Toronto: The ten best films of TIFF 2022 are as follows:
- Directed by Steven Spielberg, and produced by Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner, and others in the United States of America in 2022 The Fabelmans was world premiered during the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as a special presentation.
Gabrielle LaBelle plays the lead role of Sammy Fabelman whilst the mother’s role is essayed by Michele Williams, and Paul Dani is seen playing the father. The film also stars Seth Rogen who plays the character of Sammy’s uncle.
His semi-autobiographical way to recreates huge recollections of his life, as well as the lives of his three sisters, his brothers, his mother, and his father who are no longer with him testifies to what led him to the realization that films have the power to depict truth to millions.
He worked hard to ensure that the recreation of the 8-millimeter that he shot as a kid was better than the 8-millimeter that I shot as a kid and his joy of creation is the real essence of the movie. With Sammy navigating the interpersonal landmines of home and school life, in what may be the most emotionally expansive film of his career, Sammy/Spielberg shows the audience not only what sparked Spielberg’s love for cinema, but also how empathy and human relationships have sneaked their way into the work of this master filmmaker.
2. Directed and a screenplay written by Sally El Hosaini, and multi-award-winning screenwriter and playwright Jack Thorne, and executive produced by Stephen Daldry, Katherine Pomfret, Tilly Coulson in the United Kingdom in 2022, ‘The Swimmers’ Manal Issa and Nathalie Issa as sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini.
Drawn from the most pressing of global stories, The Swimmers is an epic adventure recounting the true and moving tale of two young women refugee sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini, who fled their home in war-torn Damascus to seek a new life in Europe and earn the chance to compete in the Olympics.
Sisters in real life, Nathalie Issa and Manal Issa deliver outstanding performances as Yusra and Sara, full of passion and emotional intimacy.
Powerfully cinematic storyteller, and motivated by gripping events, El Hosaini presents The Swimmers as a testament to perseverance in the face of unspeakable adversity. The story gains significance with her focus mainly on the loving relationship between two sisters fiercely holding onto life.
3. Written, directed, and produced by Nandita Das in India, the film Zwigato reflects on the sociopolitical situation of the gig economy, hollow incentives, and workers’ rights by focusing on the trials and tribulations of a food-app delivery driver (played by an Indian comedian Kapil Sharma).
The director explores new tones and territories in her career and gazes at the sociopolitical look at tight margins of the gig economy with people becoming more and more dependent on the services provided by gig workers. But when the contract deliveries stopped due to the Covid and lockdown, these gig workers could not be seen. Through this film, Nandita Das wanted to evoke empathy for the characters by exploring their lives.
The film’s realist style captures an everyday man who begins to see the maddening cycle of star ratings and delivery quotas for the hollow incentives they are, slowly opening up to ideas about workers’ rights and solidarity.
This film also is a reminder that a different life is possible, one where you get to cherish the human moments that matter most.
4. The film ‘While We Watched’ examines how independent news reporting in India and beyond is being threatened by budgetary cuts, and alternative platforms like television to spread misinformation. Although rooted in India, the film’s depiction of misinformation is universal.
Directed and produced by Vinay Shukla, Khushboo Ranka, and Luke W. Moody in the United Kingdom in 2022, with casts Ravish Kumar, Sushil Mohapatra, Swarolipi Sengupta, Sushil Bahuguna, Saurabh Shukla, and Deepak Chaubey the film was world premiered during the 47th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)
Shukla was one of three proud recipients of Amplify Voices Award presented by Canada Goose.
Jury’s statement: “While We Watched is a compelling, urgent film that collapses our differences. It is a wake-up call to how perilous and fragile the relationship between a free press and democracy is everywhere.”
Veteran reporter, Ravish Kumar of India’s NDTV, at the center of the film strives to uphold standards of independence and accountability. Although he says that their job is to ask the most difficult questions to those in power, he is challenged every day by the rising popularity of channels that replace news and the reality, of budget cuts, staff departures, unknown obstructions, and even death threats.
5. The Platform Prize at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was awarded to Korean-Canadian filmmaker Anthony Shim’s sophomore feature ‘ Riceboy Sleeps’ TIFF announced on Sep 18 during the TIFF awards ceremony held at TIFF Light Box.
Written and directed by Anthony Shim, Riceboy Sleeps is a deeply moving story with characters navigating racism, dislocation, family, and love, and balances social realism with pure poetry. It is also very funny and touches on, some of humanity’s biggest challenges including merging cultures without erasing individuals, growing up whole in fragmented families, and how to defend oneself from discriminations of the privileged.
The film stars Ethan Hwang (The Umbrella Academy), Anthony Shim (Zoe), and newcomers Dohyun Noel Hwang and Yoon.
Set in the 90s, the film shot in Vancouver follows a Korean single mother So -Young, played by veteran-dancer-turned-first-time actress Choi Seung-yoon who raises young son Dong-Hyun, played as a child by Dohyun Noel Hwang and as a 15-year-old by Ethan Hwang in the suburbs of Canada. Determined to provide a better life for him than the one she left behind, Choi Seung-yoon amid a dominant white culture faces a lot of challenges and struggles, The mother suffering racism at her work place and the son being bullied in school. As each of them tries to overcome their hardships their relations become strained.
