DARKEST MIRIAM 🇨🇦
87 min | Drama | Toronto Premiere
Directed by Naomi Jaye
ONTARIO

Librarian Miriam Gordon (Britt Lower) lives in a fog of grief while working amidst marginalized members of the public who populate the Allen Gardens branch of the Toronto Public Libraries. When a burgeoning love-affair with Janko, a younger foreign cab driver (Mercier), coincides with her receiving a series of oddly threatening letters addressed to her, Miriam’s sheltered existence is cracked open.

DARKEST MIRIAM will be preceded by the short film DO US PART

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

LARRY (THEY/THEM) 🇨🇦
103 min | Documentary | Toronto Premiere
Directed by Catherine Legault
QUEBEC

Young non-binary trans photographer Laurence Philomène has emerged as one of the most original and inspiring voices of their generation and an LGBTQ+ community icon. Exploring the artist’s intimate world and creative process, LARRY (they/them) paints a luminous and engaging portrait of the complex, often misunderstood multiplicity of trans and non-binary identities and experiences.

LARRY (THEY/THEM) will be preceded by the short film PAPER LANTERNS

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

THE LEGACY OF CLOUDY FALLS 🇨🇦
101 min | Comedy | Ontario Premiere
Directed by Nick Butler
ONTARIO

Set in the Cloudy Falls residence, a run-down apartment complex in Niagara Falls that seems destined to be torn down, the film tells the story of a handful of its tenants, chosen at random by the narrator, Rita (Susan Berger), the building’s glib superintendent. They include Terry (Andrew Moodie), an uptight, middle-aged man who grows enamoured of the erratic, young drifter squatting next door; Brigit (Grace Glowicki), a spiritual debunker who exposes psychic frauds on her little-seen YouTube channel; Riley (Amanda Martinez), a compulsive liar whose many tall tales are starting to catch up to her; and the collection of neighbours who surround them.

THE LEGACY OF CLOUDY FALLS will be preceded by the short film SLEEP TALKING

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

HOME FREE 🇨🇦
96 min | Drama | Toronto Premiere
Directed by Avi Federgreen
ONTARIO

On their fiftieth anniversary, Herb and Audry Homur have a few surprises for their three estranged daughters; Rain, Ivy, and Daisy. Herb, having been diagnosed with a brain tumour, announces that he is choosing to die on his own terms and is not seeking treatment. He wants to spend his remaining days trying to find a way to clear the air between his daughters. What should be a weekend celebration of life turns into a darker reality as everyone is forced to look at themselves in ways they never have.

HOME FREE will be preceded by the short film BELONGING

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

PLEASE AFTER YOU 🇨🇦
93 min | Drama, Comedy | Canadian Premiere
Directed by Rob Michaels
ONTARIO

Ali’s life is going as planned. He left Iran for Canada, earned his engineering degree and is well on his way to landing a lucrative internship, finding love and forging a better life for himself. Ali lives among a cast of quirky landed immigrants, and works nights at a downtown parking lot to make ends Meet. One night, Ali receives a phone call from his parents in Iran saying his wide-eyed cousin Omid is coming to visit him in Toronto. When Ali goes to pick Omid up from the airport, he sees that his cousin is not coming to visit -- he’s seeking political asylum to stay in Canada after getting caught up in an anti-government demonstration in Iran.

PLEASE AFTER YOU will be preceded by the short film MOTHER'S TONGUE

Filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

CONCEIVING CLARA 🇨🇦
96 min | Drama | World Premiere
Directed by Tarique Qayumi
BRITISH COLUMBIA

Clara (42), a midwife, helps many women give birth but cannot bear a child. Under pressure from her mother-in-law, she undergoes IVF treatment. The complications lead her to choose between her life and the baby's. Finally, she cannot connect with the baby and must find love in her daughter.

CONCEIVING CLARA will be preceded by the short film WHISPERING IN THE LEAVES

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

THE KILLGRIN 🇨🇦
84 min | Supernatural | Canadian Premiere
Directed by Joanna Tsanis
ONTARIO

After a personal tragedy, Miranda explores unconventional self-help methods, only to learn from a spiritual healer that she has an infection of her aura called a ‘killgrin’, which thrives off her misery.

THE KILLGRIN will be preceded by the short film WATERMAN’S BALLAD

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

HIS FATHER’S SON 🇨🇦
79 min | Drama
Directed by Meelad Moaphi
ONTARIO

A determined aspiring chef, AMIR struggles to carve out a path for himself and gratify the expectations of his parents, FARHAD and AREZOU – while his younger, Canadian-born brother, MAHYAR, appears to cruise through life effortlessly. When Amir’s parents receive news that a family friend from Iran has died and left his inheritance solely to Mahyar, the unexpected bequest triggers a chain of revelations that reshape the brothers’ dynamic and unravel truths about the family’s hidden past.

HIS FATHER’S SON  will be preceded by the short film NOLA

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

GOLD BARS: WHO THE F*CK IS UNCLE LUDWIG? 🇨🇦
88 min | Documentary | Canadian Premiere
Directed by Billie Mintz
ONTARIO

Montreal lawyer Glenn Joseph Feldman risks his reputation and faces a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit after accusing his former business partner of living off Nazi Gold stolen from the Holocaust. But when his concerned daughter Alex reluctantly joins the investigation to help her father, she confronts unreliable evidence and her father’s moral contradictions, uncovering a truth far more personal and complicated than she imagined.

GOLD BARS will be preceded by the short film ONE NIGHT ON OPEONGO

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

CROCODILE EYES 🇨🇦
75 min | Experimental | World Premiere
Directed by Ingrid Veninger
ONTARIO

With her 8th feature, filmmaker Ingrid Veninger ventures to capture 100 real moments. But what makes a moment truly real? In "Crocodile Eyes," Canada’s "DIY queen of indie filmmaking" presents a collection of raw, unfiltered vignettes that delve into the heart of human intimacy. This profoundly personal and immersive work serves a dual purpose: it offers a contemplative journey through the rhythms of life and simultaneously explores the process of filmmaking, guided by intuition.

"Crocodile Eyes" weaves a rich tapestry of filmmaker Ingrid Veninger and her family, spanning four generations. From birth to death and the experiences in between, this film captures the poignant moments that define the human condition.
Content Warning: There is real death and real birth in this film.

CROCODILE EYES will be preceded by the short film TINA, WHEN WILL YOU MARRY?

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

TO THE MOON 🇨🇦
85 min | Comedy | Toronto Premiere
Directed by Kevin Hartford
NOVA SCOTIA

Closeted single dad Sam (Jacob Sampson) finds his world upended when he meets a handsome stranger. Meanwhile, his daughter Ella (Phoebe Rex) struggles with the challenges of teenagerhood and their writer’s block-suffering neighbour Claire (Amy Groening) tries to mine this offbeat father/daughter duo for source material. An ensemble comedy about love, choreographed dance, kitchen safety, stranger danger, planetary physics, and the idea that it’s never too late in life to figure out who you really are.

TO THE MOON will be preceded by the short film UNCOMFY

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

VAMPIRE ZOMBIES...FROM SPACE! 🇨🇦
98 min | Sci-Fi Comedy | Toronto Premiere
Directed by Michael Stasko
ONTARIO

From the depths of space, Dracula has devised his most dastardly plan yet; turning the residents of a small American town into his personal army of vampire zombies! A motley crew consisting of a grizzled detective, a skeptical rookie cop, a chain-smoking greaser, and a determined young woman band together to save the world from — (see title). Packed with gruesome special effects, b-movie miniatures, and gut-busting laughs, “Vampire Zombies…from Space!” is a bloody comedy that has its foundation in horror films of the 1950s.

VAMPIRE ZOMBIES...FROM SPACE! will be preceded by the short film THE GIFT

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

S K E E T 🇨🇦
104 min | Drama | Toronto Premiere
Directed by Nik Sexton
NEWFOUNDLAND

Fresh out of prison, Billy Skinner returns to his transformed low-income neighbourhood, now populated by Syrian refugees. Struggling to overcome his dark past, Billy forges an unexpected bond with Mo, a compassionate Syrian immigrant determined to build a better life for his family.

S K E E T will be preceded by the short film CHAND

Filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

WAITING FOR THE STORMS 🇨🇦
94 min | Drama | Ontario Premiere
Directed by François Delisle
QUEBEC

Across various timelines and locations, the fates of four characters intertwine as they struggle to find connections and meaning in a world transformed by climate change.

WAITING FOR THE STORMS will be preceded by the short film GREENHORN

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

THE PLAYERS 🇨🇦
101 min | Drama | Toronto Premiere
Directed by Sarah Galea-Davis
ONTARIO

Summer. 1994. Emily’s dream of becoming an actor is realized when she is cast as the youngest member of an avant-garde theatre production. She is immediately entranced by the bohemian lives of her fellow actors and feels like she has found a surrogate family. The company, under the direction of Reinhardt, operates with its own strict rules and unwritten codes which Emily must quickly learn. As the lines between artistic and personal relationships blur, Emily becomes entangled in the complex power dynamics within the group.

THE PLAYERS will be preceded by the short film SPACEMAN

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.

LUNATIC: THE LUNA VACHON STORY 🇨🇦
114 min | Documentary | World Premiere
Directed by Kate Kroll
BRITISH COLUMBIA

The story of WWF villain, Luna Vachon. Raised by a family of wrestling legends, wrestling was her first love. Reaching the peak of her fame in the 90s, Luna’s biggest hurdle was challenging the mainstream wrestling industry and their view on women at that time She aimed to be the biggest, baddest wrestling villain that ever lived. But despite her successes, both her stage persona and reality started to blur. The guilt of abandoning her two sons to pursue her dream job, being diagnosed as bipolar, abuse, and addiction would prove too much. While the crowd yelled out ‘Lunatic’ to her in-ring heel character, little did they know a dark cloud of mental health struggles plagued her in real-life.

LUNATIC: THE LUNA VACHON STORY will be preceded by the short film BRAVE REBEL ARMY

Feature and short filmmakers in attendance for Q & A.