The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled the first wave of speakers for its Industry Conference lineup in September.
Veteran director and actor Tyler Perry; Bill Kramer, CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and newly named Academy president Janet Yang lead the slate of Hollywood creative talent and executives taking part in keynotes and panels.
Besides premiering his new Netflix film, A Jazzman’s Blues, in Toronto, Perry will discuss his career as a film writer, director, producer, actor and studio owner. Kramer and Yang will share the stage at TIFF to possibly discuss Oscars drama and organizational reforms at the Film Academy.
Industry conference organizers have also invited representatives from the Academy, the Screen Actors Guild and other Hollywood stakeholders to discuss “The Future of Awards” as each organization has an evolving impact on the film industry.
The industry event is planning a panel on narrative sovereignty, or the ability of Indigenous creators to tell their own stories, to include Slash/Back director Nyla Innuksuk, Stellar director Darlene Naponse, Canadian director and actor Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and filmmaker Sonya Ballantyne, with veteran producer Bird Runningwater moderating.
Elsewhere, Indian director S.S. Rajamouli will keynote the industry conference as he discusses Telugu cinema and his own career. The Toronto event will also hold panels on the future of the exhibition sector, creating authentic and inclusive creative content, future cinema technology and getting more underrepresented voices into the film industry.
Also on Wednesday, TIFF unveiled its 2022 Primetime program of global TV series.
This year’s slate includes world premieres for the fifth season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which is shot in and around Toronto; Allen Hughes’ Dear Mama for FX; Netflix’s German series 1899; Amazon Studios and Plan B Entertainment’s High School, starring Railey Gilliland, Seazynn Gilliland and Cobie Smulders; and Lido TV, from Lido Pimienta and Sean O’Neill.
There’s also an international premiere for the Aussie series Mystery Road: Origin and a North American premiere for Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom Exodus series. Also on Wednesday, TIFF began to announce Canadian film titles for its September event, to include Anthony Shim’s Riceboy Sleeps, Hubert Davis’ Black Ice, V.T. Nayani’s This Place, and Gail Maurice’s Rosie.
Other homegrown titles headed to TIFF include Marie Clements’ indigenous drama Bones of Crow, Carly Stone’s North of Normal, starring Sarah Gadon, and Madison Thomas’s documentary about Buffy Sainte-Marie, Buffy Sainte Marie: Carry It On, which features appearances by fellow musicians Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, Taj Mahal and Jackson Browne.
And the National Film Board of Canada is bringing four films to TIFF, including Brian Johnson’s The Color of Ink, and Ever Deadly by Tanya Tagaq and Chelsea McMullan and about Tagaq as an improvisational singer and avant-garde composer.
The Toronto Film Festival, which will announce the rest of its Canadian film lineup on Aug. 17, is set to run Sept. 8-18.
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