September 4, 2024 – CBC/Radio-Canada proudly highlights its ongoing commitment to Canadian creators and filmmakers with the following 13 titles selected to premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF 2024), including one Gala Presentation, three Special Presentations and one film in TIFF’s competitive Platform Programme, which showcases bold directorial voices.
In addition to investing in series and films that reflect a range of perspectives at the heart of the Canadian experience, CBC/Radio-Canada continues to showcase homegrown cinema to wide audiences across Canada on the public broadcaster’s streaming and television platforms.
“At TIFF, the world comes to Toronto, and CBC/Radio-Canada brings Canadian film to the world. We’re proud to have 13 CBC/Radio-Canada titles premiering at the festival – what a testament to the incredible power of Canadian filmmaking. The public broadcaster will always support homegrown storytelling, and bring it to audiences in Canada and beyond.” – Catherine Tait, President and CEO, CBC/Radio-Canada
R.T. Thorne(Courtesy: TIFF 2024
40 ACRES (Special Presentations, World Premiere)
Directed by R.T. Thorne and written by R.T. Thorne and Glenn Taylor, distributed by Mongrel Media – produced in association with CBC Films
In a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce, the last descendants of a Black family of farmers who settled in Canada after the American Civil War must protect their homestead from an organized militia hell-bent on taking their land.
JULIAN AND THE WIND (Short Cuts, World Premiere)
Directed by Connor Jessup – acquired by Canadian Reflections
A mysterious case of sleepwalking becomes a tentative means of connection between two boarding school students in Connor Jessup’s elegantly rendered story of adolescent longing.
THE KNOWING Episodes 1 and 2 (Primetime, World Premiere)
Written and directed by Courtney Montour and Tanya Talaga, distributed by Makwa Creative – CBC original docuseries, premiering September 25 on CBC TV and CBC Gem
THE KNOWING is a four-part narrative docuseries that follows journalist Tanya Talaga and her family’s eight-decade long search for family matriarch Annie Carpenter, revealing a story deeply intertwined with Canada’s Indian Residential School system. Using sweeping imagery of the land, blended with rare archival footage and deeply personal conversations with Survivors, knowledge holders and newly found family, Talaga takes viewers on an emotional journey of both familial reclamation and an exploration of Canada’s true history.
THE MOTHER AND THE BEAR (Centrepiece, World Premiere)
Written and directed by Johnny Ma, distributed by Elevation Pictures – produced in association with CBC Films
When her grown daughter Sumi has a bad fall in Winnipeg, anxious widow Sara (Kim Ho-jung) travels from Korea to be with her — and discovers she doesn’t really know Sumi at all.
OUT FOR ICE CREAM (CRÈME À GLACE) (Short Cuts, World Premiere)
Directed by Rachel Samson – acquired by Canadian Reflections
The story of two friends on the cusp of adolescence, Rachel Samson’s warm-hearted animation is an ode to those special summer days that contain major changes.
PAYING FOR IT (Platform, World Premiere)
Directed by Sook-Yin Lee and written by Sook-Yin Lee and Joanne Sarazen, distributed by Paying For It Productions – produced in association with CBC Films
A cultural snapshot of turn-of-the-millennium Toronto with subtle comic energy and a great cast, Sook-Yin Lee’s adaptation of Chester Brown’s autobiographical 2011 graphic novel is a movie only Lee could make… because it’s her story, too.
RUMOURS (Special Presentations, North American Premiere)
Directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson and written by Evan Johnson, distributed by Elevation Pictures – produced in association with CBC Films
Cate Blanchett (The New Boy, TIFF ’23) joins a strong ensemble cast and plays the German chancellor in RUMOURS, an absurd satire of a G7 world leaders meeting that spins wildly out of control — the latest from co-directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson.
SHEPHERDS (BERGERS) (Special Presentations, World Premiere)
Directed by Sophie Deraspe and written by Sophie Deraspe and Mathyas Lefebure, distributed by Maison 4:3 – Radio-Canada pre-licence
A Montréal copywriter sets out to reinvent himself as a sheep herder in the French Alps despite knowing literally nothing about the centuries-old craft, in this adaptation from director and co-writer Sophie Deraspe.
THE SHROUDS (Gala Presentations, North American Premiere)
Written and directed by David Cronenberg, distributed by Sphere Films – produced in association with CBC Films
Still grieving the loss of his wife, a technological entrepreneur (Vincent Cassel) finds what’s left of his world collapsing into a nightmare of sex, paranoia, and grief in David Cronenberg’s most personal film.
SO SURREAL: BEHIND THE MASKS (TIFF Docs, World Premiere)
Written and directed by Neil Diamond and Joanne Robertson – documentary Channel original, premiering November 10 on documentary Channel
So Surreal: Behind the Mask unveils the fascinating connection between the work of some famed Surrealist artists and ceremonial masks from the Yup’ik and Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw nations, and follows the quest to bring them home.
VILLAGE KEEPER (Discovery, World Premiere)
Written and directed by Karen Chapman, distributed by LevelFILM – produced in association with CBC Films
After a massive loss, an overwhelmed Toronto mother discovers a very unusual way to process her grief.
WHO LOVES THE SUN (Short Cuts, North American Premiere)
Directed by Arshia Shakiba – acquired by Canadian Reflections
Enriched by cinematography as remarkable as the filmmaker’s work on Zaynê Akyol’s Rojek, this documentary by director Arshia Shakiba situates viewers amid the oil refineries in Syria’s war-ravaged north, a landscape that may seem post-apocalyptic but lives in our ever-more alarming present.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE (VOUS N’ÊTES PAS SEULS) (Discovery, World Premiere)
Written and directed by Marie-Hélène Viens and Philippe Lupien, distributed by Maison 4:3 – Radio-Canada pre-licence
In Montreal, twentysomething Léo (Pier-Luc Funk) delivers pizza and gets drunk, and that’s pretty much it. He’s alone and he’s sad, and doing nothing about it … until he meets Rita, a sweet-natured musician who thinks he might be a keeper. The thing is, Léo is already taken; he’s just been targeted by an alien who preys on Montreal’s lonely and alienated men and doesn’t much care if Léo’s luck has turned.
CBC Films supports feature films that reflect, represent, and reframe a range of perspectives at the centre of the Canadian experience. Committed to creative excellence, cultural relevance, and talent development, CBC Films prioritizes storytelling that amplifies equity-deserving communities, along with a parallel commitment to gender parity. CBC Films encompasses CBC’s continued investment in Canadian features, filmmakers and film industry, including the TIFF–CBC Films Screenwriter Award, now in its seventh year of supporting the country’s dynamic screenwriting talent, and the recently announced Charles Officer Legacy Award presented by CBC x TIFF. With a robust library of over 200 Canadian films available to stream on CBC Gem, CBC strives to create an unparalleled destination for Canadians to discover homegrown film.
Radio-Canada is a leading partner in the Canadian film industry as well, with its continued investment in French-language features, filmmakers, screenwriters and talent. In addition, Radio-Canada is in partnership with several cinematographic events across the country. ICI TÉLÉ and ICI ARTV broadcast Canadian films every week and ICI TOU.TV EXTRA features a growing Canadian films collection. And this coming winter, Radio-Canada will broadcast, for the second year, a 90-minute special hosted by superstar Karine Vanasse, celebrating both this past year’s cinematic achievements and our filmmakers’ upcoming films as a preview of their great work in primetime.
