TIFF’s top Canuck picks kick off nationwide tour
Annual list of quality cinema includes Indigenous films, French-language zombie flick
The Toronto International Film Festival’s annual list of top Canadian movies includes Indigenous stories, a French-language zombie film and the directorial debut of two Montreal brothers starring Evan Rachel Wood.
The selection is part of TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival, which includes 10 days of screenings and events in Toronto and a crosscountry tour.
It kicks off Jan. 12 in Toronto with the comedy Adventures in Public School by Kyle Rideout, whose cast includes Judy Greer and Russell Peters. Other movies include Sadaf Foroughi’s Tehran-set drama Ava and Simon Lavoie’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches.
Indigenous issues are explored in the documentaries Our People Will Be Healed by Alanis Obomsawin and Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World by Catherine Bainbridge. Obomsawin will participate in an onstage discussion about her career.
Wood will also discuss her wideranging career, which includes a starring role in the psychological thriller Allure by sibling photographers Carlos Sanchez and Jason Sanchez.
Other films on the list are Robin Aubert’s Quebec-set zombie flick Les Affames, which won the Best Canadian Feature Film award at TIFF in September, and Luk’Luk’I by Wayne Wapeemukwa, which won TIFF’s Best Canadian First Feature Film award.
Also making the cut are Never Steady, Never Still by Kathleen Hepburn, and Unarmed Verses by Charles Officer.
The Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival also includes screenings of 10 Canadian short films and 10 short films by Canadian film students.
The Toronto event will be followed by a tour to Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Regina, Saskatoon, Vancouver and Winnipeg.