Cemetery of Splendour from Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the 2015 Asia Pacific Screen Award (APSA) for Best Feature Film, considered the region’s highest accolade in film. Cemetery of Splendour is set in and around a hospital ward full of comatose soldiers. Attached to glowing dream machines, and tended to by a kindly volunteer (Jenjira Pongpas Widner) and a young clairvoyant (Jarinpattra Rueangram), the men are said to be waging war in their sleep on behalf of long-dead feuding kings, and their mysterious slumber provides the rich central metaphor: sleep as safe haven, as escape mechanism, as ignorance, as bliss.
The TIFF Next Wave committee of young film enthusiasts has hand-picked 10 Toronto International Film Festival films that will resonate with their peers. Founded in 2010, the TIFF Next Wave Committee is a group of 12 students ranging in age from 15 to 18 and selected from a competitive pool of young film enthusiasts, hailing from schools across the Greater Toronto Area.
In order to help their peers navigate the Festival, the Committee has identified the following youth-driven 2015 TIFF selections that will appeal specifically to the next generation of movie aficionados:
As I Open My Eyes (A peine j’ouvre les yeux)
Leyla Bouzid, Tunisia/France/Belgium (Contemporary World Cinema) North American Premiere
Born To Dance
Tammy Davis, New Zealand (Discovery) World Premiere
The Final Girls
Todd Strauss-Schulson, USA (Midnight Madness) International Premiere
Girls Lost Alexandra-Therese Keining, Sweden (Contemporary World Cinema) World Premiere
He Named Me Malala (pictured above)
Davis Guggenheim, USA (TIFF Docs) International Premiere
The Idol (Ya Tayr El Tayer)
Hany Abu-Assad, United Kingdom/Palestine/Qatar/ United Arab Emirates (Special Presentations) World Premiere
Ixcanul
Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala/France (Discovery) Canadian Premiere
Keeper
Guillaume Senez, Belgium/Switzerland/France (Discovery) North American Premiere
My Name is Emily
Simon Fitzmaurice, Ireland (Discovery) North American Premiere
Sleeping Giant
Andrew Cividino, Canada (Discovery) North American Premiere
The 40th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 10 to 20, 2015.