CineFEMME Film Series / Série de films CineFEMME

1. Mawtini (Directed by Fateema Al-Hamayedeh Miller)

Grieving the loss of her grandmother, Nawal fixates on keeping a fig sapling alive, her last remaining connection to Palestine. When she meets Tanya, an older Indigenous woman and the resident trouble-maker in her new apartment building, she learns what resilience and connection to the land under colonialism and capitalism really means.

2. Hebron Relocation (Directed by Holly Andersen)

Holly Andersen explores what makes a place a home as she learns more about her community’s connection to generations of displaced northern Labrador Inuit.

3. Inkwo for When the Starving Return (Directed by Amanda Strong)

Two lifetimes from now the world hangs in the balance. Dove, a young, enigmatic, gender-shifting warrior, discovers the gifts and burdens of their Inkwo (medicine) to defend against an army of hungry, ferocious monsters. Dove’s courage, resilience and alliance with the Earth culminates in a battle against these flesh-consuming creatures, who become stronger with each body and soul they devour. Inkwo for When the Starving Return is a call to action to fight and protect against the forces of greed around us.

4. Slam Dunk, Sehaj! (Directed by Asis Sethi)

Set in her ways as a stay at home mom, Sehaj revisits her dream of playing basketball, despite her traditional husband being completely against it, but when she is pushed too hard, will she fall back to her routine or push back to re-discover herself?

5. On a Sunday at 11 (Directed by Alicia Harris)

A young Black girl navigates exclusion in her all-white ballet class, reclaiming her beauty and power in an ethereal and jubilant celebration of Blackness.

Join host Asis Sethi, alongside Alicia K. Harris, Director of On a Sunday at 11 for a Q & A after the screenings.

1. Dinner with Friends (Directed by Sasha Leigh Henry)

Eight friends struggle to hold on to their group as they reach their mid-thirties. Growing up is hard, staying close is harder.

Join host Asis Sethi, Tattiawna Jones and Tymika Tafari, actors from Dinner with Friends, for a Q&A after the screening.  

1. Boutique (Directed by Brishkay Ahmed)

On the night of the Taliban’s arrival in Kabul, a young woman must find a way to overcome her crippling fear and see hope for her future.

2. Rock the Cradle (Directed by Asis Sethi)

When the grips of postpartum depression engulf a new struggling South Asian mother, she must learn to stay afloat without drowning in her own darkness.

3. A Fermenting Woman (Directed by Priscilla Galvez)

On the brink of getting fired from her restaurant by new owners, visionary chef and master fermenter Marielle Lau develops an incendiary new dish with a bewitching ingredient she’s convinced will save her career.

4. A Sign (Directed by Amreen Khan)

What starts as an uncomfortable first date becomes a small, honest moment of connection between two unlikely strangers.

5. Queen Mother (Directed by King Louie Palomo)

When a mother visits her son, a drag performer, a night of raw confessions forces them to confront the unhealed wounds of their past.

6. Good Girl (Directed by Sunita Miya Muganza)

Halima is a mother in crisis. She must decide whether to honour her ancient tradition, circumcise her daughter or deal with the consequences.

Join host Asis Sethi, alongside Sunita Miya Muganza, Director of Good Girl, for a Q & A after the screenings.  

1. I Am Pleased (Directed by Vanessa Magic)

A teenage girl dreams of studying abroad, but her father’s rejection threatens to derail her plans, forcing her to confront her family’s troubled past and find strength within herself to pursue her dreams.

2. Love Letter (Directed by Thipika Balakrishnan)

Young Thipi is upset by the news that her classmate (and crush) Ryan is moving away, so she decides to write him a letter in the hopes that it will fly to wherever he is. The film is a love letter to both Ryan and her Parkdale life.

3. With Time (Directed by Jenny Lee-Gilmore)

Alice must confront her unresolved past when her estranged mother, who has dementia, moves in, forcing her to provide the care she never received in her childhood while juggling her own responsibilities as a mother.

4. Lost Wax (Directed by Omorose Osagie)

When a young girl disappears from her apartment complex, Osas — a craftswoman and outsider within her community — is haunted by her grief for someone she only knew from a distance. In this surrealist drama weaving live action and 2D animation, we follow the thread between the disappearance of an Edo girl from Benin city and the stolen art of the Benin kingdom.

5. Demons (Directed by Kelly Fyffe-Marshall)

An estranged mother and daughter reunite to confront buried resentments, address their differences and try to decide whether to come together or walk away from each other for good.

6. Nani’s Kitchen (Directed by Stephanie Sonny Hooker)

Recently widowed Nani enjoyed her freedom until her daughter, Renee, confronts her about a family secret regarding her late husband’s queer identity. Nani chooses to protect this secret while navigating grief and embracing her new beginning.

7. I Remember Footprints in the Snow (Directed by Cazhhmere Downey)

A mother and daughter re-address events in their past that have caused a disconnect in their present relationship through an honest, transparent conversation that reveals overlooked needs and vulnerabilities in them both.

