The Toronto Independent Film Festival of Cift is an annual festival featuring short and feature films in contemporary cinema, with the most recent season taking place between April to June 2022. Since it’s inaugural even in November 2015, the festival has been mainly held at TIFF Bell Lightbox and Art Gallery of Ontario, with more recent shifts to having a digital presence due to the pandemic era. Here are a few award-winning filmmakers for the April to June 2022 season to look out for in the film festival circuit.
BLUE & WHITE – Category: Best Short
Director: Chris Fudge, Canada
‘Blue & White’ is the color of the Adderall pill used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also known as ADHD. The short film follows the main character working from his home, who struggles with ADHD in his daily routine. The scenes show difficulties of focus on completing his work, forgetting work meetings, and finding ways to calm his hyperactive mind. This story starts off by showing how one missed pill of Adderall could impact the rest of his day, giving the audience a point of view of what happens to the main character.
THE SILENT PILGRIM – Category: Best Documentary Short
Director: Jakub Blank, United States
The documentary follows the story of a Polish immigrant living in Erie, Pennsylvania, who uses his free time collecting driftwood by the shores of Lake Erie and turning them into art. The film opens with a quote “Art really understood is the province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing things, anything, well.” The director Jakub Blank is the son of the Polish immigrant, who lives a life knowing how the world is twisted and shaped, while reintroducing us to the artist within.
LONG FLAT BALLS “BROKEN PROMISES” – Category: Best International Feature Film
Director: Harald Johan Zwart, Norway
Director Harald Johan Zwart is well known for many major Hollywood films, including ‘The Karate Kid’ & ‘Agent Cody Banks’. He returns to Norway bringing a lighthearted comedy feature film about a charming car mechanic and his hardcore soccer friends to help win back the love of his life. He takes a huge risk in his life by embarking on a booze smuggling scheme to correct a past mistake. Expect a lot of hilarious dialogue, fast-paced car chase scenes, and a whole lot of shenanigans in this feature film.
NOAH – Category: Best Female Director in Short
Director: Galit Garzon, Spain
The teenage years of Noah were a troubling one after dealing with the traumatic death of his loving mother. Noah has an abusive and alcoholic father, whom he tries to understand their conflicting harmful relationship in this short film. His father, dealing with his own internal conflicts, often takes it out on his own son, exasperating the hurt and misunderstanding of their relationship. Director Galit Garzon put together a very sad but powerful short film on how a lost loved one can affect the relationships of others, especially when the father and son have no one to take care of their well-being.
NORTHERN SWEDEN – Category: Best Short First Time Filmmaker
Director: Eddie Alamera, Sweden
Technology and Biology often comes together in a controversial fashion, where enterprises have an objective to “enhance human welfare”. In this film, Joe Lemon and Natham Lamas works for a company called ‘Intelligent Technology’, where they discover horrifying evidence that has put them into a position where they can no longer turn back. Directed by Eddie Alamera, this film exemplifies the use of sound design and low light cinematography, emphasizing the fade to black nature of the dark path taken in leveraging technology for the benefit of improving a human’s quality of life, only to find out it was not.
MISS RABBIT – Category: Best Animated Short
Director: Yen-Wei Lu, Taiwan
This wonderful animated short film follows a character named “Chien-Ten”, who is a picture book author, dealing with writer’s block and lack of motivation due to denial and fear of her next project. She decided to give up her dreams on being an author, until she discovered an old diary of hers by one of her girls. Chien-Ten takes a trip down memory lane of her diary to recount the glorious days of what she loved doing in her younger life, allowing her to unlock those fond memories on this journey to be herself again.
MATARIFE (THE BUTCHER) – Category: Best Web Series/TV Pilot
Director: Daniel Mendoza, Colombia
Director Daniel Mendoza created ‘Matarife’, which means The Butcher in English, traces back the career of Colombia’s former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez during the 1980s, who was elected twice in 2002 and 2006. He pieces together press articles, historical facts, events, and scandals that were linked to the former president. Evidence revealed that Álvaro had connections with drug traffickers and paramilitaries that lead to the deaths of over 6,400 civilians in his past and presidential career. The documentary focuses on the idea of a façade democracy, a broken system to protect the country.
© 2022. UniversalCinema Mag.