The South Asian Screen Office of Canada and IFFSA Toronto, in collaboration with Storiculture, have selected eight South Asian feature film projects for a new pathway to financiers and industry partners at the Toronto Film Festival‘s inugural market, under an initiative called South Asian Screen Futures. The slate includes talent tied to recent Sundance, Cannes and Toronto honors, among them “All We Imagine as Light” director Payal Kapadia, “Cactus Pears” producer Neeraj Churi and “Second Chance” writer-director Subhadra Mahajan. The lineup includes six single-country projects from Canada and India, plus one additional entry co-produced across Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Canada.
The film follows a woman who loses her voice after her mother’s funeral and her family’s belief that it was stolen. Kalaichelvan’s short “Karupy,” about a Tamil matriarch who announces plans to end her life at her own birthday party, premiered at Toronto in 2025 and was nominated for best live action short drama at the 14th Canadian Screen Awards. Roshan produced that short as well as “Unbraided,” below, while Almeida is currently producing “The Temple,” directed by Calvin Thomas and Yonah Lewis, and has associate-produced titles including Reza Dahya’s “Boxcutter” and Durga Chew-Bose’s “Bonjour Tristesse.” “Moh” (India), from writer-director Subhadra Mahajan, follows an Indian widow and her late husband’s lover as a shared trip reshapes their bond.
Mahajan’s feature debut “Second Chance” premiered in competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s Proxima section in 2024 and traveled to more than 40 festivals, including Busan and AFI Fest, before a 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. Bastian’s short “Tigress,” backed by the Netflix/CFC Calling Card Accelerator, screened at Reel Asian and Reykjavik and was nominated for a Canadian Cinema Editors award.
Hope, a Nova Scotia-born actress known for playing Teri Bauer on “24,” has directed television episodes including “Snowpiercer” and “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” and produced the 2019 feature “Lie Exposed.” “A Suitable Wife for Her Husband” (Canada), written and produced by Avi Grewal and Sunny Gill, follows an Afghan-Canadian salon owner secretly seeking a second wife for her husband. Seecharan, follows a woman working to hold her polyandrous Himalayan family together after a hailstorm destroys their harvest. Negi’s short “Hills Don’t Dance Alone” won a Netflix TakeTen grant and premiered at BFI Flare, while Yadav’s short “Malwa Khushan” won the Kashish QDrishti Grant and screened at the BAFTA-qualifying Iris Prize.
Churi produced “Cactus Pears” (Sabar Bonda), which became the first Indian fiction feature to win the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at Sundance in 2025 and opened in U.K. and Ireland cinemas in June this year. Seecharan’s credits include co-executive producing the PGA-nominated “Mediha” and the BAFTA- and Emmy-nominated “Beyond Utopia.” “Lefty” (Canada) comes from writer-producer Seth Mohan and director-producer Esther Caszo, and follows a young man finding recovery from anxiety and addiction through cricket. Alsoghayer, who trained at La Femis in Paris and the British Film Institute, has screened short films at the Red Sea International Film Festival; her short “A Breath” was nominated for best student film at the 2020 Saudi Film Festival.
Roshan’s other producing credits include “Karupy” and “Queen Mother,” and she is a 2026 participant in the Red Sea Feature Films Program. Goswami’s screenplay won the West Meets East Screenplay Lab at the Dhaka International Film Festival. Salian, a former lawyer who was part of Vice India’s founding team, oversaw Prime Video’s GLAAD-nominated “Rainbow Rishta” as creative director at VICE Studios Asia-Pacific.
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