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Tehran Short Film Festival in Toronto
Tehran Short Film Festival runs annually in Tehran, Iran. This year, with the country-wide protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the filmmakers boycotted the festival. We decided to call this program Tehran Short Film Festival in Toronto.
Click to view 2022 films !
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Cinematic poetry of Shahin Parhami . A Diasporic Journey
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Women-led Protests in Iran
Saturday, December 10, 2022, 2:30 to 6:00PM
Royal Cinema, 608 College St., Toronto
FREE ADMISSION
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Unsettling Iris Zaki, Israel | UK, 2018, 70 min, in Hebrew with English subtitles Winner, Special Mention, Social Impact Media Awards, US, 2019 Canadian Premiere Sunday, 3 November 2019, 8:00 PM, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario Grierson award-winning director Iris Zaki enters the heart of Tekoa, an Israeli settlement in the West-Bank, and sits...
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An Evening with Ayelet Tsabari Book reading and interview with best selling Yemini-Israeli-Canadian author Ayelet Tsabari Free event as part of the Diaspora Film Festival Friday, 1 November 2019, 6:00 PM, Ryerson University, Rogers Communications Centre, 80 Gould Street, RCC-204 Tsabari’s award winning memoir The Art of Leaving has been widely praised in Canada and...
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Showtime: Saturday, 2 November 2019, 1:00 PM, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario Her Little Rose Tam Thanh, Canada, 2019, 12 min, in English and Vietnamese with English subtitles Rose has been struggling to cope with the increasing pressure from taking care of her mother with Alzheimer’s and her family. As the only child, she...
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Papicha Mounia Meddour, France | Algeria, 2019, 106 min, in French and Arabic with English subtitles Nominated, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival; Winner, Best Arab Film, El Gouna International Film Festival; Algeria entry for Oscars 2020 Canadian Premiere Saturday, 2 November 2019, 3:00 PM, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario Algiers, 1997. The...
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Take Me Somewhere Nice Ena Sendijarevic, The Netherlands | Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2019, 91 min, in Dutch, English, and Bosnian, with English subtitles Winner, Tiger Award, Rotterdam International Film Festival; Best Film, Sarajevo Film Festival Toronto Premiere Saturday, 2 November 2019, 5:00 PM, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario On the edge of adulthood, Alma...
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Young Ahmed Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium | France, 2019, 90 min, in French and Arabic with English Subtitles Winner, Best Director, Nominated for Palm d’Or, Cannes Film Festival Toronto Premiere Saturday, 2 November 2019, 7:00 PM, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario In Belgium, today, the destiny of young Ahmed, 13, caught between his...
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The Swallows of Kabul Zabou Breitman, Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec, France | Luxembourg | Switzerland, 2018, 84 min, in French with English Subtitles Winner, Gan Award, Annecy International Animation Film Festival; Nominated, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film FestivalCanadian Premiere Saturday, 2 November 2019, 9:00 PM, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario Summer 1998, Kabul in ruins is...
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Gaza Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell, Ireland | Canada | Palestine, 2019, 92 min, in Arabic and English with English Subtitles Winner, Best Documentary, Dublin International Film Festival; Nominated, Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival Sunday, 3 November 2019, 2:00 PM, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario Gaza brings us into a unique place beyond...
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Maryam Zaree, Germany | Austria
Winner, Audience Award, Compass Perspektive Award, Jury’s Special Mention, Berlin Film Festival
Sunday, 3 November 2019, 4:00 PM, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario
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It Must Be Heaven Elia Suleiman, France | Germany | Canada | Palestine, 2019, 97 min, in English, French, and Arabic with English Subtitles Nominated, Palm d’Or, Cannes Film Festival; Winner, Special Mention, Cannes FF Sunday, 3 November 2019, 6:00 PM, Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario In this comedy of errors, the filmmaker Elia...
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Aziza Soudade Kaadan, Lebanon | Syria, 2019, 13 min, in Arabic with English subtitles Winner, Grand Jury Prize for Short Film, Sundance FF; Nominated, Best Short Film, Moscow FF, Chicago IFF, Dallas IFF Canadian Premiere SHOWTIMES: This short film will be screened as part of the screening for Gaza. Ayman, a Syrian refugee in...
