Niagara Integrated Film Festival (NIFF) unveils full program for inaugural year

The inaugural Niagara Integrated Film Festival (NIFF) is only a few weeks away! The hugely anticipated event from Toronto International Film Festival co-founder, Bill Marshall, runs June 19 through 22, 2014.

Highlighting the world-class epicurean wonders of Niagara, NIFF will take full advantage of its unique location with two special programs. Film Feast is a gourmet wine tour meets short film festival mash-up where fine wines and hors d’oeuvres are enjoyed with a short film from Canada’s Not Short on Talent program. Filmalicious is a sublime dinner and a movie experience, where guests will enjoy a luscious three-course-meal, accompanied by a top selection of wines, and finished off with a stellar feature film, at one of the Region’s top wineries.

At the same time, NIFF aims to shine a cinematic spotlight not only on Niagara’s extraordinary beauty, but also on the remarkable talent that comes from this part of Canada. In Niagara Rises, a special program showcasing home-grown Niagara filmmakers, St. Catharines' own Mike Enns kicks it off with the world premiere of Restrung, NIFF's opening night film.

Inaugural Niagara Integrated Film Festival to take place June 19-22, 2014

Peter Sellers’ worked with Mordecai Richler? See it and believe it.
The Vault to Lost Film Treasures is Opened As Toronto Film Fest Founder
Bill Marshall turns Niagara Region into Summer Cinema Central

(photos by Allan Tong)

They once were lost, but now they’re found. And the inaugural Niagara Integrated Film Festival has them! The hugely-anticipated event from Toronto International Film Festival founder, Bill Marshall, kicks off June 19-22 with some incredible recently-uncovered featured programs.

Among them: two short films from the ‘50s – a combination of sketch-comedy and sitcom - starring a pre-Pink Panther Peter Sellers and written by Canada’s Mordecai Richler, and one of the earliest silent films with Mary Pickford, the Canadian-born “America’s Sweetheart.”

2014 Montréal en lumière (Montreal High Lights), Feb 20–Mar 2

MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE, presented by RBC in collaboration with Bell, celebrates its 15th edition this year—and how! With MEL already enjoying a dazzling surge of growth, especially with the return of its outdoor downtown site in the Quartier des Spectacles—MEL crowds have bounded by over 40% to surpass 1,300,000 visits!—our festival has everything required to welcome even more fans this year.

You’ll especially feel all the excitement on the festival’s free outdoor site, an entirely renovated location offering a record number of free activities, building bridges between its diverse programs and offering an unprecedented spotlight and profile to the chefs of Montreal! You’ll also discover top-calibre major free outdoor performances, DJ and VJ sets, the most popular urban slide in the city, the giant winter ferris wheel and impressively mind-blowing lighting effects to name but a few, along with the special grand event on the first Saturday of the festival, as well as all the delicious Gourmet Pit-Stops that allow everyone to kick off the celebration as soon as work or school ends and sustain themselves through another fun night.

2012 Open Roof Festival, June 21-Aug 23

The third edition of the Open Roof Festival of music, movies and beer starts tonight at the Amsterdam Brewery in downtown Toronto. Every Thursday night this summer, you'll have a chance to see some live local bands, followed by some terrific films.

Tonight's musicians will be the reggae band Friendlyness and the Human Rights, an apt opening act for the documentary Marley by Academy-Award winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald.

Other musical acts include Army Girls, The Little Black Dress, Eucalyptus, Parlovr and Bruce Peninsula. The movie lineup includes a slew of terrific documentaries including the Oscar-winning Undefeated by Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin (the first black director to win an Oscar), and excellent Canadian docs China Heavyweight, Herman’s House and Indie Game: The Movie.