TIFF 2021: A List of Black Films To Watch In-Person & Virtually

The 46th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) kicks off next week with a 10-day event that runs from September 9 – 18 with over 100 films in its Official Selection, unparalleled events featuring acclaimed industry guests, and TIFF’s Industry Conference. TIFF 2021 will have in-person screenings with single tickets to in-cinema, drive-in, and open-air cinema screenings and from home with tickets for TIFF’s digital film screenings, available across Canada. All details are available at tiff.net/tickets.

The film festival announced twelve films as a sampling of what is to come in the Festival’s Official Selection for 2021, which included The Guilty by director Antoine Fuqua (USA) from Netflix and Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over, directed by Dave Wooley, David Heilbroner (USA). Warwick, a six-time Grammy Award–winning music icon and activist, will be honored at the 2021 TIFF Tribute Awards with the Special Tribute Award.

Recognized as the world’s largest public film festival, TIFF 2021 is poised to bring the theatrical experience back to life and continue its reputation as both a leader in amplifying under-represented cinematic voices and a bellwether for programming award-winning films from around the globe.

Below is a list of 21 films, shorts, and documentaries, that feature Black actors, directors, screenwriters and/or producers:

SHORT CUTS — The world. In short form.

Fanmi

Already reeling from a breakup, a woman contends with further disruptions when her mother makes an unexpected visit. Captured with great sensitivity and warmth by Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers and Carmine Pierre-Dufour, these characters’ time together is a precious opportunity to truly connect.

Successful Thawing of Mr. Moro

An elderly man learns that his ex-partner is about to return after being cryopreserved for 43 years. His response is vividly conveyed, in Jerry Carlsson’s poignant vision of things to come.

DEFUND

Starring in and directing their own razor-sharp script, the Toronto team of Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah and Araya Mengesha play twins trying to navigate their own, and each other’s, complex responses to both the lockdown and the fight for racial justice during the long hot summer of 2020.

Egúngún (Masquerade)

In this captivating and stylish drama by Olive Nwosu, a woman returns to her hometown of Lagos in search of healing. What she discovers instead is a path that takes her into her past and toward a new understanding of the people and experiences that shaped her.

ASTEL

While helping tend her family’s herd of cows in a northern region of Senegal, a 13-year-old girl faces changes that threaten her tight bond with her father in this vividly realized directorial debut by screenwriter and filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy.

White Devil

In this bold horror satire by Mariama Diallo and Benjamin Dickinson, a Black woman’s quarantine experience takes a disturbing turn when the dynamic she has with her white partner is impacted by events happening outside their cosy brownstone.

The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be

Set in the year 2080, with the Earth ravaged by climate change, director Adeyemi Michael’s stark and powerful science-fiction drama tells the story of a desperate nomad who makes a discovery that leads to an unexpected mission and a chance for solace.

A Few Miles South

Toby Jones and Ivanno Jeremiah comprise a very memorable double act in director Ben Pearce’s delightfully macabre tale of two taciturn travellers on a wintry expedition that takes a desperate turn.

Ousmane 

Anchored by Issaka Sawadogo’s incredible performance, Jorge Camarotti’s drama conveys the sorrow of separation through the story of a Burkinabé immigrant who is reluctantly drawn into a neighbour’s troubles in his Montreal apartment building.

I Would Never

Boundaries are crossed and a friendship tested when a law-school study session leads to uncharted territory for two young people, in this provocative, intimate, and remarkably incisive work by filmmaker, comedian, and actor Kiran Deol.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS — High-profile premieres and the world’s leading filmmakers

Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over

This inspiring documentary portrait chronicles the iconic singer’s fascinating six-decade career in both music and Black and LGBTQ activism. Directed by Dave Wooley, David Heilbroner.

The Guilty

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in Antoine Fuqua’s thriller set over the course of a single morning in a 911 dispatch centre.

PRIMETIME — Serial storytelling: television in its artistic renaissance.

Colin in Black and White

Ava DuVernay’s limited series chronicles what inspired activist and athlete Colin Kaepernick to risk his livelihood in support of civil rights.

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA — Compelling stories, global perspectives.

The Gravedigger’s Wife

Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s poetic romance centres on a family facing impossible loss, and the lengths one man will go for his beloved.

7 Prisoners

Alexandre Moratto’s sophomore film follows a young man who compromises his own sense of friendship and community to survive in an extreme situation.

MIDNIGHT MADNESS — The wild side: screenings of the best in action, horror, shock and fantasy cinema.

Saloum

A trio of mercenaries navigate a mysterious region of Senegal, in Jean Luc Herbulot’s cool and kinetic genre-shifting thriller.

PLATFORM — Directors’ cinema now.

Mlungu Wam (Good Madam)

Residues of apartheid-era domestic servitude confront legacies of colonial land theft in South African auteur Jenna Cato Bass’s daring horror-satire.

DISCOVERY — Directors to watch. The future of world cinema.

Learn To Swim

The feature debut from Toronto’s Thyrone Tommy (Mariner, TIFF ’16) charts the stormy romance between two very different contemporary jazz musicians.

Tug of War (Vuta N’Kuvute)

A young revolutionary and a runaway bride struggle for forbidden freedoms, in Amil Shivji’s adaptation of Adam Shafi’s Swahili novel.

TIFF DOCS — Candid and unscripted: the best non-fiction cinema from around the world.

Oscar Peterson: Black + White

Director Barry Avrich’s affectionate celebration of Canada’s greatest jazz musician situates the master pianist in the genre’s pantheon.

WAVELENGTHS — Daring, visionary, and autonomous voices. Film art in the cinema and beyond.

Neptune Frost

An Afro-sonic sci-fi musical composed by Saul Williams, in which a cosmic romance between an intersex hacker and a coltan miner seeds the revolution.

TIFF 2021: A List of Black Films To Watch In-Person & Virtually