Toronto International Film Festival announces lineup for inaugural Platform programme

TWELVE BOLD AND UNIQUE VOICES SHINE IN THE INAUGURAL PLATFORM LINEUP AT THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
The new juried programme champions artistically ambitious films by Fabienne Berthaud, Sue Brooks, Diastème, Eva Husson, Joaquim Lafosse, Gabriel Mascaro, He Ping, Pablo Trapero, David Verbeek, Ben Wheatley, Martin Zandvliet and Alan Zweig

The Toronto International Film Festival^® revealed the inaugural lineup for Platform, the new juried programme that champions director’s cinema from around the world.

“We created this new programme as a way to sharpen our focus on artistically ambitious cinema in our 40^th year and we are thrilled to be able to put the spotlight on these 12 brilliant filmmakers this September,” said Piers Handling, Director and CEO of TIFF. “They are major creative forces: the next generation of masters whose personal vision will captivate audiences, industry members and media from around the world.”

The Toronto International Film Festival Names Its Inaugural Platform Jury

The Toronto International Film Festival today announced the inaugural jury for Platform, the new programme to champion directors’ cinema from around the world. This year, the three-person international jury is composed of acclaimed filmmakers Jia Zhang-ke, Claire Denis and Agnieszka Holland. Together, they will award a prize of $25,000 to the best film in the programme, to be announced at the Awards Ceremony on September 20, 2015.

“We have a long history with Zhang-ke, Claire and Agnieszka. They are master filmmakers with unique voices that we have championed throughout the years, both at the Festival and in our year-round programming,” said Piers Handling, Director and CEO of TIFF. “We are honoured to welcome them back to Toronto on our 40th anniversary as we celebrate our renewed commitment to artistically ambitious filmmaking with Platform.”

“Platform is our new home for original, personal filmmaking and this is our dream jury," said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival. “We are thankful to these visionary filmmakers for making the time to join us this September. We can’t wait for the conversations they’ll have about the Platform films.”

2015 Festival de Cannes announces Official Selection [UPDATED]

The Press Conference for the 68th Festival de Cannes, at which the 2015 Official Selection was announced, was held on Thursday 16th April at 11:00 am in Paris.

On Monday morning, the festival announced their opening film to be La Tête Haute (Standing Tall) by Emmanuelle Bercot. However, they strangely erred in claiming that she was to be the first female director to open the Festival de Cannes in history. Many observers pointed out that Diane Kurys opened the Festival de Cannes in 1987 with Un homme amoureux (A Man in Love). The festival later issued a necessary correction to their initial statement.