Several homegrown films have been selected for this year’s Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival lineup, including Anthony Shim’s acclaimed feature Riceboy Sleeps as its opening film and Romeo Candido’s CBC Gem musical series Topline as its closing title.

The festival’s 26th edition has selected 77 films from around the world for its hybrid programming running from Nov. 9 to 20, which will offer more in-person offerings than in previous pandemic years.

Other Canadian feature films include Kathleen S. Jayme’s documentary The Grizzlie Truth; Karen Cho’s documentary Big Fight in Little Chinatown; Ethan Eng’s drama Therapy Dogs; Renuka Jeyapalan’s romantic drama Stay the Night; Ali Kazimi’s documentary Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence; Jude Chun’s Canadian/South Korean copro film Unidentified; and Sharlene Bamboat’s Canada/Sri Lanka/U.K. copro If From Every Tongue it Drips.

Canadian short films under the Unsung Voices shorts stream that will have their world premiere include Roda Medhat’s Canadian/Kurdistan copro Dutar; Hannah Polinski’s Perennials; Vivian (Xiao Wen) Li’s In Silence, We Sing; Samyuktha Movva’s Māyā; Dédé Chen’s Papaya; and Yi Shi’s Once in a Red Moon.

Anishinaabe filmmaker receives Netflix Canada $25,000 development grant

Anishinaabe filmmaker Jaime Wescoup of Long Plain First Nation, Man., has been chosen as the recipient of a $25,000 development grant provided by Netflix Canada to the Winnipeg-based Nu-Media Program.

The streaming giant created the one-time grant to mark the milestone of “1,000 creators participating in Netflix-supported training and development programs and to honour the contributions of an alumnus who is using the skills they have learned to give back to their community,” according to a news release.

The grant will support Wescoup’s first documentary film, Restoring Natural Balance, which will chronicle what it is like for newly elected female Indigenous Chiefs to lead in a male-dominated society. Wescoup is an alum of Nu-Media’s 2022 education program.

Co-founded by Nu-Media president Jordan C. Molaro in 2012, the 11-week intensive filmmaking and professional development program aims to develop Indigenous youth residing on First Nation reserves into job-ready and career-driven individuals.

Molaro will mentor Wescoup in writing and developing the documentary’s script and pitch documents, as well as serve as an executive producer of the film.

Big Bad Boo Studios’ animated series wins MIPJUNIOR project pitch kids competition

Vancouver-based Big Bad Boo Studios’ Ava Undercover won this year’s MIPJUNIOR Project Pitch Kids competition.

The animated series, about a six-and-a-half-year-old, self-appointed “master stuff finder” who goes undercover to crack cases, competed against four other finalists in the kids category. They included Big Bad Boo Studios’ other animated series, Bad Bunny; Paris-based Somewhere Animation’s Chefclub Adventures; U.K.-based 3 minutes West’s Still Life’ at the Penguin Café; and South Korea-based MESE’s Camem & Bert’s Food Truck.

Meanwhile, Ukraine-based starlight.media’s animated series Really? won the tweens/teens category. The category’s other finalists include Toronto’s Little Engine Moving Pictures’ live-action series Starseeker, and Benjamin Ojo: Junior High Private Eye; U.K.’s Blisstopia Productions’ animated series The Boy Who Cried miBot; and South Africa’s Cabblow Studios’ animated series Rorisang & The Gurlz.

The pitch competition, which was part of MIPJUNIOR’s pre-MIPCOM international kids’ screenings and coproduction market that took place from Oct. 15 to 16, highlighted new kids and tweens/teens TV projects seeking financing, commissioning and possible roll-out across platforms.

Image courtesy of Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival