The Toronto International Film Festival is the Holy Grail for cinephiles.
Francis Ford Coppola will attend TIFF’s 26th edition as will Madonna, George Clooney, U2 and dozens of other A-list celebrities.
“It’s really exciting – it’s too exciting,” Maclean’s film critic Brian D. Johnson tells. “It’s a lot of work for us, but we shouldn’t let that interfere with the greater glory of TIFF because it is a remarkable event.”
Programmers have scheduled more than 300 features and shorts over 11 days starting Thursday – everything from mainstream to art-house. And it’s the place where an audience can create enough buzz to carry a movie like Slumdog Millionaire to the Oscars.
“When I introduced [filmmaker] Krzysztof Kieslowski at the Showcase Cinema in 1989, the entire audience jumped to their feet,” TIFF co-director Piers Handling says. “Ten days earlier, most of them didn’t even know who he was. That’s the power of this festival.”
Starting with Thursday’s opening night party at the new Ritz-Carlton on Wellington Street, Toronto hotels and clubs will host their own Hollywood-esque parties, including the OneXOne Charity Gala with Harry Connick Jr. and the annual Vanity Fair bash, a paparazzi favourite.
All are a big part of the $170 million the TIFF organization generates year-round.
Johnson, who covers both the Cannes and TIFF festivals, says though the latter has kept its artistic integrity, it has become a more “cold-blooded organization.”
“It doesn’t mean that Cannes is a better festival,” he says. “In fact, [TIFF] has gotten too good. It’s kind of like the industrial outlet mall of movies that matter.”
The storied French event, which was the inspiration for Toronto’s own film festival, has stayed manageable while its progeny has ballooned.
The festival that grew
At first, TIFF aimed mainly to nurture Canadian cinema, Johnson says, but now also serves as a “giant publicity machine” to launch films into the market, to entertain one of the most “astute and dedicated” audiences in the world, and to “bring to the fore world cinema that might otherwise never get seen.”
Though studios and indie players come to sell their “fall lines” – Paris fashion week being TIFF’s sartorial equivalent – films tend to get lost with such a broad focus and, unlike Cannes, no competition.
A scheduling conflict at last year’s TIFF had Johnson choosing between gala screenings of Black Swan and The King’s Speech. And this year he may have to turn down interviews with celebrities he would normally be clamouring to talk to, like Keira Knightley and Sarah Polley.
On its website, TIFF itself acknowledges its place as “the most important film festival after Cannes,” but Johnson says Cannes has in fact become more marginal all things considered.
And, the author of the retrospective Brave Films, Wild Nights: 25 Years of Festival Fever adds, TIFF’s ambitions were always lofty.
“It wasn’t an accident,” he says. “It wasn’t just a little festival that grew. In [founder] Bill Marshall’s mind, it was always a big festival.”
In the decades since it began, there have been only a handful of directors, all of them passionate about film and all acutely aware of the importance of throwing a good party.
Johnson says the celebrity side to TIFF took off in the early ‘80s when the festival staged its slickly-produced tributes to Martin Scorcese, Robert Duvall and Warren Beatty.
“The Warren Beatty tribute – the last of the three tributes – was where you really felt everything shift,” he says. “That was when all of sudden doors where closing and parties started to have velvet ropes for VIP areas.”
Spotting celebrities
Many of those VIPs will be staying at the Ritz-Carlton, which has hired uniformed police officers and brought in barricades to keep stargazers at bay.
It has also ordered 2,000 bottles of wine and champagne and about 450 kilograms of chocolate and enlisted staff from its other properties around the world.
And despite the TIFF Bell Lightbox drawing much of the activity south – and competition from the Ritz-Carlton – it’s also still one of the busiest weeks of the year for Yorkville’s Four Seasons, which has been preparing for months.
One year that meant removing the furniture from a suite and converting it into a full kitchen with induction burners and refrigeration to cater to a star on a strict Japanese diet.
“It’s all hands on deck,” says food and beverage director Marc Dorfman. “It’s a busy week, but very rewarding.”