Join host Asis Sethi, alongside Cazhhmere Downey, director of I Remember Footprints in the Snow and Vanessa Magic, Director of I Am Pleased, for a Q & A after the screenings.

Fateema Al-Hamaydeh Miller is a mixed-race Palestinian filmmaker whose work explores fragmented identity, grief and post-traumatic growth through an “oh no, should I laugh?” comedy. Miller is a WIDC and CFC Directors’ Lab alumni and recently completed a fellowship for Middle Eastern writers at USC. She is a firm believer in resistance through laughter.

Holly Andersen is a photographer from Makkovik, Nunatsiavut. Andersen is interested in photography’s ability to preserve moments in time or capture minute details. Her photographic practice encompasses a wide range of subjects including candid and portraiture photography of family and friends, macro photography of insects and nature and landscape photography including local wildlife. Andersen employs photography for capturing memories as well as creating images whose primary function is aesthetic.

“Through acts of reclamation and collaboration we are telling our own stories, in our own voice, lifting up and empowering the future of Indigenous storytelling in film.” So reads the mission statement of Strong’s production company, Spotted Fawn Productions. A filmmaker of Cree/Métis and European ancestry, Strong gives vital expression to Indigenous oral traditions in artful “hybrid docs” like Four Faces of the Moon. When Abenaki director Alanis Obomsawin was given the 2016 Clyde Gilmour Technicolor Award by the Toronto Film Critics Association, she bequeathed the cash prize to Strong, acknowledging the young artist’s important contribution to contemporary Indigenous cinema.

Playback’s 10 to Watch, Asis Sethi’s work has been supported by Netflix, Paramount, TIFF, Citytv, OMNI Television, CBC, Rogers, CFC, WIDC and WIFT Toronto. She’s been featured in Playback Magazine, The Globe & Mail, Times of India and OMNI Television. Asis focuses on telling stories of those whose voices have been suppressed.

Alicia K. Harris is a filmmaker from Scarborough ON. She is best known for her short film PICK, which won Best Live Action Short at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards and Best Short Film at the Miami Film Festival. Collectively, her films have been screened at numerous festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival and Calgary International Film Festival, and broadcast on CBC, TVO, and Bell Fibe TV. Her upcoming directing television credits include the inaugural episode of “Black Life,” a 45-minute documentary series about Black Canadian history for CBC, and the pilot and four other episodes of Beyond Black Beauty, a narrative coming-of-age story about a Black equestrian for Amazon Prime, which she also serves as a co-executive producer.

Sasha Leigh Henry is a writer, director and producer. Her most recent film, Sinking Ship, penned by her creative partner Tania Thompson, debuted at TIFF 2020 and went on to win the 2021 Vimeo Staff Pick Award at Aspen Shortsfest. Her film Bitches Love Brunch screened internationally before being acquired by CBC Gem. As a producer, Henry has helped bring numerous films to screen, including Randall Okita’s Canadian Screen Award winner, The Lockpicker, Kelly Fyffe-Marshall’s award-winning short film, Black Bodies, and most recently Fyffe-Marshall’s debut feature, When Morning Comes.

Brishkay Ahmed is a Canadian-Afghan director, writer and journalist. Her previous films include In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland, Aryana Resurrected, Unveiled: The Kohistan Video Scandal and Story of Burqa. She is also the writer and director of the Afghan primetime legal drama, Between You and Me. Her works have been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council and Creative BC. She has completed creative partnerships with Bravo TV, CMF, CBS, NFB, Java Films, Super Channel, RTA, FKH Media and Cinema Politica.

Priscilla Galvez is a Toronto-based director and producer. Her producing career launched with the short film The Drop In, written and directed by Naledi Jackson, which premiered at TIFF 2017, Fantastic Fest 2017 and was included in Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival in 2018. She co-produced the award-winning documentary short Sing Me a Lullaby, which received a Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary in 2021. Most recently, Galvez produced the feature film, Islands, directed by Martin Edralin, which was awarded a special jury prize for Best Breakthrough Performance at SXSW 2021.

In 2018, Galvez co-founded the production company Silent Tower where she co-directed over a dozen short-form documentary portraits for CBC Arts and created and directed the digital documentary series Art, Death and Taxes for CBC Gem. A Fermenting Woman is her directorial debut short film.

Amreen Ghouse is a writer and director (finalist of the WIFT Incubator and The Big Pitch) with a distinguished career in advertising and film production. At Think Brown Media Inc., she has written and directed high-profile commercials for top brands like Coca-Cola, Canada Dry and Nestlé. Her film Who’s Next? won Best Short Film at the CineFAM Film Festival. Her credits include producing Slam, Dunk, Sehaj! (CBC Gem) through the CFC/Netflix Calling Card Accelerator and content for Zee TV Canada. She also directed a music video with 1.5 million views on YouTube. Her upcoming Everyday Muslim Heroes, spotlights individuals who selflessly enhance others’ lives without seeking recognition. She currently works for Yaqeen Institute as an Executive Producer for their special and seasonal productions.

