Top Image: Still, La Pasión Original (2016), dir. Ivan Herrera

This year marks the debut of the TIFF x Instagram Shorts Festival, a new project that sees filmmakers from all over the world submit their films to TIFF’s Instagram page to be dually judged – both by fans, and by a jury that includes the likes of actors James Franco and Priyanka Chopra, and esteemed directors Ava DuVernay and Xavier Dolan. The festival has been dropping three films a day on its Instagram page, climaxing with the winners announced this week. Here, we spotlight the two winners.

A video posted by TIFF (@tiff_net) on Aug 18, 2016 at 9:09am PDT

It’s clear to see why La Pasión Original by Ivan Herrera won the jury’s choice. It’s evocative, breathtaking, and artistic. By drawing on the slums of the Dominican Republic, Herrera brings a culture to the foreground of cinema that has otherwise been ignored. Despite only being a mere 60 seconds, watching the short feels as if you have been thrown in to a full 90-minute cinematic universe.

“It is very common to our culture here in the slums of Dominican Republic, to say goodbye and farewell with music, gun shots to the air, rum and weed,” Ivan told TIFF of the film. “Especially for the rappers, Gs or just the boss of the block.”

A video posted by TIFF (@tiff_net) on Aug 18, 2016 at 6:16pm PDT

The fan-favourite winner Hope is another stunning debut which draws on cultures which have otherwise been overlooked. The film’s stark and lonely landscape is contrasted with director Mohamed Abdullah’s overwhelming tone of optimism and faith, and we can certainly see why the people chose this one as their favourite. The film is an inspiring portrait of young boy Emer Guesmi, AKA Zulu Rema.

“Emer lost his legs in an accident when he was young,” said Abdullah on TIFF’s Instagram page, “I wanted to show what he feels inside when he is alone. I wanted to show how he finds joy and happiness through dance.”

The entries have all been incredibly diverse, filling every genre crevice you could imagine. What’s evident from the winners, and all the films, is that Instagram’s new 1-minute video platform has allowed for creativity to flourish at an astonishingly fast rate. These shorts are all truly wonderful to watch, and the two winners will be certain to continue TIFF’s mantra of nourishing the future in film.

The winners get a trip to Toronto to attend TIFF, where they will have an exclusive chance to network with the film community at the festival’s popular Industry Conference. Plus, they will be able to see a selection of exciting film premieres (such as the ones mentioned in our round-up article), and visit the Facebook/Instagram Canada offices for a meet-and-greet with key members of the team.

Toronto International Film Festival starts 8th September. You can watch all the TIFF x Instagram Film Festival shorts here, and buy your tickets for TIFF here.