Telefilm Canada has selected 18 films for the 2023-24 Talent to Watch program.

The lineup comprises narrative and documentary features from across Canada, covering the English and French markets as well as the Indigenous stream. The projects will receive a shared total of $3.6 million in support from Telefilm and the Talent Fund.

The projects were selected from a total of 126 submissions, according to a news release.

Eleven of the selected projects have been picked via filmmaker-direct stream.

They include three dramas: writer-director Sophy Romvari’s B.C. film Blue Heron (English, Hungarian), produced by Ryan Bobkin and Sara Wylie, with Riel Roch Decter as the executive producer; writer-director Andrés Estrada’s Quebec film El Padrote (Spanish), produced by Irène Bessone; and writer-director Becca Willow Moss’ Ontario feature Her Last Supper, produced by Moss and Stephanie Chiasson.

Also included are: Ontario comedy Yo, We’re Dying…, co-directed by Keisha Phoenixx-McLeggon and Jay Carolyn Wu, written by Phoenixx-McLeggon, and produced by Fonna Seidu; P.E.I-based dark comedy The Snake, directed by Jenna MacMillan, written by Susan Kent and produced by Sharlene Kelly; and the B.C. horror Foreigner (English, Farsi), written and directed by Ava Maria Safai and produced by Nicco Graham.

There are five docs under the stream, including: Nova Scotia-based film Joan’s Kitchen Table: Stirring the Revolution, directed by Olesya Shyvikova, written by Louise Delisle and produced by Karim Kafafy, with Walter Borden serving as executive producer; writer-director Alunaya’s Quebec film Kubana (English, French, Kinyarwanda), produced by Will Prosper; and the Ontario film Mute Out Sound (French, English, and Arabic-Darija), written and directed by Kenza Derkaoui, and produced by Stefan Supplice.

Rounding out the docs selection are director-writer-producer Alejandro Valbuena’s Ontario feature The Wind’s Thirst (Wayuunaiki, Spanish, and English), and the Northwest Territories and Alberta film Women of No Nation (Farsi, English ), written and directed by Diana Saqeb Jamal, and produced by Caroline Cox.

Five projects have been selected via the industry partner stream, including two narrative features and three docs.

The two narrative projects include the Manitoba drama Strong Son (English, Punjabi), written and directed by Ian Bawa, produced by Bawa and Markus Henkel, with Kyle Bornais as executive producer; and the Quebec-based French language feature Invisibles, written and directed by Junna Chif, produced by Leslie Dabit and Pierre Villepelet, with Laurent Allaire, Yanick Létourneau and Chif as executive producers.

Strong Son was submitted by the Toronto International Film Festival, Winnipeg Film Group, and On Screen Manitoba, while Invisible was submitted by the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema and Concordia University.

The three docs under the industry partner stream include: Alberta film Autonomy & Dignity (w/t), directed by Daniel Ennett and Frederick Kroetsch, written by Ennett, produced Rebecca Campbell, and submitted by the Directors Guild of Canada; and writer-director Eva-Loan Ponton-Pham’s Quebec feature Con Nhang I Enfants d’encens (French, Vietnamese), produced by Marie-Michèle Cyr and submitted by Hot Docs.

Writer-director Vincent Toi’s French-language film Séga: la musique de l’océan Indien (w/t), which is produced by Guillaume Collin, and submitted by Main Film, rounds out the industry stream selections.

Completing the lineup are two films in the Indigenous Stream, including the Alberta comedy Last Stop Video Rentals, written and directed by Eric Janvier, and produced by Megan Shott, and the B.C. doc A Cree Approach (English and Nehīyaw – Plains Cree), written and directed by Tristin Greyeyes, produced by Kaitlyn Redcrow and Greyeyes and submitted by imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

“This year’s selections present a dynamic range of cinematic gems, and we cannot wait to see the final product,” said Telefilm executive director and CEO Julie Roy in a statement.

Sandi Treliving, chair of the Talent Fund Advisory Committee, added: “Through the generosity of our donors, like the continued support from the RBC Foundation through RBC Emerging Artists and a new contribution from Warner Bros. Discovery Access Canada, these emerging filmmakers are given a chance to bring their distinctive visions into reality. Canada is full of incredible talent with stories that need to be seen and heard, and the Talent Fund will continue to ensure that happens.”

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