Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Keep On Keepin' On - An Evening in Honour of Clark Terry, with Performance by Justin Kauflin


KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON: AN EVENING IN HONOUR OF CLARK TERRY
AT THE BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA ON MAY 11—ONE NIGHT ONLY!
FEATURING A PERFORMANCE BY JUSTIN KAUFLIN

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and The Royal Conservatory of Music are honouring the legacy of the late jazz trumpeter Clark Terry with a magnificent evening filled with music and film. The night kicks off with a screening of Hot Docs 2014 Top Ten Audience Favourite, KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON (D: Alan Hicks, USA, 2014, 84 min, PG), followed by a performance and Q&A, on Monday, May 11, at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (506 Bloor Street West).

Legendary jazz trumpeter Clark Terry played alongside Charlie Barnet, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, and mentored a young Miles Davis and Quincy Jones. At 93 he continued to leave his indelible mark, working with the next generation of young and emerging musicians. KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON is a powerful story about Terry and his mentorship of Justin Kauflin, a 23-year-old blind piano prodigy, which celebrates the wonder of music, perseverance and friendship.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

2015 WGC Screenwriting Awards - winners


The WGC Screenwriting Awards, hosted by Ryan Belleville, took place Monday night at Koerner Hall in Toronto. It was an evening of celebrating the work of WGC members (and a great party).

In the Movies & Miniseries category, the winner was Nicolas Billon for his script for the film Elephant Song which was directed by Charles Binamé and stars Bruce Greenwood, Colm Feore, Xavier Dolan, Catherine Keener, Carrie-Anne Moss and Guy Nadon.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

TIFF announces 4th edition of All-Time Top Ten List of Canadian Films


TIFF today announces the results of its fourth Canada’s All-Time Top Ten List, an international poll of industry and academics‎ on the most memorable Canadian films. This is the fourth edition of TIFF’s All-Time Top Ten List; previous lists were released in 1984, 1993 and 2004.

“In our 40th year we are celebrating our national cinema by revisiting the list of top Canadian films, with help from our esteemed colleagues in the industry and academia,” said Piers Handling, Director and CEO, TIFF. “It is encouraging to see new filmmakers and films establishing themselves on the list alongside the classics.”

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Call for submissions: 13th Annual Regent Park Film Festival


The deadline for submissions for this years Regent Park Film Festival is fast approaching! Be sure to submit your film before Friday, June 12th 2015 for it to be considered. We would greatly appreciate if you could share this information with your networks via newsletters, listervs and/or social media. Please see below for details.

The 13th Annual Regent Park Film Festival – Call For Submissions is Now Open!

Regent Park Film Festival is Toronto’s only free-of-charge, multi-cultural, film festival dedicated to showcasing the best local and international film and video works. The stories we celebrate resonate with the inner city, community-driven, trans-national, transient context of Regent Park, as well as with other similar communities all over the world.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

The Jury of the 68th Festival de Cannes


Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, directors, screenwriters and producers, will be the two Presidents of the Jury of the 68th Festival de Cannes.

This year they will be joined by seven key figures in world cinema from Canada, Spain, the United States, France, Mali, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

The Jury will thus be made up of nine distinctive voices – four women and five men – each with the same voting rights.

Their task will be to decide among the films in Competition and select the prize winners, culminating in the Palme d’or, which will be announced on stage during the Festival Closing Ceremony on Sunday 24th May.

2015 Quinzaine des réalisateurs announces complete lineup


La Société des réalisateurs de films (French Directors Guild) has announced the full selection for the 47th edition of the Quinzaine des réalisateurs (Directors' Fortnight). It is one of the two sidebars at the Festival de Cannes along with the Semaine de la critique announced yesterday.

Previously, they had announced In the Shadow of Women by Philippe Garrel to be the opening night film. The film is about Pierre and Manon, low-budget documentary filmmakers, and the ensuing complication when Pierre meets a young trainee Elisabeth whom he then takes as his mistress.

