Columbia Filmmakers Head to TIFF 2024
Several projects by Columbia University filmmakers are set to screen at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
Canada’s premiere annual film festival, TIFF presents the best of international and Canadian cinema, creating transformational experiences for film lovers and creators of all ages and backgrounds. The 49th edition of the festival, which will take place from September 5 to 15, 2024, has 20 additional titles now included in the Official Selection.
Here is the diverse lineup of films from Columbia alumni: April and The Mother and the Bear is screening in the Centrepiece program, showcasing compelling stories and global perspectives. Meanwhile, The Luckiest Man in America and Hold Your Breath are featured in the Special Presentations section, offering high-profile premieres from some of the world's leading filmmakers.
Written and directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili '18
A powerful convergence of existence and womanhood, April is the timely second feature of writer-director Kulumbegashvili, who tells the story of Nina, an ob-gyn in eastern Georgia who performs illegal abortions. When a baby dies under her care shortly after delivery at the hospital, Nina’s morals and professionalism come under scrutiny and she is investigated when rumors about the illegal abortions reach the administration.
The Mother and the Bear
Written and directed by Johnny Ma '16
In a snow-swept Winnipeg, school teacher Sumi (Leere Park) is hospitalized after a fall. On hearing the news, her anxious mother, Sara (Kim Ho-jung), flies over from Seoul to be with her comatose daughter — and once Sara sets herself up in the young woman’s apartment, she discovers she doesn't really know Sumi at all.
Co-written by Maggie Briggs '19
Associate produced by Daniel Ragussis '09
This stranger-than-fiction drama resurrects a hugely popular 1980s game show and the “luckiest man in America” who broke it. Directed by Samir Oliveros (Bad Lucky Goat) and featuring performances from Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell), Walton Goggins, and David Strathairn, The Luckiest Man in America illuminates a forgotten turning point in television history, when a network executive took a gamble and inadvertently made an obsessive eccentric into a folk hero.
Co-directed and written by Karrie Crouse '11
Set in 1930s In dust bowl Oklahoma, a mother ( Sarah Paulson) nears the breaking point as she tries to protect her daughters from deadly windstorms and the impact of her own harrowing past. When the older daughter tells the legend of the Grey Man to the younger one, the story slips under the skin of the whole family. The Grey Man is a spirit carried like dust in the wind, breathed in, and never to be shaken.
See TIFF 2024's full lineup here.
