186 feature films will screen at this year’s Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF). The festival announced its full line-up this week, including Sean Menard’s MuchMusic documentary 299 Queen Street West as the closing night selection. WIFF will open with the French drama Le pot-au-feu, directed by Tran Anh Hung, which won Best Director at Cannes this year and is France’s official submission for Best International Feature. Additional documentaries at the festival include other Oscar submissions in the race, including Canada’s Rojek, Lebanon’s hybrid Four Daughters, and Estonia’s Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.
“It’s a great year for film and a great year for WIFF. We’re thrilled to be sharing our largest selection of programming yet, with outstanding films from all over the world,” said Vincent Georgie, Executive Director and Chief Programmer of WIFF, in a release. “In addition to bringing some of the biggest films of 2023 to our audiences, we are delighted to be highlighting some fan favourites alongside some incredible Canadian discoveries.”
Documentaries screening at WIFF as part of the Hot Docs showcase include Zach Russell’s Toronto housing crisis saga Someone Lives Here, which won the Rogers Audience Award for Canadian Film at Hot Docs and the prize for top Canadian feature documentary at VIFF. Also screening is Hot Docs’ winner for Best International Feature The Mountains, directed Christian Einshøj, and Special Jury Prize winner Name Me Lawand, directed by Edward Lovelace. The former is a Danish documentary about a family’s unique method for processing loss, while the latter is an innovative portrait of a deaf refugee in the UK as he learns British Sign Language.
WIFF also features the overall Hot Docs Audience Award winner, Lac-Mégantic: This Is Not an Accident, Philippe Falardeau’s harrowing portrait of the rail disaster that devastated a community. The documentary mini-series will screen in two parts at WIFF with one screening offering episodes one and two, and then episodes three and four playing together after giving audiences a moment to recover. Other WIFF docs on the Canadian front include Barry Avrich’s Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella, Sherien Barsoum’s Cynara, Chelsea McMullan’s Swan Song, Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams’ Satan Wants You, Stephen Hosier’s Attila, Kat Jayme and Asia Youngman’s I’m Just Here for the Riot, Omar Mouallem’s The Lebanese Burger Mafia, and Michelle Shepard’s The Man Who Stole Einstein’s Brain. WIFF also includes a special anniversary screening of Alanis Obomsawin’s landmark film Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance.
WIFF runs October 26 to November 6.
Get the full line-up here.
