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...
Natalie Portman in BLACK SWAN
While film professionals are here at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to buy and sell films in a still soft market, for the Toronto public the big attraction are the movie stars who will be walking the red carpet in the coming 10 days. Toronto is a bit star-crazy, with all the local television stations highlighting their TIFF coverage and promising viewers up-close-and-personal access with the movie stars who are huddling here. Ever...
(A LETTER TO UNCLE BONMEE, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand)
September is only 9 days old, and already the pace of the worldwide film scene is in high gear. As the Venice International Film Festival goes into its final weekend, the excitement is just starting today at the Toronto International Film Festival. Add to that an excellent regional event on the lux island of Martha's Vineyard in Cape Cod, the Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival (www.mvfilmsociety.org), a...
So, Britain’s biggest FF; ‘The Times BFI London Film Festival’ announced its programme yesterday. The Guardian were not overly-impressed as they criticised it for, essentially, just being a hybrid of Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Venice & Toronto’s key films. Although this is true from the looks of their big films, I can guarantee you that there will be a few hidden gems somewhere within their schedule – you just have to find them. Its a bit like a treasure hunt I guess! (Al...
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...
For the 6th year in a row, European Film Promotion (EFP) is assisting the marketing campaigns of European films through its Film Sales Support scheme (FSS) at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) which runs September 9 - 19. Backed by the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, 25 different European sales agents and two production companies are benefitting from the financial help for the promotion of 47 films this year. With an annual programme of close on 120 European fil...
............. WELCOME TO OUR NEWSLETTER N° 475: September 3, 2010 THE SUMMER WRAP NEWSLETTER Follow this LINK if you cannot read the newsletter properly Contact the Editor, Advertise on the sites. Our newsletter ...
The artists for 2010 TVIFF Music Fest have been selected:
2010 MUSICFEST FINALISTS
JESSICA ERIN, country / pop singer and writer
Originally from Illinois, Jessica currently resides in
Los Angeles, working hard to hone her craft as a singer/songwriter.
She has opened for Grammy Award winning duo Montgomery Gentry, Country
star Darryl Worley, & others. Her song "Girls Night Out", was aired
on NBC TV's hit show "Friday Night Lights". Her song, "...
TABLOID (Errol Morris, USA)
OK......even for someone who is internet-connected, it is still impossible for me to be physically in more than one place at any given time (please work on that, Steve Jobs.....). As I am sitting typing this at the Montreal World Film Festival, simultaneous events are happening around the world at a pace that is dizzying indeed.
Montreal is hot and humid, which is perhaps the weather I could be expect if I was attending that other major internation...
Venice kicks off tomorrow, however, I’m hearing things that the big festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Toronto etc are being called the falling stars of the festival circuit and that the whole star-studdied red carpet routine is getting rather dull and boring. This is an interesting point, but not one that I fully agree with – based on my experience of last years Cannes. Although I didnt see many of the in-competition films as I was doing my research around the film market...
Well ‘summer’ is nearly over here in the UK which means children are going back to school and Winter looms (so wolly hats and mittens are in order), but what also happens during this time is that lots of Film Festivals take place, including some of the biggies; Toronto is first followed by Venice at the beginning of September, (oh and ofcourse Abertoir in November! ;) ).
Further to my previous blog, I’m very excited about Venice for several reasons 1. Machete is opening th...
The 35th Toronto International Film Festival announces another stellar line-up of films across five programmes, including the newest in cutting-edge filmmaking, international cinematic discoveries and new works from established masters.
MAVERICKS
Notable guests from the world of film and beyond share revealing anecdotes and engage in unforgettable discussions.
Bruce Springsteen In...
............. WELCOME TO OUR NEWSLETTER N° 474: August 26, 2010 THE SUMMER WRAP NEWSLETTER Follow this LINK if you cannot read the newsletter properly Contact the Editor, Advertise on the sites. Our newsletter re...
............. WELCOME TO OUR NEWSLETTER N° 472: August 20, 2010 THE SUMMER WRAP NEWSLETTER Follow this LINK if you cannot read the newsletter properly Contact the Editor, Advertise on the sites. Our newsletter re...
The calendar may still say August, but the busy Fall film festival season kicks off in earnest in Montreal later this week as the Montreal World Film Festival (MWFF) will celebrate its 34th edition. The Festival, one of the only FIAPF A-Class film festivals in North America, is the first in a marathon that will take film buffs and professionals to film events in Toronto, Venice, San Sebastian, New York, Woodstock, Deauville and Chicago (just to name a prominent few).
The MWFF,...
FIVE NIGHTS TO KICK-START YOUR FILM CAREER
Being a writer/director in the film business ensures that your words and vision are translated to the screen exactly as you conceived them. But how do you take your ideas and characters and put them into action? Raindance Canada is proud to offer an exclusive 5-night course starting September 27th, with Sean McConville, renowned Canadian writer & director of Deadline (2010) starring Brittany Murphy & Thora Birch.
...
NEW FEATURE FILMS AND DOCUMENTARIES AT THE VIENNALE
As in previous years, the main program of the festival consists of about 130 feature films and reveals a kind of state
of production: a representation of current world cinema and its various developments and tendencies. It can, in a
way, be considered a survey of "the Continent of Cinema" in which cinematic regions, boundaries, and topo -
graphies begin to emerge. And within that continent individual islands and ...
Toronto, Ontario Canada has a new film festival commencing this September.The Toronto Independent Film Festival (aka TO indie Film Festival) will run from Wednesday Sept 8 to Saturday Sept 18. There will be 22 feature films plus dozen of Short film entries from around the world. The venue is the newly re-discovered Toronto Underground Cinema (186 Spadina Avenue at Queen Street West) a 700-seat venue, literally underground, that has been dormant for almost 20 years - and just renovated for busine...
Hard as it is to believe, the summer of 2010 (the hottest on record.....thank you global warming) is coming to an end. The cranking of the film industry's engines begin in earnest in September with the Venice,, Montreal, Toronto, New York and San Sebastian film festivals.....but for the last two weeks of summer, we still can relax with the languid and liquid films of French filmmaker Eric Rohmer.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York is offering a complete retrospective of...
INDIAN FILM REVIEWS, 2010 -- COMPOSITE with RAAKH (1989) ADDED NEW BOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER TO PREMIER AT BERLIN 2010 by Alex deleon -- (reviewed below) for www.filmfestivals.com The much awaited new Indian film "My Name Is Khan" will be premiered at the 60th annual Berlin International Film Festival on Febuary 12, out of competition but very much in the limelight otherwise. MNIK is easily the most anticpated Hindi film of the year as it topline...