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A Song Can’t Burn Roscoe Neil, UK, 2019, 12 min, in English Nominated, Best Documentary Shor, Tribeca Film Festival Canadian Premiere SHOWTIMES: This short film will be screened as part of the screening for Unsettling. Professor and musician Nigel Osborne has developed music therapy techniques for children suffering the effects of trauma. These methods are now...
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Live Music! Mponda and The Matata 6 Saturday, 3 November, 2:50 – 3:10, Carlton Cinema Mponda was born in Africa and went from never seeing his mother to becoming a refugee and finally getting rescued by Red Cross and moving to Canada at young age. He went from being bullied at school and not...
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Welcome to the 18th edition of DFF!
Promised Land is the main theme of the festival this year
Carlton Cinema and Ryerson University, Toronto
1 to 4 November 2018
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Opening Night
Literary and Poetic Imagery Evening
Book reading and film screening
Rawi Hage reads from his latest novel Beirut Hellfire Society
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OPENING NIGHT – LITERARY AND POETIC IMAGERY EVENING 24 Frames is the last work of the Iranian master, Abbas Kiarostami, before his tragic death. A meditation bridging photography and cinema, his last work captures the moments immediately before and after a photograph is taken. In 24 tableau-style still images, Kiarostami takes us with him on a voyage...
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MY FAVORITE FABRIC Gaya Jiji, France/Germany/Turkey, 2018, 98 min, in Arabic with English Subtitles, Canadian Premiere Cannes FF 2018, nominated for Camera d’Or and Un Certain Regard Award Damascus, Spring 2011. It’s the early stages of the revolution. 25-year-old Nahla is torn between her desire for freedom and the hope of leaving the country thanks...
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SEXTAPE Antoine Desrosières, France, 2018, 98 min, in French with English Subtitles, North American Premiere Cannes FF 2018, Un Certain Regard; Munich IFF 2018 In the absence of her sister Rim, what was Yasmina doing in a car park with their boyfriends Salim and Majid? Rim knows nothing about it, but that’s because Yasmina is...
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MINING MEMORY Daniel Yon, Canada/St Helena/South Africa, 2018, with English Subtitles, North American Premiere Official Selection, South African Intenational Documentary Festival 2018 On May 21st, 1907, one hundred men left the Island of St Helena aboard the RMS Galician Castle, bound for Port Nolloth and Concordia beyond, to take up employment in the copper mines....
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YEARS OF FEAR Amin Zargham, Canada, 2018, 38 min, in English and Farsi with English Subtitles, World Premiere “Years of Fear” is a personal narrative on the life of an Iranian Baha’i citizen who, by reflecting on a collection of memories, sheds light on a relatively unknown aspect of being Iranian. Amin Zargham studied filmmaking...
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ELDORADO Markus Imhoof, Switzerland/Germany, 2018, 92 min, in German, English, and Italian with English Subtitles, Canadian Premiere Winner, Amnesty International Prize, Berlin FF 2018; Official Selection, Telluride FF 2018; Oscar 2019 Swiss Submission In the lean years of WW II, the family of Swiss director Markus Imhoof took in Giovanna, an Italian refugee part of...
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ONE OF THESE DAYS Nadim Tabet, Lebanon, 80 min, 2017, in Arabic with English Subtitles, Canadian Premiere A 24-hour youth chronicle in Beirut. Maya, Tarek, Yasmina and Rami are teenagers. They are smart, beautiful and hungry for life. Beirut is experiencing yet another terrorist attack with street demonstrations and police checkpoints. For this generation who...
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ZAGROS Şahim Omar Kalifa, Belgium/The Netherlands, 2017, 98 min, in Kurdish and Dutch with English Subtitles, North American Premiere Winner, Best Film, Ghent FF 2017; Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Oostende FF 2018 Kurdish shepherd’s wife Havin, accused of having an affair by her in-laws, flees to Belgium with her 9-year-old daughter. Her husband...
