idiosyncratic friends: his pilates instructor girlfriend Susan (Leigh), his therapist Dianne (Bening, also at the Festival in NYAD), and her husband, Jack (DeVito), a washed-up director who’s shooting a documentary on what might actually prove to be a dangerous conspiracy.

Rustin - directed by George C. Wolfe

Cast: Colman Domingo, Chris Rock, Glynn Turman, Aml Ameen, Gus Halper, CCH Pounder, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Johnny Ramey, Michael Potts, Lilli Kay, Jordan-Amanda Hall, Jakeem Powell, Grantham Coleman, Jamilah Rosemond, Jules Latimer, Maxwell Whittington-Cooper, Frank Harts, Kevin Mambo, Carra Patterson, Bill Irwin, Cotter Smith, Adrienne Warren, Jeffrey Wright, Audra McDonald.

Sixty years on, the March on Washington is remembered as the watershed point in civil rights history where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. There were many people who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make that moment possible, with their efforts led by one important figure: Bayard Rustin. George C. Wolfe’s latest film tells Rustin’s story, as the activist who brought together an alliance of civil rights, labour, and religious organizations, while being forced into the background of the movement because of his sexuality.

An advisor and close friend to Dr. King, Rustin has a difficult time convincing the reluctant group of leaders that he can organize what would be one of the largest political rallies in American history. While pushing ahead, he’s reinvigorated by a burgeoning relationship. Afraid that his gay identity will harm the movement, members of the coalition start to take issue with Rustin being the face of the march and, wary of sparking a media scandal, he becomes torn between the needs of the cause and his personal life.

Sing Sing - directed by Greg Kwedar

Cast: Colman Domingo, Clarence Maclin, Paul Raci, Sean San José

Based on the real-life arts rehabilitation programme founded at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Greg Kwedar’s new film follows a troupe of incarcerated actors who work on a play as part of a theatre workshop at the prison.

Every six months, the men gather in a circle of chairs, often looking to Divine G (Colman Domingo) to help decide their next play. When he recruits a new member called Divine Eye, he gets more than he bargained for. The group’s dynamic begins to shift as Divine Eye suggests they do a comedy for the first time, prompting the men to throw out a jumble of wild ideas — from pirate ships to Roman gladiators to Old West gunfights. Flustered at first, Divine G quickly starts to see Divine Eye’s discomfort with the vulnerability required for what seems like a silly pursuit. While planning for his own clemency hearing, he tries to forge a connection with Eye, as the men collectively unpack the pain of their experience while undergoing the joy and escape of creativity.

TIFF DOCS

Copa 71 - directed by Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine

Executive Produced by Venus and Serena Williams

In this documentary executive produced by Serena and Venus Williams, the filmmakers use archival footage and new interviews to tell the story of the unofficial 1971 Women’s World Cup, a moment virtually erased from the history of soccer.

In August of 1971, defying the sexism of the time that branded soccer as “unfeminine,” teams of women from England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark and Italy gathered at Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium for the first unofficial Women’s World Cup. The scale of the tournament was monumental: lavish sponsorship, extensive TV coverage and crowds of over 100,000 roaring fans turned this historic stadium into a cauldron of noise. And yet this event has been written out of sports history — until now. Told by the trailblazing women who participated in it and built from archive unseen for fifty years, COPA 71 revels in the excitement, passion and humor of this inexplicably well-kept secret, setting the players’ personal stories within the context of women’s liberation movement in the ‘60s through to the present day.

Silver Dollar Road - directed by Raoul Peck

For generations, the North Carolina waterfront property known locally as Silver Dollar Road was passed through the hands of an African American family, the Reels. Family members describe it as an idyllic spot where they could earn a living from fishing and growing their own food while isolating themselves from the violence of white supremacy.

But the Reels family’s fortunes changed in the 1970s when developers sought to drive out Black landowners and profit from the real estate. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck tells the story of how the Reels battled over several decades to save their land. He draws upon the in-depth reporting of Lizzie Presser, published by ProPublica and The New Yorker.

Peck’s depiction of the Reels unfolds with novelistic detail, profiling the matriarch Gertrude in her nineties and her sons, Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels. The men lived all their lives on Silver Dollar Road, so when they’re served with a court order for eviction aged in their sixties and fifties, respectively, they choose going to jail rather than giving up their home.

