Telefilm Canada has selected 17 films for the 2024-25 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 $3.45 million in support from Telefilm and the Talent Fund.

The projects were selected from 150 submissions, according to a release.

Eleven of the projects were picked under the filmmaker apply-direct stream, including the French-language documentary Alice from writer-director Mélissa Savoie-Soulières, produced by Sophie Gagnon-Bergeron; and the French and Creole doc Cette Terre m’appellera Maître, written, directed and produced by Katia Café-Fébrissy and executive produced by Alexandrine Torres de Figueiredo.

Also selected was Civilian, the English and Sudanese Arabic-language doc out of Ontario, directed and produced by Raya Hamdan and co-written by Hamdan and Mazin Almusharaf; and the Quebec documentary Fios da Terra (Portuguese, French and English), written and directed by Kayla Fragman, produced by Amélie Tremblay and executive produced by Dominique Dussault.

Rounding out the documentaries are the French-language film Les Priants, written and directed by Martine Gignac and produced by Evelyne Lafleur Guy; writer-director Carlos Cortés’ Quebec film Marcheuses (English, French and Algonquin), produced by Hippolyte de Chanlaire and Nathalie Guérard; and Rose Katché’s English- and French-language film Uninvited, produced by Mérédith Gonzalez-Bayard.

The two other Ontario films selected include writer-director Anna Maguire’s science fiction/fantasy film External Neighbours, produced by Maguire and Erin Carter and executive produced by Anaëlle Béglet and Jeanne-Marie Poulain; and Simon Paluck’s drama Homewrecker, written by Caleb Harwood and produced by Graeme D. Blyth.

The two remaining projects in the stream include the Alberta drama Puddy Tat, from writer-director Kaytlyn Turner and producers Kyla Ferrier and Kevin Dong; and Quebec’s Requiem for a Sad Girl, from writer-director Maude Michaud, produced by Jen Viens and Michaud and executive produced by Philip Kalin-Hadju.

Three films were selected under the industry partner stream.

The two narrative projects are the Ontario drama EXP, directed by Ted Sakowsky, written by Ed Sakowsky, produced by Momo Daud and Katarzyna Anielak with Joseph Sindaha as executive producer; and the Manitoba science fiction/fantasy film Meat, directed by Ryan Steel, written by Steel and Sean Henderson and produced by Sean Maheux Galway.

EXP was submitted by York University, while Meat was submitted by the Winnipeg Film Group.

The documentary is the French-language Quebec film Danse Laurence!, written and directed by Laura Marroquin-Éthier and produced by Francesca Rubartelli Barcenas. It was submitted by the National Institute of Image and Sound.

There were two films under the festival selection stream: the B.C. drama Hair or No Hair, written and directed by Janessa St. Pierre and produced by Mariam Barry; and the Ontario dramedy Hue & Cry from writer-director Maziyar Khatam, producers Tyler Mason and Anya Chirkova and executive producer Guy Maddin.

The lone film under the Indigenous stream is the Ontario science fiction/fantasy feature Houseboat, written and directed by Jerry Wolf and produced by Adeline Bird.

Image: Unsplash