The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled its 2023 TIFF Industry Selects titles, made up of 12 films that aren’t part of the official selection but are available for worldwide acquisition.

The program, first introduced in 2020, gives selected films access to the TIFF market, with buyers and sales agents able to screen them though the festival’s digital platform. It was initially launched as a way to give global films greater visibility.

Among the Canadian films included in the 2023 Industry Selects lineup is singer-actor-filmmaker Anik Jean’s solo feature directorial debut, the drama Les Hommes de ma mère (pictured), starring Jean’s husband Patrick Huard and reuniting him with his Bon Cop, Bad Cop co-star Colm Feore. Both Jean and Huard are the film’s producers, and Immina Films is the Canadian distributor.

Other Canadian titles in the lineup Rebecca Snow’s The Boy in the Woods (Lumanity Productions, JoBro Productions), a true story of a Jewish boy who survived the Nazi occupation of Poland by hiding in the forests, distributed in Canada by Photon Films; the Nigerian-Canadian revenge thriller Orah (IronFlix, Freddie Films, Circle Blue Entertainment), from director Lonzo Nzekwe; and the Canada-U.S. coproduction Queen of Bones (Appian Way, Lumanity Productions, Productivity Media) a Depression-era folktale from Robert Budreau (Born to Be Blue) starring Martin Freeman, Taylor Schilling and Canada’s Jacob Tremblay.

“As the media industry continues to evolve, TIFF strives to foster creative innovation in both the development and business of storytelling,” said Anita Lee, TIFF’s chief programming officer, in a statement. “We will continue to expand our successful Industry Selects initiative, a TIFF curated selection of films for the marketplace to find global audiences and are very excited to present a very high-level calibre showcase.”

Image courtesy of Immina Films, Laurence GB