Selected picks by Brian D. Johnson:
Footnote: The outcome of a great rivalry between a father and son, both professors in the Talmud department of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. – TIFF website
The Artist: “A black and white silent comedy that is wonderful and perhaps one of the most mainstream films I saw in Cannes. You could stick anyone in there and they’d have a great time. You’d think it would be more obtuse, like a Guy Maddin film. But no, it’s incredibly entertaining.” – BDJ
Melancholia: Denmark's most celebrated and notorious filmmaker returns with a fantasy/domestic drama about depression, severely dysfunctional families and the end of the world. – TIFF website
Take this Waltz: Canadian actor and filmmaker Sarah Polley makes a welcome return to directing with her first feature since the 2006 Festival favourite Away from Her. Luke Kirby, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman and two-time Oscar-nominee Michelle Williams star in this bittersweet story about a married woman struggling to choose between her husband and a man she's just met. – TIFF website
A Dangerous Method: “I would look forward to anything that Canadian director David Cronenberg has to make, especially something starring Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightley.” – BDJ
Drive: Canadian actor Ryan Gosling plays a stunt driver by day, getaway driver by night in this lean and mean crime thriller by the director of Valhalla Rising that won Best Direction in Cannes. – TIFF website
Selected picks by Steve Gravestock, TIFF’s associate director of Canadian programming
Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Léa Pool’s devastating documentary about the industry and “culture” around breast cancer addresses the rise of corporate involvement in fundraising for charities and the impact it has had on research into the disease. – TIFF website
“A really smart and in-depth analysis of the impact of corporations on charitable fundraising. I think it will ruffle a few feathers. I can’t remember the last time I left a film that angry.” – SG
Monsieur Lazhar: Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, is hired to replace an elementary school teacher who died tragically. While the class goes through a long healing process, nobody in the school is aware of Bachir's painful former life. – TIFF website
“It’s a cliche for me to say it, but it really is a beautiful film. It’s really, really strong.”
TIFF History
TIFF began in 1976 as the “Festival of Festivals", collecting the best films from other film festivals around the world and showing them to eager audiences in Toronto. That first year, 35,000 enthusiasts watched 127 films from 30 countries. By 2009, those numbers have grown to feature 336 films from 64 countries, enjoyed by 500,000 people.
The Festival of Festivals (renamed the Toronto International Film Festival in 1995) has introduced many of the world's great film artists to Toronto audiences. That first year, a spotlight on German cinema included films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders.
In the years that followed, many other artists have looked back on the Festival as the place where their films first reached a receptive audience and the foundations of their careers were built. These include: Paul Haggis, Jason Reitman, Michael Moore, David Cronenberg, and John Woo.
The secret of the Festival’s success is its unique combination of two parallel festivals: one for a large audience passionate about film and one for the world's press and industry. The Festival also manages to be the launch pad for both big Hollywood films and art house cinema from around the world.
TIFF has grown, steadily adding initiatives. TIFF Cinematheque (formerly Cinematheque Ontario) and the Film Reference Library opened in 1990. Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children launched in 1998. Film Circuit began exhibiting independent and Canadian films in underserviced cities across Canada in 1994. TIFF has remained committed to educating and broadening audiences, adding to the cultural richness of Canada’s community. Along the way, TIFF has become one of the most important and respected film institutions in the world
TIFF Highlights
1976- The 1st Festival of Festivals is held; founded by Bill Marshall, Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl
- Festival hosts a seminal retrospective of Quebec cinema
- Wayne Clarkson becomes Festival Director
- Launch of the annual Symposium – Canada’s largest business conference for filmmakers
- "The American Nightmare" retrospective on U.S. horror films organized by Robin Wood and Richard Lippe
- Industry programme Trade Forum launched at Festival (until 1991)
- Contemporary World Cinema programme created
- Perspectives Canada created, confirming Festival's commitment to bringing Canadian films and filmmakers to a wider, international audience
- Helga Stephenson named Festival Director, Piers Handling named Programming Director
- Midnight Madness programme created
- TIFF assumes management of Gerald Pratley's Ontario Film Institute. The Institute's screening programme is expanded to become Cinematheque Ontario (now TIFF Cinematheque). Resource Centre becomes Film Reference Library.
- The Strange Objects of David Cronenberg’s Desire, an exhibit of artifacts and design related to his films, is organized with the Film Reference Library and launched in Tokyo; exhibited at the ROM in Toronto and in Thessaloniki.
- Piers Handling named Festival Director and CEO
- Festival name is changed to current "Toronto International Film Festival"
- The organization renamed itself the Toronto International Film Festival Group becoming the umbrella organization of the Festival
- TIFF assumes management of Film Circuit
- Piers Handling is bestowed the insignia of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres
- Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children is launched, headed up by Jane Schoettle
- Talk Cinema (now Reel Talk), Sunday morning preview & discussion series, begins
- TIFF commissions 10 celebrated filmmakers to make short films inspired by Festival
- Pitch This! event for emerging filmmakers launched as part of Industry Programming at Festival
- Film Circuit is recipient of the Peter F. Drucker Award for Canadian Nonprofit Innovation presented by the Peter F. Drucker Canadian Foundation
- James Quandt, Senior Programmer for Cinematheque Ontario (now TIFF Cinematheque) given Special Citation from the National Society of Film Critics (USA) for outstanding work on Robert Bresson retrospective and high standard of writing
- Canada's Top Ten launched
- Special Delivery is launched, reaching out to youth in under-served areas of the GTA who may not otherwise have access to the festival experience.
