This year’s Official Selection presents 10 features that highlight youth voices from around the world, representing diverse storytelling, lived experiences, and perspectives from Canada, Ukraine, Haiti, Argentina, and many more. Some screenings will have virtual Q&As, and select films will be available to rent on digital TIFF Bell Lightbox starting April 12. Highlights include: the Opening Night film Slash/Back from Iqaluit-raised director Nyla Innuksuk, about a girl gang in Pangnirtung, Nunavut left to fight off a supernatural apocalypse; from France, Anaïs Volpé’s mesmerizing debut feature The Braves, which follows two twentysomething aspiring actors whose unbreakable bond and spirited nature takes them all over the streets of Paris; Freda, Haitian writer-director Gessica Généus’s breakout debut feature, in which the titular character must choose to either stay in Haiti amidst civil unrest or flee to the Dominican Republic in search of a more stable life; Ukrainian director Kateryna Gornostai’s Stop-Zemlia, whose cast of non-professional actors explore friendship, belonging, and romance with transcendent authenticity; and the Argentina-set 4 Feet High — the first-ever television series to play at the festival — about a 17-year-old wheelchair user finding her voice and exploring her sexuality.

This festival is steered by the TIFF Next Wave Committee, a group of 12 socially engaged teen film enthusiasts, many of whom are young creators and filmmakers from across the Greater Toronto Area. Dedicated to bringing quality film programming and film-related events to young film lovers across the city, the Committee curates the festival, championing stories that go beyond the boundaries of coming-of-age films to explore authentic, diverse experiences of youth on screen. This year, they chose the theme “Nostalgia Ultra” for the highly anticipated return of the festival’s Movie Marathon.

"To me, this year's theme of Nostalgia Ultra is about friendship, love, pain, growth — all the experiences that have shaped who we are, that allow us to both yearn for the past and eagerly chase the future,” said Next Wave Committee member Honora Murphy. “As teens and young adults in the process of growing up, it’s the sadness that things will never be the same, but also the excitement for all that is to come."

The Movie Marathon: Nostalgia Ultra lineup comprises the Studio Ghibli animated feature My Neighbor Totoro (1988), which tells the story of two young girls in rural Japan whose chance encounter with a mythical creature sets in motion a journey unlike any other; Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s 2015 adaptation of Jesse Andrews’ novel Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015), a touching portrait of friendship, love, and absence; Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), starring Natasha Lyonne, Marisa Tomei, and Alan Arkin, which follows a teenage girl through the summer of 1976 as her family moves from one rundown apartment to the next; and Alfonso Cuarón’s Y tu mamá también (2001), starring Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, and Maribel Verdú, in which two teenage boys take a life-changing road trip with a woman in her late twenties.

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