by Valerie Complex
Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival has revealed the full program lineup for its 34th edition. The festival champions 2SLGBTQ+ filmmakers from across the globe, and will showcase 106 films from 25 countries, including 30 feature films and 5 world premieres. The festival will take place May 24th to June 1st in Toronto, Canada at TIFF Lightbox as well as online. Inside Out’s Co-Head & Executive Director, Elie Chivi, and Co-Head & Artistic Director, Andrew Murphy, made today’s announcement.
The festival’s opening night film will be Amazon MGM Studio’s My Old Ass – Megan Park’s sophomore feature, which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival to standing ovations. Starring Aubrey Plaza, Maisy Stella and Maddie Ziegler, the queer comedy is about a woman who is visited by her future self and is told not to fall in love.
Fresh from its World Premiere at BFI Flare London Film Festival, the Canadian premiere of Karen Knox’s sophomore feature We Forgot To Break Up will screen as the festival’s closing gala film. Adapted from the novel Heidegger Stairwell by Canadian author Kayt Burgess, the film was written by Pat Mills, Noel S. Baker and Zoe Whittall, and has an original soundtrack by Torquil Campbell of the rock band Stars. The cast includes Lane Webber, Daniel Gravell, June Laporte, Hallea Jones and Jordan Dawson, as a band of misfits who ditch their small town to chase their dreams as indie rock gods in the big city.
The World Premiere of Susie Yankou’s Sisters is this year’s 2024 RE:Focus Gala selection. Starring Kausar Mohammed, Anna Garcia, Sarah Khasrovi, and writer/director Yankou, the film is about two best friends who want to be sisters until one of them discovers she has a long lost half sister. The film is also a 2022 Re:Focus grant recipient.
The Centerpiece Gala selection this year will be the Canadian premiere of Anthony Schatteman’s Teddy award-nominated debut feature Young Hearts. This feel-good coming-of-age story is about gay teenagers discovering their identities and falling in love. It had its World Premiere earlier this year at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival.
Highlights from the festival’s International Showcase program include the Canadian premiere of Julia Jackman’s directorial debut, Bonus Track, written by Mike Gilbert and story by Josh O’Connor, about a boy who dreams of being a rockstar. This coming-of-age romantic comedy stars O’Connor, Joe Anders, Josh Cowdery, Samuel Paul Small and Jack Davenport. Other notable titles are the international premiere of Extreme Unique Dynamic, award-winning meta-Asian-stoner-coming-of-age-bromantic-dramedy by Harrison Xu, Ivan Leung, and Katherine Dudas; the Canadian premiere of Hannah Pearl Utt’s festival darling Cora Bora starring Megan Salter and Jojo T. Gibbs, about a budding musician trying to make it in Los Angeles; and the SXSW hit documentary, A House is Not a Disco, a film by Brian J. Smith, which follows a year in the life of residents of Fire Island Pines, the world’s most homonormative community, as it finds itself in the midst of a renaissance.
Highlights from the Spotlight on Canada program this year include the World Premiere of Stories From My Gay Grandparents, an episodic series directed by J Stevens about a grandma and grandpa who reveal to the world their deepest secret; Caden Douglas’s genre comedy Mother Father Sister Brother Frank starring Mindy Cohn, Enrico Colanti, Iain Stewart and Melanie Leishman, about a normal suburban Sunday family dinner that is interrupted by the arrival of an unwanted guest; and nanekawâsis, a documentary about the acclaimed nêhiyaw artist George Littlechild.
Additional narrative premiere highlights include the World Premiere of Nicholas Giuricich’s Spark about a hopeless romantic reliving the same day over and over again after an awkward encounter; 2024 Berlin Official selection All Shall Be Well from Ray Yeung, which explores family dynamics after a sudden death; and the Canadian premiere of the transgender holiday film Carnage for Christmas from teenage filmmaker, Alice Maio Mackay. The festival will also include Dominic Savage’s Close To You, a homecoming drama about a strained family reunion that features a powerhouse performance from Elliot Page.
Documentary highlights in the program include two World Premieres: Colette Johnson-Vosberg’s Unusually Normal, screening in the Icons program, which follows a TikTok viral family that has three generations of gay women, and Regan Latimer’s Bulletproof: A Lesbian’s Guide to Surviving the Plot, which is an insightful and personal look at current queer representation in entertainment and media. Additional films in the program include Adriana Yañez’s The First Women, also playing in the Icons program, which profiles a group of women who were part of the first-ever national women’s soccer team in Brazil, and Eduardo Aquino’s A Big Gay Hairy Hit! Where The Bears Are: The Documentary, which follows three older gay “bears” living in Hollywood who go about producing their own web series.
“We are thrilled to welcome audiences back for the 34th annual Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival,” says Elie Chivi, Co-Head and Executive Director. “As the film festival landscape continues to evolve, we are incredibly grateful to our members, donors, and partners as well as our queer filmmaking family, for their continued loyalty and support, and without whom, this festival would not be possible. On the eve of Inside Out’s 35th anniversary in 2025, it’s a privilege to continue to bring the community together to share in the magic of queer cinema.”
“We are honored and humbled that Inside Out continues to provide a space for celebration of 2SLGBTQ+ stories, a space for professional development opportunities for queer creators, and a space to share experiences and network so that we can help foster future creative collaborations with our alumni and future alumni,” says Co-Head and Artistic Director, Andrew Murphy. “Through our ever evolving creative pipeline from the inception of an idea, to development, to financing to exhibition of a dream realized on screen, we are ecstatic to host a fantastic lineup of films and key industry programming including our 3rd FREE Industry Day as well as our 8th edition of the B2B Finance Forum where, since 2017, we have seen a success rate of over 40% of participating projects including this year’s Sundance hit Sebastian.”
“Gathering to watch a film, whether at home with friends or immersed in the vibrant energy of a cinema filled with strangers, can be a profound communal experience. Queer cinema can affirm us and create a space for us to learn, reflect, grow, and connect. As we eagerly announce the festival slate, we are honoured to present the work of over one hundred incredible filmmakers, giving the Inside Out audience across Ontario the opportunity to carve out their own curated space – a space built on the love of great film,” added Director of Festival Programming, Jenna Dufton.
The selected participants and participating executives for the 8th edition International Financing Forum will be announced in the coming weeks. One of the films screening in this year’s festival is an alumni of the 2022 finance forum – the Canadian premiere of Mikko Makela’s Sebastian, which world premiered earlier this year at Sundance 2024. Director of Festival Programming Jenna Dufton heads the programming team with Lu Linares (Programming Coordinator), and programmers Ferdosa Abdi, Rasheed Bailey, Ashley Bodika, Ferrin Evans, Claire Jarvis, Allia McLeod, Emma Pitters-Fisher, Nik Redman, Raphael Sanchez, and Scott Smart.
Individual tickets for screenings, ticket packages, and all-access passes are on sale today at insideout.ca.
CLOSING GALA
We Forgot to Break Up, directed by Karen Knox (Canada – Narrative)
Within Toronto’s vibrant bar scene, a diverse group of musicians come together to form a band with a mission: to ignite a musical revolution. As they channel their individual struggles and experiences into their music, The New Normals create a dynamic rock sound that transcends gender and sexuality. But as they rise to fame, personal and romantic entanglements complicate their journey. Canadian Premiere