Stamped From the Beginning - directed by Roger Ross Williams

In his book Stamped From the Beginning: the Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi explored the history of anti-Black racist ideas and their impact on the United States. Oscar-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams takes inspiration from Kendi’s work to explore those themes with an array of powerful film techniques. Music and visual sampling are injected to create vivid storytelling with a hip hop sensibility.

As the director of television series such as The 1619 Project and High on the Hog, Williams has steeped himself in Black American history. He’s also proven himself fluent in pop culture with films such as Life, Animated and Love to Love You, Donna Summer. This new work shows him marshalling all of his talents at the peak of his power.

The documentary is grounded in scholarship featuring on camera commentary by Kendi and Angela Davis (who figures prominently in the book). In addition to their contributions, Williams makes a deliberate choice to feature Black women intellectuals who don’t always show up as the usual suspects in documentary history.

CENTERPIECE

Banel & Adama - directed by Ramata-Toulaye Sy

Cast: Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo

Neither Senegal nor the rest of the world has known a love like Banel (Khady Mane) and Adama’s (Mamadou Diallo), each eager to begin their adult lives away from the stifling demands of their families and community. The young couple were married by an ostensible combination of chance and duty when Adama’s older brother Yero died, leaving a still-young Banel, his second wife, a too-young widow. Now, the same duty dictates that Adama accept the role of village chief. However, the fated lovers have plans that do not include the expectations of others. That is, until something in the air changes. The rains do not come, the cattle begin to die, the men leave and Banel, once lovelorn and lost in responsibility, surrenders to the call for a life lived beyond prescription.

Death of a Whistleblower - directed by Ian Gabriel

Cast: Noxolo Dlamini, Irshaad Ally, Anthony Oseyemi

When her friend and fellow reporter Stanley Galloway (Rob van Vuuren) is murdered for daring to release catastrophic state secrets, investigative journalist Luyanda Masinda (Noxolo Dlamini) is thrown headfirst into a dangerous search for those responsible.

Stanley is the latest victim in a string of suspicious killings across South Africa intended to silence those committed to rooting out government corruption. Unintimidated, Luyanda is propelled into action, scouring her friend’s files for details about the explosive story he was chasing, knowing it holds the key to exposing his killers. Luyanda uncovers what Stanley had learned about the government’s latest privatization scheme and the double-dealing profiteers who stand to benefit. Tracking down the identity of his confidential source inside the state department, Luyanda unearths a vile conspiracy and discovers why Stanley’s killers so desperately wanted him silenced.

I Do Not Come To You By Chance - directed by Ishaya Bako

Co-written by Chika Anadu and director Ishaya Bako and produced by Chioma Onyenwe

Exec Producers: Genevieve Nnaji, Chinny Carter

Cast: Paul Nnadiekwe, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Jennifer Eliogu, Sambasa Nzeribe, Beverly Osu, Emeka Nwagbaraocha

Kingsley (Paul Nnadiekwe) has always been smart. As a child, he would help his uncle, Boniface (Blossom Chukwujekwu), write letters to people abroad. Each message was addressed to a stranger, professing his uncle’s undying love and urgent need of financial assistance. Envelopes containing cash and money orders would come in return but, when Kingsley’s mother found out about her son’s involvement, she banished her brother from the house. Fifteen years later, now a university graduate, Kingsley can’t find work. Faced with his father’s expensive medical care and no apparent options, he makes the uncomfortable decision to ask Uncle Boniface for help.

Now a well-respected big man preferring to be called “Cash Daddy,” Boniface offers to provide much more than just Kingsley’s father’s medical expenses. Still jobless and shouldering the responsibilities of the opara (the firstborn son in Igbo culture), Kingsley must choose between a chance at the life his father fought for him to have and the path now laying at his feet.

Kanaval - directed by Henri Pardo

Cast: Rayan Dieudonné, Penande Estime, Martin Dubreuil, Claire Jacques, Tyle Epassy, Jean Jean, Rykko Bellemare, Hana Sofia Lopez

Rico (Rayan Dieudonné) is a curious boy, living with his schoolteacher mother Erzulie (Penande Estime) in a small port town on the coast of Haiti in 1975. During an annual celebration, and despite his mother’s warnings of danger, he slips out into the night to witness legends come to life and the masks and costumes of revellers.

