The Toronto International Film Festival announced its 2017 Discovery program lineup with 45 first and second feature films by up-and-coming filmmakers from around the world.

“Uncovering new talent is one of the key roles of the Festival,” said Piers Handling, Director and CEO of TIFF. “The Discovery program allows us to carve out a space for emerging filmmakers to be seen by the international film industry and has helped launch the careers of award-winning filmmakers like Maren Ade, Barry Jenkins, Steve McQueen, Christopher Nolan, and Dee Rees.”

The films, produced or co-produced in 35 different countries, include fresh, experimental and compelling voices, a few we’ve been following on this blog, making their first or second feature films.

“If you don’t support the future of filmmaking, you fall behind. So we’re always looking for new talent,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of TIFF. “The fact that the Discovery program continues to grow is deeply encouraging, and speaks to the fact that there are a lot of people that want to make films when it is often increasingly more difficult to do so.”

Of note, with respect to this blog’s interests are the following:

— Black Cop, directed by Cory Bowles. A Black police officer (played by Ronnie Rowe Jr.) seeks revenge after being egregiously profiled and assaulted by his colleagues. TIFF calls it a “searing political satire.”

— High Fantasy, directed by Jenna Bass. Four friends on a camping trip at an isolated farm wake up to discover they’ve all swapped bodies. Cast includes Qondiswa James, Nala Khumalo, Francesca Varrie, Michel, Liza Scholtz and Loren Loubser.

— Five Fingers For Marseilles (Menoana e Mehlano ea Marseilles), directed by Michael Matthews. A film that’s on our list of 10 African films to get excited about. Twenty years after fleeing from the brutal police aggression in colonial Marseilles, a member of the Five Fingers returns seeking peace, but with the town under new threat, he must reluctantly fight to free it. Cast includes Vuyo Dabula, Zethu Dlomo, Hamilton Dhlamini, Kenneth Nkosi, Mduduzi Mabaso, Aubrey Poolo, Lizwi Vilakazi, Warren Masemola, Dean Fourie, Kenneth Fok, Brendon Daniels, Anthony Oseyemi, and Jerry Mofokeng.

— I am not a Witch, directed by Rungano Nyoni (a Shadow and Act filmmaker and film to anticipate). Part magic realist fable and part gendered social critique, Nyoni’s debut feature focuses on a young girl who is banished from her village in Zambia and sent to a camp for exiled witches. Cast includes Margaret Mulubwa, Henry B.J. Phiri, Nancy Mulilo, Margaret Sipaneia and Gloria Huwiler.

In addition, the Toronto International Film Festival also announced a new title to the Docs program: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, a documentary about black writer, communist, feminist, lesbian and outspoken trailblazer at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Lorraine Hansberry, from director Tracy Heather Strain.  It is narrated by LaTanya Richardson Jackson with Anika Noni Rose as the voice of Lorraine Hansberry

This is the first feature documentary on Hansberry.

The 42nd Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 7 to 17, 2017.