Wednesday, July 8, 2015

TIFF Celebrates its 40th Anniversary with Slate of Free Programming


TIFF thanks audiences for 40 years of support with 40 free films including a screening of Vertigo with a live score co-presented with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, crowd-sourced screenings and a free exhibition celebrating film fans

Piers Handling, Director & CEO of TIFF, tonight announced special programming taking place during the 2015 summer and fall seasons in celebration of the organization’s 40th anniversary. The announcements were made at a free community party held in David Pecaut Square in downtown Toronto, prior to this season’s first TIFF in the Park event, a screening of the 1992 Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award–winner Strictly Ballroom.

“The free programming we’re offering will revisit and commemorate TIFF’s history, and allow us to thank our audiences for their dedication and support over the last four decades,” said Handling. “This is a milestone year for the organization. Not only are we looking back and celebrating 40 years of bringing the world to Toronto, but we’re looking ahead to the next 40 years, with a focus on taking our programming to cultural centres around the world.”

TIFF in the Park: TIFF 40 and the new TIFF in Your Park programme — a series of free pop-up screenings throughout the GTA all summer long, in partnership with Park People and local community partners — mark the first of 40 free public screenings. All of the films featured at both TIFF in the Park and TIFF in Your Park are highlights from TIFF's programming over the last 40 years. Other free films include TIFF 40: Your Favourites, a dozen crowd-sourced films screening during the fall season at TIFF Bell Lightbox on Tuesday evenings betweenOctober 6 and December 8 (the public can vote online at tiff.net/yourfavourites, now throughAugust 8, for a film from TIFF’s history that they’d most like to see again); seven restorations of past Festival and TIFF Cinematheque films from the organization’s 40-year history, screened in the TIFF Cinematheque programme at the Festival; and a free screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo with a live performance of Bernard Herrmann’s brilliant film score by members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, to take place on September 20 at Roy Thomson Hall, the final day of the Festival.

The free programming will also include In Love with the Stars, an art exhibition in the CIBC Canadian Film Gallery, located on the 4th floor of TIFF Bell Lightbox. Running from September 8, 2015 to April 3, 2016, the exhibition will feature three archival collections from the Film Reference Library: TIFF’s archival coverage of red carpets and parties from the first Festival in 1976 to the end of the nineties; and two collections comprised of the work of individuals who were deeply inspired by the stars they loved: scrapbook maven Edith Nadajewski, who made unique scrapbooks of celebrities spanning almost 70 years from the early 1920s to the 1990s, and amateur Hollywood photographer Jack Pashkovsky, who captured celebrities on studio lots and at events during the 1930s and 1940s. The Jack Pashkovsky Collection was generously donated to TIFF by producer, Barry Avrich and the family of Edith Nadajewski donated more than 1000 of her scrapbooks. In Love with the Stars opens just ahead of TIFF’s next major fall exhibition, Andy Warhol: Stars of the Silver Screen (October 30, 2015 to January 24, 2016), which also explores audiences’ fascination with celebrity as we celebrate 40 years of stargazing in Toronto.

The selected TIFF 40: Your Favourites films and the TIFF Cinematheque programme will be announced in the coming months.

Free programming in celebration of TIFF’s 40th anniversary:
  • TIFF 40: Your Favourites — Voting open now until August 8 attiff.net/yourfavourites
  • TIFF in Your Park — July 3 to September 25 at venues across the GTA. More information available at tiff.net/tiffinyourpark
  • TIFF in the Park: TIFF 40 — July 8 to September 2 at David Pecaut Square. More information available at tiff.net/tiffinthepark
  • In Love With The Stars — September 8, 2015 to April 3, 2016 at TIFF Bell Lightbox
  • TIFF Cinematheque — September 10 to 20 at the Toronto International Film Festival
  • Vertigo with live score, co-presented with the TSO — September 20 at Roy Thomson Hall
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 $189 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 and RBC. For more information, visit tiff.net.

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