The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) unveiled the full lineup for its Discovery programme with five of the 24 titles hailing from Canadian filmmakers.

The Discovery sidebar screens debut and sophomore films from emerging filmmakers, showcasing contemporary international cinema. This year’s lineup includes 24 titles, of which 20 are world premieres, including all five Canadian entries.

The Canadian features world premiering include Aberdeen, the Indigenous-led drama from co-writers/co-directors Ryan Cooper and Eva Thomas. The drama follows an Indigenous woman who is forced to relocate to Winnipeg as a climate change refugee, where she must come to terms with generations of trauma within her family.

The film is produced by Farpoint Films and Cooper’s banner Back to Space Productions. Farpoint’s Kyle Bornais and Kathleen Easton are producers on the film alongside 10 to Watch alum Cooper. The film is produced with the support of Telefilm Canada, Manitoba Film & Music, the Indigenous Screen Office and tax credits. Distribution for the film will be handled by Farpoint Distribution.

Bowing on opening night is Montreal’s Durga Chew-Bose feature debut Bonjour Tristesse (pictured, Babe Nation Films) a Canada-Germany coproduction. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Françoise Sagan, about a young woman who finds her summer getaway in the south of France interrupted by the arrival of a woman from her father’s past. The film stars Chloe Sevigny and Lily McInerny. Elevation Pictures is the Canadian distributor.

Katie Bird Nolan and Lindsay Tapscott are producers alongside Elevation’s Noah Segal, Christina Piovesan, Wolfgang Mueller and Benito Mueller of U.S.-German-Swiss prodco Barry Films and Paris-based Cinenovo’s Julie Viez.

Executive producers include Constellation Productions’ Fabien Westerhoff, Elevation’s Laurie May, Adrian Love, Emily Kulasa, Suzanne Court and Sagan’s son Denis Westhoff. Sales for the film are represented by UTA Independent Film Group, U.K. and France-based sales agent Film Constellation and Elevation.

Also set to debut is Amar Wala’s Shook (Scarborough Pictures, Film Forge), which follows an aspiring writer who finds himself torn between seeking success in the city and staying close to his family. The film is produced by Karen Harnisch for Film Forge alongside Wala under his Scarborough Pictures banner.

Executive producers include Omar Chalabi and Adrian Love of Elevation Pictures, and Travis Farncombe for Triple Point Media. Elevation Pictures is the Canadian distributor.

From New Brunswick comes Do I Know You From Somewhere? (Strike Pictures) from director Arianna Martinez, produced by Gordon Mihan and Lance Kenneth Blakney, with executive producer Gia Milani. The story tracks a couple who finds their life slipping away, not because they’ve done anything in particular, but because their history is unwriting itself. Vortex Media is the Canadian distributor. Global rights outside Canada are still available.

Rounding out the Canadian films are 10 to Watch alum J Stevens‘ Really Happy Someday (Spindle Films), about a rising musical-theatre star before his transition, and Kaniehtiio Horn’s Seeds (Kaniehtiio Horn-Batt Entertainment, New Real Films), a thriller that weaves Kanienʼkehá꞉ka connections to the land with a cat-and-mouse game. LevelFILM is the distributor for Seeds.

The international films in the Discovery programme are Lakshmipriya Devi’s Boong (India), Giovanni Tortorici’s Diciannove (Italy), Afolabi Olalekan’s Freedom Way (Nigeria), Belkıs Bayrak’s Gülizar (Turkey/Kosovo), and César Augusto Acevedo’s Horizonte (Colombia/France/Luxembourg/Chile/Germany).

Other features include Ink Wash (Romania/Greece/Denmark) from director Sarra Tsorakidis, Linda (Argentina/Spain) from Mariana Wainstein and Meat (Greece) from filmmaker Dimitris Nakos.

Also screening are K’naan Warsame’s Mother Mother (Kenya/Somalia), Egil Pedersen’s My Fathers’ Daughter (Norway/Sweden/Finland), Laura Carreira’s On Falling (United Kingdom/Portugal) and Maksud Hossain’s Saba (Bangladesh).

Rounding out the programme are Fabian Stumm’s Sad Jokes (Germany), Jasmin Gordon’s The Courageous (Switzerland), Boss Kuno’s The Paradise of Thorns (Thailand) and Elena Manrique’s The Party’s Over (Spain).

TIFF runs from Sept. 5 to 15.

Photo courtesy of Babe Nation Films