The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has launched the Best Canadian Discovery Award for its 49th edition.

The new award is a rebrand of the Best Canadian First Feature Film award that was last given out in 2019.

The Best Canadian Discovery Award is handed out to a first or second-time director of a Canadian feature. The winner also receives a cash prize of $10,000.

First and second-time directors will not be eligible for the Best Canadian Feature Film award, which will be open to all other Canadian films in the TIFF lineup. Similarly, the winner receives a cash prize of $10,000. Last year the award was given to Sophie Dupuis’s Solo

The jurors for both awards are Estrella Araiza, general director of the FICG (Guadalajara International Film Festival) and Cineteca FICG; Chelsea McMullan (Swan Song), a Toronto-based director-producer; and Randall Okita (The Lockpicker), a Canadian-Japanese artist and filmmaker.

Two other juries were announced, including the jury for The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) prize, awarded by a panel of international critics at select film festivals to encourage film artistry and the development of new cinema. Only first-time feature directors in TIFF’s Discovery programme are eligible. Last year’s winner was Seagrass by Vancouver’s Meredith Hama-Brown.

This year’s FIPRESCI jurors are Li Cheuk-to, curator at large of Hong Kong Film and Media for M+ Museum in Hong Kong and the current Board Chairman of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society; Pierre-Simon Gutman, deputy editor of L’Avant Scene Cinema; Azadeh Jafari, a Tehran-based film critic; Saffron Maeve, a Toronto-based film critic and programmer; and Wilfred Okiche, a culture critic and film programmer.

The NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema) Award is voted on by three international jurors, with the winner being chosen from Asian films by a first or second-time feature director. Last year’s winner was A Match by Jayant Digambar Somalkar.

This year’s jury is led by Dr. Vilsoni Hereniko (The Land Has Eyes), a Rotuman filmmaker who made Rotuma’s first feature film; Hannah Fisher, who works internationally as a festival director; and Kerri Sakamoto, an award-winning Canadian-Japanese author.

TIFF runs from Sept. 5 to 15, with award winners announced at the festival’s end.

Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images