The Indigenous Cinema Alliance (ICA) is bringing 14 titles to the first edition of TIFF: The Market, pairing four official TIFF selections with market-ready films and projects in development. The line-up spans producers from the Ballardong Whadjuk Noongar, Cree, Gunadule, Inuit, Kalaallit Inuit, Mapuche, Māori, Métis, Sámi, Tongan and Yaegl nations.
Four TIFF Selections
Nyla Innuksuk’s (Inuk) In the Heart of the South screens in Platform, Alex Liu’s (Tongan) God Bless You, Mr. Kopu in Centrepiece, Justin Ducharme’s (Métis) Seventeen in Discovery and Alexandra Lazarowich’s (Cree, Lubicon Lake Nation) Turtle Island Rap in TIFF Docs.
Rights are already moving. Radiant Films International leads international sales on God Bless You, Mr. Kopu for worldwide excluding North America and ANZ, alongside Anonymous Content Independent for North America, with Umbrella Entertainment on domestic ANZ. Elevation Pictures is the sole distributor for In the Heart of the South. Vortex Media and Photon Films hold domestic rights on the other Canadian selections, with international sales rights still available in key territories.
Three Market Titles
Our Flag by Johannes Ujo Müller (Inuk) traces how a red-and-white design became a symbol of Inuit pride, unity and self-determination; Truly Good represents it internationally, excluding Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Pauline Clague’s (Yaegl) The Colleano Heart uses archival material to uncover the story of globally successful circus performers who hid their Aboriginal heritage to survive, handled internationally by Jambika Docs, excluding Australia. Raptor (Pouākai) by Libby Hakaraia (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Kapu, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) is a short made with WētāFX, following a Māori chief’s high-stakes mountain ascent to rescue his child from a legendary apex predator. Worldwide rights are available.
Seven Projects in Development
Jacqueline Olivé’s (Tongan) Like Father, Like Daughter is a darkly comic hybrid-animation documentary on migration and memory, while Brooke Collard’s (Ballardong Whadjuk Noongar) Reclamation is a psychological horror tracking a First Nations woman’s cultural awakening. Olowaili Green’s (Gunadule) Suggunya: Between Seas, Molas and Memories is an investigative documentary reclaiming erased Indigenous histories connected to a 17th-century colonial plot, and Claudio Alvarado Lincopi’s (Mapuche) Mapurbekistán weaves archival material into a dreamlike journey through centuries of anti-colonial resistance and contemporary politics.
Three Sámi-led projects complete the slate: Ann Holmgren’s Porslin, a journey into memory and ancestral longing; Oskar Östergren Njajta’s animated folklore adventure Saajve; and Suvi West and Anssi Kömi’s Máttáráhkká, described by ICA as a surreal feminist thriller exploring power, love and survival in a world of beasts.
“Our decision to participate in the inaugural official TIFF Market reflects our immense optimism for this new platform, which further elevates TIFF’s standing as a world-class hub for global cinema.”
says David Morrison, Associate Director, imagineNATIVE.
Around the Slate
ICA is also fielding eight Producer Fellows in Toronto — Sadetło Scott, Anna Sunna, Brooke Collard, Johannes Ujo Müller, Jacqueline Olivé, Olowaili Green, Katsitsionni Fox and Libby Hakaraia — and hosts an invite-only Industry Day on September 11, 2026 devoted to international sales, pitching and co-production.
Administered by imagineNATIVE and founded in 2015 through a partnership with the European Film Market at the Berlinale, ICA expanded in 2024 into a year-round B2B international trade alliance focused on international distribution, buyer networks and non-treaty co-production pathways.
Read more: Figures of the Venice Production Bridge 2026: A Growing Business Hub for the Global Film Industry