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A DYSFUNCTIONAL CAT Susan Gordanshekan, Germany, 2018, 93 min, in Farsi and German with English Subtitles, North American premiere Official Selection Berlin FF 2018, with Pegah Ferydoni Mina’s family has introduced her to several potential husbands in Iran. She has rejected them all until she meets Kian, a surgeon who has travelled from Germany in...
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IN BLUE Jaap van Heusden, The Netherlands, 2017, 102 min, in Dutch, English, and Romanian with English Subtitles, Canadian Premiere Winner, Best Film, Austin FF 2017; Special Jury Prize, Eindhovens FF 2017 A forty-something Dutch flight attendant has to deliver a child in mid-air on a flight to Bucharest. In the emotional aftermath, she meets...
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LAND Samiramis Kia, Canada, 2017, 11 min, in Dari and English with English Subtitles, Toronto Premiere Winner, Norman MacLaren Award, Montreal FF 2017 An old Afghan man in search of integration into his new society finds it in a strange way. Trailer
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Muayad Alayan, 2018, Palestine/The Netherlands/Germany/Mexico, 127 min
Winner, Audience Award, Tiger Award, Rotterdam IFF 2018;
Sarah is Israeli and runs a café in West Jerusalem. Saleem is Palestinian from East Jerusalem and works as a deliveryman. Despite being worlds apart, Sarah and Saleem risk everything as they embark on an illicit affair that could tear apart their...
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DAHA (MORE) Onur Saylak, Turkey, 2017, 115min, IN Turkish and Arabic with English Subtitles, North American Premiere Winner, Best Film, East End FF UK 2018; FIPRESCI Prize, Valladolid IFF 2017 Gaza is a 14-year-old boy who lives on the Aegean coast of Turkey. Together with his domineering father, he helps smuggle refugees from war-torn countries...
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LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA Alankrita Shrivastava, India, 2016, 116 min, in Hindi with English Subtitles, North American Premiere Winner, Grand Jury Prize, Film de Femmes 2017; Audience Award, Glasgow FF 2017; Audience Award, Granada FF 2017; Best Film, Best Performance, London Asian FF 2017; Audience Award, Minneapolis FF 2017; In rural India, a burkha-clad college...
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Welcome to the 18th edition of DFF!
Promised Land is the main theme of the festival this year
Carlton Cinema and Ryerson University, Toronto
1 to 4 November 2018
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Opening Night
Literary and Poetic Imagery Evening
Book reading and film screening
Rawi Hage reads from his latest novel Beirut Hellfire Society
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OPENING NIGHT – LITERARY AND POETIC IMAGERY EVENING 24 Frames is the last work of the Iranian master, Abbas Kiarostami, before his tragic death. A meditation bridging photography and cinema, his last work captures the moments immediately before and after a photograph is taken. In 24 tableau-style still images, Kiarostami takes us with him on a voyage...
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Muayad Alayan, 2018, Palestine/The Netherlands/Germany/Mexico, 127 min
Winner, Audience Award, Tiger Award, Rotterdam IFF 2018;
Sarah is Israeli and runs a café in West Jerusalem. Saleem is Palestinian from East Jerusalem and works as a deliveryman. Despite being worlds apart, Sarah and Saleem risk everything as they embark on an illicit affair that could tear apart their...
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LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA Alankrita Shrivastava, India, 2016, 116 min, in Hindi with English Subtitles, North American Premiere Winner, Grand Jury Prize, Film de Femmes 2017; Audience Award, Glasgow FF 2017; Audience Award, Granada FF 2017; Best Film, Best Performance, London Asian FF 2017; Audience Award, Minneapolis FF 2017; In rural India, a burkha-clad college...
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We are very pleased to welcome you to the 17th annual Diaspora Film Festival.
2 to 5 November 2017 - Carlton Cinema - See details...
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Ali Soozandeh, Germany/Austria, 2017, 96 min, in Farsi with English Subtitles Nominated, Camera d’Or and Critics’ Week Grand Prize, Cannes FF 2017; winner, FIPRESCI, Jerusalem FF 2017 Opening film, Thursday, 2 November 2017, 7:30 PM, Toronto Premiere The lives of three strong-willed women and a young musician cross paths in Tehran’s schizophrenic society where sex,...
