Dissatisfied with his new life (and wife), a man tries to insinuate himself back into the home of the ex-wife and daughter he left ten years before, in this heartwarming and hilarious comedy-drama from Uruguayan director Pablo Stoll Ward (25 Watts, Whisky).
Director Eva Sørhaug (Cold Lunch) reveals the rage and violence lurking beneath seemingly tranquil domesticity in her bold and uncompromising sophomore feature.
Reunited after years apart, childhood sweethearts William and Janne are forced to confront the dark secrets of their past-and the menacing presence of William's pathologically jealous brother — in this haunting story from celebrated Norwegian director Sara Johnsen.
An obsessed scholar attempts to withdraw from the world but finds personal ties drawing him back into the family he had left behind, in this novelistic, beautifully modulated drama from acclaimed Québécois filmmaker Bernard Émond.
A modern-day Sisyphus fable manifests itself as punishment by gluttony when a dysfunctional family meets over Sunday brunch.
In 1994, Grade 5 student Lewis Bennett got into a schoolyard fight that resulted in a stern warning from his principal. "Change your ways, or you'll end up in an Asian gang." Seventeen years later, Bennett (still Caucasian) revisits his past in this comedic documentary to determine if he took a wrong turn along the way.
Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham star in this drama from acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, Goodbye Solo), about a rebellious son whose dreams of becoming a professional race-car driver are derailed when his father's farming empire becomes the target of a high-stakes investigation.
When three estranged sisters reunite for their domineering mother's birthday bash, old wounds open and conflicts rise to the surface, in the powerful and daring new film from Jesper Ganslandt (The Ape).
Montreal filmmaker Rafaël Ouellet (Le Cèdre penché, Derrière moi) returns to the Festival with this affecting, finely crafted drama about a working-class family that reconnects in the wake of a fatal road accident.
A young woman's act of defiance becomes a flashpoint for controversy when a video of the incident goes viral, in this prescient drama about cyber-bullying from celebrated director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine).
An ambitious Lebanese-American youth is forced to take over his family’s gas station after his father’s death, in this spirited and often hilarious coming-of-age tale from first-time feature director Rola Nashef.
After losing their restaurant in a fire, a husband and wife come up with a strange plan to rebuild their shattered finances: marrying the husband off to a series of lonely women and defrauding them.
In a small Guatemalan village where many were "disappeared" during the country's civil war, a troubled young man struggles with the memory of his murdered father — and the nearby presence of the man who turned his father in — in this moving drama from director Julio Hernández Cordón.
A young Eastern European immigrant working in Sweden is faced with a painful choice when she's laid off from her factory in the name of "efficiencies." This film by Gabriela Pichler is possibly the most exciting and emotionally acute first feature to emerge from Sweden in well over a decade.
Legendary Indian actress Sridevi returns to the screen after a fifteen-year absence in this funny and touching story about an Indian woman who struggles to learn the English language in order to overcome her insecurities.
A reclusive bear musician forges an unlikely friendship with a young orphaned mouse in this beautiful, traditionally animated film based on the beloved children's books by Belgian author Gabrielle Vincent.
Pixar's Academy Award®–winning, beloved modern classic — about an overprotective clownfish's quest to find his missing son — is given a dazzling 3-D makeover.
With great wit and insight, New York City filmmaker Nina Davenport documents her quest to have a baby as a single mother over forty. Davenport's film taps into the zeitgeist topic of how the modern family is being re-imagined.
Serenely resigned to his impending death but deeply afraid at the prospect of being cremated, an elderly carpenter seeks to have his last wishes carried out in this gentle, beautifully realized drama from director Li Ruijun.
Ethereal aerial images of suburban sprawl, expressways and floating horizons frame this impressionistic portrait of Robin, a pilot who finds solace in his daily routines as a way to delay the pain of recent news from his family overseas. Sophie Goyette returns to the Festival with her follow-up to Manèges and La Ronde.
Cinematic legends Jeanne Moreau, Claudia Cardinale and Michael Lonsdale star in the new film from legendary Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira.
Known by locals for his uncanny ability to fix anything, mechanic Ricardo's reputation brings a curious young boy to his doorstep with a broken toy. Strong performances and a sensitive script highlight this drama about second chances.
A recovering alcoholic travels to the untamed coast of Patagonia to reconnect with his estranged daughter in this gentle yet deeply resonant drama from Argentine writer-director Carlos Sorin.
Clara's solitary life is turned upside-down when she inherits a disobedient pug from her late spinster aunt. But learning to live with man's best friend might teach her a few new tricks.
A couple is relieved when their children return after disappearing near some mysterious caves while on vacation in Tijuana — but it soon becomes clear that a terrible change has taken place within them.
