The 51st Toronto International Film Festival closed Sunday with awards for films from around the world, including several Indigenous filmmakers whose work appeared across TIFF’s competitions and programs.
Cree filmmaker Cody Lightning received the Best Canadian Discovery Award for Smudge the Blades. Inuk filmmaker Nyla Innuksuk’s In the Heart of the South competed in the Platform program, as did Swedish-Sámi filmmaker Amanda Kernell’s Brace Your Heart, which received an Honorable Mention from the Platform jury.
Lightning’s award came during a difficult period for his family following the recent death of his mother, Georgina Lightning. An actress and filmmaker, Georgina Lightning directed Older Than America, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, and appeared in numerous film and television productions.
The recognition for Smudge the Blades was a bittersweet moment for Lightning as he continued a filmmaking career influenced by his mother’s work.
The film follows the Treaty 6 Blades, an under-18 Indigenous hockey team from a reserve outside Edmonton. After being removed from their regional league, the players try to keep their season alive by joining a country league in northern Alberta.
Lightning plays Willie Gladue, a Zamboni driver who takes over as coach. Jana Schmieding, Paulina Alexis, Treycen Wuttunee and Isaiah Kakepetum also star, with Ed Helms appearing as the team’s former coach.
TIFF’s Canadian Discovery jury praised the film for its humor and for bringing Indigenous characters into a story about family, ambition and community while also addressing colonization and the treatment of Indigenous people.
The players deal with competition, friendships and the uncertainty of growing up while trying to finish their final season together.
Lightning previously directed and starred in Hey, Viktor!, a mockumentary about a fictionalized version of himself trying to revive his acting career. He’s a Cree filmmaker from Edmonton and Treaty 6 territory.
Innuksuk brought In the Heart of the South to Platform. The Inuk filmmaker is from Igloolik, Nunavut, and has worked across documentary, narrative film and immersive media.
Her earlier projects include Kajutaijuq, Inngiruti: The Thing That Sings! and Finding Home. Her feature debut, Slash/Back, follows four Inuit girls in Pangnirtung as they confront an alien invasion.
Genre filmmaking has been a significant part of Innuksuk’s work. Her films have placed Inuit characters in science fiction and adventure stories, while her work in virtual reality and interactive media has taken her into other forms of storytelling.
Kernell brought Sámi filmmaking to Platform with Brace Your Heart, or Garrat du váimmu. The film follows 20-year-old Ejva after she inherits her late father’s reindeer herd.
Maintaining the herd becomes increasingly difficult as Ejva faces pressure from her community. Her personal life also becomes complicated by her relationship with Heaika and his cousin Nejla.
The Platform jury gave the film an Honorable Mention, citing its apparent simplicity, deeper complexity, central performance, and visual approach.
Kernell’s family are reindeer herders, and Sámi life has been a recurring part of her filmmaking. Her earlier feature Sami Blood examined discrimination against Sámi people through the story of a young girl.
The three filmmakers were part of a larger Indigenous presence across TIFF’s 2026 programming.
The Indigenous Screen Office said eight ISO-supported projects had their world premieres at the festival. The group included five feature films, a short film and two immersive works. The office said it invested $2.7 million CAD in the projects.
The lineup included Métis filmmaker Justin Ducharme’s Seventeen, Haboolm Ksinaalgat (Soul Catcher) from Amanda Strong and Pamela Post, Métis and Dene filmmaker Marie Clements’ How We Stand, Cree filmmaker Alexandra Lazarowich’s Turtle Island Rap, and the immersive projects Tartupaluk by Laakkuluk Williamson and Mekwâc: Now Is Good by James Monkman.
The projects covered subjects ranging from displacement and government policy to music, family, and community. How We Stand examines the Native American Relocation Program through a mother and her daughters after they move from Oklahoma to Los Angeles in the 1950s. Turtle Island Rap brings music and documentary filmmaking together.
The wider Indigenous Cinema Alliance slate also included Māori, Mapuche, Inuk, Cree, Sámi and Métis filmmakers and creatives.
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