Produced by Rebecca Steele, Bryan Demore, Anthony Shim the film is produced in Lonesome Heroes Productions, Kind Stranger Productions, A Lasting Dose Productions, the film features the talents of the director of photography Christopher Lew.
6. Directed by Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen, and produced by Juan Camilo Cruz, and Jonathan Schaerf in the United States of America, and Afghanistan, 2022 the documentary ‘In Her Hands’ personifies Zarifa Ghafari’s courage in the run-up to the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
It showcased how Afghanistan’s youngest female mayor, Zarifa Ghafari, dealt with the turmoil in the months leading up to August 2021 when the world watched as Kabul fell to the Taliban. Scenes of chaos, anxiety and fear dominated the media.
Through the eyes of Zarifa Ghafari, appointed as the youngest female mayor of Afghanistan at age 26, the documentary film In Her Hands follows the 19 months with her story interwoven with those of two other key figures: her loyal bodyguard, Massoum; and an antagonist to her ideas, a commander in the Taliban army, Musafer. The complexities of the 20-year conflict in the region throw light on the varying trajectories of their lives.
7. Kacchey Limbu, the debut feature film of director Shubham Yogi, is a coming-of-age sibling drama that follows a brother (played by Rajat Barmecha) and sister (Radhika Madan) navigating their family’s conditioning to find their own unique voice. The siblings in the film on competing cricket teams struggle to balance family and team loyalties.
Finding your voice and learning how to assert it is the theme of the movie. It is very difficult for kids growing up in households that are dominated by their parents’ suggestions and advice. a story about a girl who is not allowed to do certain things and was told instead to do other things. She had to muster courage and tell them that she is not going to do as she was told but would do what she desired. And that could have been through school or any other activity. Cricket was used in the film just as a tool.
The biggest difference between my movie and other movies about sports is seen in the end. The second difference is that here it is not about a professional sports team. It is like a coach-class cricket, a gully cricket. The rules of cricket in the movie are invented by us and for us. When we watch the film we are not watching cricket. We would be watching only a version of cricket.
8. Directed by Martika Ramirez Escobar in the Philippines in 2022, Leonor Will Never Die was showcased as a closing night film in the category of Midnight Madness during the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in which the director tries to solve the existential crisis.
During TIFF 2022 Awards ceremony at TIFF Light Box on Sep 18, Martika Ramirez Escobar was honored with Amplify Voices Award for the film’s original voice, and Escobar’s fearlessness to bring fun and incredible lead performance.
When an inadvertently tossed television collides with the cranium of one Leonor Reyes (Sheila Francisco), a retired screenwriter of Filipino action films, the accident leaves her body comatose, but her mind is transported into one of her own unfinished movies. While her family, which includes at least one semi-transparent kin(!), rallies around her bedside in the hospital, Leonor finds herself magically interacting with her script’s valiant heroes and nefarious villains, confronting the all-too-real traumas that inspired them, and striving to bring this blood-soaked melodrama to a bulletproof ending.
Interwoven with an infectiously entertaining feature debut with patiently paced scenes of social realism, Martika vibrantly photographed Leonor’s action-packed imagination.
9. Directed by Luis De Filippis, the film ‘Something You Said Last Night‘ portrays an honest, immersive, and intensely relatable portrayal of an Italian Canadian family on a summer vacation. Ren is a character unlike any other we’ve seen. She is talented, struggling, flawed, loved, passionate, and accepted. She is also a young trans woman finding her place in the world. Created with queer and trans creators in front and behind the camera, Something You Said Last Night finds its power in the complex, imperfect truth of humans and our relationships with family.
When The 2022 Changemaker Award was presented to Luis De Filippis, she offered this statement: “It is an honour to have Something You Said Last Night be acknowledged by the next generation of filmmakers…which there were a few. It’s hard not to ignore the building tide of new voices this year at TIFF, and I am so happy to see our stories finally being told and celebrated — a new wave is coming.”
10. Directed by Madison Thomas, and screen played by Madison Thomas, and Andrea Warner, legendary Indigenous singer-songwriter, Buffy Sainte-Marie’s documentary ‘Carry It On’ was world premiered at the 47th Toronto International Festival (TIFF) depicting Sainte-Marie’s life, music, and activism breaking barriers to become an inspiration to fans and fellow musicians alike.
Produced by Lisa Meeches and Stephen Paniccia in Canada in 2022 in production companies, Eagle Vision, and White Pine Pictures, and edited by Brina Romanek, the documentary is an inspiring biography of Sainte-Marie, as well as a testimony of the tribute to the life and career of Sainte-Marie, the first Indigenous person to win an Oscar in 1983 for Best Original Song “Up Where We Belong” which was co-written by her and was featured in An Officer and a Gentleman). Besides, she was also the first recurring Indigenous guest star on Sesame Street.
The documentary casts Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, John Kay, Jackson Browne, Taj Mahal, Sonia Manzano, George Stroumboulopoulos, Jeremy Dutcher, and cinematographed by Gabriel Levesque, Andy Hourahine, and Jon Elliott.
Buffy Sainte-Marie was the recipient of the Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media
#TIFF2022; #10BestFilms
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
