Feature directorial debuts from acclaimed shorts filmmaker Kelly Fyffe-Marshall and actor Gail Maurice are among over a dozen newly announced Canadian titles — most of them world premieres — announced for next month’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Brampton, Ont.-based Fyffe-Marshall wrote and directed When Morning Comes (pictured above; Sunflower Studios), which will make its world premiere in TIFF’s Discovery program of “bold, distinctive” first and second features. Produced by Playback 10 to Watch alum Tamar Bird of Ajax, Ont., the feature was shot last year in Ontario and Jamaica and follows the challenges of a young Jamaican boy as his widowed mother decides to relocate to Canada. It received Talent Fund funding through Telefilm’s Talent to Watch program.

Fyffe-Marshall has made a splash in the past couple of years, winning TIFF’s inaugural Shawn Mendes Changemaker Award, as well as a Special Jury Recognition at the South by Southwest Film Festival for the short OMI and a Canadian Screen Award for the short Black Bodies. She was also chosen by David Cronenberg as the recipient of the pay-it-forward prize that was part of his Clyde Gilmour Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA).

Maurice’s Rosie (pictured right), which she wrote and directed based on her short film of the same name, will also make its world premiere in the Discovery section. Jamie Manning, Maurice and Melanie Bray produced the feature, which was shot in Hamilton, Ont., and follows an orphaned Indigenous girl in 1980s Montreal. It’s told in English, French and Cree. Maurice is a Métis writer-director-actor known for roles in films including Night Raiders and series such as Cardinal and Trickster.

Other homegrown features making their world premiere in Discovery include This Place, the feature debut by Tamil-Toronto director V.T. Nayani. The queer love story about two young women — one Iranian and Kanienʼkehá꞉ka, the other Tamil — in Toronto was also a Talent to Watch recipient. Told in English, French, Mohawk, Persian and Tamil, the film was produced, directed and co-written by Nayani. Other writers include Devery Jacobs, who also stars and is an executive producer on the project, and Golshan Abdmoulaie. Coproducers include Camaro West and Simone Ince.

The Canada/Switzerland copro Something You Said Last Night by Luis De Filippis is produced by JA Productions, with support from the Harold Greenberg Fund.

The Young Arsonists (pictured left) is the debut feature of Sheila Pye and is produced by Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo from Borrowed Light Films and Sonya Di Rienzo and Aeschylus Poulos at Hawkeye Pictures. Shot in Caledonia, Ont., it was developed with support from the Harold Greenberg Fund and produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Ontario Creates, Crave and The Shaw Rocket Fund. The coming-of-age drama sees four teenage girls suffering from family trauma during a summer in the 1980s, and stars Miranda Calderon, Joe Bostick and Measha Brueggergosman.

Another Talent to Watch recipient is I Like Movies, formerly titled Rejects Night, the feature debut from Toronto writer-director Chandler Levack, produced by Lindsay Blair Goeldner. It’s described as a comical and touching look at a film- and self-obsessed teenaged curmudgeon in 1990s suburban Ontario. Levack is known for directing acclaimed shorts and award-nominated music videos for acts including PUP and Jeremy Dutcher.

Pussy (Push Pictures) by Joseph Amenta was also made with the support of Talent to Watch as well as the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Netflix/CFC Calling Card Accelerator. Told in English and Tagalog, it follows three queer Toronto kids who face a fractured friendship over one pivotal summer.

Another feature debut is Until Branches Bend (pictured right), formerly titled Invasions, by writer-director Sophie Jarvis and produced by Vancouver-based Experimental Forest Films, Ceroma Films and Reign Films, in partnership with Switzerland’s Cinédokké Films. Producers include Tyler Hagan, Sara Blake, Magali Gillon-Krizaj, Michela Pini and Olga Lamontanara.  It’s set in Okanagan, B.C., and sees a cannery worker grappling with an invasive insect in the town. It received support from Telefilm Canada, CRAVE, Creative BC, the Harold Greenberg Fund, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, RSI (Radiotelevisione svizzera) and Swiss Funders.

Making its world premiere in the Wavelengths program, which features daring and visionary works, include Concrete Valley (pictured left), the sophomore feature by writer-director Antoine Bourges (Fail to Appear). Another Talent to Watch recipient, it’s produced by Shehrezade Mian and Meelad Moaphi and set in an immigrant community in Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood.

Wavelengths will also have the North American premiere of Queens of the Qing Dynasty by Ashley McKenzie, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February. Written, directed, and produced by McKenzie — along with producers Nelson MacDonald and Britt Kerr — it was produced by McKenzie’s prodco Hi-Vis Films (formerly grassfire films), with the assistance of the Nova Scotia Film & Television Production Incentive Fund, the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, and Heritage; the Canada Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC); and CBC Films. The film received funding from Telefilm Canada’s now-retired Fast Track program and is McKenzie’s follow-up to her hit debut feature, Werewolf.

Canadian shorts in Wavelengths include: I Thought the World of You by Kurt Walker; the U.S./Canada copro  Moonrise by Vincent Grenier; the Argentina/Canada copro The Newest Olds by Pablo Mazzolo; and the Canada/Jordan/Palestine copro The Time That Separates Us by Parastoo Anoushahpour.

TIFF announced a total of 54 titles from filmmakers representing 26 countries on Thursday (Aug. 4), with films also announced for the Midnight Madness program, including The Roku Channel’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, directed by Eric Appel, which serves as the opening film.

On Wednesday, TIFF announced the Canadian features Riceboy Sleeps by Anthony Shim and Viking by Stéphane Lafleur will make their world premiere in the competitive Platform program for the festival, running Sept. 8 to 18.

Images credit: Courtesy of TIFF