Third edition of The Shortest Day: a treat for families, kids and movie-lovers of all ages

The Shortest Day returns for a third year across the country from December 18 to 21, 2015, with an outstanding program of new, classic and award-winning shorts by some of Canada’s most talented filmmakers. This year’s free event—a fun way for families and movie-lovers to celebrate the lead-up to the winter solstice on December 21, the shortest day of the year, and usher in the holiday season—features 28 shorts organized into four thematic programs: Kids (under 8, 61 minutes), Family (56 minutes), Musical (16+, 74 minutes) and Dramas and Comedies (16+, 91 minutes).

Among the shorts from Ontario-based filmmakers this year is Bacon & God’s Wrath (Dramas and Comedies program) from director Sol Friedman. Bacon & God’s Wrath screened in the Short Cuts Programme at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Friedman’s short, an endearing mixed-media docu-collage, tells the story of a 90-year-old Jewish woman who reflects on her life’s experiences as she prepares to try bacon for the first time.

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.”

RIDM announces lineup for 2015 en plein air summer screenings

Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM) or Montreal International Documentary Festival is pleased to announce its line-up of free outdoor screenings for the summer of 2015. Working with several organizations, the RIDM will present a series of excellent documentaries in Montreal parks and other uncommon venues. It’s a great way to enjoy the summer while discovering the best that documentary has to offer.

Quebec’s only film festival dedicated to documentaries, the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal presents the best reality-based films, including the works of established directors and new talents.

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.

TIFF's Food on Film fuses culinary experts and brilliant cinema

Guests include Wylie Dufresne, Chad Robertson and Vikram Vij
March 11 to June 24 at TIFF Bell Lightbox

Back for its fourth season, TIFF’s popular subscription series Food on Film brings together chefs, food experts and film lovers to enjoy the best of culinary cinema and conversation. Each month, series host Matt Galloway (CBC’s Metro Morning) welcomes celebrated guests from the culinary world to discuss topical and timely food themes, and to explore the intersections of cinema, culture and gastronomy. Launching March 11, the series presents six events that each feature a screening followed by a fascinating and lively discussion.

Food on Film screenings will take place Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. The first 150 subscribers receive a $50 gift card to Momofuku Toronto and a one year print subscription to Toronto Life magazine.

Neon Nights: The Films of Michael Mann – Feb 5 to Mar 26 at TIFF Bell Lightbox

As Michael Mann’s Blackhat makes its premiere in January, TIFF looks back at the big-screen oeuvre of the crime-film auteur, which brought a grit and elegance to action cinema that has influenced nearly every police-procedural show on North American television, as well as successive waves of crime thrillers from Hong Kong and Korea.

Drawing on the influence of such male-centred directors as Sam Fuller, Sam Peckinpah and Stanley Kubrick, Mann’s tough-guy cinema offers a master class on masculinity — its nature and definition, in action and appearance. Mann explored his vision of manhood in a variety of different milieus and genres. Furthermore, his relentless pursuit of realism — whether telling the stories of real historical figures in The Insider, Ali and Public Enemies, recreating eighteenth-century frontier America in The Last of the Mohicans, or bringing a remarkable sense of verisimilitude to the crime fictions of Collateral and Miami Vice — has become as much a defining element of his style as the visual gloss of his rainslicked neon nights, the pulsing beat of his musical scores, and his masterfully staged action set pieces.

Álex de la Iglesia: Dancing with the Devil – Jan. 30 to March 28 at TIFF Bell Lightbox

January 30 to March 28
TIFF Bell Lightbox

Like his cult-cinema contemporaries Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi, Spanish maverick Álex de la Iglesia began his career as an anarchic purveyor of high-grade schlock splashing his every fluid-drenched fever dream across the screen, before achieving international recognition as a bona fide festival-feted auteur. The endorsement and mentorship of Pedro Almodóvar helped in this regard, immediately placing the former comic-book artist on the critical radar and garnering Goya Awards (Spain’s Oscars) for even some of his earliest and strangest work. While his work has grown in scope and ambition, de la Iglesia has never surrendered or compromised his unique vision: his films are as strange and transgressive as ever, his sense of humour every bit as dark, biting and absurd. In this sense, de la Iglesia shares much with Canada’s own purveyor of the peculiar and the perverse David Cronenberg: both filmmakers have forced the film world to adapt to them rather than the other way around.

