In a group of short films, these are three of those films that will have their debut at The Toronto International Film Festival this year. I was sent the press release for each of the films.
I am happy to share them with you below:
TIFF 2020:
World Premiere
Short Cuts,
The Revisionist Arthouse Short,
Sinking Ship,
From Director Sasha Leigh Henry
Toronto. August 25, 2020. Everyday, People partners Sasha Leigh Henry and Tania Thompson and co-producer Megan McCartney are pleased to announce their debut project, the razor romcom short film, Sinking Ship, will have its world premiere at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. Sinking Ship, which stars Jenny Brizard (The Boys, Diggstown, Handmaid's Tale) and Herschel Andoh (Code 8, Umbrella Academy, Out of Time), is directed by Henry (Bitches Love Brunch (directing), The Lockpicker (producing) and written by Thompson (The Lockpicker, Rake, Unearthed (producing)). The film is produced by Henry, Thompson, and Megan McCartney (Young Inventors, Plant Positive).
Sinking Ship is a hyper-stylized look at a changing relationship between a man and a woman hitting their early forties. While out for drinks, a couple finds themselves in an intellectual discussion of how they feel about each other. Their clinical honesty is contrasted by the restaurant’s massive mural of open waters behind them that conveys the emotional truth of the state of their relationship. The ship is sinking, and it’s every person for themselves.
Creating under the banner Everyday, People, director Sasha Leigh Henry and writer Tania Thompson share, “We want to make films to broaden the scope of what’s possible for women on screen, especially Black women."
Henry adds, "I was compelled to direct Sinking Ship because of the nuanced way the script approached attraction and age and the opportunity to break convention by casting a Black couple at the center of it. Honest conversations are hard. They can feel surreal. Sometimes the truth is what sinks a relationship.”
Thompson continues, "There is this thing that often happens to women as they hit their forties: they start to give no fucks. I wanted to write a smart, funny film about the changing dynamics in an adult relationship, a film that looked at how attraction is often based on power arrangements that are unnoticeable and unproblematic until the power starts to shift.”
Cinematography by Nick Haight (Baroness Von Sketch Show, Mary Goes Round, How to Buy a Baby), costumes by Jasmine Nichols (Bring Out Your Dead, An Assortment of Christmas Tales in No Particular Order), production design by Shazia Mawani (Do Something With Your Life), editing by Alexander Carson (O, Brazen Age, Numbers & Friends), and VFX by award-winner Prasanna Paul (Beyond Hell, Suicide Squad, Hellmouth)
Sinking Ship is proudly made with funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
Succor,
the Sixth Project from Writer/Director Hannah Cheesman,
Secures World Premiere at TIFF 2020.
Toronto. August 25, 2020. Aiken Heart Films (Coral Aiken) and The Long Reach Company (Hannah Cheesman) are very pleased to announce that their short film, the dark BFF rom-com Succor, will have its world premiere at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. Succor written and directed by actor-turned-writer/director, Cheesman, stars 2018 TIFF Rising Star Michaela Kurimsky (Firecrackers, A Fire in the Cold Season), 2015 TIFF Rising Star Deragh Campbell (Anne at 13,000 Feet, MS Slavic 7), Farhang Ghajar (The Merry Wives of Windsor, Capture Kill Release) and Ishan Davé (Kim's Convenience, Slasher) and is produced by Coral Aiken, and Hannah Cheesman, with Erik Buckland and Nimble Content (Andrew Lynch and Michael Corbiere) serving as Executive Producers.
Heartbroken after a bad breakup, Angie (Kurimsky) finds comfort in her best friend Abigail (Campbell), who helps her sign up for a dating app. Angie’s new online suitor, however, is not what he seems.
In addition to developing the feature film version of Succor, Cheesman and Aiken are adapting a feature film version of the novel Boring Girls, by Toronto writer and musician Sara Taylor, a dark and bloody quest through the heavy metal scene.
"Succor has been a career highlight -- a marriage of creative minds between myself and fellow producer Coral Aiken -- and fearless, thought-provoking performances by Tiff Rising Stars Deragh Campbell and Michaela Kurimsky. Serving perhaps as a cautionary tale, it also paints the portrait of a female friendship and its intimate, yet troubling, intricacies. This short is a fantastic jumping-off point for our forthcoming feature film by the same name," said Cheesman.
Producer Coral Aiken added, "Succor is darkly funny, wry, and chilling. It gets under your skin in the best possible way. Hannah Cheesman is one to watch as a director; she's collaborative, and smart, bold, and funny."
Cinematography by John Ker (Quantom, Adventures in Casting), production design by Cordelia D'Amboise (Hey Lady!), costume design by Mara Zigler (American Woman, Mouthpiece), editing by Lindsay Allikas (Through Black Spruce) with a music score by Alaska B (Through Black Spruce).
Found Me,
the 6th Film from Writer/Director David Finlay,
to Have World Premiere at TIFF 2020
Toronto. August 25, 2020. David Findlay is thrilled to announce that his newest short film, a budding sapling reaching through drama, Found Me, will have its world premiere at TIFF 2020. Shot in Quebec City in the dead of winter, Found Me stars newcomer and director's friend, Michel Poudrier and Nahéma Ricci (Antigone, Canadian Screen Award for Performance in a Leading Role 2020, TIFF Rising Star, 2019).
Found Me is produced by Joaquin Cardoner (Guts, Riggers), Livia Pizzamiglio Dion of La Raffinerie, and executive produced by Céline Ceillier (Et Nous) of Les Enfants with Neel Gupta and Ariel Ho Kjaer serving as Co-Producers while Paris-based production company Control Films served as Associate Producers.
In his late twenties, Mitch, a socially-adjusted, stand-up guy with a steady girlfriend and a modest home, is also an oddball. His life takes an unexpected turn when he unwittingly stumbles upon the underground world of amateur wrestling at the local community centre.
"My views on wrestling weren’t exactly favourable prior to discovering its Quebec City underground community two years ago. Cheap entertainment for a gullible crowd is what I thought, naively. To my surprise, within mere instances of experiencing the event in person, I was taken, hooked— by the rawness of the theatrics, its high-voltage energy, and by the palpable collective suspension of disbelief. The event stayed with me until a year later, I heard the song Found Me by Men I Trust. The emotions and thoughts provoked by the track were ones of beauty found in the mundane, of self-realization in the least obvious ways, and of the celebration of the normal, of the multitudes of shades of grey we inhabit and overlook on a daily basis — all in the somber dead of February of my and Men I Trust’s hometown of Quebec City. I wrote the leading role for my friend Mitch, a non-actor whose demeanour and artistic sensibilities I felt drawn to and inspired by. Being close to him, I was confident in his inherent, yet newly discovered acting abilities and my directing of non-actors to render a truer-than-true performance in which viewers could see themselves. In an intimate portrait of an uber-relatable any-man, I wanted to convey every person’s need to realize themselves - to reach their full transcendent self - however big, small, normal or bizarre their desire for self-expression may be - listening to that sense of truth that comes from within," said Findlay.
Cinematography by Farhad Ghaderi (To You Alone, Odd Girl, The Good Fight), production design by Elizabeth Cairns (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, Never Steady, Never Still), editing by Alexander Farah (Gong Ju, Cypher, Sahar), and sound design by multi-award-winner Mitchell Allen (Computer Creed, Backward Fall).