# 2024 Atlantic International Film Festival

The 2024 edition of the Atlantic International Film Festival, the 44th edition in the event's history, took place from September 11 to 18, 2024 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The first films in the program were announced on July 25, with the full program announced on August 14.
The event was scaled back to an extent from previous years, with a program of 96 features and shorts compared to almost 200 in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Festival chief Martha Cooley attributed this decision both to residents of the Halifax area still having a greater reticence in returning to large scale public events after the pandemic than people in other parts of Canada, and to the perception that as Halifax has a smaller population than cities like Toronto or Vancouver, audiences were being "pulled too thin" by past programs that were approaching the size of TIFF or VIFF.
The festival opened with Jason Buxton's film Sharp Corner, and closed with Sean Baker's Anora. The Atlantic Gala slot featured Melanie Oates's film Sweet Angel Baby.

## Awards

Award winners were announced on September 17, 2024.
| Award | Film | Recipient |
| Gordon Parsons Award for Best Atlantic Canadian Feature | Sharp Corner | Jason Buxton |
| Best Atlantic Canadian Director | Sharp Corner | Jason Buxton |
| Joan Orenstein & David Renton Award for Outstanding Performance in Acting | The Kitchen Sink | Mary-Colin Chisholm |
| Joan Orenstein & David Renton Award for Outstanding Performance in Acting | Skeet | Sean Dalton |
| Joan Orenstein & David Renton Award for Outstanding Performance in Acting | Monica's News | Polly Gallant-McLean (honorable mention) |
| Best Atlantic Documentary | Seguridad | Tamara Segura |
| Best Atlantic Short Documentary | welima’q | shalan joudry |
| Best Atlantic Short Film | Pearls | Mike Simms |
| Best Atlantic Short Animation | Bloody Mess | Megan Wennberg |
| Michael Weir Award for Best Atlantic Screenwriting | Sweet Angel Baby | Melanie Oates |
| Best Atlantic Cinematographer | Skeet | Nigel Markham |
| Best Atlantic Editor | Monica's News | Kimberlee McTaggart |
| Best Atlantic Original Score | Lakeview | Siobhan Martin |

## Official selections
### Gala Presentations

| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
| Anora | Anora | Sean Baker | United States |
| Sharp Corner | Sharp Corner | Jason Buxton | Canada |
| Sweet Angel Baby | Sweet Angel Baby | Melanie Oates | Canada |

### Reel East Coast Shorts

| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Province |
| Back to Camp 41 | Back to Camp 41 | Greg Hemmings | Canada |
| Bedlamer | Bedlamer | Alexa Jane Jerrett | Canada |
| Hairy Legs | Hairy Legs | Andrea Dorfman | Canada |
| An Impression of Everything | An Impression of Everything | Millefiore Clarkes | Canada |
| The Kitchen Sink | The Kitchen Sink | Olivia King | Canada |
| Paper | Paper | Charles Wahl | Canada |
| Permit Garden | Permit Garden | Jenny Yujia Shi | Canada |
| welima'q | welima'q | shalan joudry | Canada |

### World Cinema

| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
| Bird | Bird | Andrea Arnold | United Kingdom |
| Can I Get a Witness? | Can I Get a Witness? | Ann Marie Fleming | Canada |
| Caught by the Tides | 风流一代 | Jia Zhangke | China |
| The Count of Monte Cristo | Le Comte de Monte Cristo | Matthieu Delaporte, Alexandre de La Patellière | France |
| Darkest Miriam | Darkest Miriam | Naomi Jaye | Canada |
| Flow | Straume | Gints Zilbalodis | Latvia, France, Belgium |
| Grand Tour | Grand Tour | Miguel Gomes | Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, China |
| Lakeview | Lakeview | Tara Thorne | Canada |
| Matt and Mara | Matt and Mara | Kazik Radwanski | Canada |
| The Outrun | The Outrun | Nora Fingscheidt | United Kingdom, Germany |
| Paying for It | Paying for It | Sook-Yin Lee | Canada |
| Presence | Presence | Steven Soderbergh | United States |
| Reinas | Reinas | Klaudia Reynicke | Switzerland, Peru, Spain |
| Rumours | Rumours | Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson | Canada, Germany |
| The Seed of the Sacred Fig | The Seed of the Sacred Fig | Mohammad Rasoulof | Iran, France, Germany |
| Skeet | Skeet | Nik Sexton | Canada |
| To the Moon | To the Moon | Kevin Hartford | Canada |
| Universal Language | Une langue universelle | Matthew Rankin | Canada |
| When the Light Breaks | Ljósbrot | Rúnar Rúnarsson | Iceland, Netherlands, Croatia, France |