WGC's Writers Talking Feature Film presents free screening of The F Word (What If)

Writers Talking Feature Film, with Elan Mastai, "The F Word"

Don't miss the WGC's inaugural "Writers Talking Feature Film" event. Elan Mastai, writer of The F Word, will be interviewed by Michael McGowan, writer of Still Mine.

This intimate evening of conversation about the craft and art of the feature film will include a screening of The F Word (U.S. title: What If), starring Zoe Kazan & Daniel Radcliffe (still in movie theatres). And the on stage conversation will wrap with audience Q&A. It's a great opportunity to get the insiders' view of feature film writing with two very talented writers working in the business. The theatre has limited seating, so please RSVP as soon as possible.

2014 TIFF presents 25th anniversary screening of Michael Moore's Roger & Me

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS 25TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING OF MICHAEL MOORE’S ROGER & ME

Moore to Participate in Keynote Conversation at Festival's Doc Conference

Twenty-five years after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Michael Moore’s first feature, the 1989 documentary Roger & Me, returns for a special anniversary screening with the filmmaker in attendance.

Roger & Me documents the efforts of General Motors as it turns its hometown of Flint, Michigan, into a ghost town. In his quest to discover why GM would want to do such a thing, Michael Moore – a Flint native – attempts to meet the chairman, Roger Smith, and persuade him to come and visit Flint to see the destruction first-hand.

RIDM free outdoor summer screenings – lineup announced

The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is proud to announce it free outdoor screenings for the summer of 2014. Working with several organizations and festivals, the RIDM will have a presence in several Montreal parks and other sites.

Throughout the summer, the RIDM will present a diverse line-up of documentaries, for free, in unconventional locations. It’s a great way to enjoy the warm season while watching the world’s best documentaries.

All screenings will start at nightfall. Here is the program:

3rd annual C2MTL presents Montreal: City of Cinema / Montréal : Ville de cinéma

TELEFILM CANADA CELEBRATES CANADIAN TALENT AT C2MTL

LOUISE ARCHAMBAULT, XAVIER DOLAN, MICHAEL DOWSE AND KIM NGUYEN TAKE PART IN MONTREAL: CITY OF CINEMA / MONTRÉAL : VILLE DE CINÉMA AS THE LEAD-UP TO JAMES CAMERON CONFERENCE

Montreal, May 29, 2014 — As part of the third annual C2MTL event,Telefilm Canada is today organizing an activity, entitled Montreal: City of Cinema / Montréal : Ville de cinéma.

Organized jointly by C2MTL, Telefilm Canada and its partners Montréal International, the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, ICI Radio-Canada, the City of Montréal, the Bureau du cinéma et de la télévision du Québec (BCTQ)—la Grappe Audiovisuelle ActionMTL and Annexe Communications, Montreal: City of Cinema / Montréal : Ville de cinéma aims to promote Canadian filmmakers through an interactive meeting focused on exchange, innovation and creativity.

Spirited Away: The Films of Studio Ghibli, Dec 13-Jan 3

SPIRITED AWAY: THE FILMS OF STUDIO GHIBLI
Featuring the rarely-screened Grave of the Fireflies
December 13 to January 3 at TIFF Bell Lightbox

This holiday season, TIFF Cinematheque presents a retrospective devoted to Japan’s Studio Ghibli — one of the most influential film studios in the world. Following its spectacularly popular run in the spring of 2012, Spirited Away: The Films of Studio Ghibli returns from December 13 to January 3 to delight TIFF Bell Lightbox audiences with a near-exhaustive 18-film collection that includes a blend of new 35-mm and digital prints. The showcase pays homage to the studio’s legendary Japanese animation team led by Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, its trademark animation style, powerful storytelling, and deeply felt humanism.

TIFF is honoured to finally feature the rarely-screened masterpiece Grave of the Fireflies, one of Ghibli's supreme accomplishments and regarded by many as the greatest animated film of all time. The lineup also includes From Up On Poppy Hill, a father-son collaboration between studio co-founder Miyazaki and his son Goro; beloved classics such as My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Kiki’s Delivery Service; rarely seen titles Only Yesterday and The Ocean Waves; and Hayao Miyazaki's Academy Award®-winning Spirited Away.

