Canadian Screen Award-nominated feature Summer With Hope has been selected as part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Next Wave Film Festival, along with a baker’s dozen of Canadian short films.

Canada/Iran drama Summer With Hope is among nine debut or sophomore features selected for the annual festival geared toward audiences aged 25 or younger. It is written, directed and produced by Sadaf Foroughi, following her debut feature Ava, which won the John Dunning Best First Feature Film Award at the CSAs in 2018.

The Persian-language feature follows a young swimmer whose family’s future is tied to his performance in an upcoming swimming competition. It is also produced by Kiarash Anvari of Sweet Delight Pictures and Christina Piovesan of First Generation Films.

Summer With Hope is nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture, Best Original Screenplay for Foroughi, and Performance in a Supporting Role for Leili Rashidi. The film won the top prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last year.

Canada will also be represented via the Young Creators Showcase, a lineup of 13 short films from emerging Canadian filmmakers. The showcase includes the world premiere of Ojibwe director Cole Forrest’s English and Anishinaabemowin short Ozigwan (Tail of Serpent), the international premiere of Toronto-based Luvleen Hunjan’s Punjabi short On the Cosmic Shore, and the North American premiere of Montreal-based Cameron Lightly’s animated short Ms. Butterworth’s Cherry Pie.

The lineup also includes the Canadian premieres of Shamiso Chigwende’s Castaway, Niya Ahmed Abdullahi’s In the Whiteness, and Elizabeth Wei Yun Albrecht’s Inside Groove. Among the Toronto premieres are Emma Cheuk’s Late Bloomer, Jamie Lam’s The Mess We’re In, and Brielle LeBlanc’s The Year Long Boulder.

Rounding out the short films are Giran Findlay’s Execution Triptych, Tram Anh Nguyen’s Hoa, Haaris Qadri’s majboor-e-mamool (What Will You Do When I’m Gone?), and Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto’s Bawang Merah Bawang Putih (Shallots and Garlic).

TIFF Next Wave will open with the North American premiere of Mexico/U.S. film Adolfo, directed by Sofía Auza. Also making their North American premieres in the program are Simon Rieth’s France feature Summer Scars, and Belgium director Zeno Graton’s The Lost Boys.

Four films will make their Canadian premiere in the festival: U.S. features Egghead & Twinkie, directed by Sarah Kambe Holland, and Liquor Store Dreams, by So Yun Um, as well as U.K. director Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, and Pilar Palomero’s Spanish film La Maternal. Rounding out the films is Germany’s The Ordinaries, directed by Sophie Linnenbaum, which will have its Toronto premiere.

The program is curated by the Next Wave committee, a group of teenage film lovers between the ages of 15 to 18, from across the Greater Toronto Area. Past committee members have gone on to film and television success, including Shiva Baby director Emma Seligman, Ms. Marvel star Iman Vellani, and Toronto-raised film programmer Samah Ali.

The Next Wave Film Festival runs from April 14 to 16.

Image courtesy of First Generation Films