### Narrative New Waves

| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
| 40 Acres | 40 Acres | R. T. Thorne | Canada |
| All We Imagine as Light | All We Imagine as Light | Payal Kapadia | France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg |
| Boxcutter | Boxcutter | Reza Dahya | Canada |
| Do I Know You from Somewhere? | Do I Know You from Somewhere? | Arianna Martinez | Canada |
| Girls Will Be Girls | Girls Will Be Girls | Shuchi Talati | India |
| Monica's News | Monica's News | Pamela Gallant | Canada |
| Pierce | Pierce | Nelicia Low | Taiwan |
| Seeds | Seeds | Kaniehtiio Horn | Canada |
| To a Land Unknown | To a Land Unknown | Mahdi Fleifel | United Kingdom, Greece, Netherlands, France, Germany, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia |
| Young Werther | Young Werther | José Lourenço | Canada |

### Late Night Visions

| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
| The Girl with the Needle | Pigen med nålen | Magnus von Horn | Denmark, Poland, Sweden |
| My Mother's Eyes | Maimazāzuaizu | Takeshi Kushida | Japan |
| The Substance | The Substance | Coralie Fargeat | United Kingdom, United States, France |

### In Focus

| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
| Heartbeat | Heartbeat | Andrea Dorfman | Canada |
| How to Be Alone | How to Be Alone | Andrea Dorfman | Canada |

### Documentaries

| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
| 7 Beats per Minute | 7 Beats per Minute | Yuqi Kang | Canada |
| Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story | Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story | Michael Mabbott, Lucah Rosenberg-Lee | Canada |
| Black Box Diaries | Black Box Diaries | Shiori Itō | Japan, United Kingdom, United States |
| Curl Power | Curl Power | Josephine Anderson | Canada |
| Dahomey | Dahomey | Mati Diop | France, Senegal, Benin |
| Disco's Revenge | Disco's Revenge | Omar Majeed, Peter Mishara | Canada |
| Grand Theft Hamlet | Grand Theft Hamlet | Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane | United Kingdom |
| Luther: Never Too Much | Luther: Never Too Much | Dawn Porter | United States |
| Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger | Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger | David Hinton | United Kingdom |
| Never Look Away | Never Look Away | Lucy Lawless | New Zealand |
| A Photographic Memory | A Photographic Memory | Rachel Elizabeth Seed | United States |
| Seguridad | Seguridad | Tamara Segura | Canada |
| Standing Above the Clouds | Standing Above the Clouds | Jalena Keane-Lee | United States |
| The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal | The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal | Mike Downie | Canada |

### Shorts

| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
| 8 Times | 8 Times | Adam Mbowe | Canada |
| 73 Seconds | 73 Seconds | Stacy Gardner | Canada |
| Bloody Mess | Bloody Mess | Megan Wennberg | Canada |
| Bust | Bust | Angalis Field | United States |
| Cart Girls | Cart Girls | Katelyn McCulloch | Canada |
| Carved from Stone | Carved from Stone | Tyler Burr | Canada |
| Circle | Circle | Yumi Joung | South Korea |
| Cold Soup | Sopa Fria | Marta Monteiro | Portugal, France |
| The Distance Between Us | Qu'importe le distance | Léo Fontaine | France |
| Every Other Weekend | Every Other Weekend | Mick Robertson, Margaret Rose | Canada |
| Eye Piece | Eye Piece | Kate Solar | Canada |
| Freedom | Freedom | Scott Jones | Canada |
| Gaslit | Gaslit | Anna MacLean | Canada |
| Gigi | Gigi | Cynthia Calvi | France |
| Good Grief | Good Grief | Megan Chumbley | United States |
| Hello Stranger | Hello Stranger | Amélie Hardy | Canada |
| Himalia | Himalia | Clara Milo, Juliette Lossky | Canada |
| Holiday House | Holiday House | Alex Heller | United States |
| Inkwo for When the Starving Return | Inkwo à la défense des vivants | Amanda Strong | Canada |
| Julian and the Wind | Julian and the Wind | Connor Jessup | Canada |
| Maybe Elephants | Kanskje det var elefanter | Torill Kove | Norway, Canada |
| Mother Tongue | Lea Tupu'anga | Vea Mafile'o | New Zealand |
| Motorcycle Mary | Motorcycle Mary | Haley Watson | United States |
| Moving Water | Moving Water | Kaia Singh | Canada |
| Nola | Nola | Aisha Evelyna, Natalie Novak Remplakowski | Canada |
| On a Sunday at Eleven | On a Sunday at Eleven | Alicia K. Harris | Canada |
| Panadrilo | Panadrilo | Marcela Heilbron | Panama |
| Pearls | Pearls | Mike Simms | Canada |
| Percebes | Percebes | Alexandra Ramires, Laura Gonçalves | France, Portugal |
| perfectly a strangeness | perfectly a strangeness | Alison McAlpine | Canada |
| Santa Maria Kyoko | Santa Maria Kyoko | Guil Sela, Felix Loizillon | France |
| Terminally Ill | Terminally Ill | Chris Cole | United States |
| Things Behind the Sun | Things Behind the Sun | Giran Findlay | Canada |
| What Good Canadians Do | What Good Canadians Do | Stephanie Joline | Canada |
| Where My Branches Stem | Where My Branches Stem | Teresa Kuo | Canada |
| The Wolf | Le Loup | Theodore Ushev | Canada |
| Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way | Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way | Hao Zhou | United States |