Toronto International Film Festival announces 2013 Live Read, IMAX, Next Wave, Manifesto

FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FURTHER WAYS TO EXPERIENCE AND NAVIGATE 11 DAYS OF FILM
Enhanced experience with IMAX screenings
A look at the creative process with the return of Jason Reitman’s Live Read
Special selections through Next Wave and Manifesto initiatives

TORONTO – The 38th Toronto International Film Festival® today announced details of initiatives and special programming introduced to enhance the filmgoers’ Festival experience.

For the first time, the Festival proudly presents official selections and special screenings in stunning IMAX. Jason Reitman’s Live Read returns for an all-star read-through featuring a surprise cast. The Next Wave initiative sees a committee of young film enthusiasts highlight Festival films that appeal to their peers while, for the first time, the Manifesto initiative tasks the community organization with selecting films for audiences interested in the urban arts.

M60 Montreal 60-Second Film Festival sign-up party and screening tonight

This year's M60 Montreal 60-Second Film Festival hosts its sign-up party tonight. It starts at 8:30pm and takes place at Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT) at 1201 boulevard Saint-Laurent rather than at Casa del Popolo as in year's past.

Every year, they have a free party for filmmakers to sign up to make a one-minute film on a given topic. The topic is usually bilingual so that filmmakers can adapt to it in both French and English. Last year's given topic was "faux pas." You will then have a month to make your film however you wish. All completed films will be screened over several nights at Cinéma Excentris in September.

TIFF in the Park 2013: A Summer of Romance, July 3-Aug 28

Tonight, the series of free screenings TIFF in the Park begins its 2013 season with a presentation of the 1942 film Casablanca by Michael Curtiz. Every Wednesday at sunset beginning in July, TIFF and the Toronto Entertainment District BIA present free outdoor screenings of romantic classics at David Pecaut Square, directly west of Roy Thomson Hall.

The series continues in following weeks with a mix of classic films such as Charlie Chaplin's City Lights and William Wyler's Roman Holiday, along with some more contemporary films such as Norman Jewison's Moonstruck and Nick Cassavetes' The Notebook, which concludes the season on August 28.

The RIDM at Cinéma sous les étoiles: 5 parks, 7 free documentaries

Montreal – For a second summer, the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) is participating in the Cinéma sous les étoiles program organized by Funambules Médias. The RIDM will present a special summer program of seven films from the 2012 festival, for free in five different Montreal parks. All screenings will start just after sunset.

Once again this year, the screenings will be followed by discussions with the directors (assistant director in the case of Ma vie réelle) and, in some cases, with experts in the social issues addressed by the films. The RIDM is proud to be part of this summer program, through which Funambules Médias seeks to highlight social documentaries made in Quebec and elsewhere as well as the work of community activists fighting for positive change. 

Free Panel Discussion – The Art of Adaptation, Mar 21

On Thursday night, York University is presenting a free panel on the Art of Adaptation, hosted by Howard Wiseman with four award-winning writers. The panel will take place at TIFF Bell Lightbox. RSVPs are required as they only have space for the first 50 registrants.


Panel Discussion – The Art of Adaptation: From Faithful to Ruthless

Bell Free Weekend 2013: Family Screenings and Activities Mar 16-17

Now in its third year, Bell Free Weekend returns on Saturday, March 16 and Sunday, March 17, when you can see our programme of great family films, participate in fun family activities, and see any of our regular film screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox absolutely free, courtesy of Bell!


Films and Activities on Bell Free Weekend

MONITOR 9: New South Asian Short Film + Video, Mar 14

MONITOR 9: NEW SOUTH ASIAN SHORT FILM + VIDEO is an annual short film and video screening program that showcases new and innovative work by artists from Canada and internationally.

MONITOR 9 is a unique platform for independent work that brings together poignant films and videos that explore bodies in flow. Programmer Nahed Mansour employs the notion of global flows, through which the artists negotiate various mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes, ethnoscapes and ideoscapes in their work.

Call for submissions: DOC Toronto's Community Connections

The Toronto branch of the Documentary Organization of Canada has put out a call for submissions to their Community Connections screening series. Community Connections is a free documentary screening and public discussion series that utilizes documentary film as a tool for community engagement and activism.

Community Connections links Torontonians to important social issues of our time through the work of local filmmakers. The screenings will simultaneously support the outreach and awareness- raising efforts of GTA community groups and the audience development efforts of filmmakers. All screenings will be followed by a moderated audience discussion forum with the filmmaker, participants from the film, and other experts.