The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), one of the largest and most important film events in the world, unveils its permanent home today with a day long “block party”. The Festival, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, was once centered in the chic Yorkville neighborhood, north of the urban center. This year, however, the Festival has moved to the city’s Entertainment District, home to its live theaters and the city’s most trendy district, about t...
Yesterday was September 11th, and again I find myself in the city of Toronto, as I did in 2001......when the planes crashed, the towers fell, the buildings burned and America lost its innocence. It was a very strange place to be back then, in the midst of covering a film festival, while one's city was in chaos. For those of us from New York, there was a shared concern about the loss of loved ones, the security of our friends and family and the frustrations of not being able to place p...
With roughly half of the films premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival tracing back to Europe (either as co-productions or stand-alones from their country of origin), Europe certainly has a strong presence here. This has been enhanced by the inauguration of the Producers Lab Toronto, a new initiative by European Film Promotion (www.efp-online.com), the pan-European promotion agency and the Ontario Media Development Corporation (www.omdc.on.ca), wit...
PASSIONE (John Turturro, Italy)
As the Venice International Film Festival enters its final weekend, the annual overlap between it and the Toronto International Film Festival, which opened this past Thursday, is most keenly felt. It is no secret that the two festivals are major rivals for world premieres and the attention of the world press. Venice's appeal is well, that's it is Venice...one of the world's most glamorous destinations. Toronto, a city that put the ugh in urban, is m...
Woody Allen and Anthony Hopkins
For you stargazers, here is a list of the films that feature top rank film directors and acting talents that are premiering this week at the Toronto International Film Festival (and the talent that is here):
127 HOURS (Danny Boyle, Director; James Franco, Actor)
AMIGO (John Sayles, Director; Chris Cooper, Actor)
ANOTHER YEAR (Mike Leigh, Director; Jim Broadbent, Actor)
THE BANG BANG CLUB (Ryan Phillipe, Actor)
BARNEY...
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which opens this evening with a homegrown film (the hockey musical SCORE), does not have a formal film competition. However, aside from the Audience Awards and Best Canadian Feature prizes that will be announced at the end of the Festival, TIFF does bestow a few awards of note.
The first of these was announced today. The Canadian Media Production Association announced that veteran Quebec producer Denise Robert is the recipient of...
As film professionals and movie stars fly into Toronto for the international film festival that begins on Thursday, most will not realize that the city and the Festival that is its standard bearer, have been in a pitched battle with tiny insects. Panic was in the air when it was leaked to the local press last week that bedbugs (the insect scourge usually found in mattresses) were found at the Scotiabank Theatre, one of the Festival's main screening venues and the site for most of th...
RABBIT HOLE (John Cameron Mitchell, USA)
With just a month left until the Toronto International Film Festival, the largest film event in North America and one of the premiere film summits of the year, the shape of the event is coming into closer view. With independent and international cinema showing some pulse at the box office after a disasterous two years, all eyes will be turning to Canada in the coming weeks for a crystal ball peak at what should be some of the big end-of-y...
Olivia Newton-John in SCORE: A HOCKEY MUSICAL
Toronto and hockey......a match made in maple leaf heaven. Add music and icon Olivia Newton-John to the mix and you've got the ingredients for a fun and campy film delight. Well, that delightful concoction, the first hockey musical that I've ever heard tell of, will be the Opening Night Gala for the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
The Festival hosts the world premiere of SCORE: A HOCKEY MUSICAL by Canadian writ...
The 2010 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, one of the most important events of the film calendar, is readying for a major move to downtown Toronto from its previous digs in the swanky Yorkville section. The new action is set on Queen Street and King Street West, a vital area of theaters, restaurants, bars and, not coincidentally, the newly opened TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Festival's main hq and the site of the Festival's year-round programs.
While this does repre...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
Although the Toronto International Film Festival does not have a official Competition Section (which distinguishes it from events in Cannes, Berlin, Venice and San Sebastian), there are a few awards announcements to close out the 12 day event.
CADILLAC PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARDS
The Cadillac People's Choice Award is voted on by Festival audiences. This year’s award went to Lee Daniels's Precious: Based on the Novel “Push...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
It's been nearly five years since Todd Solondz, one of American independent cinema's most respected (and controversial) auteurs, has been seen at a film festival. His last film PALINDROMES (2004) premiered at the Venice Film Festival but was roundly hissed by most film critics and its subsequent release was very anemic. After his earlier successes, including his debut WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE (1995), the heartfelt and uncomf...
