Thursday, March 28, 2024

Discovery, Midnight Madness & Wavelengths For TIFF 2022

The Toronto International Film Festival announced today the 2022 selection for Discovery, Midnight Madness, and Wavelengths programming. The robust lineup features 54 titles from filmmakers representing 26 countries.

​Click below to see the films.

“For TIFF audiences in the know, the Discovery, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths programmes are where you’re rewarded for taking risks and being adventurous,” offered Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF. “Whether it’s the discovery of an audacious new auteur, a brilliant visionary work that reimagines storytelling or the most wicked cinematic experience you will ever have, this is where you will find it.”

DISCOVERY
“TIFF’s Discovery programme is a showcase of cinema and talent from around the world — a place to unearth work that is bold, distinctive, and, above all, passionate,” said Dorota Lech, Discovery Lead and International Programmer, TIFF. “The section has a rich history of championing the first and second features of visionary filmmakers such as Chantal Akerman, Julie Dash, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ildikó Enyedi, Jafar Panahi, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Steve McQueen, Michael Haneke, Christopher Nolan, Lav Diaz, Barry Jenkins, Alfonso Cuarón, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Warwick Thornton, Maren Ade, Joachim Trier, David Gordon Green, Pablo Larraín, Valeska Grisebach, and Jean-Marc Vallée, to name just a handful. This year’s robust programme offers 24 films that shook us to the core, filled us with joy, broke our hearts, and, most importantly, reminded us that the future is bright.”

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Aitch Alberto | USA World Premiere
Baby Ruby Bess Wohl | USA World Premiere
Carmen Benjamin Millepied | Australia, France World Premiere
Daughter of Rage (La Hija de todas las Rabias) Laura Baumeister | Nicaragua World Premiere
A Gaza Weekend Basil Khalil | United Kingdom, Palestine World Premiere
I Like Movies Chandler Levack | Canada World Premiere
The Inspection Elegance Bratton | USA World Premiere (Discovery Opening Night Film)
A Long Break Davit Pirtskhalava | Georgia World Premiere
Pussy Joseph Amenta | Canada World Premiere
Return to Seoul Davy Chou | South Korea, France, Germany, Belgium International Premiere
ROSIE Gail Maurice | Canada World Premiere
Runner Marian Mathias | USA, France, Germany World Premiere
SHIMONI Angela Wanjiku Wamai | Kenya World Premiere
Snow and the Bear Selcen Ergun | Turkey, Germany, Serbia World Premiere
Something You Said Last Night Luis De Filippis | Canada, Switzerland World Premiere
Susie Searches Sophie Kargman | USA World Premiere
Sweet As Jub Clerc | Australia International Premiere
The Taste of Apples is Red Ehab Tarabieh | Israel, Germany World Premiere
This Place V.T. Nayani | Canada World Premiere
Unruly (Ustyrlig) Malou Reymann | Denmark World Premiere
Until Branches Bend Sophie Jarvis | Canada World Premiere
When Morning Comes Kelly Fyffe-Marshall | Canada World Premiere
The Young Arsonists Sheila Pye | Canada World Premiere

MIDNIGHT MADNESS
“I am thrilled to announce that Midnight Madness has returned to its traditional 10-film configuration and has a new home at the Royal Alexandra Theatre,” said section curator Peter Kuplowsky. “I also couldn’t have hoped for a more appropriate Opening Night film than Weird: The Al Yankovic Story — a beautifully deranged ‘biopic’ made in the great Midnight movie tradition of challenging conventions and forging one’s own path, no matter how weird.”

Starring Daniel Radcliffe as music and comedy legend “Weird Al” Yankovic, the film leads a gonzo Midnight Madness lineup that includes a double dose of gore-filled action (Sisu and Project Wolf Hunting), two wildly surprising new instalments to iconic horror films (Pearl and V/H/S 99), some magnificently meta genre comedies (The Blackening, The People’s Joker, and Leonor Will Never Die), and a few killer creative horror team-ups (John Hyams and Kevin Williamson’s Sick, Jaume Balagueró and Álex de la Iglesia’s Venus).

Concluding, Kuplowsky added: “This year, fans of the weird and the wicked will be spending most of their TIFF living in a Midnight Madness paradise.”

The Blackening Tim Story | USA World Premiere (Midnight Madness Closing Night Film)
Leonor Will Never Die Martika Ramirez Escobar | Philippines Canadian Premiere
Pearl Ti West | USA North American Premiere
The People’s Joker Vera Drew | USA World Premiere
Project Wolf Hunting Kim Hongsun | South Korea World Premiere
Sick John Hyams | USA World Premiere
Sisu Jalmari Helander | Finland World Premiere
Venus Jaume Balagueró | Spain World Premiere
V/H/S 99 Flying Lotus, Johannes Roberts, Maggie Levin, Tyler MacIntyre, Vanessa & Joseph Winter | USA World Premiere (Midnight Madness Opening Night Film)
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Eric Appel | USA World Premiere

WAVELENGTHS
“The selections in this year’s Wavelengths lineup reimagine the possibilities of cinema in ways both inspiring and rejuvenating,” said Senior Curator Andréa Picard. “The programme itself continues to champion film as art in a climate increasingly challenging for non-commercial and non-conforming work. The filmmakers and artists in this year’s edition expand the language of film and video, employing narrative, documentary, hybrid, and formalist approaches to assert film’s status as an autonomous art form and the cinema itself as an essential, communal experience.”

