The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky

Based on the award-winning novel of the same name, this boldly erotic yet movingly tender portrait of a group of vulnerable, variously wounded people — a depressed housewife, her high-school-aged lover, and his best friend, who is struggling to provide for himself and his senile grandmother — whose intersecting lives yield both sorrow and a fragile, yet enduring, hope for a brighter future. (TIFF)

Mother's Day

Sandy is a stressed-out, single mom who learns that her ex-husband is marrying a younger woman. Her friend Jesse's parents don't know that she has a family or that her sister, Gabi is married to a woman. Jesse's friend, Kristin, is juggling motherhood of a toddler, a patient boyfriend who keeps proposing, and searching for her biological mother. Bradley is a widower who's trying to raise two daughters on his own, while Miranda is too busy with her career to worry about children. When their respective problems intersect and start coming to a head, the Mother's Day holiday takes on a special meaning for all.

The Venus Effect

A romantic comedy about Liv, who is at the beginning of her 20s. She is very close to her parents and working in the family greengrocer business when, against all expectation, she falls in love with a spirited and somewhat older rainbow girl, Andrea. Andrea claims to be suffering from stress. But in reality, she is heartbroken and has sought refuge at her uncle’s apple plantation. Liv’s encounter with Andrea becomes the catalyst for a divorce, the loss of a friendship and an identity crisis that ultimately shatters their love. But in a rebellion against her parents, Liv realises that love is mutable and that a family may assume many forms.

Love at First Sight

Hadley and Oliver begin falling in love on a flight from New York to London, but when they lose each other at customs, can they defy all odds to reunite?

What a Wonderful Family! 3

At the Hirata home, three generations of their family live together. A crisis ensues when one afternoon, housewife Fumie falls asleep and wakes up to find a thief has stolen her secret money she kept hidden in the refrigerator.

Una mano bajo la nieve y otras historias

An anthology of 7 Mexican short films, all created by 5 up-and-coming independent filmmakers, with a common thread: to explore themes of human relationships. In order, A Hand Beneath the Snow (Una mano bajo la nieve), Friendship (Amistad), The View from Up Above (La vista desde arriba), The Short Film (El cortometraje), Silvestre (Silvestre), Cocktails For Two (Cóctel para dos) and When I Hear You Sing, I Forget (Cuando te escucho cantar, olvido).

After School

Change

Two friends decide whether or not it's worth becoming something more.

Egoist

A lonely magazine editor finds romance with his personal trainer until a confession changes everything. Based on the novel by Makoto Takayama.

Beneath the Shadow

From coworkers to close friends, Konno and Hiasa drift apart. When Hiasa goes missing, Konno must face what he didn’t say in time.

(Ab)normal Desire

Director Yoshiyuki Kishi and screenwriter Takehito Minato—the team behind acclaimed boxing epic Wilderness—reunite to adapt Ryo Asai's prize-winning novel. A sensitive drama about the aberrant in a society without regard for diversity, the story unites characters trying to hide abnormalities: a prosecutor who is worried that his pubescent son is a shut-in, an introverted saleswoman with a peculiar habit, and a student tortured by feelings she can’t express. In a world fill with abnormalities, what if it’s actually normal to be abnormal?

Luto

Damian, grieving his girlfriend's death, travels through Mexico seeking solace. Along the way, he connects with strangers and witnesses their coping rituals, finding a path through his own memories and regrets.

Praise

An unfocused twentysomething moves in with a former co-worker, who is suffering from low self-esteem because of her weight, looks, and a case of eczema. Their relationship is based on unending drink, drugs, and sex.

A Man

Akira works as a lawyer. One day, he meets with his former client Rie, who asks Akira to perform a background check on her late husband Daisuke.

Joyful Reunion

Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, the present day. Master chef Tang Shizhe (Kenneth Tsang) tells his two daughters, the careerist Wa'er (Huo Siyan) and teenage Xiaolan (Jiang Mengjie), that he has decided to sell his upscale vegetarian restaurant, the centre of his life for 30 years.

The Lucky Pennies

Antoine got some family issues so he follows the advices of Lucy on how to make a wish. It's quite easy, you just need to find a lucky penny and to put it on a railroad track. If the train passes and the penny does'nt fall off, then you know the wish will come true.

