Love and community are at the heart of bannock film set to debut at TIFF

The world premiere of pahkwêsikan sâkihitowin: Bannock is Love will be at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this month. The film is Tyra Delver’s directorial debut. She’s known about it for almost a year, and she still finds it difficult to believe it at times. 

Delver, a member of Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta, was one of more than 240 young filmmakers who submitted proposals for a program called REDEFINED, featuring films that depict what it means to be Indigenous or Canadian. 

The call was put out to emerging filmmakers under the age of 30 during the 2025 festival. She was one of five filmmakers chosen to have their productions produced with the help of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in collaboration with TIFF.

The REDEFINED program films will be screened Sept. 16 at the TIFF Lightbox. 

Delver’s film, a 10-minute short, details how a traditional food brings together family and community members.

Delver recalled the moment last fall when she was notified she was one of the five filmmakers selected.

“It was the most surreal moment,” she said. “I'm an emerging filmmaker. So, there are so many moments where I didn't feel like I could fit into a box like that. And even now, I'm still in this moment of surrealism and I just don't believe that this is going on. But it is. And it just makes me feel so happy. I'm excited for the next steps.”

Having the world premiere of pahkwêsikan sâkihitowin at TIFF, one of the most prestigious film festivals globally, is an added bonus. 

“It doesn't feel real,” Delver said. “But I'm eternally grateful for the NFB and TIFF for seeing Indigenous people as storytellers.”

Delver said her submission included details of the importance of bannock to Indigenous peoples.

“I had the concept,” said Delver, who is 28. “But the NFB helped create the entire film.”

The five winning filmmakers for the project were allocated up to $250,000 each to make their movies. 

“We were given an entire production team,” Delver said. “We had producers. And then from there we kind of just built our dream teams for however our productions would work. And it was very, very helpful to have the NFB back us up in that way because truthfully, as an emerging filmmaker, I don't really have the resources at this time.

“And to learn the routes to take and to build connections to them was really, really helpful in my journey as a filmmaker.”

After submitting her proposal last September, Delver was shortlisted by program representatives and interviewed along with her producer Chehala Leonard and executive producer John Christou.

“That was like a really nice process,” Delver said. “And then afterwards, about maybe a week or so, I got the word that I was selected as a filmmaker.”

Delver explained why she chose bannock as the theme of her film. 

Bannock “wasn't necessarily ours to begin with. It was brought over during the fur trade. But we have taken it into something that builds community and it fosters love in such a wholesome way. And that's kind of just the route that I wanted to go with, to just show community and to show that if you feel disconnected from something you can look deeper and know that there's things around you that can connect you to the culture.”

Delver said she toyed with other topics for her submission.

“There are a lot of other ideas that I have about celebrating my Indigeneity and wanting to share that with the world. But I had a moment where I was eating bannock that I made from a bannock-making kit. And I had grown up watching my mom and my aunties and my kookums (grandmothers) make bannock. But I wasn’t really as connected to it as some of my other cousins or siblings were.

“As I made that bannock-making kit, it was the easiest thing that I could have done in that time. And it made me just feel so happy that I could make something without having to think so hard. And it made me realize, there's other people out there who've probably had the same or similar thoughts to me.”

Delver hopes viewers can take away a sense of love from the film.

“You don't have to be Indigenous to see the community that's built inside the film. And if you're somebody that isn't as connected to your culture, then you can watch this and kind of feel that love in a similar or different way. But I mostly hope that people can see the community.”

Tickets for the TIFF screening of REDEFINED are sold out. But all five films will be available to watch for free on the NFB website starting on Sept. 16.

TIFF begins Sept. 10 and continues until Sept. 20.