2003
- TIFF unveils plans for TIFF Bell Lightbox
- Noah Cowan appointed as Co-Director of the Toronto International Film Festival
- Piers Handling received the CEO of the year award from the Canadian Public Relations Society
- Festival launches Talent Lab, a industry initiative for Canadian filmmakers
- Sprockets Globetrotter Series is created
- Student Film Showcase is established, a showcase of diverse and exciting range of emerging student work
- TIFF launches the industry initiatives office for Canadian filmmakers
- Festival’s 30th anniversary
- Sprockets celebrates 10th anniversary.
- Construction officially began on TIFF Bell Lightbox
- TIFF establishes Reel Comfort, reaching out to the underserved, disenfranchised community of acute care mentally ill patients of the Department of Psychiatry at Toronto General Hospital.
- Cameron Bailey appointed Co-Director of the Toronto International Film Festival
- Noah Cowan appointed as Artistic Director for TIFF Bell Lightbox.
- The John VanDuzer Children’s Film Collection is launched providing teachers with the unique opportunity to rent and screen engaging, fun and educational films not otherwise available in Canada.
- TIFF Cinematheque presents In the Realm of Oshima: The Films of Japanese Master Nagisa Oshima, the first major Oshima retrospective in North America in 20 years, tours key cultural institutions in a dozen cities including Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Harvard Film Archive (Cambridge).
- Michele Maheux appointed Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer (formally Director of Communications and Marketing, 1990-1998, and Managing Director, 1998-2008)
- Film Circuit celebrates its 15th anniversary with TIFF
- TIFFG is renamed TIFF as the umbrella organization
- As part of the organization’s celebration of the City of Toronto’s 175th anniversary, TIFF published Toronto on Film
- TIFF Cinematheque and the Film Reference Library celebrate 20th anniversary
http://tiff.net/calendar/calendar
film programmes
TIFF Cinematheque
June 4 – August 30This summer season see great film programmes including Days of Glory, Egypt Rising, Fellini and La Dolce Vita, Hollywood Classics, In Memoriam, Elizabeth Taylor, John Cassavetes and more.
Packaged Goods
July 21 at 7pmThe second installment of Packaged Goods looks at works that have experimented with the 3-D format in creative ways. Special guests include director Arev Manukian of Spy Films, who will discuss the 3-D filmmaking...
TIFF Late Night
June 11 – August 30Our new, recurring series of late-night cult movies kicks off with a selection of audience favourites from the first twenty years of the Festival’s Midnight Madness programme. Brain-eating slugs, cowboy mummies, S&M...
TIFF in the Park:
Outdoor Musicals
July 6 – August 31Every Wednesday at sunset beginning in July, TIFF and the Entertainment District BIA present FREE outdoor screenings of classic screen musicals...
70mm
July 28 – August 11Film in 70mm are returning to TIFF Bell Lightbox. This summer see Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus and West Side Story in this larger than life format.
Fellini Dream Double Bills
June 30 - August 28Nine luminaries from the film world along with our own TIFF programmers create a series of double bills that pair a Fellini film with another film that is inspired by, rhymes or contrasts with the Maestro’s unique vision.
special events
In Conversation With…
June 10 – August 11See our summer line up of on stage discussions with film artists including Frank Burke, Gena Rowlands, Norman Jewison, Joao Pedro Rodrigues, Thom Andersen, Steve Loft and more.
Frank Burke on Il Posto
Friday, August 5 at 6:30pmPrior to the screening of Ermanno Olmi’s masterpiece Il Posto Frank Burke, noted Italian film scholar offers an introduction to this key cinematic movement that served as an inspiration for the new wave movements across the globe.
Partner Festivals & Events
TIFF Bell Lightbox welcomes festivals and events from the Toronto community. This season’s partner festivals include Goethe-Institut and Luminato.TIFF WELCOMES AN IMPRESSIVE LINE-UP OF SPECIAL GUESTS THIS FALL
Appearances by Kim Cattrall, Steve James, Guillermo del Toro, Piers Handling, Susan Ray, and Arsinée Khanjian.
