With the 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival set to begin next week, and tickets going on sale to the public in a matter of days, it may be tough to narrow down which films are a "must-see" out of the festival's roughly 200 feature lineup.
This year's festival features include everything from critically-acclaimed blockbusters, to indie flicks, animated shorts, and striking Canadian debuts.
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CTVNews.ca asked TIFF's Senior Programmer Steve Gravestock which films he's most excited to have screening at this year's festival.
SOMETHING YOU SAID LAST NIGHT
Billed as a "different kind of transgender story," Luis De Filippis' "Something You Said Last Night" follows an aspiring 20-something, trans writer whose parents insist she and her younger sister accompany them on a family vacation at a resort outside Orillia, Ont.
"Many films with transgender characters have focused largely on transitioning. De Filippis’s debut looks past this, exploring acceptance, taking issue with stereotypes about Italian Canadians being culturally conservative, and offering up a compelling, sharp portrait of a nascent writer," Gravestock told CTVNews.ca in an email on Wednesday.
Driven by a "stellar ensemble cast and a great lead performance" by Carmen Madonia as Ren, he noted the film also serves as tribute to a loving family.
WAR SAILOR
Gravestock says Gunnar Vikene’s "powerful epic" looks at a "little known incident" during the Second World War: Germany's invasion of Norway and how it turns two lifelong friends into refugees at sea.
"Norwegian sailors who were at sea when the Nazis invaded Norway were immediately conscripted to the Allied efforts, and asked to sail unarmed freighters delivering supplies to areas of conflict, risking their lives with no way to fight back," he explained.
Gravestock says the film is a "heartbreaking, and often stirring portrait of friendship, heroism and courage."
VIKING
"Stephane Lafleur’s sci-fi drama comedy about space exploration, which never leaves the desert, his first feature since his 2014 Cannes hit 'Tu Dors Nicole" -- reminds us why he has long been considered one of Quebec and Canada’s most singular talents," says Gravestock.
The film, which he calls "weird, surreal, funny and harrowing," follows the subjects of behavioural research -- and the astronauts they mirror -- in advance of the first manned mission to Mars.
Also worth noting, Gravestock says, the film is produced by the same team responsible for the Oscar-nominated films "Incendies" and "Monsieur Lazhar."
RICEBOY SLEEPS
Anthony Shim's second feature about a South Korean mother and son struggling with their new life and relationship in 1990s Canada, is "emotionally rich and reminiscent of last year’s TIFF hit 'Scarborough'," says Gravestock.
"Shim’s poignant drama about a young mother and her son, who immigrate to Canada from South Korea in the 1990s, is one of the best Canadian films about the trauma of immigration as well as being a heartbreaking portrait of a mother and son relationship," he said.
WHEN MORNING COMES
The festival program highlights Kelly Fyffe-Marshall's feature as an "emotionally resonant" debut from 2020's winner of TIFF’s inaugural Shawn Mendes Changemaker Award. The film follows a young Jamaican boy as he grapples with his widowed mother’s decision to relocate to Canada.
"Her debut feature is an extraordinarily moving look at a young Jamaican woman, a single mother, who’s confronted with a heartbreaking choice about her young son’s future," said Gravestock.
MY SAILOR, MY LOVE
"Finnish filmmaker Klaus Haro’s first film in English (set in a remote, gorgeous area of Ireland) is a touching story about conflicted family dynamics and an unexpected October to December romance, boasting a stellar cast led by veteran actor James Cosmo," said Gravestock.
It's billed by the festival as an "honest and affecting personal drama" following a retired sea captain and his daughter who must reassess their strained relationship after he begins a new romance with a widowed housekeeper.
BROTHER
"Brother" follows the story of two Jamaican-Canadian brothers whose dreams are dashed by violent reality in 1990s Scarborough, Ont.
"Veteran filmmaker Clement Virgo ('Rude,' 'The Book of Negores,' 'The Wire') returns to feature filmmaking with one of the most anticipated films at TIFF," said Gravestock.
The film stars Lamar Johnson and Aaron Pierre as two inseparable brothers, based on David Chariandy’s acclaimed 2017 novel, and is described in the festival program as a "sorrowful but ultimately healing work that pays close attention to the need for kinship and community."
THE SWEARING JAR
"Lindsay Mackay’s second feature is an exquisitely made, narratively audacious drama about Carey (Adelaide Clemens, in a great performance) who’s torn by her love for two very different men (played by Patrick J. Adams and Douglas Smith)," said Gravestock.
According to the festival program, the film explores issues of love, forgiveness and self-recrimination in two very different relationships, showing that love is complicated and can happen regardless of circumstance.
I LIKE MOVIES
Burlington, Ont. gets its "cinematic moment," according to Gravestock, in the feature debut 'I Like Movies' from Toronto’s Chandler Levack. The film is billed as a comedy drama about an "alienated often ornery cinephile in a suburb where only a handful of people know who Todd Solondz is."
"This one struck home in a lot of ways," said Gravestock. "My film tastes were formed through frequent visits to the Skyway Plaza; the Burlington Mall; the Oden and the Brant Street Cineplex."
Gravestock added that the film is led by a "magnificent cast," including TIFF Rising Star Isaiah Lehtinen, Percy Hynes White, Krista Bridges and Romina d’Ugo.
