The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organization behind the film festival is also a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Lightbox cultural centre, located in Downtown Toronto.
Dusty Mancinelli is a Canadian independent filmmaker from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Several of his films have been shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and other notable film festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards. Since 2017, he has collaborated with Madeleine Sims-Fewer. Their debut feature film Violation was shown at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival and 2021 Sundance Film Festival.
Brandon Cronenberg is a Canadian director and screenwriter. He is the son of renowned filmmaker David Cronenberg and the brother of Caitlin Cronenberg. He is known for his science fiction horror films Antiviral (2012), Possessor (2020) and Infinity Pool (2023). He has won several accolades for his work.
Andrew Cividino is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature film directorial debut Sleeping Giant, which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and for his frequent work as a director on the Emmy winning comedy Schitt's Creek, for which he won a Primetime Emmy at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.
Johnny Ma is a Chinese-Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his debut feature film Old Stone, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016. The film won the awards for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, and Best First Feature at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017. His second feature To Live To Sing premiered at the Director's Fortnight Section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
Pre-Drink is a Canadian dramatic short film by Marc-Antoine Lemire, which won the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Short Film at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
The Fireflies Are Gone is a 2018 Canadian drama film directed by Sébastien Pilote. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Canadian Film.
Fauve is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Jérémy Comte and released in 2018. The film centres on two boys looking for adventure near an open pit mine, who are soon drawn into a dangerous situation as their power game spins out of control.
Jasmin Mozaffari is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. She won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019 for her debut feature film Firecrackers.
Herd Leader is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Chloé Robichaud and released in 2012. The film stars Ève Duranceau as Clara, a shy woman who must build confidence in herself when she inherits her late aunt's dog and has to learn how to train it.
Ariane Louis-Seize is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Quebec.
The 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, the 45th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 10 to 21, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, the festival took place primarily on an online streaming platform, although limited in-person screenings still took place within the constraints of social distancing restrictions.
Beans is a 2020 Canadian drama film directed by Mohawk-Canadian filmmaker Tracey Deer. It explores the 1990 Oka Crisis at Kanesatake, which Deer lived through as a child, through the eyes of Tekehentahkhwa, a young Mohawk girl whose perspective on life is radically changed by these events.
Madeleine Sims-Fewer is a British-Canadian independent filmmaker and actress.
Dustin is a French short drama film, directed by Naïla Guiguet and released in 2020. The film stars Dustin Muchuvitz as Dustin, a trans woman attending a rave with her boyfriend Félix.
Black Bodies is a 2020 Canadian short film, directed by Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, and produced by Tamar Bird and Sasha Leigh Henry. Inspired by a real-life incident when Fyffe-Marshall, Komi Olaf and Donisha Prendergast were travelling in California, and a woman in the neighbourhood called the police on them because she wrongly believed they were burglarizing their Airbnb rental, the film features Olaf and Prendergast performing spoken word pieces about the trauma of being victimized by anti-Black racism.
Sing Me a Lullaby is a Canadian short documentary film, directed by Tiffany Hsiung and released in 2020. The film documents Hsiung's efforts to locate and reconnect with her mother's birth family in Taiwan, following her mother's separation from her parents and adoption in childhood.
Paul Shkordoff is a Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter from Toronto, Ontario. He is most noted for his 2020 short film Benjamin, Benny, Ben, which won the award for the award for Best Canadian Short Film at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival and was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021.
Aniksha is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Vincent Toi and released in 2020. The film stars Neeshi Beeharry as Aniksha, a young woman in Mauritius who is caught between tradition and modernity when she takes a job at a call centre soon after entering into an arranged marriage.
Thyrone Tommy is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. After writing and directing the short film Mariner (2016), Tommy received acclaim for his work on the feature film Learn to Swim (2021), both of which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