SAYOUNARA

When Yuki's classmate suddenly dies, rumors begin to spread about her death and the relationships between Yuki and her classmates are disrupted amidst grief and forced normalcy.

The Surface

Evan, an orphaned 22-year-old who grew up in the foster care system, buys a vintage 8mm camera in a yard sale from an elderly man, ends up with reels of the man's old home movies, and begins to live vicariously through these home movies.

My Friend "A"

Masuda, an aspiring journalist, plans to write an article in order to expose his co-worker Suzuki, who is a psychopathic murderer according to Masuda.

Buddy, We Need to Talk

The two childhood friends Juan and Nima reunite in therapy to figure out why they've grown apart.

Newness

In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.

Endless

When madly in love high school graduates Riley and Chris are separated by a tragic car accident, Riley blames herself for her boyfriend's death while Chris is stranded in limbo. Miraculously, the two find a way to connect. In a love story that transcends life and death, both Riley and Chris are forced to learn the hardest lesson of all: letting go.

She Came to Me

Composer Steven Lauddem is plagued by a creative block which leaves him unable to finish the score for his big comeback opera. When his former therapist-turned-wife Patricia suggests he rekindle his creativity by getting lost in the city, Steven sets out in search of inspiration. His epiphany comes after he meets a spirited woman named Katrina and discovers his life has much more potential than he bargained for, or ever could have imagined.

Time Is Up

Vivien, an accomplished student with a passion for physics, and Roy, a troubled young man, are involved in an accident that forces them to reclaim their lives one minute at the time.

Peter Ibbetson

When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke and Duchess of Towers. When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair's second chance.

Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between

Clare and Aidan make a pact to break up before college — no regrets, no broken hearts. But will one epic goodbye date offer them a last chance at love?

Chéri

The son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.

On the Edge

A suicidal young man is committed to a Dublin psychiatric hospital where he meets new friends who greatly influence his life.

The Mother

A grandmother has a passionate affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.

XX/XY

Three friends begin a dangerous three-way relationship that spirals out of control, leading to dire consequences that haunt them ten years later.

The Yellow Handkerchief

A road trip through Louisiana transforms three strangers who were originally brought together by their respective feelings of loneliness.

Winter Spring Summer or Fall

Remi and Barnes, two very different teenagers, meet by chance in the winter of their senior year, then spend four days together over the course of a year that will change their lives forever.

Not Easily Broken

A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.

All of You

Laura and Simon have been best friends since college. Over the years, they've realized their bond is more than platonic. Can they—and should they—risk everything to explore a love that has existed all along?

How to Please a Woman

When her all-male house-cleaning business gets out of control, a mature woman must embrace her own sexuality, if she is to make a new life for herself.

Twin Falls Idaho

Francis and Blake Falls are Siamese twins who live in a neat little room in a rundown hotel. While sharing some organs, Blake is always fit and Francis is very sickly. Into their world comes a young lady, who turns their world upside down. She gets involved with Blake, and convinces the two to attend a Halloween party, where they can pass themselves off as wearing a costume. Eventually Francis becomes really ill, and they have to be separated. They then face the physical and mental strains that come from their proposed separation.

Camp Belvidere

Camp Belvidere is a lesbian romance set in the 1950s about the coming of age of Camp Leader Rose and her forbidden encounter with Nurse Gin. It depicts the journey and evolution of a friendship into a romance between two women when their rapport would have been unlikely.

Love Everlasting

Bridger is a young outsider who's always wanted more. He and his mother flee an abusive home, eventually finding a small town in the middle of nowhere. Once there, Bridger finds true acceptance with another misfit.

Friends with Kids

In the wake of their friends' marriages and eventual offspring, longtime pals Julie and Jason decide to have a child together without becoming a couple. By becoming "time-share" parents, they reason, they can experience the joys of parenthood without significantly curbing their personal freedom. However, when Julie and Jason both become involved with others, they discover that they secretly harbor romantic feelings for each other.

Nine Lives

Captives of the very relationships that define and sustain them, nine women resiliently meet the travails and disappointments of life.