TIFF 2022: Discovery, Midnight Madness, and Wavelengths Lineups

The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) unveiled the Discovery, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths lineups.

The newest TIFF lineup selections account for 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 program 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 program 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
The Inspection Elegance Bratton | USA, World Premiere (Discovery Opening Night Film)
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 of their TIFF living in a Midnight Madness paradise.”

The Blackening Tim Story | USA, World Premiere
Leonor Will Never Die Martika Ramirez Escobar | Philippines, Canadian Premiere (Midnight Madness Closing Night Film)
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
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Eric Appel | USA, World Premiere (Midnight Madness Opening Night Film)

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 program 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 programs, 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 honored 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

Exhibition

Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS (2022) and 2 Lizards (2020)

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, September 9–18, Free AdmissionPresented in partnership with The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and The Vega Foundation.