6 films by women and non-binary directors to watch at TIFF 2023

After a long, hot summer, my favourite time is finally upon us. It's film fest season, baby! The popcorn is popping, the pumpkin cream cold brew is flowing, and I feel more alive than I have in months. 

With the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, this year's Toronto International Film Festival will certainly be less star-studded than usual — but as always, there's so much homegrown talent to celebrate that you won't even notice. And particularly exciting is the slate of Canadian films directed by women and non-binary folks.

From movies that centre queer and Indigenous folks by filmmakers in those communities to ones about vampires and women's reproductive health, TIFF is shaping up to be full of rich viewing opportunities. As we prepare for 10 glorious days inside dark movie theatres and scarfing down pizza slices in between screenings, here are the films I'm most looking forward to. 

Summer Qamp

Director: Jen Markowitz

Perhaps a nice companion piece to this summer's hilarious Theater Camp, Jen Markowitz's documentary takes us to Camp fYrefly, a place where queer kids can be themselves. While I never went to camp growing up because I was home watching too many hours of daytime television (a queer experience in its own right), I've heard (again, thanks to television) that it can be truly formative — one's first taste of freedom and independence on the bumpy road to young adulthood.

I'm happy to know that a place like Camp fYrefly exists and I can't wait to see these sweet babies flourish in front of the camera. I'm crying just writing about it so if you see me being an absolute mess at one of the screenings, no you didn't! 

Fitting In

Director: Molly McGlynn

Straight up, Molly McGlynn is a Canadian treasure and I will watch everything she makes. Anyone who directed episodes of one of my favourite television shows, Grace & Frankie, is a personal hero. Her first feature Mary Goes Round, about a woman who visits her hometown and connects with a half-sister she's never met, was a 2017 TIFF highlight. McGlynn's work is always funny, warm, and sharply observed.

Her latest film, Fitting In, follows teen Lindy (Maddie Ziegler) as she comes to terms with a rare reproductive system diagnosis. There's no one better to tackle the truly horrible, under-researched, misogynist, deeply frustrating world of women's health than McGlynn.

I Am Sirat

Directors: Deepa Mehta, Sirat Taneja

This documentary is a collaboration between the subject, Sirat Taneja, and one of Canada's greatest filmmakers, Deepa Mehta. I Am Sirat is a first-person documentary about Taneja, a trans woman living in Delhi as she navigates her double life. While she is free to be herself in public and within her community, Sirat's mother refuses to accept a trans daughter.

The film, shot on an iPhone, is as personal as it gets. It's the same kind of vulnerable, autobiographical filmmaking that's in Kristen Lovell's The Stroll, a documentary about the history of trans sex workers in New York City's Meatpacking District. My hope is that both of these vital films will help usher in a new era of trans folks getting to tell their own stories. 

Backspot

Director: D.W. Waterson

Movies about characters driven by their ambition are always compelling with plenty of high-stakes drama and emotional turmoil to keep you on the edge of your seat (films like Nightcrawler, The Social Network, and Whiplash come to mind). But as you can see from those examples, they are often told from a white, straight male perspective. Backspot, however, subverts that usual narrative into a queer story featuring two young women of colour as girlfriends who are chosen to be on the same all-star cheer squad.

Executive produced by Elliot Page, the film also boasts a stellar cast: Evan Rachel Wood as the duo's coach, Kudakwashe Rutendo in a breakout role as Amanda, and Devery Jacobs, known for her excellent work in Rhymes for Young Ghouls and more recently, Reservation Dogs, as Riley.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

Director: Ariane Louis-Seize

I simply cannot resist stories about vampires. They are just so cool and mysterious and alluring (basically everything I'm not!). By the sounds of it, Louis-Seize's horror-comedy take on everyone's favourite mythical creatures will be refreshing, stylish, and full of dark humour. 

When young vampire Sasha (Sara Montpetit) meets depressed teen Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), he is eager to become her next meal — but for Sasha, it's not as simple as a neck bite. She can only feed on people with whom she has an emotional connection. Just from the plot synopsis, I'm already sensing some demisexual undertones, which is rad for some much-needed ace-spectrum representation.

Tautuktavuk (What We See)

Directors: Carol Kunnuk, Lucy Tulugarjuk

While some people might not be ready to revisit the early days of the COVID pandemic, it could be healing for others to see that period of isolation reflected on screen. Tautuktavuk (What We See) is about two sisters confronting their own traumas, first during the height of lockdowns while connecting through video conversations across the roughly 2800 kilometres between Montreal and Nunavut, and then, together in person as the world began to reopen. 

Inuk actress/filmmaker Kunnuk and Inuit actress/throat singer/director Tulugarjuk co-star in and co-direct the film, a documentary-style, narrative hybrid. As they draw from their own lives for inspiration while blending their different modes of storytelling, it sounds like a match made in heaven from two incomparable voices of Canadian cinema.