Two middle-aged pals rekindle their passion for their spouses — or rather, each other’s spouses — while on a tropical holiday, in this sexy and funny erotic romp from Czech director Jan Hřebejk (Divided We Fall).
A star-studded cast — including Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, CeeLo Green and Andy Samberg — lend their voices to this delightfully spooky animated tale about Count Dracula's efforts to keep his rebellious 118-year-old daughter from leaving home by throwing a monster birthday bash.
Mads Mikkelsen won the Best Actor prize at Cannes for his performance as an innocent man accused of child molestation in this ferociously powerful new film by Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration).
An estranged father and son are brought together by a young crane named Karl as they trace a family of birds on their migratory journey from Russia to Africa.
When Pinaskin Ottawa disappeared from Manawan, Québec, no one saw him leave. His brother struggles to not lose hope, looking for clues and continuing his search. Stark images of a winter landscape scattered with fragments of human existence emphasize this poetic and chilling tale of loss.
Kristen Wiig, Annette Bening and Matt Dillon headline this hilarious comedy about a washed-up playwright who, after faking her own suicide as a ploy to get her ex-boyfriend's attention, winds up remanded to the custody of her wackily dysfunctional family.
In this dark love triangle that proceeds with the inexorable logic of a Greek tragedy, a dedicated wife in a small Vietnamese fishing village secretly turns to another man when her husband is unable to give her the child they both crave — but the surrogate father's crazed jealousy will have fateful consequences.
An unsuspecting family man is sucked into the bizarre and byzantine web of the Sicilian underground in this wryly comic and ravishingly shot first solo feature from acclaimed Italian director and cinematographer Daniele Ciprì.
A top-notch cast — including Robert Duvall, Kevin Bacon and John Hurt — star alongside writer-director Billy Bob Thornton in this drama set in 1969 Alabama, about the culture clash between two families — one American, one British-brought together by the death of a loved one.
Korean director Kang Yi-kwan evokes such troubled-youth classics as Rebel Without a Cause, The 400 Blows and L’enfance nue in this beautifully rendered character study of a fifteen-year-old boy struggling to stay on the straight and narrow.
When a Marshallese family man living in Kona, Hawaii is diagnosed with stomach cancer, he keeps his illness a secret and resolves to pay off his family’s debts before his death.
Prolific Japanese director Sion Sono departs from his usual style for this movingly restrained drama of a rural family's struggle to survive in the aftermath of the Tōhoku earthquake and the resulting nuclear crisis.
A teenage metalhead living in a remote community in the Northwest Territories grapples with the challenges of adolescence in this affecting adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel by Richard Van Camp.
In this coming of age comedy life for Esther Weary includes her well-intentioned grandpa, friends that suck, and a deeply depressing birthday. Gordon Pinsent and Jade Aspros star in this modern story of teenage angst.
A young boy comes of age in a Mumbai slum while dealing with his long-suffering mother and violent father, in this gently observational portrait crafted in the tradition of the great neorealist classics.
In the new film by controversial Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk, a brutal man in the employ of a loan shark is forced to reconsider his violent lifestyle when a mysterious woman appears claiming to be his long-lost mother. But, as his attachment to her grows, he begins to discover the gruesome and tragic secret that made her seek him out.
Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes star in this multi-generational crime drama from director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), about a motorcycle stunt rider whose moonlighting a bank robber brings him into conflict with an ambitious young cop.
Maverick director Carlos Reygadas presents his most ambitious, personal and controversial work yet with this disorienting, kaleidoscopic vision of a family torn between tenderness and violence.
After witnessing a neighbour's embarrassing antics, a bored family man is eager to report the story back to his office chums — but the paranoid neighbour hatches a drastic, bizarre plan to silence him.
A graveside funeral service sets the scene for what becomes a disturbing and fascinating piece of storytelling where looking beyond the surface reveals the deceased's former life.
A sly riff on the Prodigal Son story, Mika Kaurismaki's latest — about a joyless workaholic concert pianist who ends up on a wild ride with his long-lost rapscallion father — is a funny and cogent analysis of machismo, abandonment issues and the value of reconnecting with one's roots.
During the Gulf War, a young Russian girl huddles with her family in a "safe room" in this moving, semi-autobiographical film that offers a child's-eye view of war.
When his grandfather's drive-in cinema and home in the outback town of Wyndham is threatened with demolition, a twelve-year-old Aboriginal boy must journey through Australia's bush country — equipped only with ancient survival skills — to stop the city developers in this beautiful and uplifting adventure epic.
A biography of French surrealist Jean Benoît and an animated plea to free Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi anchor a profoundly cinematic programme of shorts-tied together with incredible art direction, masterful mise-en-scène and imaginative storytelling.
