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"Do you have any idea how loud you're being right now?" Level Film out of Canada has debuted the first trailer for an indie drama titled Firecrackers, the feature debut of Canadian writer/director Jasmin Mozaffari. This premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year, and stopped by a number of international festivals including Zurich, Hamburg, São Paulo, and Stockholm. Michaela Kurimsky & Karena Evans star as Lou & Chantal, best friends, who plan to get out of their isolated, run-down town and move to a city far, far away. When Chantal's possessive ex violates her during a night of partying, the girls decide to exact their revenge on him. The more Lou fights tooth-and-nail to save her friendship and hold onto her dreams, the more she spins out of control as she begins to realize that freedom comes at a cost. The cast includes Callum Thompson, David Kingston, Tamara LeClair, Scott Cleland,...

Good Deed Entertainment has secured the U.S. distribution rights to Firecrackers, the director debut film from Jasmin Mozaffari based on her short film. The pic had its world premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival and will continue on the festival route before its Us theatrical release in 2019.

Starring 2018’s Tiff Rising Star Michaela Kurimsky and Karena Evans, who is best known for directing Drake’s music videos, the story follows Lou (Kurimsky) and her best friend Chantal (Evans) as they plan to get out of their isolated, run-down town and move to a city. When Chantal’s unstable and possessive ex violates her during a night of partying, the girls decide to exact their revenge on him through a night of vandalism and debauchery.

The consequences of their actions are devastating, threatening the girls’ chances of ever leaving. The more Lou fights to save her friendship and hold onto her dreams,...

“Firecrackers” director Jasmin Mozaffari and “Skate Kitchen” helmer Crystal Moselle, who won Stockholm Film Festival’s best film and debut, respectively, sat with Variety after the awards ceremony on Friday to discuss their next projects.

Moselle is an up-and-coming filmmaker who already boasts an impressive track record, having won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize with her 2015 documentary “The Wolfpack,” and this year’s Sundance Audience Prize with her narrative debut “Skate Kitchen,” a vibrant, naturalistic portrait of an all-female, multiracial skater crew in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

After “The Wolfpack” which revolved around six brothers who lived confined in a New York housing project, Moselle continued to work with non-professionals for “Skate Kitchen,” leading them to deliver performances that felt completely authentic. “I’m obsessed with authentic realism and when I work with non-actors I feel that I can make them virgins of themselves,” said Moselle, who is based in New York.

Jasmin Mozaffari’s “Firecrackers” and Crystal Moselle’s “Skate Kitchen,” a pair of bold and timely North American features, won best film and best debut at the 29th edition of the Stockholm Film Festival, whose awards were almost entirely scooped by female talents.

“Firecrackers,” which world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, marks the feature debut of Canadian helmer Mozaffari. The drama follows two best friends who plot a revenge against an abusing ex who violated one of them. But things spin out of control beyond a point of no return.

The festival praised “Firecrackers” for “its originality in portraying the love between two friends, in its urge for freedom, autonomy, loyalty in a violent world, and bringing us to situations in a way that we have never seen before.”

It’s “a perfectly directed film where all elements come together in a unique universe of its own,” the festival added.

Other winners include ’Cold War’, ’All Good’, ‘Skate Kitchen’.

Jasmin Mozaffari’s debut feature Firecrackers has won best film at the Stockholm International Film Festival 2018.

The Canadian drama, which premiered in Toronto, is about two young women desperate to escape their repressive small town; a night of debauchery could derail their future plans. Screen spoke to Mozaffari about the film after its debut.

The jury praised the film’s “originality in portraying the love between two friends, in its urge for freedom, autonomy, loyalty in a violent world, and bringing us to situations in a way that we have never seen before,...

Launched in 2011 as a four-day intensive mentorship that spotlights four homegrown actors on the brink of global breakout, Tiff Rising Stars this year not only expands its scope — officially adding four international thesps — but also embodies the festival’s increasingly proactive commitment to industry change (also reflected in its new Share Her Journey initiative). The eight 2018 stars all appear in Toronto films — including some of the hottest titles.

“Rising Stars not only celebrates achievements in the actors’ careers so far, but also helps them see the bigger picture of their lives as entrepreneurs and collaborative artists,” says its producer Natalie Semotiuk.

Canada is repped by Devery Jacobs (Veenda Sud’s “The Lie”), Lamar Johnson, pictured above, (George Tillman’s “The Hate U Give”), Michaela Kurimsky (Jasmin Mozaffari’s “Firecrackers”) and Jess Salgueiro (Patricia Rozema’s “Mouthpiece”); the international contingent is Ahmed Malek (Patricia Chica’s “Montreal Girls”), Stephane Bak (Joel Karekezi...

Other titles on slate include Firecrackers, and Toronto world premiere The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan.

Anick Poirier’s Montreal-based Seville International arrives in Toronto with a sales roster comprising the previously unannounced The Great Darkened Days and Broken Mirrors, as well as Firecrackers, and Toronto world premiere The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan.

