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10 Canadian short films to watch at TIFF 2018

Live-action, animation, fiction, documentary, comedy, drama, sci-fi, horror – every year, the Short Cuts program offers a sampling of all of it. Here are 10 standout Canadian shorts screening at TIFF.

ACCIDENCE

Fresh from reinterpreting Hitchcock’s Vertigo in The Green Fog, Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson use Rear Window as the jumping-off point for this playful, intricate short – which demands to be watched on a very large screen.

Short Cuts Program 8: Sep 11, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank Sep 16, 7:15 pm, Scotiabank.

DZIADZIO

First-timer Aaron Ries’s short focuses on a young woman (Sydney Herauf) enduring a stifling summer with her elderly grandfather (Otto Friedman). You’d be surprised how much awkward generational tension – and understated affection – one can pack into 12 minutes.

Short Cuts Program 2: Sep 7, 6:45 pm, Scotiabank Sep 13, 9 pm, Scotiabank.

EMPTYING THE TANK

Beautifully shot by Eric Cinq-Mars, Caroline Monnet’s portrait of Chippewa MMA fighter Ashley Nichols captures a young woman whose body and mind are in perfect balance. And also she can kick higher than her head.

Short Cuts Program 5: Sep 9, 7 pm, Scotiabank Sep 15, 6:30 pm, Scotiabank.

FAUVE

Two young friends (Félix Grenier, Alexandre Perreault) go wandering in a quarry in Jérémy Comte’s gorgeous, sinister widescreen tale. It begins so gently you might not even notice when it starts tightening like a vise.

Short Cuts Program 7: Sep 10, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank Sep 16, 4:15 pm, Scotiabank.

GLITTER’S WILD WOMEN

The charmingly weird first short from writer/director Roney – just Roney – takes place on an isolated Ontario farm where two sisters (Grace Glowicki, Cotey Pope) spend their days harvesting a weird, luminescent glitter. It makes them strong. They decide to hold a film festival. Things get stranger from there.

Short Cuts Program 6: Sep 9, 9:45 pm, Scotiabank Sep 15, 9:15 pm, Scotiabank.

NORMAN NORMAN

Toronto director Sophy Romvari’s latest is a meditation on the ethics (and the appeal) of cloning her aging dog, Norman, inspired by Barbra Streisand’s recent experiments in pet replication. Small and thoughtful, and likely to strike a chord with any pet owner.

Short Cuts Program 3: Sep 8, 7:30 pm, Scotiabank Sep 14, 6:30 pm, Scotiabank.

PASEO

The first directorial effort of editor Matt Hannam (Enemy, Swiss Army Man, this year’s TIFF entries Wildlife and Vox Lux) casts his real-life partner, Sarah Gadon, as a Toronto woman adrift in Barcelona. It’s stylish, dream-like and disorienting in the best way.

Short Cuts Program 1: Sep 6, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank Sep 13, 6 pm, Scotiabank.

7A

Actor Kayla Lorette and director Zack Russell – who collaborated on the sexy-creepy 2015 short She Stoops To Conquer – return with this very different but no less effective tale of a woman who lets a maintenance worker (Tom Rooney) into her apartment for a service call. You may think you know happens next. I guarantee you do not.

Short Cuts Program 6: Sep 9, 9:45 pm, Scotiabank Sep 15, 9:15 pm, Scotiabank.

THE SUBJECT

Patrick Bouchard’s latest stop-motion production – in which the animator builds a replica of himself in a workshop – falls somewhere between self-analysis and body horror. Call it what you will. It works.

Short Cuts Program 6: Sep 9, 9:45 pm, Scotiabank Sep 15, 9:15 pm, Scotiabank.

VESLEMØY’S SONG

The latest hybrid work from Sofia Bohdanowicz (Maison Du Bonheur, Never Eat Alone) stars the wonderful Deragh Campbell as a Toronto woman who discovers a piece of her family’s history in the New York Public Library.

Short Cuts Program 8: Sep 11, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank Sep 16, 7:15 pm, Scotiabank.

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