SAME BUT DIFFERENT (Detlev Buck, Germany)
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
With nearly a third of the films on offer in Toronto coming from the European continent, the Festival is a very important launching pad for both established and emerging talents to make an impression in North America. That is why the support of the European Film Promotion organization, a conglomeration of the governmental promotion offices from across the continent, is so vital ...
Ashton Kutcher and Demi MooreBill MurrayBrenda BlethynChristopher PlummerClive OwenColin FarrellColin FirthDanny BoyleDiablo CodyEdward NortonEllen PageEthan HawkeJeff BridgesJulie Christie
...
George Clooney in Jason Reitman's UP IN THE AIR
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
Those attending the Toronto International Film Festival can be excused for a bout with double vision when it comes to a doubleheader of films by the Festival's most papparazzi-friendly presence, George Clooney. The fair-haired actor is the star of two high profile films that made their debuts here earlier this week.
In THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, directed by Grant Heslov...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
Female directors have been the toast of town in Toronto this week, with films that have been embraced by the industry, film critics and audiences. Although women directors still make up an anemically small percentage of the ranks of film directors everywhere around the world, their special spins on a number of high profile films here are worth noting.
No film premiere generated as much excitement as the red carpet gala of JEN...
THE WHITE RIBBON (Michael Haneke)
by Sandy Mandelberger, TIFF Dailies Editor
The 34th Toronto International Film Festival is presenting 11 works that will be presented as part of the Masters programme, which brings audiences new works from the world’s greatest filmmakers.
MASTERS
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BonoChris RockDrew BarrymoreJulianne MooreKeanu ReevesMichael MooreNicholas CageViggo Mortersen
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by Sandy Mandelberger, TIFF Dailies Editor
The Gala Presentations here at the Toronto International Film Festival are certainly meant to dazzle....and they are doing just that by bringing name actors and directors to the fold for Toronto's enthusiastic public. Expect to see the following helmers tomake their way down the red carpet over the course of the next few days to present their latest films: Alejandro Amenábar, Miguel Arteta, Sylvain Chomet, Rodrigo Ga...
Director Joe Dante
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
The Toronto International Film Festival has announced four presentations in Dialogues: Talking with Pictures, the Festival’s critically acclaimed film series curated by renowned directors or film artists. This year, Ted Kotcheff, Neil Jordan, Joe Dante and Sook- Yin Lee will present films that have inspired them or have marked a significant period in their careers.
Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Frigh...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
The 34th Toronto International Film Festival opens September 10 with the world premiere Gala Presentation of CREATION, directed by Jon Amiel (The Core, Entrapment, The Man Who Knew Too Little). Produced by Jeremy Thomas, the film tells the life story of Charles Darwin, a still controversial figure who championed the idea of evolution and the descent of man (something that still makes the religious fundamentalists crazy).
Th...
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor The 34th Toronto International Film Festival which opens on Thursday evening is a golden opportunity for Canadian filmmakers, producers and distributors to showcase their latest work for the international guests that will begin arriving. A stunning number of new Canadian films are making their debuts at the event. Most are World or North American Premieres. No Canadian survey is complete without a film from Canada's film laureate Atom Egoyan. His...
George Clooney in UP IN THE AIR
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festivals Dailies Editor
Premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival always get hearts racing, among industry professionals looking to snag distribution deals and among the notoriously cinephile audiences in Canada’s most diverse metropolis. This year’s Festival is unveiling a good number of such films that are among the festival’s most anticipated (and hard to get into) film screenings.
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Mainstream Indian entertainment films from Bombay, which means the flashy three hour song and dance extravaganzas which have come to be know by the somewhat patronizing appellation "Bollywood" -- as opposed to the "serious art" films from India which had been making the festival rounds until now, are suddenly beginning to surface at major international film festivals, the latest instance being Toronto 2009.
At the 34th instalment of this mega-festival (for that is e...
CHLOE (Atom Egoyan)
by Sandy Mandelberger, Festival Dailies Editor
While the Toronto International Film Festival, which opens next week, is the very definition of an international event, with almost every filmmaking country on the planet represented somewhere in its vast program, it has a special place in its heart for its homegrown cinema. Not only does the Festival embrace its native talents but it realizes that it provides an important showcase for visiting distributo...
