Getting Ready for Canada’s Top Ten

Today marks the start of TIFF’s yearly showcase of the ten best Canadian films from last year, happening for the first time at the Bell Lightbox.  The obvious headliner of this year’s list is Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies, which won Best Canadian Film at last year’s Festival and was just announced to be on the Oscar shortlist for a Best Foreign-language Film nomination.

Here is the full list and screening times (for films I already saw, I will also link to my old reviews).

Features:

• Incendies (Denis Villeneuve): January 20 – 6:30pm, January 21 – 12:30pm (continues as a regular release following these screenings)
• Curling (Denis Côté): January 20 – 9:00pm, January 21 – 3:15pm
• The High Cost of Living (Deborah Chow): January 21 – 9:00pm, January 23 – 12:30pm, January 29 – 9:00pm
• Modra (Ingrid Veninger): January 24 – 6:30pm, January 25 – 12:30pm
• Last Train Home (Lixin Fan): January 24 – 9:00pm, January 25 – 3:15pm, January 28 – 6:30pm
• Trois temps après la mort d’Anna (Mourning for Anna) (Catherine Martin): January 25 – 9:00pm, January 26 – 3:15pm
• Les Amours imaginaires (Heartbeats) (Xavier Dolan): January 26 – 9:00pm, January 30 – 3:15pm
• Splice (Vincenzo Natali): January 27 – 3:15pm, February 1 – 6:00pm
• Trigger (Bruce McDonald): January 27 – 9:00pm, January 28 – 3:15pm
• Barney’s Version (Richard J. Lewis): Not playing the the Lightbox, since it’s currently in wide release.

Shorts Programme 1: January 22 – 6:30pm:

• Les fleurs de l’âge (Little Flowers) (Vincent Biron)
• Lipsett Diaries (Les Journaux de Lipsett) (Theodore Ushev)
• Mokhtar (Halima Ouardiri)
• Above the Knee (Greg Atkins)
• The Legend of Beaver Dam (Jerome Sable)

Shorts Programme 2: January 22 – 9:00pm

• I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors (Ann Marie Fleming)
• Vapor (Kaveh Nabatian)
• On the Way to Sea (Qu Da Hai De Lu Shang) (Tao Gu)
• Marius Borodine (Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais)
• The Little White Cloud That Cried (Guy Maddin)

Panel Discussion – The Ins and Outs of Casting – January 21 – 6:30pm

For my “Canada’s Top Ten” experience, I will be seeing Incendies, as well as Shorts Programme 1.  I will make sure to post my thoughts on both following the screenings. 

This will be a great showcase on the best in Canadian film and I advise you check it out.