The Toronto International Film Festival returns September 5 – 15, 2024 for its 49th edition. The festival’s Wavelengths lineup was recently announced. The category features “Daring, visionary, and autonomous voices. Film art in the cinema and beyond.”

Check out the Wavelengths lineup below:

Collective Monologue – Directed by Jessica Sarah Rinland. “With Collective Monologue, Wavelengths alumna Jessica Sarah Rinland pursues her ongoing concerns with the relationship between humans and the natural world in this intricate portrait of Buenos Aires zoos and animal shelters.”

Drama 1882 – Directed by Wael Shawky. “Wael Shawky’s Drama 1882 (re)stages a colonial conflict laden with treason and exploitation as a libretto across eight chapters and 44 hypnotic minutes, invoking questions of colonialism, collaboration, resistance, narrative, history, and, of course, drama.”

Grand Tour – Directed by Miguel Gomes. “The latest feature from Portuguese auteur Miguel Gomes, which earned him the Best Director prize at Cannes, Grand Tour is a delirious, romantic, wildly ambitious travelogue that toggles eras, cultures, and styles.”

Lázaro at Night – Directed by Nicolás Pereda. “In the sly and pleasurable Lázaro at Night from prolific Mexican Canadian auteur Nicolás Pereda, a love triangle between three actors elicits a reflection on the different roles one plays and the interplay between desire and realism.”

Pepe – Directed by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias. “Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias’ Pepe is a heady, inventive travelogue inspired by the life and death of one of Pablo Escobar’s prized hippos.”

Perfumed with Mint – Directed by Muhammed Hamdy. “In this stirring elegy for a desolate Cairo from Emmy-winning cinematographer-turned-director Muhammed Hamdy, mint is sprouting from the bodies of a tormented generation of dreamers, attracting moving shadows that chase people through the streets.”

The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire – Directed by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich. “Inspired by the life of the eponymous Martinican writer and activist, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s feature debut, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, is a sumptuous, critical reflection on art, love, and politics — employing the spells of cinema to contend with an elusive legacy.”

The Damned – Directed by Roberto Minervini. “A daring period drama by celebrated Italian-born, American-based filmmaker Roberto Minervini, The Damned is an at-once philosophical and disarming portrayal of a group of volunteer Civil War soldiers on the western frontier.”

Viet and Nam – Directed by Trương Minh Quý. “Amidst the darkness 1,000 metres underground sparkles an intimate romance between Viêt and Nam in this mystical story of two young miners in search of a brighter future.”

Wavelengths 1: Eye & Ear Control

• Revolving Rounds – Directed by Johann Lurf and Christina Jauernik. “A collaboration between Wavelengths alum Johann Lurf and artist-academic Christina Jauernik as part of an experimental research project, Revolving Rounds incorporates the vintage Cyclostéréoscope apparatus in an oblique, dizzying immersion into the act of plant growth and cultivation. The film was realized as part of the FWF research project “Unstable Bodies” at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.”
• The Diary of a Sky – Directed by Lawrence Abu Hamdan. “By turns graceful and incensed, The Diary of a Sky artist — and self-described “private ear” — Lawrence Abu Hamdan employs collaboratively sourced smartphone videos and his typically lucid analysis to examine the sonic terrorism routinely effectuated over the citizens of Lebanon.”
• October Noon – Directed by Francisco Rodríguez Teare. “In Francisco Rodríguez Teare’s sly, tender, and unsettled October Noon, a group of friends in a forest enclave on Santiago’s central mountain reimagine the 2019 protests that rocked Chile as a speculative future.”
• A Black Screen Too – Directed by Rhayne Vermette. “A sequel to her earlier Black Rectangle, and reminiscent of Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren’s groundbreaking animations, Rhayne Vermette’s buzzing miniature A Black Screen Too is a burst of colour and movement undercut by darkness.”
• Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya – Directed by Malena Szlam. “Forming part of a film constellation that stretches from Chile across the Pacific, in which Malena Szlam trains her camera on far-flung volcanic landscapes — by turns barren and verdant — the dazzling in-camera multiple exposures of Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya evoke the layered histories of the titular Bunya Mountains in eastern Australia’s Beerwah region, further deepened by sonified atmospheres from artist Lawrence English.”

Wavelengths 2: Ride the Wave

• Someplace in Your Mouth – Directed by Beatrice Gibson and Nick Gordon. “Pulsating and sensual, the latest collaboration between Beatrice Gibson and Nick Gordon recasts the machismo of a subculture though nocturnal footage of hotshot moto and sound system enthusiasts from the periphery of Palermo, set to the words of American poet Magdalena Zurawski.”
• Notes of a Crocodile – Directed by Daphne Xu. “Shot in Cambodia and borrowing a title and a punk sensibility from Qiu Miaojin’s classic queer novel, Daphne Xu’s Notes of a Crocodile follows an unnamed woman who roams the streets of a Phnom Penh in flux, encountering humans and animals in her search for a lost friend.”
• Adrift Potentials – Directed by Leonardo Pirondi. “With Adrift Potentials, Brazilian filmmaker Leonardo Pirondi reflects on questions of (lost) history and colonialism by way of an unfinished film, invoked through deft, fleeting fragments.”
• Go Between – Directed by Chris Kennedy. “Elegant and rigorous, while surprisingly playful, Chis Kennedy’s Go Between observes the Brisbane River, passing boats, and cars on the William Jolly Bridge through an intoxicating play of masking and superimpositions.”
• The Sojourn – Directed by Tiffany Sia. “At once a treatise on landscape, translation, and indigeneity, The Sojourn, from recent Baloise Art Prize winner Tiffany Sia, responds to the work of wuxia legend King Hu by way of his collaborators and the misty mountain panoramas of rural Taiwan.”

Wavelengths 3: Exposé(s) – Jean-Luc Godard/John Smith

• Scénarios – Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. “The last completed film by the veteran Jean-Luc Godard, finalized the day before his assisted death in September 2022, Scénarios folds together many of his lifelong inquiries into a precise, sober treatise on art, cinema, language, and death.”
• Exposé du film annonce du film “Scénario” – Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. “Conceptualized by Godard and shot by his trusted collaborator Fabrice Aragno, with Exposé du film annonce du film “Scénario” the maestro — cigar in hand — presents a guided tour of a scrapbook-meets-storyboard for a feature left unfinished.”
• Being John Smith – Directed by John Smith. “Being John Smith is a deceptively wry and deeply felt work by the English avant-garde legend, in which Smith reflects on his life and career by way of his generic name, grappling with his own mortality and legacy, through a minimal, unassuming deployment of text, image, and voice.”

Youth (Hard Times) – Directed by Wang Bing. “Hard Times, the second chapter of Wang Bing’s monumental Youth, continues exploring the harsh living conditions of young migrant workers in the Yangtze Delta’s garment district while offering a broader perspective on the local economy’s dynamics.”

Youth (Homecoming) – Directed by Wang Bing. “Homecoming, the final chapter of Wang Bing’s Youth, follows young textile workers from Zhili workshops to their rural homes for New Year’s celebrations. It’s a powerful documentary and an unprecedented record of the young labour force that fuels the global economy.”

exergue – on documenta 14 – Directed by Dimitris Athiridis. “In 14 compulsively watchable episodes (screening over three consecutive days), exergue – on documenta 14 goes behind the scenes at an international contemporary art exhibition to see artist studios visits, negotiations with partners, historical excavations, and the rising ideological tension between creative expression and economic demands.”