The world premiere of Maxime Giroux’s The Great Darkened Days receives its first public screening on September 10 and hails from the director of former Canadian Oscar submission Felix And Meira. The P+I screening is set for September 8.

Martin Dubreuil, Sara Gadon,...

Exclusive: levelFILM and Seville International, an Entertainment One company, have landed the rights to Firecrackers, Jasmin Mozaffari’s directorial debut film, which is slated to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. levelFILM has the Canadian distribution rights and will release the pic in spring 2019, while Seville will handle international sales.

Starring Michaela Kurimsky and Karena Evans, the pic follows Lou (Kurimsky) and her best friend Chantal (Evans) as they plan to get out of their isolated, run-down town and move to a city far, far away. When Chantal’s unstable and possessive ex violates her during a night of partying, the girls decide to exact their revenge on him. The consequences of their actions threaten their chances of leaving and the more Lou fights tooth-and-nail to save her friendship and hold onto her dreams, the more she spins out of control as she begins to realize...

Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 6-16) has added a world premiere screening of Neil Jordan’s Greta and the North American premiere of Natalie Portman-starrer Vox Lux to its Special Presentations program, which now numbers 24 films.

Jordan’s Greta tells the story of a young New York woman named Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz) who strikes up an unlikely friendship with an enigmatic widow named Greta (Isabelle Huppert). Co-written by Jordan and Ray Wright, pic also stars Colm Feore, Maika Monroe, and Stephen Rea.

In musical drama Vox Lux, Brady Corbet’s second feature as writer-director tracks its heroine’s path from childhood tragedy to a life of fame and fortune. Starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law, the film begins with teenage sisters Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) and Eleanor (Stacy Martin) who survive a violent incident that changes their lives.

Tiff has also revealed the 46 movies taking part in its Discovery lineup for emerging filmmakers.

When she was just 15 years old, filmmaker Jasmin Mozaffari endured a shocking act of sexual harassment that shaped her worldview and pushed her to turn her concerns about the patriarchal society she was living inside into art. Her inspiration eventually birthed a pair of compelling female characters — Lou and Chantal — who Mozaffari built a short film, and then her full-length debut, around. The result is “Firecrackers,” Mozaffari’s feature debut, which will premiere at next month’s Tiff.

Per the film’s official synopsis: “Lou and her best friend Chantal plan to get out of their isolated, run-down town and move to a city far, far away. When Chantal’s unstable and possessive ex violates her during a night of partying, the girls decide to exact their revenge on him through a night of vandalism and debauchery. The consequences of their actions are devastating, threatening the girls’ chances of ever leaving.

The Toronto International Film Festival​ has added another 19 new titles to its 2018 festival lineup, comprised entirely of features directed by Canadian filmmakers. Each year, Tiff highlights the films that hail from its own shores in a standalone announcement, and this year it includes nine new films from female directors, six debut features, a number of titles from fixtures of the Canadian film scene, and the world premiere of three films that showcase some of the country’s Indigenous talent.

The festival will also play home to a special event world premiere and tribute dedicated to the late filmmaker and conservationist Rob Stewart, centered around his final film, “Sharkwater Extinction.” Stewart passed away in 2017 while working on the film, a followup to his 2006 documentary “Sharkwater.”

“We’re especially proud to present such a diverse group of films,” said Steve Gravestock, Tiff Senior Programmer, in an official statement. “Ranging from science fiction to fantasy,...

New films from Canadian filmmakers Denys Arcand, Maxime Giroux, Jennifer Baichwal and Bruce Sweeney have been added to 2018 Toronto International Film Festival lineup, which announced its slate of Canadian films on Wednesday.

Nine of the films are directed by women, fsix are debut features and 14 are world premieres.

Canadian features will include Arcand’s “The Fall of the American Empire,” Giroux’s “The Great Darkened Days” and Sweeney’s “Kingsway.”

Also Read: 'Beautiful Boy,' 'A Star Is Born' Highlight Toronto Film Festival Lineup

The Canadian documentaries include Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky’s “Anthropocene,” Ron Mann’s “Carmine Street Guitars” and Thom Fitzgerald’s “Splinters.”

Three of the films – Gwaii Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown’s “Edge of the Knife,” Darlene Naponse’s “Falls Around Her” and Miranda de Pencier’s “The Grizzlies” – feature indigenous talent.

A special event will screen the documentary “Sharkwater Extinction,...

Anthropocene and The Fall Of The American Empire are among films joining the line-up.

The Toronto International Film Festival has added another 19 Canadian titles to its line-up, among them the world premieres of documentary Anthropocene, Rob Stewart’s Sharkwater Extinction and Miranda de Pencier’s feature directorial debut The Grizzlies.

The new titles for the forty-third edition of the festival – which runs from September 6 to 16 - include nine films directed by women and five debut features and senior programmer Steve Gravestock emphasised the diversity represented.

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“We’re especially proud to present such a diverse group of films,...