Monday, April 20, 2015

2015 Montréal International Animation Film Festival (Le MIAFF) – awards


LE MIAFF 2015 CLOSING GALA AND AWARDS

4 days of animation feature films, shorts workshops, panel discussions, interactive performances and parties at The Montréal International Animation Film Festival, in association with Teletoon, www.filmfestivals.com and MTL Digital Spring (Printemps Numerique) has just wrapped up with its closing gala and award ceremony.

Festival director Laurie Gordon said, "with such a great line-up it was tough to pick out any winners. Every screening was a highlight and any number of films could have won their respective categories. Congratulations to all of our winners. The preparations for Le MIAFF 2016 are already underway – see you next year!"

The 54th Semaine de la Critique announces lineup


On the poster of the 54th edition of La Semaine de la Critique, the actress Lou de Laâge embraces the open horizon in front of her. This wonderful energy and the amazing life force it carries embody the strong desire leading us to discover the new breath of fresh air in cinema worldwide.
Key figures

We received 1750 short films and 1100 feature films. Among the 11 feature films in the selection, 9 are first films and 2 are second films.

The 10 short films in competition

Thursday, April 16, 2015

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.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The Short Films Selection at the 68th Festival de Cannes


The announcement of the 2015 Official Selection will begin with the short films In Competition and the Cinéfondation Selection, in the run-up to the press conference for the 68th Festival de Cannes, to be held on Thursday 16th April.

Following their deliberations, the Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury, presided by Abderrahmane Sissako, will decide on the best films both from the Short Films Competition and the Cinéfondation.

THE 2015 SHORT FILMS COMPETITION

This year, the selection committee received 4,550 short films – 1,000 more than in 2014 – from over 100 countries.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Call for submissions: 2015 Air Canada enRoute Film Festival


Air Canada today announced submissions are open for the ninth annual Air Canada enRoute Film Festival. Emerging Canadian filmmakers are invited to showcase their artistic talent, out-of-the-box thinking and compelling vision in this year's festival that includes a star studded jury, a cash prize and a chance to travel to the Berlin International Film Festival to have their film screened at the European Film Market.

The winner of Best Short Film will receive a $5,000 cash prize courtesy of presenting sponsor Cineplex Entertainment. Other awards include Achievement in Direction, Achievement in Cinematography, Achievement in Animation, Achievement in Documentary and the third annual People's Choice Award. Achievement Award supporters include, the Directors' Guild of Canada, William F. White International Inc., the National Film Board of Canada and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival.

Festival Accès Asie, May 1 – 24


20 
years 
of 
Asia 
in 
Montréal!

Festival Accès Asie, running from May 1st to 24th, is proud to announce its 20th Anniversary edition! Khosro Berahmandi, General Manager and Artistic Director of the Festival, has prepared an incredible program featuring a wide range of artistic disciplines that will definitely please Asian culture lovers. Festival Accès Asie welcomes actress, Alice Tran (Lance et compte, 30 vies), as its spokesperson for our 20th anniversary celebration.

Included in this edition are 16 artistic events, many of which have been exclusively created for the Festival. To show its appreciation to Accès Asie artist members for their ongoing commitment to the development of the Festival over the years, five artists from the Festival’s Board were invited to create works for this year’s edition. We are very pleased to include these works in our 20th Anniversary program.

The Festival kicks off with our famous Opening Cocktail at which we will reveal the 20th Anniversary Edition program. The first week will feature Kaleidoscope, an exhibition by Kiran Ambwani and Florence So, presenting 20 artists who have appeared in the Festival over the past 20 years. The Festival also invites the public to take part in an open forum Discussion on Asian Heritage in Quebec featuring an exciting panel of Festival artists.

Monday, April 13, 2015

23rd Annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival; April 30 – May 10


Anarchists and superheroes, mother-daughter relationships, The Twilight Zone, Canadian archival gems, Robert Redford’s first big role…. All this and much more will be unleashed at the 2015 Toronto Jewish Film Festival (TJFF), running April 30 to May 10, at various venues across the city.

Showcasing 110 films from 18 countries, two International Premieres, four North American Premieres, and 46 Canadian Premieres, this year’s TJFF is a film festival lover’s dream.

