Grad Film at 50th Toronto International Film Festival

Congratulations to the Grad Film alumni and faculty who premiered and received awards at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival!

Hamnet is a feature film by Grad Film alum Chloe Zhao which received the People's Choice Award. 

William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, celebrate the birth of their son, Hamnet. However, when tragedy strikes and Hamnet dies at a young age, it inspires Shakespeare to write his timeless masterpiece "Hamlet."

Talk Me is a short film by Grad Film alum Joecar Hanna which received the Best International Short Award. 

In a world where speech is a forbidden form of intimacy, a local outsider stumbles from a loveless marriage into true connection with a stranger.

The President's Cake is a feature film by Grad Film alum Hasan Hadi. 

The film follows young Lamia, who’s selected to provide the cake for her class’s mandated celebration of tyrant Saddam Hussein’s birthday, something she and her ailing grandmother can ill afford. The film details the cruelty brought by extreme scarcity and a lawless leader.

Nomad Shadow is a feature film produced by Grad Film Faculty Shrihari Sathe.

The film explores the refugee experience through a young Sahrawi woman who’s deported back to Western Sahara, a very different world than she’s used to among a family that still resents her departure.

Not Scared, Just Sad  is a short film by Grad Film alum Isabelle Mecattaf. 

Turning the camera on her family and surroundings in Beirut during the recent Israeli bombings of the city, Isabelle Mecattaf captures the jarring coexistence of regular life with the relentless shock and grief of living on the periphery of war.

Grad Film alum Nile Price pitched his feature film McNair at the Sloan Science and Technology Project Pitch. 

McNair tells the largely unheralded true story of the African American astronaut Dr. Ronald McNair and his journey as a member of NASA’s most diverse class during the historic Space Shuttle Program.

Nile Price is a director from Richmond, VA, whose work explores memory, resilience, and cultural legacy through poetic visual storytelling. A Cy Twombly Fellow at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and a 2023–24 Gotham Fellow, Price brings both artistic depth and cinematic discipline to every project. His short For the Moon, inspired by astronaut Ronald McNair, won First Prize at NASA’s CineSpace and screened at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. A sickle cell survivor and NYU Tisch MFA graduate, Price now shapes the next generation of filmmakers as a directing instructor at VCUArts Cinema.

Read more at TIFF.