Grade: Grade 12
Liverpool
Helping her on her journey through Montreal’s shady underworld is computer-whiz Thomas (Dubé), who has had his eye on her for some time. As the intrepid duo embark on a dangerous journey filled with secrets and intrigue, Thomas, an aspiring journalist, uses social media and technology to help them reveal the truth.
Equal parts thriller, comedy and romance, Liverpool is a charming and quirky film about an unlikely pair of would-be detectives who try to solve a mystery and might just end up falling in love in the process.
Director
Manon Briand
Briand is a filmmaker and writer whose first short film, Les sauf-conduits, won Best Canadian Short Film at TIFF. She also directed a segment of the anthology Cosmos. Her features include 2 secondes, La turbulence des fluides (Chaos and Desire, for which she won a Jutra Award), Liverpool and Tous Toqués !, all of which she wrote and directed.
Writer
Manon Briand
Cast
Stéphanie Lapointe, Charles-Alexandre Dubé, Louis Morissette, Gilles Renaud
Producers
Roger Frappier, Luc Vandal
Genres
Action/Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Interests
Environment, Female Filmmaker, Strong Female Leads
Original Language
French
Louis 19, le roi des ondes (Louis the 19th, King of the Airwaves)
“Particularly astonishing…its commentary was both funny and telling.” — Matthew Hays, Montage
Director
Michel Poulette
Montreal writer/director Poulette’s film Louis 19, le roi des ondes earned the Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature as well as the Golden Reel Award. His feature Maïna was nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards and three Jutras. He directed Agent of Influence starring Oscar winner Christopher Plummer, several recent TV movies and the series Real Detective.
Writers
Sylvie Bouchard, Émile Gaudreault, Michel Michaud, Michel Poulette
Cast
Martin Drainville, Agathe Lafontaine, Dominique Michel, Yves Jacques, Patricia Tulasne
Producers
Jacques Dorfmann, Richard Sadler
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Interest
Arts and Culture
Original Language
French
Venturing north into enemy territory, Maïna is herself captured by Natak, the Inuit clan’s leader, and must navigate the perilous journey with him, to the “Land of Ice.”
Based on the novel by award-winning author Dominique Demers, this gripping and visually stunning film was nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Picture.
Director
Michel Poulette
Montreal writer/director Poulette’s film Louis 19, le roi des ondes earned the Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature as well as the Golden Reel Award. His feature Maïna was nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards and three Jutras. He directed Agent of Influence starring Oscar winner Christopher Plummer, several recent TV movies and the series Real Detective.
Writer
Pierre Billon
Cast
Uapeshkuss Thernish, Tantoo Cardinal (Cree/Métis), Graham Greene (Oneida), Roseanne Supernault (Cree/Métis)
Producers
Yves Fortin, Karine Martin
Genres
Action/Adventure, Drama
Interests
BIPOC Stories, Literary Adaptation
Original Languages
English, Inuktitut
Maman est chez le coiffeur (Mommy Is at the Hairdresser’s)
It's the summer of 1966. The sun is shining and the world is full of possibilities. But for 15-year-old Élise (Fortier), there are issues simmering beneath the surface of her happy family life.
When a shocking discovery drives her mother to leave the family, everyone is stunned. Amid the chaos, Élise decides it's up to her to take matters into her own hands and solve the problems. While her father and two brothers withdraw into their inner world, Élise is not discouraged. Trying to keep her family's troubles a secret, she discovers that no one around her has a life as perfect as it seems at first glance.
A tender and touching story of coming of age in difficult circumstances, Mommy's at the Hairdresser's is a film full of rich, vivid colors that are wonderfully evocative of hot summer days. It's not exactly the summer Élise was expecting, but it will be a summer unlike any other.
Director
Léa Pool
A Member of the Order of Canada, Pool has earned three Genie Award nominations for Best Direction. Her films include Emporte Moi, Mouvements du désir, Lost and Delirious, La dernière fugue, Et au pire, on se mariera and Hôtel Silence, as well as the documentaries Pink Ribbons, Inc and Double peine. La passion d'Augustine won 15 awards, among them six Prix Iris, including Best Film and Best Director.
