Examining topics from murderous affairs to the deepest family secrets, this year’s Canadian Shorts program is proud to present six subtle films from across Canada, including several that were selected for TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten Shorts Programme.

Throat Singing in Kangirsuk celebrates the breathtaking landscape of Kangirsuk with the rhythm of Eva Kaukai and Manon Chamberland’s throat singing. In I am in the World as Free and Slender as a Deer on a Plain, Sofia Banzhaf follows a girl’s exploration of her sexual autonomy in the not-so-exciting dating world of millennials. Alexandre Dostie introduces a woman with a middle-age crisis and puts her in a moral dilemma again in his new short, I’ll End Up in Jail. With the format of a puppetry, Jack Pocaluyko opens a discourse about a young man’s death and his family with a humorous and witty tone in I Must Be Going. Filmed in her family’s dining room, in the documentary No Crying at the Dinner Table Carol Ngyuyen guides her family members to recollect, share, and heal their toughest memories with the gentlest yet the most powerful way. Wandering between dreams and realities, Brandon Cronenberg guides you on a psychedelic trip in his thriller Please Speak Continuously and Describe Your Experiences as They Come to You.

These and more complete the impressive showcase of new voices in Canadian filmmaking at HIFF 2020. —Zhu Dinghui