Formerly known as Contemporary World Cinema, the Centrepiece Programme of the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival (taking place from 7 to 17 September 2023) showcases 47 titles from filmmakers representing 45 countries. Of these, seven are European (co)productions having their world premiere at the festival. 

Norwegian director Hisham Zaman will be back in Toronto with his third feature, A Happy Day, centred on three teenage boys at a remote centre for young asylum seekers in Norway planning their escape. 

In Holiday, by Italian director Edoardo Gabbriellini, a young woman is found innocent of a brutal double murder after a long trial, in what is described as a subtle cat-and-mouse game. 

A co-production between Canada and Poland, Louise Archambault’s Irena’s Vow centres on a former nurse who shelters a dozen Jewish men and women during WWII in occupied Poland.

Canadian director Henri Pardo’s Kanaval, a co-production between Canada and Luxembourg, tells the story of a young boy and his mother who settle in Quebec after leaving their small port town on the coast of Haiti in 1975. 

The Reeds, the fifth feature from Turkish director Cemil Ağacıkoğlu, is set in an Anatolian village where a man finds himself engaged in a battle between good and evil when livelihood is threatened by local gangs.

Gangs are also central to the plot of Toll, from São Paulo-based director Carolina Markowicz. Co-produced with Portugal, the film centres on a Brazilian mother who falls in with some thieves in order to raise money to send her son to an expensive gay conversion workshop. 

Completing the European world-premieres in the Centrepiece Programme is Woodland from Austrian director Elisabeth Scharang. Inspired by Wald, a 2015 novel by the bestselling author Doris Knechtentred, the film centres on a traumatised woman who finds refuge in a secluded house in the woods. 

Several films which had their world premiere in Cannes are also present in the Centrepiece Programme, among them Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days [+lire aussi :
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interview : Nuri Bilge Ceylan
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interview : Ramata-Toulaye Sy
fiche film], Aki Kaurismäki’s Jury Prize winner Fallen Leaves [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], Víctor Erice’s Cannes Premiere title Close Your Eyes [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], and ​​Pablo Berger’s Special Screening Robot Dreams [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]. Three films from Un Certain Regard are also in the selection: Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rodrigo Moreno
fiche film], Monia Chokri’s The Nature of Love [+lire aussi :
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interview : Monia Chokri
fiche film], and Felipe Gálvez Haberle’s The Settlers [+lire aussi :
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interview : Felipe Gálvez
fiche film].

Fresh from Venice will be Agnieszka Holland’s The Green Border from the Competition, and from Orizzonti, City of Wind by Mongolian director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, and Upon Open Sky by Mariana and Santiago Arriaga. Sira [+lire aussi :
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interview : Apolline Traoré
fiche film], from Burkinabé director Apolline Traoré, won the Panorama Audience Award for Best Feature in Berlin, while Ilker Çatak’s The Teacher’s Lounge [+lire aussi :
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interview : İlker Çatak
interview : Leonie Benesch
fiche film] was awarded in the same section. 

Je’vida by Finnish director Katja Gauriloff premiered at Tribeca, while They Shot the Piano Player by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal will be premiering in San Sebastián. Amsterdam-based Bosnian filmmaker Ena Sendijarević will be presenting Sweet Dreams [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ena Sendijarević
fiche film], which just premiered in Locarno. Also in the selection are Janis Pugh’s Chuck Chuck Baby, which premiered in Edinburgh and The Monk and the Gun from Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji (Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom).

The full selection:

100 Yards - Xu Haofeng, Xu Junfeng (China)
About Dry Grasses [+lire aussi :
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interview : Nuri Bilge Ceylan
fiche film] - Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey/France/Germany/Sweden)
A Happy Day - Hisham Zaman (Norway/Denmark)
A Ravaging Wind - Paula Hernández (Argentina/Uruguay)
A Road to A Village - Nabin Subba (Nepal)
Banel & Adama [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ramata-Toulaye Sy
fiche film] - Ramata-Toulaye Sy (France/Senegal/Mali)
Chuck Chuck Baby - Janis Pugh (United Kingdom)
City of Wind - Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (France/Mongolia/Portugal/Netherlands/Qatar/Germany)
Close Your Eyes [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Víctor Erice (Spain/Argentina)
Death of a Whistleblower - Ian Gabriel (South Africa)
Fallen Leaves [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Aki Kaurismäki (Finland/Germany)
Fitting In - Molly McGlynn (Canada)
Green Border - Agnieszka Holland (Poland/Czech Republic/France/Belgium)
Hey, Viktor! - Cody Lightning (Canada)
Holiday - Edoardo Gabbriellini (Italy)
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person - Ariane Louis-Seize (Canada)
I Do Not Come To You By Chance - Ishaya Bako (Nigeria)
In Flames - Zarrar Kahn (Canada/Pakistan)
Inshallah a Boy [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Amjad Al Rasheed (Jordan/France/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/Egypt)
Irena’s Vow - Louise Archambault (Canada/Poland)
Je’vida - Katja Gauriloff (Finland)
Kanaval - Henri Pardo (Canada/Luxembourg)
Limbo - Ivan Sen (Australia)
Lost Ladies - Kiran Rao (India)
Mountains - Monica Sorelle (USA)
National Anthem - Luke Gilford (USA)
Perfect Days [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Wim Wenders (Japan/Germany)
Robot Dreams [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Pablo Berger (Spain/France)
Shadow of Fire - Shinya Tsukamoto (Japan)
Shayda - Noora Niasari (Australia)
Sira [+lire aussi :
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interview : Apolline Traoré
fiche film] - Apolline Traoré (Burkina Faso/Senegal/France/Germany)
Snow Leopard - Pema Tseden (China)
Sweet Dreams [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ena Sendijarević
fiche film] - Ena Sendijarević (Netherlands/Sweden/Indonesia/France)
The Breaking Ice - Anthony Chen (China)
The Delinquents [+lire aussi :
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interview : Rodrigo Moreno
fiche film] - Rodrigo Moreno (Argentina/Brazil/Luxembourg/Chile)
The Feeling That the Time for Something Has Passed - Joanna Arnow (USA)
The Monk and the Gun - Pawo Choyning Dorji (Bhutan/France/USA/Taiwan)
The Nature of Love [+lire aussi :
critique
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interview : Monia Chokri
fiche film] - Monia Chokri (Canada/France)
The Reeds - Cemil Ağacıkoğlu (Turkey/Bulgaria)
The Settlers [+lire aussi :
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interview : Felipe Gálvez
fiche film] - Felipe Gálvez Haberle (Chile/Argentina/France/Denmark/United Kingdom/Taiwan/Sweden/Germany)
The Teachers’ Lounge [+lire aussi :
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interview : İlker Çatak
interview : Leonie Benesch
fiche film] - Ilker Çatak (Germany)
They Shot the Piano Player - Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal (Spain/France)
Toll - Carolina Markowicz (Brazil/Portugal)
Upon Open Sky - Mariana Arriaga, Santiago Arriaga (Mexico/Spain)
We Grown Now - Minhal Baig (USA)
Woodland - Elisabeth Scharang (Austria)
Your Mother’s Son - Jun Robles Lana (Philippines)