Writer
Isabelle Hébert
Cast
Marianne Fortier, Élie Dupuis, Hugo St-Onge-Paquin
Producers
Lyse Lafontaine, Michael Mosca
Genre
Drama
Interests
Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, LGBTQ2S+, Strong Female Leads
Original Language
French
Mambo Italiano
At nearly 30 years of age, Angelo shocks his parents — and the entire community — by brazenly defying tradition: He moves out to live his own life despite not being married. Free at last, he falls in love with his long-lost childhood chum Nino (Miller), and the two move in together. They try to keep their sexuality a secret, while their families worry, suspect and scheme to set them up with nice Italian girls. It’s not easy being Italian and gay, and when the pressures of his double life begin to overwhelm Angelo, his reactions set off an explosively funny chain of surprise revelations, comic reversals and unexpected outcomes.
Mambo Italiano was nominated for six Canadian Comedy Awards.
Director
Émile Gaudreault
Gaudreault co-wrote Louis 19, le roi des ondes, which Ron Howard adapted into EDtv. Gaudreault both co-wrote and directed De pere en flic (the highest-grossing French-language film in Canadian history), Le vrai du faux, Le sens de l'humour and Mambo Italiano, which earned six Canadian Comedy Award nominations. He also wrote and directed De père en flic 2, and most recently, the comedy Menteur. He also co-wrote the upcoming Lignes de fuite, and is producing the English-language remake of De père en flic, Fathers and Guns.
Writers
Steve Galluccio, Émile Gaudreault
Cast
Luke Kirby, Ginette Reno, Paul Sorvino, Peter Miller, Mary Walsh
Producers
Daniel Louis, Denise Robert
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Interests
Family Relationships, LGBTQ2S+
Original Language
English
Midnight’s Children
Two children are born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment that India claimed its independence from Great Britain — a coincidence that has profound consequences on their lives. Switched at birth in the hospital, the boys — one from a wealthy family, the other belonging to a poor single father — must live out each other’s intended fates, their lives strangely intertwined and linked to their country’s journey through the tumultuous 20th century.
“Boiling over with passion every step of the way.”
— Peter Debruge, Variety
Director
Deepa Mehta
A member of the Order of Canada, Mehta is an award-winning filmmaker who gained acclaim for her trilogy, Fire, Earth and the Oscar-nominated Water. Her adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children was nominated for eight CSAs. She has also directed Bollywood/Hollywood, Beeba Boys, Anatomy of Violence, and many other films. Her film Funny Boy won multiple awards, including the CSAs for best direction and best screenplay. Her television credits include episodes of Leila, Yellowjackets, and Little America.
Writer
Deepa Mehta
Cast
Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor, Seema Biswas
Producer
David Hamilton
Genre
Drama
Interests
Asian Filmmaker, BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Global Experiences, History, Literary Adaptation, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English
Night Raiders
A compelling and propulsive dystopian thriller grounded in an allegory for the residential school system, Night Raiders is the story of Niska (Tailfeathers), a Cree mother in an impossible situation. As she travels across a war-torn Turtle Island (North America), she is caught in a desperate attempt to save her daughter from a state-run forced re-education camp. With the world against her, Niska joins forces with a group of underground resistance fighters seeking to free their children and save their future.
Anchored by an incredible lead performance from Tailfeathers along with a stellar supporting cast, this powerful and heartfelt debut feature from Danis Goulet premiered at TIFF in 2021 and was nominated for eleven Canadian Screen Awards, winning six, including Best Original Screenplay.
“Night Raiders should become the most talked-about Canadian film of the year. And for good reason.” – Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail
Director
Danis Goulet (Cree/Métis)
Danis Goulet is an award-winning Cree/Métis filmmaker from La Ronge, SK, now based in Toronto. Her films have screened at festivals worldwide including Sundance, Berlinale, TIFF, and MoMA. She has directed numerous short films, including Wapawekka, Barefoot, Wakening, Blind Spot, and others. Night Raiders was her first feature film. It premiered at TIFF 2021 and went on to win 14 awards, including six CSAs. She has also directed episodes of Reservation Dogs and North of North.
