Director Ruth Lawrence’s Little Orphans is among the Canadian films set to make their world premiere as part of FIN Atlantic International Film Festival’s new online fest, FIN Stream.

Running from Sept. 17 to 24, the previous Telefilm Canada Talent to Watch pick is set to debut as a Gala Presentation.The project marks Newfoundland actor and filmmaker Lawrence’s feature directorial debut and writer Emily Bridger’s first feature film script. Produced by Jennifer Hawley, Lady Dicks co-showrunner Sherry White is credited as an executive producer on the film following three sisters who reunite for a wedding.

Other Talent to Watch projects that will world premiere at FIN Stream include: Nova Scotian writer/director/actor Taylor Olson’s feature directorial debut Bone Cage, which is based on Catherine Banks play of the same name (producer Melani Wood); writer/director Jillian Acreman’s first feature film Queen of the Andes (producer Arianna Martinez); and Wharf Rats from director/producer/writer Jason Arsenault with writers Robbie Carruthers and Dennis Trainor (producers Arsenault and Jenna MacMillan). All four are part of the Features section.

Additionally, director Lulu Wei’s documentary There’s No Place Like This, Anyplace (Documentaries) will screen. The Talent to Watch project about the transformation of Toronto’s Honest Ed’s block made its world debut at Hot Docs in May and was one of the festival’s Rogers Audience Award for Canadian Feature.

Other FIN Stream world premieres – which will be accessible throughout Atlantic Canada – include: writer/director/producer Susan Rodgers first feature film Still the Water (producers Rodgers, Rick Gibbs and Nicolle Morrison, Features lineup); writer/director Chad Faust’s thriller Girl (producers Shayne Putzlocher, Sara Shaak and Thomas Michael, Canada/U.S., Features) starring Bella Thorne; director Clark Johnson’s Percy (producers Daniel Bekerman, Ian Dimerman, Ethan Lazar and Garfield Lindsay Miller, Special Presentation) starring Christopher Walken and Christina Ricci; director/producer Darrell Varga’s Bread in the Bones (producers Varga, Shana McGuire and Walter Forsyth, Documentaries); director/writer Israel Ekanem’s The Good Earth: The Pots and Passion of Walter Ostrom with writers Julie Hollenback and Shannon L. Parker (producer Moniza G. Bell, Documentaries); and Citizen of Moira (Documentaries) from co-directors Jawad Mir and Ahmad Ebrahimi, which sees Mir serve as writer and producer.

Little Orphans‘ Lawrence also stars in writer/director William D. MacGillivray’s Under the Weather (producers Terry Greenlaw and Christopher Richardson). Scheduled as a Gala Presentation, other projects with Canadian roots in the stream include writer/director Ariel Nasr’s The Forbidden Reel (producers Sergeo Kirby and Kat Baulu, Atlantic premiere) and Nova Scotia-shot Books of Blood from writer/director Brannon Braga and writer Adam Simon (U.S., world premiere).

Additional Canadian documentaries set for the fest include: writer/director/cinematographer Helgi Piccinin’s Champions (producer Philippe Miquel, Atlantic premiere); writer/director/producer Michael Paszt’s Nail in the Coffin: The Fall and Rise of Vampiro (producers Paszt, Bruno Marino and Pasha Patriki); writer/director/producer Michèle Stephenson’s Stateless (producers Stephenson, Jennifer Holness, and Lea Marin, Canada/U.S.); Mira Burt-Wintonick’s Wintopia (producers Bob Moore and Annette Clarke); and writer/director/producer Nathalie Bibeau’s Hot Docs Rogers Audience Award for Canadian Feature-winner The Walrus and the Whistleblower (producers Bibeau and Frederic Bohbot).

The Reel East Coast Shorts Gala, presented by CBC, meanwhile, will feature eight short films from Atlantic Canadian filmmakers. Titles in the program include: Jordan Canning and Howie Shia’s 4 North A; Shane Colin Mountain’s The Seventh Man; Gwydian Morris’ Deadstick John; Latonia Hartery’s The Death of Winter; Zyanya Barbara Juarez Arellano’s I Met Death, Asked Her If She Was Mexican; Shane Pendergast’s Song of the Stevedore; Arianna Martinez’s Maya Eterna; and Gia Milani’s At the Back.

FIN’s Special Presentations also see TIFF 2020 documentary selections The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel from Joel Bakan and Jennifer Abbot and No Ordinary Man from directors Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt. As well, writer/director Sonia Bonspille Boileau’s Rustic Oracle (producer Jason Brennan) is part of the Features program.

FIN Stream will officially kick off on Sept. 17 with Canada/U.K. copro Falling as its Opening Night Gala and close with Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round (Druk) on Sept. 24. Click here for more information on FIN Stream’s 2020 selections.

For this year, the festival’s coproduction and co-financing market FIN Partners has also moved online from Sept. 21 to 23. FIN Partners CNXN will consist of interactive digital sessions such as panels, webinars and virtual meetings.

Image: Little Orphans courtesy of FIN AIFF