King Louie Palomo is a Vancouver-based queer Filipino Canadian writer, director and producer. His short, Nene, won Standout Director at Reelworld in 2021 and his proof-of-concept, Stay, screened at over 20 festivals, earning awards at Out on Film and Queer North. An alumnus of the CFC Director’s Lab, he recently directed Inang Reyna and produced Auganic, winning the Best Live Action Short, deadCenter in 2024. 

Sunita Miya Muganza is a promising, rising star. As a writer and director, she is passionate about stories. Her love for storytelling began at her local church as an art director, where she directed and produced all the stage performances. Her plays were not only captivating but thought-provoking. Under her leadership, the church produced 15 plays, and in 2015, Muganza independently produced her debut play, The Man with a Womb, In 2016, she founded her production company, Grassroots International Productions, also known as Gripmedia Films. In 2017, she was selected for the POV 3RD Street MediaProgram. In that same year, she directed her first short documentary, Badassery, a film about unapologetically black female DJs pursuing their passions and crafting their careers in a male-dominated industry. Since then, Muganza has produced and directed several projects including The Intersection, Love & Green Tea and Connexion.

Vanessa Magic is a Canadian Screen Award-nominated director and award-winning writer whose work centers around loneliness and grief, often from the eye of the outsider, with an Afrofuturist and Afrosurrealist lens. She is an alumnus of Black Women Film, BIPOC Film & TV, The Warner Media Discovery Access x Canadian Academy Writers Program (2022) and Women in the Director’s Chair (2023), Slamdance Mentorship (2023) and the Blood in the Snow Horror Lab (2023).

Thipika Balakrishnan is a driven, first-generation Canadian Tamil filmmaker who continues to hone her craft through music videos and narrative films. Her debut short film Bid (2023) screened at ToIndie, IFFSA and the New Filmmakers NY Festival. She has since directed Static (2024), Love Letter (2025), and a series of music videos, including “Unnaale” and “Senorita,” both of which have gained strong festival and online recognition.

Jenny Lee-Gilmore is a British Chinese Canadian actor, filmmaker and writer. Her screen credits span film, television, major streaming platforms and numerous commercials. Her debut short film, Breakaway, which she wrote and directed, screened at festivals across North America and was named a Top 9 finalist on CBC’s Short Film Face Off. Her documentary Overtime, spotlighting her mother’s 55+ hockey team, earned her a nomination for the

Vancouver Film Critics Circle’s One to Watch Award. Her documentary Little Miss Sleepy received critical acclaim for its powerful and intimate portrayal of her journey of being diagnosed with Type 1 narcolepsy at age 21.

Omorose Osagie is a Nigerian Canadian writer and director. She has received the jury prize for Best Animation at the Essence Film Festival, and her films have screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival and other festivals across North America. She was selected for the Vancouver International Film Festival’s mentorship program and studied film production at the University of British Columbia. Osagie’s films have received the National Film Board of Canada’s Filmmaker Assistant Program grant, the Indigenous Screen Office’s Solidarity grant, Experimental Forest Films’ New Works grant, BC Arts Council Individual Arts’ Media Artists grant and Canada Arts Council Explore and Create Program Concept to Realization grant.

Kelly Fyffe-Marshall is an award-winning director whose work challenges harmful narratives and reclaims space for Black and historically marginalized communities across the diaspora, using film as a force for innovation, empathy and social change. Recognized by prestigious institutions including TIFF, Sundance, SXSW and the Canadian Academy of Film and Television, Kelly has quickly become a standout voice in the industry. Her acclaimed short films: Haven (SXSW 2018), Black Bodies (TIFF 2020, Sundance 2021), OMI (SXSW 2022) and Demons (TIFF 2025) have garnered awards and critical praise. Kelly’s debut feature film, When Morning Comes, premiered at TIFF 2022, earning nominations for Best Canadian Feature and the Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award. It was also selected by David Cronenberg as his choice for the Toronto Film Critics Association’s Clyde Gilmour Award. 

Stephanie Sonny Hooker is a Toronto filmmaker with Trini and British roots, a love of storytelling and a big heart for community. As co-founder of Hometeam Films, she champions new voices and meaningful mentorship. Hooker has produced award-winning films and released her directorial debut, Nani’s Kitchen. She is currently developing her first feature, Wrong End of the Rainbow.

Cazhhmere Downey is a seasoned director with over 20 years of experience across various formats, including music videos, documentaries and episodic television. Her impressive portfolio includes directing music videos for renowned artists like The Backstreet Boys and Kardinal Offishall. Downey has helmed episodes of popular Canadian TV shows such as CTV’s Shelved, CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries and Heartland. Downey’s project, Out of Pocket, was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival’s prestigious 2023 Series Accelerator program. Additionally, her four-part docuseries, Sounds Black, which she wrote and directed, premiered on Corus Entertainment’s HISTORY channel in February 2025 and is available for streaming on StackTV.