The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is right around the corner and the city is gearing up for another busy season ahead!

Each year the festival brings with it film enthusiasts and industry professionals alike, for 10 magical days of movies, events and celebrity sightings.

Taking place at various venues around the city from Thursday, September 6th -  Sunday, September 16th,TIFF is known for being one of the largest film festivals in the world!

And, since we LOVE animation at Brown Bag Films, we've decided to put together a list of must-see animation titles playing at TIFF this year. Check 'em out and be sure to let us know what you think!

Tito and the Birds

In this vibrant fantasy created using oil paintings, digital drawings, and graphic animation, a young boy and his two friends set out on a mission to find his father’s missing research on bird songs — the one thing that just might save their world from an epidemic where being afraid makes you ill.

Animal Behaviour

While the anthropomorphized characters in the therapy session portrayed here may have more fur or more legs than we do, their many foibles and hang-ups will be uncomfortably familiar to the human viewers of this hilarious new comedy by the Oscar-winning animation team of Alison Snowden and David Fine.

Bavure

A humble paintbrush assumes unprecedented powers in this bravura display of eye-popping, mind-bending, and body-morphing ingenuity by the maverick Italian animator Donato Sansone.

Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes)

Accompanied by a 10,000-year-old shapeshifter and friend known as Sabe, Biidaaban sets out on a mission to reclaim the ceremonial harvesting of sap from maple trees in an unwelcoming suburban neighborhood in Ontario. Driven by the words of Anishinaabe writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Amanda Strong’s mesmerizing stop-motion animation intricately weaves together multiple worlds through time and space, calling for a rebellion.

Guaxuma

In Nara Normande's remarkable animation, ever-shifting grains of sand become the means to portray happier times on the beaches of the filmmaker's childhood and to pay tribute to a very special friendship.

Reneepoptosis

Three different Renees head out on a quest for God (who's also a Renee) in a bewildering, hilarious, and inventive combination of self-analysis, self-mythology, and self-topography by one more Renee… animator Renee Zhan.

The Fall (Le Chute)

Constructed by France's Boris Labbé from approximately 3,500 drawings on paper in Indian ink and watercolour, this astonishing animation portrays the collapse of the divine order. Labbé's nightmarish images and Daniele Ghisi's cyclical score combine to create an unforgettable convergence of heaven and hell.

The Subject

An animator dissects his own body, slowly extracting the components that nurture his work, delving into the connections between art and artist. The Subject is a visceral and disturbing stop-motion and pixilation animation, and Patrick Bouchard’s most profoundly personal film to date.

And, don't forget to mark your calendars for an extra special event, a behind-the-scenes look at How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, with special guest, Director Dean DeBlois (How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch, Mulan) taking place on the last Saturday of the festival, September 15th at 4pm!

Director Dean DeBlois joins us to discuss the narrative of the trilogy and to introduce new clips from the latest installment. The discussion, featuring producer Brad Lewis, will also touch on the animation process and will be followed by a Q&A session.

For more details about the festival and for the official film schedule, please visit: www.tiff.net/tiff/