Toronto – TIFF Bell Lightbox continues its commitment to enrich the movie-going experience by providing audiences with the exciting opportunity to engage directly with filmmakers, actors, scholars and film professionals year-round. Special guests this season include filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Steve James; actors Kim Cattrall and Arsinée Khanjian; film scholar and Director and CEO of TIFF, Piers Handling; and Nicholas Ray’s wife and collaborator, Susan Ray.
Thursday, October 6 to Sunday, October 9: Steve James in Person
The acclaimed documentarian, whose landmark doc Hoop Dreams brought the form to new heights of public recognition, will be in attendance to introduce three of his films, including his highly anticipated new documentary The Interrupters (2011) as well as his Carte Blanche selection, the hockey classic Slap Shot (1977) starring Paul Newman.
Sunday, November 13 : Piers Handling on Rear Window.
Prior to the screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Rear Window, part of TIFF’s major retrospective Icy Fire: The Hitchcock Blonde, Piers Handling, film scholar and Director and CEO of TIFF, offers an introduction to Hitchcock’s key themes and how Grace Kelly embodies as the prototypical “Hitchcock Blonde”: cool, aloof, seemingly untouchable but harbouring masochistic passions beneath her icy veneer.
In Conversation With…
Monday, October 24: Kim Cattrall
From her unforgettable role as Samantha Jones in the groundbreaking HBO series Sex and the City to her work with such major directors as Brian De Palma, John Boorman and Roman Polanski, award-winning stage, film, and television actress Kim Cattrall has played some of the strongest female characters ever seen on-screen, and has also been passing on her craft on to the next generation as a mentor for the Actor’s Conservatory at the Canadian Film Centre. Co-presented with the Canadian Film Centre, TIFF Bell Lightbox
welcomes Kim Cattrall for a special evening to look back on her multifaceted career.
Thursday, October 27: Guillermo del Toro
Internationally celebrated fantasy filmmaker Guillermo del Toro drops by TIFF Bell Lightbox to kick off Fright Nights: Guillermo del Toro Does Halloween, five nights of special Halloween programming, co-presented by Rue Morgue Magazine. Joining TIFF Bell Lightbox’s Artistic Director Noah Cowan on stage, del Toro will look back on his eventful career, which has bridged the divides between cult classics (Cronos), art house acclaim (Pan’s Labyrinth) and major Hollywood projects (Blade II, Hellboy). Following the conversation, del Toro will introduce the screening of the 1996 Italian chiller L’arcano incantatore (The Arcane Enchanter), which he recently named as one of his top twenty favourite horror films.
Sunday, October 30: Susan Ray on Nicholas Ray
As part of TIFF’s retrospective tribute to iconoclastic director Nicholas Ray on the occasion of his centenary, his widow and collaborator Susan Ray will present a restored version of their groundbreaking collective feature We Can’t Go Home Again, which recently played the Venice and New York film festivals, and the screening of Ray’s classic Bitter Victory on Sunday, October 30.
Monday, November 28 : Arsinée Khanjian: “The Queen of Rotten Tomatoes”
Renowned Canadian actress Arsinée Khanjian has the highest “fresh” rating of any actor in the world according to website rottentomatoes.com, marking her as an inspired and inspiring collaborator for many of the world’s finest filmmakers. On Monday, November 28, she will join TIFF Bell Lightbox’s Artistic Director Noah Cowan on stage to discuss her career and share revealing, behind-the-scenes observations of such celebrated directors as Olivier Assayas, Michael Haneke, Catherine Breillat, and her husband and frequent collaborator Atom Egoyan.
About TIFF
TIFF is a charitable cultural organization whose mission is to transform the way people see the world through film. An international leader in film culture, TIFF projects include the annual Toronto International Film Festival in September; TIFF Bell Lightbox, which features five cinemas, major exhibitions, and learning and entertainment facilities; and innovative national distribution program Film Circuit. The organization generates an annual economic impact of $170 million CAD. TIFF Bell Lightbox is generously supported by contributors including Founding Sponsor Bell, the Province of Ontario, the Government of Canada, the City of Toronto, the Reitman family (Ivan Reitman, Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels), The Daniels Corporation, Major Sponsor and official bank RBC, Major Sponsor BlackBerry and Visa†. For more information, visit tiff.net.
TIFF is generously supported by Lead Sponsor Bell, Major Sponsors RBC and BlackBerry, and Major Supporters the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, and the City of Toronto.
In Conversation With...is supported by the Brian Linehan Endowment Fun
For information, contact the Communications Department at 416-934-3200 or email proffice@tiff.net
For images, please visit our media site at: http://press.tiff.net/
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