Canada20242 MinNo DialogueAnimation, Available Online, Directed By Women, Family-friendly

For people living with structural dissociation, falling asleep can be a challenge, as multiple contradictory thoughts conspire to keep them awake. Director Michelle Ku draws on her experience with somatic healing to put these thoughts to rest, in a few vivid minutes of hand-painted animation.

IN PERSON: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated)

ONLINE: No dialogue (no audio + visual descriptions)

Directors Bio

Michelle Ku

Michelle Ku is a visual artist and animation filmmaker living in Mohkinstsis/Calgary. Mainly working with acrylic paint and traditional materials, Ku explores her personal healing journey, the mind-body-spirit connection, and childhood memories.

USA202311 MinEnglishAction, Available Online, Directed By Women, Family-friendly, Science Fiction

Tessie, a 13-year-old science prodigy, journeys into her grandma's deteriorating mind to save one precious memory they have together.

IN PERSON: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated)

ONLINE: This film is scheduled to be presented with subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated)

Directors Bio

Grace Hanna

Grace Hanna is a Filipino American filmmaker. Their film, Halcyon Days, is sponsored by Film Independent and received Panavision’s NFP Grant. Their short, Lola, won the Directorial Debut Award at Indy Shorts.

Canada20246 minKoreanWorld PremiereAvailable Online, Directed By Women, Drama, Family-friendly, History

After decades of separation, two brothers reunite at a rare event where families from both sides of the Korean border come together.

This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated)

Directors Bio

*Ellen Yuna Ahn

Ellen Yuna Ahn is an emerging Korean Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. Drawing from her background in performance art and theatre directing, Ahn is drawn to stories that delve into intimate character studies and explore abstract concepts.

South Korea20234 MinNo DialogueAnimation, Available Online, Directed By Women, Family-friendly

A young girl's birthday overlaps a memorial service, and she struggles to blow out her candles while avoiding adults who prioritize rituals over birthday celebrations.

IN PERSON & ONLINE: No dialogue (no audio + visual descriptions)

Directors Bio

Kim Jungsoo

Kim Jungsoo is an animator based in Seoul. Her filmography includes Insomnia (2017) and Dear. J (2021).

USA20237 MinNo DialogueAnimation, Available Online, Directed By Women, Family-friendly

A little girl shoots down from the heavens to spend her birthday with her family.

 IN PERSON & ONLINE: this film is scheduled to be presented with no dialogue (No audio + visual descriptions)

Directors Bio

Mitra Shahidi Malus

Mitra Shahidi is an award-winning Iranian American story artist, director, and screenwriter, born and raised in Istanbul. She currently works for Pixar and lives in the Bay Area.

Canada20235 MinNo Dialogue2slgbtq+, Animation, Available Online, Experimental, Family-friendly, Horror, Science Fiction

Gaze into a wondrous abyss. But what happens when you look at something too hard for too long?

IN PERSON: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated)

ONLINE: No Dialogue

Directors Bio

Constant Yen

Constant Yen is a Toronto-based artist and animator. Their practice involves creating spontaneous and playful experimental work combining analog and digital mediums.

Canada202411 MinNo DialogueAnimation, Available Online, Directed By Women, Family-friendly

A road trip traces a transition from grief to acceptance, through valleys, junctions, and detours. Detours Ahead reflects the director's meditation on solitude, and articulates her shifting relationship with place.

IN PERSON & ONLINE: No dialogue (audio + visual descriptions)

Directors Bio

Esther Cheung

Esther Cheung is a filmmaker and director from Toronto. She is known for her poetic approach to story and is inspired by her relationship with place. Currently based in Vancouver, she is working on the animated feature Tangles.

South Korea2024114 minKoreanInternational PremiereAvailable Online, Drama, Family-friendly

Feeling stuck, young fisherman Yong-su sees no hope in his future - like a fish in a net. As a last resort, he plans an insurance scam by staging his disappearance, hoping to provide a better life for his Vietnamese wife and his ageing mother. At the centre of this scheme is his captain, Yeong-guk (Yoon Joo-sang), who reluctantly reports Yong-su missing. However, when Yong-su’s mother (Yang Hee-kyung) refuses to connect her son’s disappearance with his death, the white lie snowballs into something harder to chew.

The Land of Morning Calm is the sophomore feature of Park Ri-woong of The Girl on a Bulldozer (2022), and as before, he touches upon pressing social issues. It’s an examination of interracial marriages and insurance scams, but more so, a heartbreaking study of the different forms of families, sacrificial love, and the struggles in making a living. The brilliant performances will wrench your hearts.

– June Kim

USA202498 minEnglish, KhmerToronto PremiereAvailable Online, Directed By Women, Documentary, Family-friendly, First Feature, Sports

At the heart of this captivating coming-of-age sports film is Ashley Chea, a Cambodian American basketball marvel whose high school career we follow. Hailing from a lower-class immigrant family that sought safety in the U.S. after the Khmer Rouge came to power, Chea is given the opportunity to attend a private school and thus pursue a coveted college basketball career. While her parents work vigorously at their doughnut store and can’t attend her games, Chea bonds with her Japanese American coach, who helps her with doctor's appointments and even attaining her driver’s licence.

Chea must now overcome a serious knee injury and rebuild her sense of self-worth, all in time to impress recruiting college coaches at her upcoming major tournaments. Being highly competitive, she struggles to lead her team to victory and overcome obvious class and racial differences, all while also being a super moody teenager and growing apart from her parents.

– Arisa Chirawu

Pakistan202498 minUrduToronto PremiereAnimation, Family-friendly

A young, gifted Vincent and his father Tomas run the finest glass workshop in the country, creating delicate, magnificent pieces of art. Their close bond is soon put to the test with the arrival of an army colonel and his young, aspiring violinist daughter Alliz, to their hometown. Amidst the rumblings of an impending war, Vincent and Alliz eventually fall in love, a relationship that is continually opposed and challenged by their fathers.

Using precise and absorbing hand-drawn animation, bursting with rich detail and colours, The Glassworker is a groundbreaking production, pieced together over a decade by Mano Animation Studios, Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animation studio. Much in the vein of a Studio Ghibli feature, which director Usman Riaz credits as inspiration, The Glassworker uses each frame with deep intention to tell a heart-tugging story about the fragility of life, particularly one lived through conflict.

– Mariam Zaidi