Writer
Danis Goulet (Cree/Métis)
Cast
Violet Nelson (Kwakwakaʼwakw), Amanda Plummer, Shaun Sipos, Alex Tarrant (Māori-Niuean-Samoan), Brooklyn Letexier-Hart (Cree/Métis)
Producers
Eva Thomas (Ojibwe), Chelsea Winstanley, Georgina Allison Conder, Ainsley Gardiner (Ngāti Awa/Te Whānau-a-Apanui/Ngāti Pikiao/Whakatōhea), Tara Woodbury
Genres
Action/Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Interests
BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics, Strong Female Leads
Original Languages
English, Other Language
Passchendaele
While recovering, Dunne meets Sarah (Dhavernas) and becomes determined to win her heart. When Sarah’s asthmatic younger brother David (Dinicol) enlists to fight in the war, Michael returns to the battlefield in order to protect him. The two men are sent to fight against impossible odds in the battle of Passchendaele.
The film won six Genies, including Best Picture and Best Actor, for Paul Gross.
Director
Paul Gross
Gross starred in the hit TV series Due South and Slings & Arrows. He directed, wrote and starred in Men With Brooms, which won a Canadian Comedy Award, as well as Hyena Road and Passchendaele, which won a Genie for best film. Gross also starred in the mini-series Alias Grace and Caught, the series Tales of the City and Y: The Last Man, and the films Falling and The Middle Man.
Writer
Paul Gross
Cast
Joe Dinicol, Gil Bellows, Caroline Dhavernas, Paul Gross
Producers
Niv Fichman, Francis Damberger, Paul Gross, Frank Siracusa
Genres
Action/Adventure, Drama, Romance
Interests
ESL, History
Original Language
English
Project Grizzly
The most hilarious scenes in the film feature Hurtubise as a kind of Japanese robot, willingly testing himself and his suit. The journey takes him to the Rockies…and to some scenes of self-awareness.
“One of the most provocatively entertaining and loopily Canadian documentaries of the decade.” — Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
“It’s fantastic.” — Quentin Tarantino
Director
Peter Lynch
Lynch earned international success with his wildly popular and critically-acclaimed Project Grizzly. His features include The Herd, Cyberman, A Whale of a Tale and Dem Bones. Lynch won a Genie for his short film Arrowhead. His most recent feature film, Birdland, was released in 2018.
Cast
Troy Hurtubise
Producers
Michael Allder, Gerry Flahive, Louise Lore
Genres
Action/Adventure, Documentary
Interests
Biography, Classics, Cult & Offbeat Cinema
Original Language
English
Director Neil Diamond takes the audience on a trip through time to explore the history of the “Hollywood Indian” and offers a refreshing, candid and personal analysis, tracing how these cinematic images have shaped and influenced the understanding of Indigenous culture and history.
“Impeccably well researched and crafted, Reel Injun neatly walks the line in balancing entertainment and education.” — Todd Brown, Twitch Film
Director
Neil Diamond (Cree)
Diamond has directed several award-winning documentaries that focus on Indigenous life and issues. He co-directed the short documentaries Cree Spoken Here, which garnered the Telefilm/APTN award for Best Aboriginal Documentary, and Inuit Cree Reconciliation, with Zacharias Kunuk. He also directed the feature documentary Reel Injun, which won ten awards, including three Geminis and a Peabody Award for best documentary, and co-directed Red Fever, and So Surreal: Behind the Masks.
Writers
Catherine Bainbridge, Neil Diamond (Cree), Jeremiah Hayes
Cast
Jesse Wente
Producers
Catherine Bainbridge, Linda Ludwick, Christina Fon
Genre
Documentary
Interests
Arts and Culture, BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, ESL, Global Experiences, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics
Original Language
English