EXCLUSIVE: “We are all about celebrating Canada right now,” TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey explains on a Zoom call with us ahead of his festival’s latest lineup announcement this morning.
“But only in the sense that I’m very focused on how Canadian stories speak to the whole world. There is a thriving culture that I think is somewhat unique to Canadian cinema because it is supported by public bodies. Nearly all Canadian cinema is independent cinema, unlike some countries with big commercial industries.”
Mile End Kicks, the sophomore feature from Toronto native Chandler Levack (I Like Movies), is one of those independently produced titles set to come out of Canada this year, and it was included as a world premiere in this morning’s TIFF announcement. Levack joined us on the call with Bailey.
Written and directed by Levack, the film follows a 24-year-old female music critic who moves to Montreal to write a book about Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she becomes intertwined with a struggling indie rock band and decides to become their publicist. Starring are Barbie Ferreira (Euphoria), Jay Baruchel (BlackBerry), Devon Bostick (Oppenheimer), Stanley Simons (The Iron Claw), and Juliette Gariépy (Société distincte).
Bailey tells us that he “fell in love with the film” after seeing an early, unfinished cut.
“I was a film critic for an alternative weekly paper in Toronto for many years. I never got to live in Montreal like the character in the movie, but I know that world,” Bailey says. “And Mile End Kicks is telling this incredible story of what it’s like to exist as a young woman in that world, which is an alternative cultural world, but still has a lot of hazards for women. That plays out in the film with great insight, humor, and candor.”
Bailey adds that he believes Levack, who for some time worked on the editorial team at TIFF and debuted her first feature, I Like Movies, at the festival in 2022, represents “the very best of what Canadians can do.”
“I think of the early work of Patricia Rozema and Patricia Rozema, Clement Virgo, and then in Montreal, people like Philippe Falardeau and Denis Villeneuve, those early independent features that really feel like they’re immersed in a world, and speak to the experience of young people at that time — Chandler’s in that lineage,” Bailey says. “So I want the world to know about her, and that’s why we’re giving this film that kind of platform.”
In a similar vein to I Like Movies, a film about a socially awkward teenage cinephile who gets a job at a video store, Mile End Kicks is inspired by Levack’s own life experiences.
“I left Blockbuster and became a magazine writer in my early 20s. I wrote for magazines like Spin and Village Voice,” she explains. “It was tremendously exciting. But looking back at those years, I would think about how all my bosses were men in their 40s, and how maybe there was something weird about that. And maybe the way I was being singled out as special and talented had a deeper meaning to it.”
The film is set against the indie music scene in the titular Mile End neighborhood of Montreal, where acts such as Grimes, Mac DeMarco, and Arcade Fire first found acclaim. Montreal rock band TOPS have recorded two original songs for the film’s soundtrack.
“This is a movie that should be of enormous interest to buyers,” Bailey adds. When you look at what’s out there, what’s succeeding in art house distribution and awards season, it’s fresh voices and filmmakers who are connected to where the culture is right now. Mile End Kicks is exactly in line with that.”
Titles also announced this morning as part of TIFF’s Official Selection were Alejandro Amenábar’s The Captive, Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers, Sung-hyun Byun’s Good News, and Nia DaCosta’s Hedda. They join the previously announced opening night flick, John Candy: I Like Me.
On the wider TIFF lineup, which will be announced in August, Bailey adds: “We’ve been in close conversation with all of our usual partners, the studios, streamers, sales companies, and independent producers. There’s no let up it just all depends on what films are available, both in terms of what they present to us and what we end up choosing. Thankfully, we’re still seeing some great movies.”
TIFF 2025 runs from September 4–14.