From sexual taboos and young women coming of age to comedic documentaries, this programme asks challenging questions about the consequences of our decisions, taking us from mountainous villages of Vietnam to a small town in Quebec preparing for the apocalypse.
Featuring new works by Mike Clattenberg and Charles Officer, this programme highlights some of Canada's most pressing issues, including city and racial politics, with new insight from dynamic and accomplished filmmakers.
Ambitiously far-reaching in the scope of its subject and ideas, this programme goes from the modern rat race to a portrayal of family grief during the Gulf War, the aftermath of the 2011 Egyptian revolution to a sci-fi vision of survival.
The perennial theme of family is spotlighted in this programme, linking stories of a father seeking to reconnect with his son through antiquated technology, a young Cree girl planning to be a mother, and a 3-D animated documentary about a woman's decision to give up her children.
Opening with Nik Sexton's Newfoundland response to the likes of Fubar and Trailer Park Boys, and going out on the YouTube phenomenon that is Shit Girls Say (new episode!), these riotously funny films make keen observations on how people interact with one another, whether it be at a funeral, a pool, a buffet, or stuck in a canoe, naked.
A pair of sad-sack lovers turns into a frumpy Bonnie and Clyde as their romantic getaway to the English countryside turns into a bloody killing spree, in this gleefully gory laugh riot from the director of the Midnight Madness favourite Kill List.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) and Megan Mullaly (Party Down) star in this story about a perpetually soused first-grade teacher's painful but ultimately triumphant struggle to sober up and remake her life.
Michael McGowan's Still is an exquisitely mounted and deeply affecting love story about one man's determination to create a suitable home for his ailing wife. Veterans James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold are nothing short of magnificent as they mine the subtext in the story of a couple with a deep and complicated past.
Sarah Polley (Away From Her, Take This Waltz) makes her maiden voyage into documentary with this exploration of a family’s secrets, and the varying narratives that each member has created to explain their tangled past.
Ariane is about to leave Val-D'Or for a fresh start in Montreal, while her older brother stays behind at his job in the local mine. But her departure forces them to confront a lingering sexual tension between them, in director Sophie Dupuis' realistic but controversial portrayal of young lust.
When a Toronto man digs through his attic for a VHS, he encounters a distinctly 21st-century problem: how to play it?
The ugly duckling of a fraught middle-class household has her life turned upside-down by the arrival of a handsome German exchange student, in this caustic, absurdist satire of petit-bourgeois family life from Dutch director Michiel ten Horn.
The masterful new documentary from Wang Bing (West of the Tracks) is an intimate, observational portrait of a peasant family who eke out a humble existence in a small village set against the stunning mountain landscapes of China's Yunnan province.
A childless couple eking out a hardscrabble existence on a remote island makes a fateful decision in order to obtain the child they yearn for, in this moving drama from the Cannes-honoured Filipino master Brillante Mendoza (Kinatay).
Actor-director Sergio Castellitto (Don't Move) directs Penélope Cruz and Emile Hirsch in this vivid, full-throttle melodrama about an ill-starred romance set against the backdrop of the siege of Sarajevo.
Rendered in raw, intimiste strokes, these portrait films bask in the paradoxical experience of being an artist whose aspirations belong to this world, as much as beyond. Artists include: Shumona Goel & Shai Heredia, Tito & Tito, Francesca Woodman, Friedl vom Gröller, Vincent Grenier and Festival favourite Nathaniel Dorsky.
In this wistful fantasy, a beautiful teenage girl is sent to a country house for her health, where befriends and attempts to civilize a feral boy she discovers on the grounds — but the beast inside him is constantly waiting to burst out.
Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan star in this modern-day version of the classic Henry James novel from directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel (The Deep End, Bee Season).
Jordan, 1967: displaced to a refugee camp after the occupation of their West Bank village, an eleven-year old boy and his mother enact the emancipating dream that every refugee has imagined countless times, in Annemarie Jacir's passionate and moving follow-up to her prize-winning debut Salt of This Sea.
Inspired by the notorious case of a young man's 2008 murder of six Shanghai police officers, the remarkable new film from independent Chinese auteur Ying Liang focuses on the killer's mother, as she both struggles to comprehend her son's heinous act and is persecuted by a state that willfully ignores its own laws. Winner of the Best Director and Actress awards in Locarno.
A young boy wakes up to the worst day of his life in this dark, Tim Burton–esque comedy about children's fear of disappointment.
Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins, Kristen Bell and Logan Lerman star in this touching comedy-drama about a successful novelist whose obsession with his ex-wife has sent his perplexed family into a tailspin.