Migrating to safety in a small rural town in Quebec, Rico and Erzulie try their best to get accustomed to their new world with the assistance of an older couple that warmly takes them in. While Rico tries to make sense of this snowy province, with hunting, snowmobiling, and racist bullies all around, he’s unable to grasp why his mother, still grappling with her trauma, is becoming distant from him. So he does what many six-year-olds do, and conjures up an imaginary friend, Kana, from Haitian myth, who becomes his guide to figuring out the alien world he’s found himself in.

Limbo - directed by Ivan Sen

Cast: Simon Baker, Rob Collins, Natasha Wanganeen, Nicholas Hope

When Detective Travis Hurley (Simon Baker) arrives in the eponymous outback town, one could assume that time — or reality — is somehow suspended. An old opal mining town, Limbo is riddled with labyrinthine tunnels; many of the dwellings, including Hurley’s motel, are built into the earth and stone to provide escape from the oppressive heat of Southern Australia.

Battling inner demons and a drug addiction, Hurley is in Limbo to reopen the 20-year-old cold case of a murdered Indigenous girl, whose killer may still live locally. Charlotte’s death — and the subsequent apathy of the investigating officers and non-Indigenous community members — are still painfully felt by her sister Emma (Natasha Wanganeen) and brother Charlie (Rob Collins), who both doubt Hurley’s ability to solve the case with so little evidence and community support.

Mountains - directed by Monica Sorelle

Cast: Atibon Nazaire, Sheila Anozier, Chris Renois

Based in the immigrant enclave of Little Haiti in Miami, Xavier (a quietly potent Atibon Nazaire) is a middle-aged, working-class Haitian demolition worker who hopes to one day buy his beloved seamstress wife, Esperance (a radiant Sheila Anozier), a new and spacious suburban home. Meanwhile, their doted-on college-dropout son Junior (Chris Renois) struggles against his father's rigid expectations by day while quietly pursuing a career as a stand-up comic by night.

Sira - directed by Apolline Traoré

Cast: Nafissatou Cissé, Mike Danon, Lazare Minoungou, Nathalie Vairac, Ruth Werner

Carried by camel train and the excitement of her relatives, young bride-to-be Sira (Nafissatou Cissé) is crossing the desert in the Fulani tradition to be with her betrothed, Jean Sidi (Abdramane Barry). On an unplanned stop, armed extremists attack and raid their nomadic village, killing the men. Brutalized and then abandoned, Sira begins another long journey across the arid landscape. But the path she has chosen leads her right into the assailants’ camp. Refusing to surrender to her fate, and learning quickly how to live off the land, Sira decides to keep her enemies close and take cover in a nearby cave, preparing patiently for her moment to strike.

Toll - directed by Carolina Markowicz

Cast: Maeve Jinkings, Kauan Alvarenga, Thomás Aquino, Aline Marta Maia, Isac Graça

When Suellen (Jinkings), a toll booth attendant, realizes she can use her job to help a gang of thieves steal prized accessories from the wealthy people driving between São Paulo and the coast, she convinces herself she’s doing it for a noble cause: to send her teenage son, Antonio (an incredibly assured Kauan Alvarenga) to an expensive gay conversion workshop led by a renowned priest. But she unwittingly triggers a chain of events that will leave no one happy, except maybe the thieves.

We Grown Now - directed by Minhal Baig

Cast: Blake Cameron James, Gian Knight Ramirez, S. Epatha Merkerson, Lil Rel Howery, Jurnee Smollett

Editor: Stephanie Filo

Along with his mother Dolores (Jurnee Smollett) and grandmother Anita (S. Epatha Merkerson), 12-year-old Malik (Blake Cameron James) has lived in this community all his life. The same is true for his best friend Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez) and together the boys know every nook, stairway, and rooftop — all of these a playing field for their (sometimes forbidden) adventures. But change is intruding on their childhood idyll. Drugs and crime are seeping into the neighbourhood and, when a sudden tragic event further shakes the families, the children’s future becomes uncertain. As Dolores weighs a new job that would take them to the unfamiliar suburbs, Malik and Eric struggle with accepting that they may have to say goodbye to each other.

