1. Tate McRae | Musician
After conquering TikTok, this 21-year-old pop phenomenon is ready to conquer the world
In September 2023, Tate McRae’s single “greedy” began to climb the charts and reached No. 1 around the same time as her. Made in Saturday night live and landed on the cover of Billboard magazine. Who was this suddenly inevitable, hair-flipping presence with more followers on TikTok than Beyoncé? In response to their sudden ubiquity, a particularly aggressive army of web trolls shouted “industrial plant,” a term that has been used to dismiss certain types of well-packaged, label-backed talent since the boy band era. Pop’s new big girl (an actual term) seemed to have come out of nowhere.
2. Céline song | Filmmaker
For adding some “com” to your past full of “rom”
While we knit together Past Lives, her hit 2023 time-travel love story, director Celine Song relied on herself as source material, drawing heavily from her own story of teenage immigration from Seoul to Markham, Ontario, to create A24’s hit in Sundance and awards. The film earned two Oscar nominations, one for Best Picture and another for Song’s original screenplay, and cemented her place in the independent firmament. For her next project, she once again received the backing of A24, this time, writing a script with a few more laughs (and a few celebrities). The materialists, a romantic comedy that has piqued the interest of Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal, could begin filming this spring. The main character is a matchmaker who falls in love with a wealthy man but still has a passion for a certain (broke) actor-waiter from her youth. Autobiography again? Maybe.
3. Ryan Gosling | Actor
Hollywood’s leading man will keep Kenergy running in 2024
If you thought Ryan Gosling would just fade away like his Ken-approved bleach job after last year Barbie Blitz and her charming Oscar dance number, you’re wrong. This month (already) it’s back The scapegoat, a high-octane comedy that centers on an ’80s TV stuntman named Cole Seavers. And that’s not the only action Gosling has planned for 2024: after many years languishing in the background of production, filming will begin on Ave Maria Project, the film adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel about a high school science teacher who wakes up from a coma aboard a space station, far away from the “beach,” and has to save Earth from impending disaster. A Barbie and Ken reunion is also in the works, in the form of Ocean’s Eleven prequel co-starring Margot Robbie.
4. Denis Villeneuve | Filmmaker
For giving a big boost to a declining box office
Denis Villeneuve, the beloved Quebec author responsible for Arrival, Prisoners and Firesattracted his share of detractors when he signed on to direct Dune in 2017. Villeneuve quickly silenced the skeptics with a spectacular $402 million theatrical box office take (despite its streaming debut on the same day) and rave reviews. With the release of Dune: Part Two In March, Villeneuve did it twice: theater attendance has almost halved since the pandemic, but Dune The sequel has kept audiences coming back. It was the first domestic film of 2024 to cross the $100 million mark and has garnered even more praise than its predecessor, including one from Christopher Nolan, who put Villeneuve’s epic on par with The Empire Strikes Back.
5.Shawn Levy | Filmmaker
He Strange things The director, and best friend of Ryan Reynolds, has a list of 20 movies to make.
Aside from his daily gym dates with his best brother Ryan Reynolds, Montreal-born director Shawn Levy should only have “making movies” on his Google Calendar. At the moment, Levy’s production company, 21 Laps Entertainment, has more than 20 projects in various stages of completion, including a rumored Star Wars installments and 10 vehicles for Netflix. After a cumbersome hiatus initiated by last fall’s SAG-AFTRA strike, Levy finally teased his latest high-octane project during this year’s Super Bowl: not his game-day friendship with Taylor Swift, but Deadpool and Wolverine, an R-rated mash-up featuring members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Released this summer, it’s sure to be another box office juggernaut, which is something of a Levy specialty.
6. Joni Mitchell | Musician
For ushering in your own golden age
fans of Blue and “Big Yellow Taxi” (and love in reality) might bristle at those who say Joni Mitchell is in her prime, but there’s no denying that the singer-songwriter is experiencing a dazzling, if unexpected, late-career resurgence. After a brain aneurysm in 2015 left her unable to speak, Mitchell made a strong recovery, delivering a now-legendary set at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival (and a live album), plus a luminous performance of “Both Sides Now ” at this year’s Grammys. For the latter, she reunited with country star Brandi Carlile, who had come to play music with Mitchell while she recovered from brain surgery; They called the sessions “Joni Jams.” The flowers will not stop coming for the new octogenarian: a new biography of Mitchell will be published in June and she is rumored to be preparing a biopic, courtesy of Cameron Crowe, director of almost famous.
7.Catherine Tait | CBC President and CEO
He faces the public broadcaster’s financial problems
During a heated parliamentary hearing in January, CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Catherine Tait faced questions about the broadcaster’s refusal to rule out pay-for-performance for its executive management team (including her own). . The move sickened Canadians, including many MPs present, especially in light of the CBC’s recent deep staff cuts that cost 800 people their jobs. Tait proposed another solution to the broadcaster’s budget shortfall: a reworked, charter-based financial model, in line with that of the BBC, which has a six-year funding agreement with the UK government that is not subject to government changes. . It’s a smart suggestion, especially considering Poilievre’s conservatives have already threatened to defund the CBC if they take office.
8. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann | showrunners, The last of us
For turning Alberta into television’s new cash drawerw
It was not surprising that The last of usa video game-turned-streaming sensation about a post-pandemic wasteland filled with zombified humans, would arrive close to home in 2023. was What was surprising was how lucrative it would be for Canada. With an estimated budget of $141 million and its 180 filming locations gathered in Alberta (Canmore, Lethbridge and a ramshackle core of Calgary), Mazin and Druckmann’s hit show invested more than $182 million in Alberta’s GDP, creating almost 1,500 full-time employees. jobs and led the province to divert $100 million to its film and television tax credit. Here’s more good news: season two is filming throughout 2024, and this time, the zombies are heading even further west: to Vancouver.
9. AP Dhillon | Musician
Leads the “Punjabi wave” of Canadian music
South Asian rapper AP Dhillon is used to the big stage. In 2022, seven years after leaving Gurdaspur, India, with two suitcases to build a music career in Canada, Dhillon sold out his first headlining show in his new home country, held at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena with capacity for 19,000 people. In short order, Dhillon, now 31, has become, along with Weeknd acolyte Nav, the Canadian face of music’s growing “Punjabi wave.” He is the co-founder of a record label (Run-up Records); the subject of his own Amazon Prime documentary series (AP Dhillon: the first in its class); and the proud owner of three million followers on Instagram and 10 million monthly streams on Spotify worldwide. (Dhillon’s single “Excuses” was Spotify India’s top song of 2022.) This spring, a year after Dhillon became the Junos’ first Punjabi performer, he will take over mainstream music’s main stage: Coachella.
10. Devery Jacobs | Actor
For bringing some much-needed queer joy
Long before Mohawk actress Devery Jacobs took on her now signature roles: that of the acerbic Elora Danan on FX’s critically acclaimed television show. Reserve dogs And like the tough Bonnie who speaks in Echo, Marvel’s new Indigenous-led series on Disney Plus: She was a championship-winning gymnast in Quebec. This spring, Jacobs will show off that natural athleticism in Bottom pointa dramatic and brave ode to competitive cheerleading.Go ahead, this is not, complete with a healthy helping of queer romance and a turn from Evan Rachel Wood as the menacing Coach Eileen. The film, which generated a lot of buzz at last year’s TIFF festivities, is executive produced by Elliot Page, whose Page Boy Productions partnered with Night Y (Jacobs’ own label) on the film.
This story appears in the May issue ofMaclean’s. You can buy the issue.hereor subscribe to the magazine here.