Showcasing a mix of established auteurs, celebrated visual artists, and emerging filmmakers, this year’s Wavelengths presents eight features, two shorts programmes, and an exhibition, placing timeless, durational works alongside projects of the utmost contemporary urgency — each political by nature of its very existence and, by extension, resistance. Additionally, we are honoured to present a number of important moving-image works from recent gallery and museum exhibitions in the cinema, including an exceptional theatrical screening of Tacita Dean’s latest 16mm film, Fata Morgana. Another of this year’s highlights includes the first Canadian solo exhibition of Brooklyn-based Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani in an exciting partnership with The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and The Vega Foundation. Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS will be exhibited free to the public at The Power Plant from September 9 through 18.
Features
Concrete Valley Antoine Bourges | Canada World Premiere
De Humani Corporis Fabrica Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor | France, Switzerland North American Premiere
Dry Ground Burning (Mato Seco em Chamas) Joana Pimenta, Adirley Queirós | Portugal, Brazil North American Premiere
Horse Opera Moyra Davey | USA Festival Premiere
Pacifiction Albert Serra | France, Spain, Germany, Portugal North American Premiere
Queens of the Qing Dynasty Ashley McKenzie | Canada North American Premiere
Unrest (Unrueh) Cyril Schäublin | Switzerland North American Premiere
Will-o’-the-Wisp (Fogo-Fátuo) João Pedro Rodrigues | Portugal, France North American Premiere

Shorts
After Work Céline Condorelli, Ben Rivers | United Kingdom North American Premiere
Bigger on the Inside Angelo Madsen Minax | USA World Premiere
EVENTIDE Sharon Lockhart | USA World Premiere
F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now Fox Maxy | Mesa Grande Reservation/USA Festival Premiere
Fata Morgana Tacita Dean | United Kingdom, USA Festival Premiere
Hors-titre Wiame Haddad | France North American Premiere
I Thought the World of You Kurt Walker | Canada North American Premiere
Moonrise Vincent Grenier | USA, Canada World Premiere
The Newest Olds Pablo Mazzolo | Argentina, Canada World Premiere
Puerta a Puerta Jessica Sarah Rinland, Luis Arnías | Mexico, USA, Venezuela International Premiere
The Time That Separates Us Parastoo Anoushahpour | Canada, Jordan, Palestine World Premiere
What Rules the Invisible Tiffany Sia | USA North American Premiere

Exhibition
Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS (2022) and 2 Lizards (2020)
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, September 9th–18th
Free Admission

Platform
TIFF also announced films for their Platform Section yesterday. “We launched Platform to shine a brighter light on some of the most original films and distinct voices at our Festival,” said Cameron Bailey, TIFF CEO. “Now in year seven, it’s become a true home for international auteurs on the rise.”

“Eclectic in vision, this year’s selection not only represents all World Premieres of exciting, on-the-rise voices from around the world, but it also reflects the very timely and unique perspectives of racialized filmmakers from diasporic communities broadening the canvas,” said Chief Programming Officer Anita Lee.

Charcoal (Carvão) Carolina Markowicz | Brazil, Argentina, World Premiere
Emily Frances O’Connor | UK, World Premiere (Platform Opening Night Film)
The Gravity (La Gravité) Cédric Ido | France, World Premiere
Hawa Maïmouna Doucouré | France, World Premiere
How to Blow Up a Pipeline Daniel Goldhaber | USA, World Premiere
Riceboy Sleeps Anthony Shim | Canada, World Premiere
Subtraction (Tafrigh) Mani Haghighi | Iran, France, World Premiere
Thunder (Foudre) Carmen Jaquier | Switzerland, World Premiere
Tora’s Husband Rima Das | India, World Premiere
Viking Stéphane Lafleur | Canada, World Premiere

What do you think of these additions? Which films are you most looking forward to seeing at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival? Please let us know in the comments section below or on our Twitter account. For more information on these titles check out the TIFF website here (see also this page for the Special Presentations and Gala Announcement).

You can follow Matt and hear more of his thoughts on the Oscars and Film on Twitter at @NextBestPicture

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Matt Neglia
Matt Negliahttps://nextbestpicture.com/
Obsessed about the Oscars, Criterion Collection and all things film 24/7. Critics Choice Member.

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