DISCOVERY

Backspot - directed by D.W. Waterson

Cast: Devery Jacobs, Evan Rachel Wood, Shannyn Sossamon, Kudakwashe Rutendo, Thomas Antony Olajide, Wendy Crewson

Riley (Devery Jacobs, who also produced) can’t afford to make that wrong move. The ferocious competitor and furious perfectionist finds herself under pressure when she and her girlfriend Amanda (Kudakwashe Rutendo, TIFF Rising Star ’23) are both selected for an elite cheer squad. As the diamond-hard coach (Evan Rachel Wood) and her assistant (Thomas Antony Olajide, TIFF Rising Star ’21) put them through their paces, Riley’s anxiety escalates, and a compulsive behaviour intensifies. Something’s going to break… but whether it’s physical or emotional is anybody’s guess.

I Don't Know Who You Are - directed by M. H. Murray

Cast: Mark Clennon, Nat Manuel, Anthony Diaz, Deragh Campbell, Victoria Long, Kevin A. Courtney, Michael Hogan

After a sexual assault, Toronto musician Benjamin (Mark Clennon) must pull together the money for HIV-preventive PEP treatment in the event that he’s been exposed to the virus — while also avoiding the man (Anthony Diaz) he's just started dating. Short of cash and determined to solve the problem himself, Benjamin spends a frantic weekend trying to raise the $900 he needs in the 72-hour window when PEP is most effective.

In his first feature, writer-director M. H. Murray filters his own real-life experience through the character of Benjamin, whom he and Clennon created in their 2020 short Ghost.

La Suprema - directed by Felipe Holguín Caro

Cast: Pabla Florez, Elizabeth Martínez, Antonio Jiménez, Ana Victoria Rodríguez, Juan Jose Jiménez, Moisés Ramírez, Miguel Ángel Fontalvo, Domingo Zabaleta

Laureana (Elizabeth Martínez) is a strong-willed teenager who’s not about to conform to what society or her abuela have in store for her. When she finds out via the newspaper that her estranged uncle is days away from fighting in a boxing world championship in Venezuela, she ignites a spark that will quickly get the whole town on board with watching the match live on national television. The problem? It may be the 21st century, but the village has no electricity and no one has a TV set.

Laureana enlists the help of Efraín (Antonio Jiménez), the local trainer who discovered her uncle years ago. After much hesitation, he agrees to follow her lead and set sail for the big city. All odds are against them, but they know this history-making moment might put their town on the map and it is worth giving it their all.

INDUSTRY CONFERENCE, TIFF '23

MICROSESSION Lights, Camera, Collaboration: 'Orah' and the possibilities of Nigeria-Canada partnership

Screening for accredited buyers during the Festival, this curated selection of 12 films go beyond the Official Selection, and are all available for worldwide acquisition.

Using the Canadian crime thriller, Orah (2023), which was shot in Canada with a second unit shoot in Nigeria as a case study, the panelists will discuss the opportunities and challenges of collaborating across borders and the potential benefits of deepening connections between the two countries’ innovative and successful audiovisual industries.

Orah - written and directed by Lonzo Nzekwe

Cast: Oyin Oladejo, Lucky Onyekachi Ejim, Agape Mngomezulu, Morgan Bedard, Somkele Iyamah-Idhalama, Oris Erhuero, O.C. Ukeje, Femi Lawson, Christopher Seivrigh, Angel Oduko, Tina Mba, Emeka Nwagbaraocha, Ruby Akubueze, and Kelechi Udegbe

The movie follows the “story of 15-year-old Orah Madukaku, who kills a man in Nigeria and flees the country without her infant son, Lucky. 17 years later, Orah is an illegal immigrant in Canada working as a taxi driver for attorney Eli Pope and his high-profile Nigerian client, Bami Hazar, who are both involved in international money laundering. After Hazar orders the murder of Orah’s son, she embarks on a revenge spree to bring Hazar to justice. When all her legal options fail, Orah resorts to violence to settle the score.”

Umbrella Men II: Escape from Robben Island - directed by John Barker

Cast: Sivuyile Ngesi, Shamilla Miller, Rob van Vuuren, Keenan Arrison, Kagiso Lediga, and more.

After the successful Umbrella Men heist, our usual suspects, Jerome, Morty, Mila, Keisha and Auntie Val find life is sweet. But that’s when Takiek takes a hand. And before long, Jerome and Morty are banged up in the recently-reopened Robben Island Prison and Keisha, Mila and Auntie Val need to bust them out – and team up to take down an outa-control Tariek, who has plans of world domination and clear their names so that they can get home to the Bo Kaap as free men.

