Lina Rodriguez is a Colombian-Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter, [1] most noted for her 2022 documentary film My Two Voices (Mis dos voces). [2]
A native of Bogotá, Rodriguez moved to Canada to study film at York University. [3] She wrote and directed a number of short films before releasing her debut feature film Señoritas in 2013, which premiered at the Cartagena Film Festival. [4] She followed up in 2016 with This Time Tomorrow (Mañana a esta hora), which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. [5]
Her short documentary film ante mis ojos premiered in the Wavelengths program at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, [6] and Here and There (Aquí y allá) premiered at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival.
In 2020, Rodriguez was selected by former TIFF programmer Michèle Maheux as the recipient of the $50,000 "pay it forward" grant from Maheux's Clyde Gilmour Award package. [7]
My Two Voices premiered at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival, [8] and had its Canadian premiere at the 2022 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. [9] In the same year she released her third narrative fiction film So Much Tenderness , which premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. [10]
Mina Shum is an independent Canadian filmmaker. She is a writer and director of award-winning feature films, numerous shorts and has created site specific installations and theatre. Her features, Double Happiness and Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity both premiered in the US at the Sundance Film Festival and Double Happiness won the Wolfgang Staudte Prize for Best First Feature at the Berlin Film Festival and the Audience Award at Torino. She was director resident at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. She was also a member of an alternative rock band called Playdoh Republic.
Helen Haig-Brown is a Tsilhqot'in filmmaker working primarily with indigenous and First Nations themes. Many of these derive from her maternal roots in the Tsilhqot'in First Nation.
Nisha Pahuja is an Indian-born Canadian filmmaker, based in Toronto, Ontario.
Brian D. Johnson is a Canadian journalist and filmmaker, best known as an entertainment reporter and film critic for Maclean's.
Angry Inuk is a 2016 Canadian Inuit-themed feature-length documentary film written and directed by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril that defends the Inuit seal hunt, as the hunt is a vital means for Inuit to sustain themselves. Subjects in Angry Inuk include Arnaquq-Baril herself as well as Aaju Peter, an Inuit seal hunt advocate, lawyer and seal fur clothing designer who depends on the sealskins for her livelihood. Partially shot in the filmmaker's home community of Iqaluit, as well as Kimmirut and Pangnirtung, where seal hunting is essential for survival, the film follows Peter and other Inuit to Europe in an effort to have the EU Ban on Seal Products overturned. The film also criticizes NGOs such as Greenpeace and the International Fund for Animal Welfare for ignoring the needs of vulnerable northern communities who depend on hunting for their livelihoods by drawing a false distinction between subsistence-driven Inuit hunters and profit-driven commercial hunters.
Sofia Bohdanowicz is a Canadian filmmaker. She is known for her collaborations with Deragh Campbell and made her feature film directorial debut in 2016 with Never Eat Alone. Her second feature film, Maison du Bonheur, was a finalist for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the 2018 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. That year, she won the Jay Scott Prize from the Toronto Film Critics Association. Her third feature film, MS Slavic 7, which she co-directed with Campbell, had its world premiere at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival in 2019. She has also directed several short films, such as Veslemøy's Song (2018) and Point and Line to Plane (2020).
Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival and announced in December each year to identify and promote the year's best Canadian films. The list was first introduced in 2001 as an initiative to help publicize Canadian films.
Sophy Romvari is a Canadian film director, writer, and actress. She attracted widespread acclaim for her short film Still Processing (2020). The film premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival and was later released online by Mubi.
Inconvenient Indian is a 2020 Canadian documentary film, directed by Michelle Latimer. It is an adaptation of Thomas King's non-fiction book The Inconvenient Indian, focusing on narratives of indigenous peoples of Canada. King stars as the documentary's narrator, with Gail Maurice and other indigenous artists appearing.
The Company 3 TFCA Luminary Award, formerly the Clyde Gilmour Award, is an annual award, presented at the discretion the Toronto Film Critics Association as a lifetime achievement award for distinguished contributions to the Canadian film industry. Named in memory of Canadian broadcaster Clyde Gilmour, who was posthumously honoured as the award's first recipient, the award honours achievements in any part of the Canadian film industry, including direction, production, criticism, broadcasting and film festival programming, that have helped to enrich the understanding and appreciation of film in Canada.
Scarborough is a 2021 Canadian drama film, directed by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson. An adaptation of Catherine Hernandez's 2017 novel Scarborough, the film centres on the coming of age of Bing, Sylvie and Laura, three young children in a low-income neighbourhood in the Scarborough district of Toronto, as they learn the value of community, passion and resilience over the course of a school year through an after-school program led by childhood educator Ms. Hina.
Chandler Levack is a Canadian writer, director, and filmmaker.
Michèle Maheux is a Canadian film industry executive, who served as the executive director and chief operating officer of the Toronto International Film Festival from 1998 to 2019.
To Kill a Tiger is a 2022 Hindi-language Canadian documentary film, directed by Nisha Pahuja. The film centres on a family in Jharkhand, India, who are campaigning for justice after their teenage daughter was brutally raped.
Nightalk is a 2022 Canadian thriller drama film, directed by Donald Shebib. It stars Ashley Bryant as Brenda, a police officer investigating the murder of a young woman; after learning that the woman was active on an online dating application called Nightalk, she joins the application under cover only to be drawn into a relationship with Tom, the primary suspect.
Madison Thomas is an independent film and television writer and director from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She is most noted for her 2022 documentary film Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On.
Saqpinaq Carol Kunnuk is an Inuk actress and filmmaker from Canada, noted for her work with both Arnait Video Productions and Isuma Studios.
Brigitte Berman is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, most noted for her 1985 film Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got.
Ali Weinstein is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, most noted for her 2024 film Your Tomorrow, which documents the last year Ontario Place was open to the public before closing in 2024 for redevelopment.