TJFF 2015’s exceptional selection of features range from powerful, critically acclaimed dramas, to light-hearted comedies, and dark psychological thrillers. Among them: The Kindergarten Teacher, a complex morality tale on a teacher’s obsession with her student’s extraordinary talent (selected as part of Critics Week series at Cannes); Dough, an endearing comedy starring Jonathan Pryce, set in London’s East End; Bulgaria’s 2015 Oscar® submission Bulgarian Rhapsody, a coming-of-age love story set during the Second World War; You Must Be Joking, a 20-something New Yorker’s quest to find meaning beyond her paralegal job; Atlit, a comical, dramatic and touching story on the bond of sisterhood; and Let’s Go!, the new film from acclaimed director Michael Verhoeven (The Nasty Girl).

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Le MIAFF: Montreal International Animation Film Festival, April 16-19


Featuring 4 days of animation feature films, shorts workshops, panel discussions and interactive performances, The Montréal International Animation Film Festival, in association with www.filmfestivals.com and Animation World Network is all set to ANIMAZE and entertain Montreal!

At 7pm on Thursday 16th April, the festival will kick off with an exhilarating and groundbreaking live interactive music performance of Mozart’s Magic Flute produced by the German Interactive Media Foundation with music performed live by Montreal sound-artist Philippe Lambert.

Opening night continues with a celebration of the 40th anniversary of X-rated classic Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle voiced by the pre-Saturday Night Live voices of John Belushi and Bill Murray, alongside Johnny Weissmuller JR, son of the original star of the Tarzan movies. This is the English language version of the original Tarzoon, la honte de la jungle, the French/Belgian animated film directed by cartoonist Picha and Boris Szulzinger.

2015 SiriusXM Indie Awards – nominees announced


AWARDS TO BE HANDED OUT MAY 9TH AT THE GRAND BALLROOM, SHERATON CENTRE IN TORONTO

Canadian Music Week is proud to announce the nominees for the 2015 SiriusXM Indies - 15th Annual Independent Music Awards. ALVVAYS, Caribou, Mac DeMarco and Death From Above 1979 are among the nominated artists being honoured across 26 categories on Saturday May 9th, 2015 at the Grand Ballroom in the Sheraton Centre (123 Queen St. West, Toronto). Full list of nominees is below.

Celebrating another year of top independent talent - both Canadian and International - the award show will feature special performances from nominated artists, including The Glorious Sons, Alvvays, Broncho, and Miracles. Multi-platinum selling rock act Billy Talent will be headlining the SiriusXM Indies with an exclusive concert performance.

Friday, April 3, 2015

28th Images Festival, April 9-18, 2015


The 28th Images Festival is right around the corner, with 10 days of groundbreaking film screenings, live performances and media-based installations taking place throughout Toronto April 9 - 18, 2015. The Images Festival showcases the innovative edge of international contemporary media art through its ON SCREEN, OFF SCREEN and LIVE IMAGES programming.

The Images Festival continues to embrace new modes of creativity for a radical and unforgettable extravaganza of contemporary moving image culture. More than ever, Images engages audiences through our expanded public programming with more talks, tours, guest writers on our iFBLOG, as well as web-based projects and online screenings on our video player iFPOD. Find out more at www.imagesfestival.com

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Call for Submissions: Toronto Urban Film Festival 2015


Submit your silent, one-minute film before June 1st and avoid the $20 entry fee.
Final deadline: June 30, 2015.

Take part in the North America’s largest commuter film festival. The 9th annual Toronto Urban Film Festival (TUFF) returns to subway screens across Toronto from September 12 to 20, 2015.

TUFF accepts all genres of silent, 60-second film, video, and animation of interest to an urban audience. Films screen at 5-minute intervals on 300 digital platform screens across the Toronto subway system and non-stop at a special "Film Zone" station downtown. The audience includes over one million commuters who take the Toronto subway daily.

Now in its second year, “TUFF Local Stories” will appear on digital screens in over 40 shopping centres across Canada. “TUFF Local Stories” will feature film/video/animation by Canadians that explore, critique, or show their love for their own hometowns.