The South Asian Screen Office of Canada and IFFSA Toronto, in collaboration with Storiculture, have selected eight South Asian feature film projects to participate in the inaugural South Asian Screen Futures market at the Toronto Film Festival. The initiative aims to connect filmmakers with financiers and industry partners.
Among the selected projects are films tied to recent accolades at major festivals. Payal Kapadia, director of “All We Imagine as Light,” is involved, as is Neeraj Churi, producer of “Cactus Pears,” and Subhadra Mahajan, writer-director of “Second Chance.” The slate includes six projects from Canada and India, and one co-production spanning Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, and Canada.
“A Varnam in Silence” (Canada, India), written and directed by Kalainithan Kalaichelvan and produced by Shaista Roshan and Alison Almeida, tells the story of a woman who loses her voice after her mother’s funeral, with her family believing it was stolen. Kalaichelvan’s short film “Karupy” premiered at Toronto in 2025 and received a nomination at the 14th Canadian Screen Awards. Roshan also produced “Unbraided,” and Almeida is currently producing “The Temple.”
“Moh” (India), from writer-director Subhadra Mahajan, centers on an Indian widow and her late husband’s lover, exploring how a shared journey reshapes their relationship. Mahajan’s debut feature, “Second Chance,” screened at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s Proxima section in 2024 and went on to over 40 festivals before its 2025 Indian theatrical release. She previously co-wrote Pan Nalin’s “Angry Indian Goddesses,” which premiered at Toronto, and served as second unit director on “Last Film Show,” India’s 2023 Oscar submission.
“Pink City Skies” (Canada), directed by Maya Bastian and produced by Leslie Hope and Tina Vacalopoulos for Parallila Pictures, follows a teenager who leaves home after being discovered with his boyfriend. Bastian’s short “Tigress” screened at Reel Asian and Reykjavik. Hope, known for her role as Teri Bauer on “24,” has directed television episodes of “Snowpiercer” and “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” and produced the 2019 feature “Lie Exposed.”
Other selected projects include “A Suitable Wife for Her Husband” (Canada), written and produced by Avi Grewal and Sunny Gill, which follows an Afghan-Canadian salon owner secretly seeking a second wife for her husband, and “Soma Helang” (India), co-written and co-directed by Shubham Negi and Sourav Yadav and produced by Neeraj Churi and Beesham A. Seecharan, about a woman working to hold her polyandrous Himalayan family together.
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