Canada’s Top Ten honours NFB co-productions Any Other Way

Three National Film Board of Canada (NFB) co-productions have been named to Canada’s Top Ten—a list of the country’s finest feature-length and short films in 2024, as chosen by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

These acclaimed films will screen in February at TIFF Lightbox, with directors in attendance.

Toronto filmmakers Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s music documentary Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story was chosen as part of the feature film selection.

This Banger Films/NFB co-production has received over 10 honours to date, including Top 10 Audience Favourite and the DGC Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary at Hot Docs, the Out in the Silence Award at the Frameline International LGBTQ+ Film Festival in San Francisco, as well as a Rogers Best Canadian Documentary nomination by the Toronto Film Critics Association.
Two animated shorts were also named to the short film program:

Maybe Elephants, the latest film by Oscar-winning animator Torill Kove, a Norwegian-Canadian filmmaker based in Montreal.

One of 15 films now shortlisted for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film, Maybe Elephants (Mikro Film/NFB) reunites the cast of her most recent Oscar nominee, Me and My Moulton. Over more than two decades, Kove has created three Academy Award-nominated shorts, including her 2007 Oscar winner, The Danish Poet, as part of a stellar run of animation excellence.
Michif/Red River Métis creator Amanda Strong’s stop-motion short film Inkwo for When the Starving Return.

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Canadian Short Film at the GIRAF International Festival of Independent Animation in Calgary, this Spotted Fawn Productions/NFB co-production will be featured next at the Sundance Film Festival.

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story by Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee (99 min)
Produced by Amanda Burt, Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen (Banger Films); Michael Mabbott; Justine Pimlott (NFB)
Executive produced by Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn, Chanda Chevannes (NFB), Anita Lee (NFB), Elliot Page and Matt Jordan Smith (PAGEBOY Productions), Martin Katz, Nia Long and CJ Mac

A star is reborn. With an outsize stage presence that eclipsed R&B greats like Etta James and Little Richard, soul singer Jackie Shane was the real deal. Jackie boldly carved a new path as one of music’s trailblazing Black trans performers—but on the edge of stardom, why did she suddenly leave the spotlight?

Toronto filmmaker Michael Mabbott’s features The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico (Best Canadian First Feature Award) and Citizen Duane both premiered at TIFF. His first documentary, Music Lessons, premiered at Hot Docs.
Lucah Rosenberg-Lee is a Toronto speaker, entrepreneur and filmmaker specializing in documentary and LGBTQ+ content. He has produced and directed a variety of projects, including Passing and For Nonna Anna, which have screened at TIFF, Inside Out and Sundance.
Maybe Elephants by Torill Kove (Mikrofilm/NFB, 16 min 43 s)
Producers: Lise Fearnley (Mikrofilm), Maral Mohammadian (NFB), Tonje Skar Reiersen (Mikrofilm)

In the ’70s, three rebellious teenage daughters, a restless mother, a father struggling with potatoes, and maybe some elephants, find themselves in bustling Nairobi—and the family will never be the same. Narrated by Torill Kove, the film wraps rich nostalgia around memories of eventful family trips, timeless teen antics and those inevitable moments of adolescent epiphany.

This Canada’s Top Ten selection for Maybe Elephants is the latest honour for Torill Kove, who recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from SPARK ANIMATION in Vancouver, Western Canada’s largest animation fest. Since its world premiere at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, the film has been selected to screen at more than 30 festivals around the world.
Inkwo for When the Starving Return by Amanda Strong (Spotted Fawn Productions/NFB, 18 min 27 s)
Producers: Amanda Strong (Spotted Fawn Productions), Maral Mohammadian (NFB), Nina Werewka (Spotted Fawn Productions)

Dove, a young warrior, receives and begins to understand the gifts and burdens of their Inkwo (medicine) to defend against an army of starving creatures. Inkwo is a call to action to fight and protect against the forces of greed and consumption.

An adaptation of the short story “Wheetago War” by award-winning Tlicho Dene storyteller Richard Van Camp, Inkwo features the voice talents of Paulina Alexis (Critics Choice Award winner), Tantoo Cardinal (Order of Canada) and television producer, actor and storyteller Art Napoleon.

Amanda Strong is a Michif/Red River Métis artist, writer, producer, director, filmmaker and mother. As the owner and executive producer of Spotted Fawn Productions Inc., her collaborative creations serve to amplify Indigenous storytelling and ideologies.

 

LC