The Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled the 2024 selections for the Wavelengths program, and the TIFF Classics program, supported by Ontario Creates and the Canada Council for the Arts. The 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will take place September 5–15.
WAVELENGTHS
Highlighting visionary work from the worlds of international cinema and contemporary art, the Wavelengths program includes a selection of 11 features, three shorts program, and a special in-cinema looped presentation. Intergenerational and regionally diverse, with emerging talents screening alongside legendary peers, the films in this year’s selection range from a two-minute animation to a gripping 14-hour documentary, offering a mix of dazzling formal work, subversive narratives, and boldly political perspectives.
The 2024 Wavelengths program is curated by sr. curator Andréa Picard and associate curator Jesse Cumming, with contributions by Giovanna Fulvi, Nataleah Hunter-Young, and June Kim.
Feature film highlights include a number by esteemed Wavelengths alumni, among them the North American premieres of Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes, The Damned by Roberto Minervini, and Pepe by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias.
Jessica Sarah Rinland also returns to the program with Collective Monologue, alongside the North American Premiere of the queer, controversial Viêt and Nam, by first-time Wavelengths filmmaker Trương Minh Quý. The 14-hour, compulsively watchable exergue–on documenta 14 from Greek filmmaker Dimitris Athiridi will be presented over three screenings.
Short film highlights include the world premieres of Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya by Malena Szlam, and A Black Screen Too by Sobey Prize–nominated Rhayne Vermette, as well as the North American premiere of Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s The Diary of a Sky. A pairing of work by legendary filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and John Smith includes the former’s final film Scénarios, completed just before Godard’s death, and the world premiere of Smith’s wry, moving Being John Smith.
Presented as a rare and special presentation, the program is rounded out by celebrated Egyptian artist Wael Shawky’s Drama 1882. A mesmerizing highlight of this year’s Venice Biennale, the film (re)stages an anti-colonial uprising as a libretto across eight chapters and 45 hypnotic minutes. Drama 1882 will be presented looped in-cinema on Saturday, September 7, and admission will be free.
CLASSICS
TIFF Classics reunites audiences with iconic films from visionary filmmakers such as Srinivas Krishna, Raj Kapoor, and Atom Egoyan. Two newly restored international discoveries include Shahid Sohrab Saless’ Time of Maturity, and Lino Brocka’s Bona. In celebration of the centenary of auteur Raj Kapoor, known as The Greatest Showman of Indian Cinema, TIFF Classics presents the world premiere 4K restoration of one of his most acclaimed films, Awāra, which he directs and stars in.
Continuing TIFF’s year-long spotlight on Toronto New Wave filmmakers, Classics is screening the 4K restoration of Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter; and Srinivas Krishna’s Masala, a restoration that was made possible through Canadian Cinema – Reignited, a Telefilm Canada initiative, in partnership with TIFF. Lastly, Classics is honored to present the world premiere of the new 4K restoration of legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman’s documentary Essene.
The 2024 Classics program is programmed by Robyn Citizen, TIFF’s director of programming, and Andréa Picard.
Wavelengths Features 2024 (in alphabetical order):
Collective Monologue [Monólogo colectivo]
Jessica Sarah Rinland | Argentina/United Kingdom
North American Premiere
Sales Title
exergue – on documenta 14
Dimitris Athiridis | Greece
North American Premiere
Sales Title
Grand Tour
Miguel Gomes | Portugal/Italy/France/Germany/Japan/China
North American Premiere
Lázaro at Night [Lázaro de noche]
Nicolás Pereda | Canada/Mexico
North American Premiere
Sales Title
Pepe
Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias | Dominican Republic/Germany/France/Namibia
North American Premiere
Sales Title
Perfumed with Mint [Moattar binanaa]
Muhammed Hamdy | Egypt/France/Tunisia/Qatar
North American Premiere
Sales Title
The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire
Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich | USA
Canadian Premiere
Sales Title
The Damned
Roberto Minervini | Italy/USA/Belgium
North American Premiere
Sales Title
Viêt and Nam
Trương Minh Quý | Philippines/Singapore/France/Netherlands/Italy/Germany/Vietnam
North American Premiere
Youth (Hard Times) [Qing Chun (Ku)]
Wang Bing | France/Luxembourg/Netherlands
North American Premiere
Luminaries
Youth (Homecoming) [Qing Chun (Gui)]
Wang Bing | France/Luxembourg/Netherlands
North American Premiere
Luminaries
Wavelengths Special Presentation 2024:
Drama 1882 Wael Shawky | Egypt
Festival Premiere
Wavelengths Shorts 2024:
WAVELENGTHS 1: EYE & EAR CONTROL
Revolving Rounds Johann Lurf, Christina Jauernik | Austria
North American Premiere
The Diary of a Sky
Lawrence Abu Hamdan | Lebanon
North American Premiere
Sales Title
October Noon [Octubre al mediodía]
Francisco Rodríguez Teare | Chile/France
World Premiere
Sales Title
A Black Screen Too
Rhayne Vermette | Canada
World Premiere
Sales Title
Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya
Malena Szlam | Canada/Australia/Chile
World Premiere
WAVELENGTHS 2: RIDE THE WAVE
Someplace in Your Mouth
Beatrice Gibson, Nick Gordon | Italy
International Premiere
Sales Title
Notes of a Crocodile
Daphne Xu | Cambodia/China/Canada
World Premiere
Sales Title
Adrift Potentials [Potenciais à deriva]
Leonardo Pirondi | Brazil/USA
North American Premiere
Sales Title
Go Between
Chris Kennedy | Canada/Australia
World Premiere
Sales Title
The Sojourn
Tiffany Sia | USA
Canadian Premiere
Sales Title
WAVELENGTHS 3: EXPOSÉ(S) – JEAN-LUC GODARD/JOHN SMITH
Scénarios
Jean-Luc Godard | France/Japan
North American Premiere
Sales Title
Exposé du film annonce du film “Scénario”
Jean-Luc Godard | France/Japan
North American Premiere
Sales Title
Being John Smith
John Smith | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales Title
Classics Program 2024 (in alphabetical order):
Awāra
Raj Kapoor | India
Bona
Lino Brocka | Philippines
Essene
Frederick Wiseman | USA
Masala
Srinivas Krishna | Canada
The Sweet Hereafter
Atom Egoyan | Canada
Time of Maturity [Reifezeit]
Sohrab Shahid Saless | Germany