They pulled off the perfect heist, and went to prison anyway ― so now it’s up to the women of the Umbrella gang to orchestrate their escape from Robben Island Prison, in this sequel to John Barker’s 2022 crime comedy (The Umbrella Men).

MIDNIGHT MADNESS

Aggro Dr1ft - directed by Harmony Korine

Cast: Jordi Molla, Travis Scott

Shot entirely in retina-scorching infrared and set to an intoxicating Araabmuzik score, AGGRO DR1FT casts Jordi Molla and rapper Travis Scott in a feverish, transporting action-movie miasma of skulls and swords, masks and machine guns, strippers and mobsters, horned demons and hot cars.

The film orbits around a melancholic assassin named BO (Jordi Mollà) as he prepares to vanquish a demonic crime lord in a Floridian realm of vivid pinks, blazing yellows, and deep purples. But the particulars of its minimalist plot are largely moot; the vibe is what’s paramount.

Dicks: The Musical - directed by Larry Charles

Cast: Megan Mullally, Megan Thee Stallion, Bowen Yang, Nathan Lane, Aaron Jackson, Josh Sharp

There’s no business like show business — except perhaps the business of selling the bristles and brushes for robot vacuums, a cutthroat industry that pits “confident heterosexual” salesmen like Craig and Trevor against each other on a daily basis. But before Craig can shove a hose in Trevor’s mouth and turn on the water, these two big-dicked blowhards come to the startling realization that they are fucking identical twins raised apart since birth.

Fortunately, these are the perfect conditions to mount an old-fashioned parent trap, and so the pair swap lives to restore the nuclear family that they have long been denied. But can love still bloom between their eccentric mother (Megan Mullally), who is so old she carries her vagina around in a purse, and their closeted father (Nathan Lane), who is obsessively preoccupied with cannibalistic, humanoid, underground-dwelling sewer boys? Hey, I ain’t bringing around a cloud to rain on their parade, not with songs this catchy and choreography that features Megan Thee Stallion domming worker drones as she lays down bars about how she “out-alphas the alphas” in her midst.

PLATFORM

Sisterhood - directed by Nora El Hourch

Cast: Léah Aubert, Médina Diarra, Salma Takaline, Oscar Al Hafiane, Mounir Margoum, Bérénice Bejo

Fifteen-year-olds Amina (Léah Aubert), Djeneba (Médina Diarra), and Zineb (Salma Takaline) have been inseparable since childhood. But their seemingly invincible bond is challenged by a pivotal incident that brings to light their differences in race, social class, and cultural privilege.

The three friends create a video in reaction to a predatory attack. But when Amina posts the video on social media, it impacts their friendship in a way she did not expect.

More affluent and white-passing than her friends, Amina questions whether she is being ostracized because of her privilege and lashes out at her father for his apparent denial of their Arabic heritage. She is torn between her own sense of justice and saving her friendship with Djeneba and Zineb, which ultimately gives meaning to who she is and her place in the world. Their friendship is the only place where she feels she truly belongs.

PRIMETIME, TIFF '23

Bad Boy - directed by Hagar Ben-Asher

The film is from Ron Leshem, the creator of the Israeli series upon which HBO’s Euphoria is based.

Cast: Guy Menaster, Havtamo Freda, Neta Plotnick, Liraz Chamami, Daniel Chen, Yaniv Shavit, Amjad Shawa, Yishai Lalush, Bat Hen Sabag

Dean (Guy Menaster), a young teen living with his mother (Neta Plotnick) and younger brother, prepares to turn in for the night when a knock on the door changes his life forever. Correctional officers storm into his room and haul him, barely clothed, out of the house.

While Dean may be sharp-tongued and unafraid to spit in the eye of authority, his vulnerabilities surface when he arrives at a fortress-like juvenile detention facility. As he’s given the “tour” of his new home, Dean passes an inmate in solitary confinement: Zoro (Havtamo Freda), who’s regarded by the rest of the inmates as a psychotic, cold-blooded killer. After awakening to a horrific act of violence on his first morning inside, Dean quickly becomes entangled in the inner workings of the system. What’s the price of silence? Who can you trust? How much of yourself can you protect in a place designed to break you? As Dean and Zoro’s paths begin to intertwine, each boy will use what they have ― humour, notoriety, a world-weary wisdom ― to stay alive. As an adult, Dean (Daniel Chen) maintains a career as a successful comedian, but his traumatic past threatens to resurface and destroy the life he’s built beyond the walls of the detention centre.

