The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) returns to cinemas September 5, showcasing films from around the world through September 15. We have selected the festival’s 20 science or technology-themed projects, organized by section, with descriptions quoted from the festival programmers.
The festival’s 49th edition also marks its second year in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. On September 9, the second annual Sloan Science and Technology Project Pitch will take place, offering writers the opportunity to participate in a non-competitive pitch of a science or technology-related feature film screenplay to a live audience of industry decision-makers.
The partnership also includes the Sloan Science on Film Showcase, which spotlights one science-forward title from the festival. Among the films listed below, Nacho Vigalondo’s DANIELA FOREVER is the 2024 showcase selection, which stars Henry Golding as a grief-stricken man who utilizes lucid dreaming to reconnect with a lost loved one. The September 7 screening will be followed by a conversation with director Nacho Vigalondo and a yet-to-be-announced scientific expert on the neuroscience behind lucid dreaming.
Sloan Science & Film will be covering TIFF, so stay tuned for features and interviews on many of the titles below.
CENTREPIECE
ADDITION. Dir. Marcelle Lunam. World Premiere. “A mathematician struggles to balance her compulsive counting habit (and imaginary friendship with Nikola Tesla) with a budding romance in this charming adaptation of Toni Jordan’s bestselling novel.”
AN UNFINISHED FILM. Dir. Lou Ye. North American Premiere. “Lou Ye recalls the days of the Chinese lockdown through a hybrid of documentary, web videos from the COVID era, and fragments from his past films, spinning a powerful drama in recognition of a nation’s collective trauma.”
CLOUD. Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa. North American Premiere. “Kiyoshi Kurosawa's CLOUD is a suspenseful thriller in which a young internet reseller, Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) ignites a cyber-fueled storm of malice. Blurring digital and physical threats, it’s a chilling dive into the dark side of modern connectivity.”
HAPPYEND. Dir. Neo Sora. North American Premiere. “This beautifully crafted fiction feature debut from director Neo Sora transports us to a near-future Tokyo, a city on high alert for cataclysmic earthquakes and moving dangerously close to applying total surveillance to its public spaces.”
DISCOVERY
SEEDS. Dir. Kaniehtiio Horn. World Premiere. “Just as budding influencer Ziggy (Kaniehtiio Horn) lands a new client, a seed and fertilizer company called Nature’s Oath, and starts making content for them, she is called back to her community to house- sit for her aunt. As a shadowy figure follows her, Ziggy must protect herself, and her aunt’s cache of seeds.”
U ARE THE UNIVERSE. Dir. Pavlo Ostrikov. World Premiere. “After 150 years of using nuclear energy, humanity has accumulated more than 3 billion tons of waste, held in temporary storage facilities [. . . ] due to an increasing number of earthquakes, radiation is destroying life on the planet. Aboard a cargo ship named Obriy, Andriy is on a four-year round-trip mission to transport nuclear waste from Earth to Jupiter’s moon Callisto.”
GALA PRESENTATIONS
THE SHROUDS. Dir. David Cronenberg. North American Premiere. “Still grieving the loss of his wife, a technological entrepreneur (Vincent Cassel) finds what’s left of his world collapsing into a nightmare of sex, paranoia, and grief in David Cronenberg’s most personal film.”
THE WILD ROBOT. Dir. Chris Sanders. World Premiere. “Featuring the voices of Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Lupita Nyong’o, Stephanie Hsu, and Bill Nighy, this DreamWorks Animation sci-fi adventure follows a robot designed to assist humans who finds herself stranded on an island populated exclusively by beasts.”
MIDNIGHT MADNESS
ELSE. Dir. Thibault Emin. World Premiere. “Thibault Emin’s mesmerizing debut feature intimately depicts a body-horror romance in the wake of a strange epidemic that causes the infected to melt into their surroundings.”
PLATFORMS
DANIELA FOREVER. Dir. Nacho Vigalondo. World Premiere. “In the latest from Nacho Vigalondo (COLOSSAL), Henry Golding (CRAZY RICH ASIANS) soulfully portrays a bereaved man who enrolls in a clinical trial for a drug that allows him to reunite with his lost lover (Beatrice Grannò) through lucid dreams.”
Still from DANIELA FOREVER. Courtesy of TIFF.
THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT. Dir. Gabrielle Brady. World Premiere. “After a devastating storm wrought by climate change forces them from their home in the Mongolian countryside to the city, a young couple are forced to adapt to a new way of life in this breathtaking and heartbreaking hybrid film.”
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
40 ACRES. Dir. R.T. Thorne. World Premiere. “In a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce, the last descendants of a Black family of farmers who settled in Canada after the American Civil War must protect their homestead from a band of hungry cannibals.”
ALL OF YOU. Dir. William Bridges. World Premiere. “Brett Goldstein and Imogen Poots star in a stirring near-futuristic romance as best friends who harbor an unspoken love for one another even after a test matches one of them up with their supposed soulmate.”
CAN I GET A WITNESS?. Dir. Ann Marie Fleming. World Premiere. “Keira Jang, Joel Oulette, and Sandra Oh star in this introspective live-action and animated feature set in the near future when technology and travel are almost completely banned, and nobody is allowed to live past age 50.”
Still from CAN I GET A WITNESS?. Courtesy of TIFF.
SHELL. Dir. Max Minghella. World Premiere. “In this dark comedy and body horror about society’s obsession with youth and good looks, an actress (Elisabeth Moss) challenges a beauty firm CEO (Kate Hudson) over her company’s questionable science.”
THE ASSESSMENT. Dir. Fleur Fortuné. World Premiere. “Set in a future world destroyed by climate change, a couple must pass an assessment before they are allowed to have a child in this sci-fi thriller starring Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen.”
THE END. Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer. Canadian Premiere. “Joshua Oppenheimer (THE ACT OF KILLING) makes his fiction debut with this somber musical about the last remaining human family on earth, as they hide in an ornate bunker after environmental collapse has destroyed society. Starring Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay, and Moses Ingram.”
Still from THE END. Courtesy of TIFF.
TIFF Docs
SPACE COWBOY. Dir. Marah Strauch, Bryce Leavitt. World Premiere. “Joe Jennings, a pioneer of skydiving cinematography, looks back on a lifetime of creating iconic moments in film and television, while he tries to pull off his most ambitious stunt yet, turning a dreamlike vision into reality.”
THE LAST OF THE SEA WOMEN. Dir. Sue Kim. World Premiere. “A spirited portrait of an endangered tradition and a galvanizing plea for better stewardship of our oceans, Sue Kim’s documentary dives deep into the culture of the haenyeo, the South Korean fisherwomen who have been harvesting seafood for their communities for centuries.”
Wavelengths
COLLECTIVE MONOLOGUE. Dir. Jessica Sarah Rinland. North American Premiere. “With COLLECTIVE MONOLOGUE, Wavelengths alumna Jessica Sarah Rinland pursues her ongoing concerns with the relationship between humans and the natural world in this intricate portrait of Buenos Aires zoos and animal shelters.”
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