The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled 42 short films to feature as part of its Short Cuts program in September, led by the Riz Ahmed-starrer Dammi and Redlights, toplined by Kaniehtiio Horn and Ellyn Jade.
Oscar-nominated Ahmed (Sound of Metal) toplines Dammi, a short directed by French auteur Yann Mounir Demange and set to world premiere in Locarno before landing in Toronto. The film also stars Isabelle Adjani, Souheila Yacoub, Sandor Funtek and Suzy Bemba and is produced by AMI, the French fashion brand, which teased a trailer for the film in Cannes.
Demange has TV series credits that include Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Dead Set, and movie credits like ’71 and White Boy Rick. Renee Zhan, who earned the Jury Award for best animated short at Sundance in 2019 with Reneepoptosis, will get a world premiere in Toronto for ‘Shé’ (Snake).
And Eva Thomas, an associate producer on Denis Goulet’s sci-fi indigenous drama Night Raiders, has her short film Redlights booked into Short Cuts, as it stars Reservation Dogs actor Horn and Jade, who played Shania in Letterkenny. Elsewhere, Mackenzie Davis, best known for roles in Halt and Catch Fire and Black Mirror, directed the horror short Woaca, which stars Borgen lead Sidse Babett Knudsen.
Also headed to Toronto is a North American premiere for The Passing from directors Ivete Lucas and Patrick Xavier Bresnan, which will also bow in Locarno; and Marielle Dalpe’s Aphasia, an animated National Film Board of Canada short that pulls viewers into a disconcerting sensory experience that afflicts many people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Other animated films in Short Cuts this year include Anne Buda’s 27 Flóra, which earned the short film Palme d’Or at Cannes; Electra, director Daria Kashcheeva’s follow-up to Daughter, an Oscar nominee for best animated short, This is TMI, by India’s Subarna Dash and Vidushi Gupta; and Mboa Matanda by Cameroon’s Jules Kalla Eyango.
The Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 7-17.
A complete list of narrative, documentary and animated shorts in the Short Cuts program follows:
Program 1
Dammi, Yann Mounir Demange | France North American Premiere
La Perra, Carla Melo Gampert | Colombia/France North American Premiere
Been There, Corina Schwingruber Ilić | Switzerland International Premiere
Primetime Mother, Sonny Calvento | Philippines/Singapore World Premiere
Meteor, Atefeh Khademolreza | Canada World Premiere
Nun or Never! Heta Jäälinoja | Finland North American Premiere
Gaby’s Hills, Zoé Pelchat | Canada North American Premiere
Program 2
Fár, Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter | Iceland North American Premiere
The Skates, Halima Ouardiri | Canada World Premiere
Bloom, Kasey Lum | Canada World Premiere
Nada de todo esto, Francisco Cantón, Patricio Martínez | Argentina/Spain/USA North American Premiere
1001 Nights, Rea Rajčić | Croatia World Premiere
Redlights, Eva Thomas | Canada World Premiere
Electra, Daria Kashcheeva | Czech Republic/France/Slovakia North American Premiere
Program 3
This is TMI, Subarna Dash, Vidushi Gupta | India International Premiere
Titanic, Suitable Version for Iranian Families, Farnoosh Samadi | Iran/France World Premiere
All the Days of May, Miryam Charles | Canada Canadian Premiere
Bird Ana, Cristina Barragán | Ecuador/Spain World Premiere
Aftercare, Anubha Momin | Canada World Premiere
Shé (Snake), Renee Zhan | United Kingdom World Premiere
Human Resources, Trinidad Plass Caussade, Titouan Tillier, Isaac Wenzek | France Canadian Premiere
Making Babies, Eric K. Boulianne | Canada North American Premiere
Program 4
Alberto and the Beast, John Paul Lopez-Ali | USA World Premiere
Mboa Matanda, Jules Kalla Eyango | Cameroon World Premiere
Mothers and Monsters, Edith Jorisch | Canada World Premiere
Express, Ivan D. Ossa | Canada World Premiere
Baigal Nuur – Lake Baikal, Alisi Telengut | Germany/Canada North American Premiere
The Passing, Ivete Lucas, Patrick Xavier Bresnan | USA North American Premiere
Program 5
Woaca, Mackenzie Davis | United Kingdom World Premiere
A Bird Called Memory, Leonardo Martinelli | Brazil/United Kingdom North American Premiere
Sawo Matang, Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto | Canada/Indonesia/USA World Premiere
Aphasia, Marielle Dalpé | Canada World Premiere
Ever Since, I Have Been Flying, Aylin Gökmen | Switzerland International Premiere
I Used to Live There, Ryan McKenna | Canada North American Premiere
This is Not About Swimming, Marni Van Dyk | Canada World Premiere
Program 6
27 Flóra, Anna Buda | France/Hungary North American Premiere
Xie Xie, Ollie, James Michael Chiang | Canada World Premiere
The Heart, Malia Ann | USA International Premiere
6 Minutes Per Kilometer, Catherine Boivin | Canada Toronto Premiere
Modern Goose, Karsten Wall | Canada World Premiere
Sheephead, Spencer Creigh | USA International Premiere
Motherland, Jasmin Mozaffari | Canada World Premiere
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