TIFF's Discovery, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths programmes unveil engaging, groundbreaking titles from all over the globe

TORONTO — The Toronto International Film Festival® is delighted to announce today the 2022 selection for Discovery, Midnight Madness, and Wavelengths programmes. This robust lineup features 54 titles from filmmakers representing 26 countries.

“For TIFF audiences in the know, the Discovery, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths programmes are where you’re rewarded for taking risks and being adventurous,” offered Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF. “Whether it’s the discovery of an audacious new auteur, a brilliant visionary work that reimagines storytelling or the most wicked cinematic experience you will ever have, this is where you will find it.”

DISCOVERY

“TIFF’s Discovery programme is a showcase of cinema and talent from around the world — a place to unearth work that is bold, distinctive, and, above all, passionate,” said Dorota Lech, Discovery Lead and International Programmer, TIFF. “The section has a rich history of championing the first and second features of visionary filmmakers such as Chantal Akerman, Julie Dash, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ildikó Enyedi, Jafar Panahi, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Steve McQueen, Michael Haneke, Christopher Nolan, Lav Diaz, Barry Jenkins, Alfonso Cuarón, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Warwick Thornton, Maren Ade, Joachim Trier, David Gordon Green, Pablo Larraín, Valeska Grisebach, and Jean-Marc Vallée, to name just a handful. This year’s robust programme offers 24 films that shook us to the core, filled us with joy, broke our hearts, and, most importantly, reminded us that the future is bright.”

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Aitch Alberto | USA
World Premiere

Baby Ruby
Bess Wohl | USA
World Premiere

Carmen
Benjamin Millepied | Australia, France
World Premiere

Daughter of Rage (La Hija de todas las Rabias)
Laura Baumeister | Nicaragua
World Premiere

A Gaza Weekend
Basil Khalil | United Kingdom, Palestine
World Premiere

I Like Movies
Chandler Levack | Canada 🇨🇦
World Premiere

DISCOVERY OPENING NIGHT FILM
The Inspection
Elegance Bratton | USA
World Premiere

A Long Break
Davit Pirtskhalava | Georgia
World Premiere

Pussy
Joseph Amenta | Canada 🇨🇦
World Premiere

Return to Seoul
Davy Chou | South Korea, France, Germany, Belgium
International Premiere

ROSIE
Gail Maurice | Canada 🇨🇦
World Premiere

Runner
Marian Mathias | USA, France, Germany
World Premiere

SHIMONI
Angela Wanjiku Wamai | Kenya
World Premiere

Snow and the Bear
Selcen Ergun | Turkey, Germany, Serbia
World Premiere

Something You Said Last Night
Luis De Filippis | Canada, Switzerland 🇨🇦
World Premiere

Susie Searches
Sophie Kargman | USA
World Premiere

Sweet As
Jub Clerc | Australia
International Premiere

The Taste of Apples is Red
Ehab Tarabieh | Israel, Germany
World Premiere

This Place
V.T. Nayani | Canada 🇨🇦
World Premiere

Unruly (Ustyrlig)
Malou Reymann | Denmark
World Premiere

Until Branches Bend
Sophie Jarvis | Canada 🇨🇦
World Premiere

When Morning Comes
Kelly Fyffe-Marshall | Canada 🇨🇦
World Premiere

The Young Arsonists
Sheila Pye | Canada 🇨🇦
World Premiere

*** An additional title to be confirmed at a later date

MIDNIGHT MADNESS

“I am thrilled to announce that Midnight Madness has returned to its traditional 10-film configuration and has a new home at the Royal Alexandra Theatre,” said section curator Peter Kuplowsky. “I also couldn’t have hoped for a more appropriate Opening Night film than Weird: The Al Yankovic Story — a beautifully deranged “biopic” made in the great Midnight movie tradition of challenging conventions and forging one’s own path, no matter how weird.”

Starring Daniel Radcliffe as music and comedy legend “Weird Al” Yankovic, the film leads a gonzo Midnight Madness lineup that includes a double dose of gore-filled action (Sisu and Project Wolf Hunting), two wildly surprising new instalments to iconic horror films (Pearl and V/H/S 99), some magnificently meta genre comedies (The Blackening, The People’s Joker, and Leonor Will Never Die), and a few killer creative horror team-ups (John Hyams and Kevin Williamson’s Sick, Jaume Balagueró and Álex de la Iglesia’s Venus).

