The TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) returns from September 8 to 18 for its 47th edition. After two years marked by the COVID-19 crisis, the festival will take place this year completely in person, with a strong French presence.
Mrs. Daniela Elstner, general manager of UniFrance, an organization in charge of the promotion and export of French cinema in the world, will be present, as well as her team which will have a stand on the festival and will organize the “French Night” on Saturday, September 10th. Thanks to this organization, an important French delegation, composed of actors, directors and film crews, will accompany the programmed films.
Among the numerous French artistic delegation expected in Toronto, let’s mention (with reservations) : Alice Winocour, Maïmouna Doucouré, Cédric Ido, Christian Carion, Dany Boon, Mia Hansen-Løve, Léa Seydoux, Rebecca Zlotowski, Alice Diop, Davy Chou, Ji-min Park, Pierre Földes, Lise Akoka, Christophe Honoré, Albert Serra, Benoît Magimel, Benjamin Millepied, Sébastien Lifshitz, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Bérénice Bejo, Maryam Touzani, Charlotte Le Bon, Youssef Chebbi. ..
As part of TIFF Industry, the festival’s professional program, the French Embassy and Telefilm Canada, in partnership with UniFrance and the CNC, will organize a breakfast dedicated to French-Canadian co-production. This will be an opportunity for France to present for the first time in Canada the new co-production agreement that came into force on May 1, 2022. Three French producers will be invited to submit their co-production projects to potential Canadian partners.
Among the films announced in the program, 51 are French productions or co-productions, proof of the high visibility of the French film industry in Canada.
These French productions will be in the program:
PARIS MEMORIES, Alice Winocour
In Paris, Mia is caught up in an attack in a brasserie. Three months later, while she still hasn’t managed to get her life back on track and only remembers the event in bits and pieces, Mia decides to investigate her memory in order to find the path to a possible happiness.
DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA, Verena Paravel et Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Shot in several French hospitals over a number of years with a specially designed camera, this film by Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Leviathan, Caniba) is an unprecedented cinematic immersion into the human body.
DRIVING MADELEINE, Christian Carion
Madeleine, 92 years old, calls a cab to reach the retirement home where she will live from now on. She asks Charles, a slightly disillusioned driver, to go through the places that counted in her life, to see them one last time. Little by little, in the bend of the streets of Paris, an extraordinary past emerges that upsets Charles. Some cab trips can change a life…
HAWA, Maïmouna Doucouré
Hawa, a 15-year-old girl, goes in search of a new guardian when her grandmother, with whom she lives, becomes seriously ill. The day she learns that an international star is coming to France, she embarks on an impossible quest to convince her to adopt him.
ONE FINE MORNING, Mia Hansen-Løve
Sandra often visits her father, Georg, who has a neurodegenerative disease. As she and her family embark on an assault course through hospitals and residential care homes to get Georg settled in a safe place, Sandra unexpectedly meets Clément, a long-lost friend with whom a passionate but uncertain relationship begins.
OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN, Rebecca Zlotowski
Rachel is 40 years old and has no children. She loves her life: her high school students, her friends, her exes, her guitar lessons.
When she falls in love with Ali, she becomes attached to Leila, her 4 year old daughter. She tucks her in, cares for her, and loves her as her own. But loving other people’s children is a risk to take.
SAINT OMER, Alice Diop
In this extraordinary narrative debut by acclaimed documentarian Alice Diop, a young novelist is forced to confront her personal traumas as she observes the trial of a woman accused of infanticide.
THE GRAVITY, Cédric Ido
The sophomore feature from French Burkinabé actor Cédric Ido centres on a mysterious planetary event that upsets both the gravity and the fragile equilibrium of a Parisian suburb, which is ruled by a cosmically-connected crew of young “entrepreneurs.”
THE WORST ONES, Romane Gueret et Lise Akoka
A filming will take place in Cité Picasso, in Boulogne-Sur-Mer, in the north of France. During the casting, four teenagers, Lily, Ryan, Maylis and Jessy are chosen to play in the film. In the neighbourhood, everyone is astonished: why did they only take “the worst”?
WINTER BOY, Christophe Honoré
Lucas is 17 years old when his adolescence suddenly shatters. With the help of his brother, who has gone to Paris, and his mother, with whom he now lives alone, he must fight to learn to hope and love again.
Many other French co-productions will be presented during the festival.
Find them directly on the TIFF website, where you can also consult the screenings and book your seats:
