Alanis Obomsawin, is an Abenaki American-Canadian filmmaker, singer, artist, and activist primarily known for her documentary films. Born in New Hampshire, United States and raised primarily in Quebec, Canada, she has written and directed many National Film Board of Canada documentaries on First Nations issues. Obomsawin is a member of Film Fatales independent women filmmakers.
Hi-Ho Mistahey! is a 2013 National Film Board of Canada feature documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin that profiles Shannen's Dream, an activist campaign first launched by Shannen Koostachin, a Cree teenager from Attawapiskat, to lobby for improved educational opportunities for First Nations youth.
The 11th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 4 and September 13, 1986. The Decline of the American Empire by Denys Arcand was selected as the opening film. It won People's Choice Award at the festival and later got nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at Oscars.
The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film The Judge, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall was the opening night film. A Little Chaos, a British period drama directed by Alan Rickman and starring Kate Winslet closed the festival. More films for each section were announced on 12 August, with the line-up completed on 19 August. A total of 393 films were shown, including 143 world premieres. The first Friday was dubbed "Bill Murray Day", as festival organisers dedicated a day to the actor by screening a select number of his films for free.
Trick or Treaty? is a 2014 Canadian documentary feature film by Alanis Obomsawin about Treaty 9, a 1905 agreement in which First Nations peoples in northern Ontario surrendered their sovereign rights. The film is the first by an indigenous filmmaker to be selected to the Masters program at the Toronto International Film Festival, and is the 43rd film by Obomsawin for the National Film Board of Canada.
The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's Demolition starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts was the opening night film; Mr. Right by Paco Cabezas was the closing night film.
Hochelaga, Land of Souls is a 2017 Canadian historical drama film directed and written by François Girard and starring Gilles Renaud, Samian and Tanaya Beatty. Dramatizing several centuries of Quebec history and the local history of Montreal in particular, the story depicts Quebec archaeology revealing the past of indigenous peoples, explorers and 1837 rebels.
The Conformist (冰之下) is 2017 Chinese drama film directed by Cai Shangjun. It was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
Loving Pablo, internationally known as Escobar, is a 2017 English-language Spanish biographical crime drama film directed by Fernando León de Aranoa, based on Virginia Vallejo's memoir Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar. It was screened out of competition in the 74th Venice International Film Festival and in the Special Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
You Disappear is a 2017 Danish drama film directed by Peter Schønau Fog. The film was based on Christian Jungersen's novel by the same name. It was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It was selected as the Danish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.
Our People Will Be Healed is a 2017 Canadian documentary film by Alanis Obomsawin. The film premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. The film explores the Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre, an N-12 Frontier School Division school in Norway House, Manitoba where Cree students are taught about their own history and culture alongside the regular Manitoba school curriculum.
Luk'Luk'I is a Canadian drama film, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. The feature directorial debut of Wayne Wapeemukwa, the film is an expansion of his earlier short film Luk'Luk'I: Mother, which premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
Murmur is a Canadian docufiction film, directed by Heather Young and released in 2019. Young's full-length directorial debut, the film stars a cast of largely non-professional actors and centres on Donna, a lonely, alcoholic woman who is ordered to perform community service in an animal shelter after being arrested for drunk driving; when she adopts an older dog from the shelter to save him from being put down, she finds new meaning and purpose in her life but becomes obsessed with saving animals to the detriment of her own well-being.
Rupture is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Yassmina Karajah and released in 2017. Acted by a cast of predominantly amateur young actors, the film centres on three teenagers, all of whom are recent refugees from Syria, who are living in Vancouver and walking around town looking for a public swimming pool on a hot summer day.
The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the 46th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 9 to 18, 2021. Due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, the festival was staged as a "hybrid" of in-person and digital screenings. Most films were screened both in-person and on the digital platform, although a few titles were withheld by their distributors from the digital platform and instead were screened exclusively in-person.
Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair is a Canadian short documentary film, directed by Alanis Obomsawin and released in 2021. The film intercuts excerpts of former Canadian senator Murray Sinclair's 2016 acceptance speech, when he was presented with an award by the World Federalist Movement-Canada in honour of his role as chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, with the personal testimonies of various survivors of the Canadian Indian residential school system.
The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 8 to 18, 2022.
The TIFF Tribute Awards are an annual award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to honour distinguished achievements in filmmaking. Unlike the festival's regular awards, which are presented based on audience or jury voting during the festival, the TIFF Tribute Awards are presented to people or organizations selected by the board and announced in advance of the festival. Recipients are selected from among the cast and crew of the films in that year's festival lineup.
Bones of Crows is a 2022 Canadian drama film, written, produced, and directed by Marie Clements. The film stars Grace Dove as Aline Spears, a Cree woman who survives the Indian residential school system to become a code talker for the Canadian Air Force during World War II.
When All the Leaves Are Gone is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Alanis Obomsawin and released in 2010. One of just two narrative fiction films, alongside Sigwan, that Obomsawin made in a career otherwise devoted entirely to documentary films, the film dramatizes Obomsawin's childhood experiences through the story of Wato, a young girl experiencing anti-indigenous prejudice as the only First Nations student in an otherwise all-white school in the 1940s, who finds comfort and strength in the magical world of her dreams.
