Canada202183 minutesEnglish, Cantonese with English Subtitles Canadian PremiereDrama, Experimental

The Class of 2019 at Cawthra Park Secondary School is gearing up for their senior year. Teen angst fills the hallways. Nervous students convene in classrooms. Hopeful romantics ask each other out for prom. Amidst these moments of self-discovery, friends Ethan and Justin set out to shoot a film under the pretense of being a yearbook project, recording pivotal moments and character portraits during this tumultuous stage of adolescence. No one at Cawthra Park seems to be prepared for what will come next in their rebellious filmmaking adventure.

Ethan Eng’s debut feature film Therapy Dogs is an introspective look at the director’s coming-of-age in senior year. Combining elements from documentary, fiction, and experimental styles, Therapy Dogs navigates the quintessential Mississauga high school experience with evocative imagery and rhythmic sequences, offering an intensely rich window into Eng’s craft, interpersonal relationships, and his exploration of the near-universal rite of passage: the last year of high school.

– Nicolas Uribe

Canada, China, Japan, Taiwan, USA2022English and other languages with English subtitlesAnimation, Experimental, Family, Horror, Thriller, Women Filmmakers

Festival favourite Midnight Snack returns for another bite! This time, 2.0 features six talented female directors who cook up tales full of intrigue and awareness, boldly confronting themes that are often left indigestible.

Canada20222 minutesEnglishAnimation, Horror, Thriller, Women Filmmakers

Tired of her date’s racist and sexist comments, a woman decides to liberate his tongue.

ACCESSIBILITY

This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.

RATING

RATED PG

Content Warning: Nudity, racist situation, sexist situation

Directors Bio

Kaho Yoshida

Kaho Yoshida is a director and animator with a special passion for stop motion and mixed media. Her fresh aesthetics and sense of humour bring life to every frame, and her love for storytelling makes her work relatable and approachable.

USA20226 minutesNo Dialogue Animation, Horror, Women Filmmakers

During a peaceful school lunchtime, children discover they can transform into animals—the only problem is will they ever stop?

ACCESSIBILITY

This film has no dialogue and is not captioned.

RATING

RATED PG

Content Warning: Violence, gore, extreme audio

Directors Bio

Cho Yoon Hei

An animator and director from Korea, Cho Yoon Hei is located in Los Angeles and creates horrifying hand-drawn animations.

Japan, Taiwan202122 minutesTaiwanese with English subtitlesHorror, Thriller, Women Filmmakers

Xue-Lan, a striving actress, is invited to a mysterious gourmet club only to discover that her competition has prepared a horrifying banquet.

ACCESSIBILITY

This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.

RATING

RATED PG

Content Warning: Blood, drugs

Directors Bio

Mai Nakanishi

Born in Tokyo but spent most of her youth abroad, Mai Nakanishi is a filmmaker who focuses on genre films. In 2013, she launched Scream Queen FilmFest Tokyo to amplify the voices of female genre filmmakers.

Canada, Indonesia202217 minutesIndonesian with English subtitlesHorror, Thriller, Women Filmmakers

When polar-opposite sisters Nur and Karina reunite for their grandparents’ wedding anniversary dinner, Karina starts to itch and blames Nur for putting garlic in her food.

ACCESSIBILITY

This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.

RATING

RATED PG

Content Warning: Eating disorder, body dysmorphia

Directors Bio

Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto

Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto is an Indonesian writer and director currently residing in Vancouver, Canada. Her works explore genre films as a medium to depict the current condition surrounding political, social, and cultural issues.

Canada, USA202210 minutesEnglishFamily, Horror, Women Filmmakers

Following the death of her mysterious amah (grandma), Kat is haunted during her first night of dinner service at a high-pressure Michelin-star kitchen.

ACCESSIBILITY

This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.

RATING

RATED PG

Content Warning: Sexist language and situations, racist language and situations, blood

Directors Bio

Christianne Cruz

Christianne Cruz is a Filipinx writer, director and independent producer born in Toronto and based in LA. She is the mother of two young daughters and producing/life partner to Alex Ott.

China202213 minutesMandarin with English subtitlesExperimental, Women Filmmakers

As the flashy life of the influencer 33 becomes more intense, the canker sore inside her lower lip keeps growing larger…

ACCESSIBILITY

This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.

RATING

RATED PG

Directors Bio

Lin Tu

Lin Tu is a writer and director based in Beijing whose previous short films have screened internationally on the festival circuit. She is a BIFAN Fantastic Film School (2020) alumni.

Canada, South Korea202279 minutesKorean, Turkish, German, Polish, Khmer, Chinese, French, Yoruba with English SubtitlesCanadian PremiereSci-fi

In 1993, UFOs suddenly appeared over key cities around the world. The huge structures remained in the sky, stationary, silent, and unknown. Twenty-nine years later, with neither the origins nor the intentions of their arrival deciphered, humanity succumbs to speculations that aliens are walking among us. 

Allegorical, humanistic, and poetic, Unidentified reflects on mankind's primordial need to seek for answers. Through disparate,  cohesive vignettes, Jude Chun's existential debut uses fundamental science-fiction concepts to examine our inner selves, as only then may we know the things that bind or alienate us from one another. Combining multi-genre elements such as comedy, mystery, and even musical theatre to delve into the depths of soulful connection and the universal theme of social identity, the film also subtly comments on the repercussions of a nation’s traumatic past—and the vision of a transformative future.

Sponsor: Korean Consulate

South Korea2022112:00Korean with English Subtitles International PremiereDrama

Hye-jeong leaves a protest group of closely knit families, mourning the victims of an industrial accident, to which she also lost her husband. To move on with her life, she buys a sparkly new apartment with the settlement money, but things go awry when she notices the unit's construction defects that render her and her son without any usable water. When she attempts to get the problem fixed, an unexpected group stops her in the act: her new neighbours. Beyond being ostracized and called a traitor for accepting the settlement money, Hye-jeong must now stand up against her neighbours, who would do everything in their power to stop her from making the defects publicly known, for fear of their real estate getting devalued.

Having a place you can call your own in this day and age is a luxury, amid skyrocketing housing prices. That is why what seems very local and realistic in Dream Palace also resonates internationally. Seasoned actress Kim Sun-young of Three Sisters (2020) plays Hye-jeong, while the film makes a new discovery with Lee Yoon-ji, who puts up her most persuasive performance to date. The fresh yet ironic struggles between victims against victims will leave an unsettling aftertaste that tears one apart between conscience and the desperate need to survive. 

– June Kim