By Jessica Herndon
The buzz in Toronto for the next 11 days will be all about the Toronto International Film Festival, and we’re so here for it, especially considering 11 titles showing at the fest are projects with ties to Sundance Institute. Taking to theaters in Canada’s biggest city, TIFF kicks off September 5 and runs through September 15. During the festival’s 49th edition, be sure to check out the Sundance-supported films in the lineup.
Explore a heartwarming documentary and a haunting horror, both of which premiered during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in January, and catch a dark comedy, an enchanting animation, and a psychological horror-thriller, among other stories, supported by our Indigenous Program, Catalyst program, Documentary Film Program, Producers Program, and Feature Film Program’s Directors Lab and Screenwriters Lab.
Add the titles below to your screening schedule if you’re attending TIFF. And for more about the programs and initiatives mentioned in this list, click here.
Feature Films
Happyend — Directors and Screenwriters Labs, Catalyst
Logline: Two teenage best friends living in near-future Tokyo, where earthquakes are part of the fabric of life, must confront the end of their friendship as they navigate diverging paths toward adulthood.
Hold Your Breath — Screenwriters Lab
Logline: In 1930s Oklahoma amid the region’s horrific dust storms, a woman is convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family.
Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End — Indigenous Program
Logline: Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End follows the story of a pivotal battle fought by Māori against a much larger Colonial invasion during the New Zealand Land Wars of the 1860s. The film is told through the eyes of two Māori teenagers, Haki and Kōpū, as they struggle heroically to save a group of children caught amidst the chaos and devastation of war.
Mistress Dispeller — Documentary Producers Lab
Logline: Desperate to save her marriage, a woman in China hires a professional to go undercover to break up her husband’s affair. With strikingly intimate access, Mistress Dispeller follows this unfolding family drama from all corners of a love triangle.
No Other Land — Documentary Edit and Story Lab
Logline: For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel’s occupation, as he builds an unlikely alliance with a journalist from the other side who joins his fight.
Presence — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: A family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they’re not alone.
Santosh — Directors and Screenwriters Labs
Logline: A government scheme sees newly widowed Santosh inherit her husband’s job as a police constable in the rural badlands of Northern India. When a low-caste girl is found raped and murdered, she is pulled into the investigation under the wing of charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.
Will & Harper — 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Logline: When Will Ferrell finds out his close friend of 30 years is coming out as a trans woman, the two decide to embark on a cross-country road trip to process this new stage of their relationship in an intimate portrait of friendship, transition, and America.
Short Films
The Beguiling — Indigenous Program
Logline: What seems to be a burgeoning romance between two Indigenous people takes a sinister turn as one grows suspicious of the other. When confronted, deceit turns their romantic evening into a darkly comedic nightmare.
Inkwo for When the Starving Return — Indigenous Program
Logline: Adapted from a story by Richard Van Camp about an Indigenous youth’s battle with an ancient evil, this thrilling and visually stunning animation is a tour de force by award-winning filmmaker and animator Amanda Strong.
Vox Humana — Indigenous Program
Logline: In the aftermath of an earthquake, the police find a man in the woods. A zoologist, a sound recorder, and a news team grapple with the truth that he may be the cause of all the natural disasters that devastated this small mountain town.