Concluding, Kuplowsky added: “This year, fans of the weird and the wicked will be spending most their TIFF living in a Midnight Madness paradise.”

The Blackening
Tim Story | USA
World Premiere

MIDNIGHT MADNESS CLOSING NIGHT FILM
Leonor Will Never Die
Martika Ramirez Escobar | Philippines
Canadian Premiere

Pearl
Ti West | USA
North American Premiere

The People’s Joker
Vera Drew | USA
World Premiere

Project Wolf Hunting
Kim Hongsun | South Korea
World Premiere

Sick
John Hyams | USA
World Premiere

Sisu
Jalmari Helander | Finland
World Premiere

Venus
Jaume Balagueró | Spain
World Premiere

V/H/S 99
Flying Lotus, Johannes Roberts, Maggie Levin, Tyler MacIntyre, Vanessa & Joseph Winter | USA
World Premiere

MIDNIGHT MADNESS OPENING NIGHT FILM
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Eric Appel | USA
World Premiere

WAVELENGTHS

“The selections in this year’s Wavelengths lineup reimagine the possibilities of cinema in ways both inspiring and rejuvenating,” said Senior Curator Andréa Picard. “The programme itself continues to champion film as art in a climate increasingly challenging for non-commercial and non-conforming work. The filmmakers and artists in this year’s edition expand the language of film and video, employing narrative, documentary, hybrid, and formalist approaches to assert film’s status as an autonomous art form and the cinema itself as an essential, communal experience.”

Showcasing a mix of established auteurs, celebrated visual artists, and emerging filmmakers, this year’s Wavelengths presents eight features, two shorts programmes, and an exhibition, placing timeless, durational works alongside projects of the utmost contemporary urgency — each political by nature of its very existence and, by extension, resistance. Additionally, we are honoured to present a number of important moving-image works from recent gallery and museum exhibitions in the cinema, including an exceptional theatrical screening of Tacita Dean’s latest 16mm film, Fata Morgana. Another of this year’s highlights includes the first Canadian solo exhibition of Brooklyn-based Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani in an exciting partnership with The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and The Vega Foundation. Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS will be exhibited free to the public at The Power Plant from September 9 through 18.

FEATURES

Concrete Valley
Antoine Bourges | Canada 🇨🇦
World Premiere

De Humani Corporis Fabrica
Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor | France, Switzerland
North American Premiere

Dry Ground Burning (Mato Seco em Chamas)
Joana Pimenta, Adirley Queirós | Portugal, Brazil
North American Premiere

Horse Opera
Moyra Davey | USA
Festival Premiere

Pacifiction
Albert Serra | France, Spain, Germany, Portugal
North American Premiere

Queens of the Qing Dynasty
Ashley McKenzie | Canada 🇨🇦
North American Premiere

Unrest (Unrueh)
Cyril Schäublin | Switzerland
North American Premiere

Will-o’-the-Wisp (Fogo-Fátuo)
João Pedro Rodrigues | Portugal, France
North American Premiere


SHORTS

After Work
Céline Condorelli, Ben Rivers | United Kingdom
North American Premiere

Bigger on the Inside
Angelo Madsen Minax | USA
World Premiere

EVENTIDE
Sharon Lockhart | USA
World Premiere

F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now
Fox Maxy | Mesa Grande Reservation/USA
Festival Premiere

Fata Morgana
Tacita Dean | United Kingdom, USA
Festival Premiere

Hors-titre
Wiame Haddad | France
North American Premiere

I Thought the World of You
Kurt Walker | Canada 🇨🇦
North American Premiere

Moonrise
Vincent Grenier | USA, Canada 🇨🇦
World Premiere

The Newest Olds
Pablo Mazzolo | Argentina, Canada 🇨🇦
World Premiere

Puerta a Puerta
Jessica Sarah Rinland, Luis Arnías | Mexico, USA, Venezuela
International Premiere

The Time That Separates Us
Parastoo Anoushahpour | Canada, Jordan, Palestine 🇨🇦
World Premiere

What Rules the Invisible
Tiffany Sia | USA
North American Premiere


EXHIBITIONS

Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS (2022) and 2 Lizards (2020)
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, September 9–18
Free Admission
Presented in partnership with The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and The Vega Foundation.

For more information, please see tiff.net.