Black Life: Untold Stories - directed by Duane Crichton, Will Prosper, Leslie Norville

Cast: Maestro Fresh Wes, Michie Mee, Master T, Jully Black, Shad, David Austin, Sandy Hudson, Robyn Maynard, Rinaldo Walcott

Black Life: Untold Stories is a new CBC documentary series tracing the individual and collective histories of Black people in Canada, dedicated to “dispelling common myths and celebrating the many contributions of Black Canadians.”

Employing different visual aesthetics and editorial approaches in each episode, the show’s first episodes address the history of enslaved people in Canada that our politicians whitewash, and the attempts of Black Canadians to create their own communities in the face of intimidation and violence from their racist neighbours.

Bria Mack Gets A Life - directed by Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, Sasha Leigh Henry

Cast: Malaika Hennie-Hamadi, Hannan Younis, Leslie Adlam

Bria Mack Gets A Life is a self-assured comedy series from Sasha Leigh Henry (director of TIFF ’20 short film Sinking Ship) that shows what adulthood is like for a smart young Black woman as she is reluctantly entering the workforce.

This spiritual and Canadian descendent of Issa Rae’s work — in particular Rae’s web series The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl — sees Bria, played by Malaika Hennie-Hamadi, navigating the very mundane and awkward world of employment after graduating from university.

When Bria returns to her mom’s house in Brampton, expectation does not meet reality. She thinks she’ll sit back, relax, and hang out with her friends, but her mother’s retirement plans and Bria’s lack of funds change all of that.

She’s accompanied by an invisible hype girl, Black Attack (Hannan Younis), who pops up intermittently to steer Bria in the right, or very wrong, direction.

WAVELENGTHS, TIFF '23

Mambar Pierrette - directed by Rosine Mbakam

Cast: Pierrette Aboheu, Karelle Kenmogne, Cécile Tchana, Fabrice Ndjeuthat

The eponymous Pierrette (Mbakam’s cousin, Pierrette Aboheu) lives in rain-soaked Douala. A talented seamstress, she works to support her small children and her mother. While her life is strewn with misfortune and mountainous challenges, including a nighttime robbery and a flooded workshop, she’s unwilling to give up and instead endeavours to find solutions or moments of reprieve from her strife. In particular, the bright colours of her dresses and other creations often provide bursts of joy in the lives of those around her, as they also punctuate the otherwise desaturated palate and environment Mbakam has meticulously crafted.

TIFF CLASSICS

Touki Bouki Anniversary Screening with Talk - Djibril Diop Mambéty

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Djibril Diop Mambéty’s landmark film Touki Bouki, this screening will be preceded by Mati Diop's short film A Thousand Suns and will include a panel discussion moderated by Akoroko Founder and CEO Tambay A. Obenson, plus special guests.

Iconoclasts Mory and Anta are two lovers whose restlessness towards post-independence Senegalese society lead them to plan an escape to a romanticized Paris, where they expect to find freedom. Mory is a cattle herder, but his reckless grifting in order to realize their getaway plan links him to the bouki (hyena, the traditional trickster figure of the title). The film becomes a road movie following the adventures of the rebellious couple as they ride through a fantasy landscape of Dakar on a motorcycle accessorized with a pair of steer horns.

A Thousand Suns - Mati Diop

Filmmaker and actor Mati Diop fuses documentary and fantasy in this hauntingly beautiful portrait of Magaye Niang, star of the 1973 classic Touki Bouki by Diop’s uncle, Djibril Diop Mambéty.

Xala - directed by Ousmane Sembène

The restoration of Xala is courtesy of Janus Films.

Adapted from the director’s own novel, Xala follows pompous businessman El Hadji Abdoukader Beye, whose need to project an appearance of wealth and success leads him to taking a third wife younger than his daughter.

Instead of demonstrating the height of his virility and power, on his wedding night El Hadji is unable to perform sexually. He suspects his other two wives of possibly cursing him with impotence, but meanwhile it is the beggars in his community — repeatedly victimized by his greed — who have been plotting his comeuppance. Xala means temporary sexual impotence in Wolof, and El Hadji’s physical condition is a mere localized symptom of his and the other colonized elite’s endemic ineffectual leadership.