From a short film pitch for trans filmmakers at the 3rd annual Trans Film Summit, to LGBTQ stars on the red carpet and in dynamic panel conversations, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) kicked off the fall festival season with plenty to celebrate.
Filmmakers and community leaders Luis De Fillippis and J. Stevens are committed to supporting trans filmmakers at all levels, and have been leading transformative work in Canada through the launch of the Trans Film Mentorship (TFM), which provides on-set training to gender diverse filmmakers and creatives in partnership with Netflix, and the Spindle Films Foundation, which supports these filmmakers through fellowship and their new short film fund.
At the 3rd annual Trans Film Summit, held in the heart of the festival at the TIFF Lightbox, TFM invited three filmmakers to pitch their short film concepts for the chance to win an incredible prize package including financing and production support to make their film. The jury included filmmakers Jane Schoenbrun, Sasha Leigh Henry and Luca Intilli. Filmmakers Ayo Tsalithaba, Onyeka Oduh and Jessie Posthumus participated in the pitch. While Tsalithaba came away with the win for Never Sleep, all 3 filmmakers went home with production grants from the event sponsors.
The Trans Film Summit presented their CMF Barrier Breaker Award to Emmy-Nominated actress Nava Mau, in recognition of her breakout role in Netflix’s BABY REINDEER and her many contributions to the entertainment industry as a filmmaker, advocate and community leader. In her moving acceptance speech, Mau shared about the role of mentorship in her career (including her time on the set of the documentary DISCLOSURE as a production mentee) and recounted her last visit to Toronto, where her short film ALL THE WORDS BUT THE ONE screened at the Inside Out Film Festival.
Toronto’s hometown LGBTQ film festival welcomed filmmakers and industry leaders to their annual Queer Brunch, celebrating the LGBTQ films in the festival’s lineup and the festival’s year-round programs that support authentic and inclusive LGBTQ storytelling. The home of the world’s only financing forum for LGBTQ films, Inside Out’s TIFF celebration gave a glimpse of the bright future for queer and trans storytelling that is being driven by these dynamic international creatives.
The festival boasted a strong LGBTQ lineup and the queer stars were out. A number of TIFF films involved GLAAD’s Entertainment Team.
GLAAD capped off the opening weekend with a panel in TIFF’s industry conference, highlighting LGBTQ creatives working across genres to bring authentic stories to life. Star of the upcoming Netflix documentary WILL & HARPER, Harper Steele, spoke to her whirlwind journey from the film’s Sundance premiere to seeing herself on the cover of The Advocate.
Director Sydney Freeland, at TIFF with her new feature REZ BALL coming to Netflix, shared thoughts on how the industry has shifted for queer and trans storytelling over the last 10 years, and how her recent experiences on REZ BALL and co-creating the Marvel series ECHO have given her hope for inclusive casting and collaborating. Filmmaker Alexander Farah returned to TIFF 10 years after his first film with the moving short ONE DAY THIS KID, a personal exploration of young life as a queer Afghan boy in Canada. Documentarian Laurie Townshend, on the festival circuit with her award-winning film A MOTHER APART, spoke to how the film illuminated the possibilities of queer motherhood. Director and cinematographer J. Stevens, making their feature film debut with the narrative REALLY HAPPY SOMEDAY at TIFF, chronicled their journey in making ‘a different kind of transition story,’ shooting their feature over the course of a year with co-writer and star Bretton Lalama, documenting his vocal transition as a musical theatre performer.
Andria Wilson Mirza, senior entertainment consultant at GLAAD and independent producer, moderated the conversation which illuminated the need for support in discoverability of LGBTQ talent, to share with decision-makers the incredible diversity of creatives, in front of and behind the camera, that can bring their lived experiences to productions.
GLAAD is a proud partner of IMDbPro to make it possible for LGBTQ creatives and industry professionals to self identify on their IMDbPro profile. IMDbPro members can self-identify their sexual orientation, gender identity, and other demographic information to appear on their IMDb and IMDbPro name pages and in search results. Read more here.
