The Toronto Film Fest has announced the lineups for more programs — including Contemporary World Cinema, Masters, and Wavelengths — and added additional titles to its Gala Presentations and Special Presentations.
Two more Gala films were unveiled, neither of which are women-directed, bringing the overall ratio down to 45 percent, as opposed to the initial 50/50 split. In total, women helmed nine of the 20 Gala Presentations.
Two of the 16 new Special Presentations are from female filmmakers. This means just nine of the 55 total Special Presentations are directed by women, or 16 percent. The ratio was originally 18 percent women-directed.
The new women-helmed Special Presentations are Geetu Mohandas’ “The Elder One” and Justine Triet’s Cannes pic “Sibyl.” The former is about two siblings yearning to escape their small hometown for the big city. The latter sees a psychologist deciding to pursue her first passion of writing.
The Masters program, which highlights works from new and established auteurs, includes 11 titles. Two of them, or 18 percent, are from female filmmakers: Angela Schanelec’s “I Was at Home, But…” and Alanis Obomsawin’s “Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger.” Schanelec’s Berlinale award-winning feature traces the mysterious appearance and return of a 13-year-old. “Jordan River Anderson” chronicles the story of a young boy who spent his short life in a hospital while the federal and provincial Canadian governments argued about who was responsible for him.
We counted 22 women-directed features in the 55-film Contemporary World Cinema section, a ratio of 40 percent. Among the films is Maryam Touzani’s “Adam,” the tale of two struggling women in Casablanca who find comfort in one another. The section will also screen “Flatland,” from “Rafiki” co-writer Jenna Bass. The “neo-noir western feminist road movie” centers on two best friends who make their way across the South African Karoo after one of the women’s husband is murdered.
Seven shorts and three features will be included in the Wavelengths program. They include Maya Da-Rin’s Locarno pic, “The Fever.” The Brazil-set film sees a security guard fall mysteriously ill as his daughter prepares to go to medical school.
TIFF 2019 takes place September 5-15. Check out all the women-directed films screening in Special Presentations, Masters, Contemporary World Cinema, and Wavelengths this year. Lists adapted from the fest.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
How to Build a Girl, dir. Coky Giedroyc
I Am Woman, dir. Unjoo Moon
Pelican Blood, dir. Katrin Gebbe
Portrait of a Lady on Fire, dir. Céline Sciamma
The Friend, dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Ordinary Love, dir. Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn
The Other Lamb, dir. Malgorzata Szumowska
The Elder One (Moothon), dir. Geetu Mohandas
Sibyl, dir. Justine Triet
MASTERS
I Was at Home, But… (Ich war zuhause, aber…), dir. Angela Schanelec
Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger, dir. Alanis Obomsawin
CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
37 Seconds, dir. Hikari
Adam, dir. Maryam Touzani
And the Birds Rained Down, dir. Louise Archambault
Antigone, dir. Sophie Deraspe
Arab Blues (Un Divan à Tunis), dir. Manele Labidi
Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story, dir. Mati Diop
The Barefoot Emperor, dir. Jessica Woodworth, Peter Brosens
Blow the Man Down, dir. Danielle Krudy, Bridget Savage Cole
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, dir. Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn
Bombay Rose, dir. Gitanjali Rao
The Father (Bashtata), dir. Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov
Flatland, dir. Jenna Bass
Hala, dir. Minhal Baig
Instinct, dir. Halina Reijn
The Long Walk (Bor Mi Vanh Chark), dir. Mattie Do
Made in Bangladesh, dir. Rubaiyat Hossain
Mariam, dir. Sharipa Urazbayeva
Maria’s Paradise (Marian paratiisi), dir. Zaida Bergroth
The Perfect Candidate, dir. Haifaa Al-Mansour
Red Fields (Mami), dir. Keren Yedaya
Tammy’s Always Dying, dir. Amy Jo Johnson
Three Summers (Três Verões), dir. Sandra Kogut
WAVELENGTHS
Short Films
SaF05, dir. Charlotte Prodger
Black Sun (Sol Negro), dir. Maureen Fazendeiro
Second Generation, dir. Miryam Charles
Transcript (Lín Mó), dir. Erica Sheu
Who’s Afraid of Ideology? Part 2, dir. Marwa Arsanios
Vever (for Barbara), dir. Deborah Stratman
Book of Hours, dir. Annie MacDonell
Pairings
Those That, at a Distance, Resemble Another, dir. Jessica Sarah Rinland (preceded by Heavy Metal Detox, dir. Josef Dabernig)
Features
The Fever (A Febre), dir. Maya Da-Rin
Krabi, 2562, dir. Anocha Suwichakornpong, Ben Rivers
