Toronto International Film Festival
‘Riff Raff’ Review: Jennifer Coolidge, Bill Murray and Ed Harris Labor Over a Crime Comedy That Doesn’t Deserve Them
Gabrielle Union, Pete Davidson and Lewis Pullman also star in Dito Montiel’s violent account of an uncomfortable family reunion that gets uglier once the patriarch’s shady past catches up with him.
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Anderson .Paak Unpacks ‘K-Pops,’ His Directorial Debut
Anderson .Paak was looking for the exit. The multiple Grammy-winning R&B artist, rapper and drummer was about to make his foray into the world of moviemaking by jumping into the deep end — the very deep end — and co-writing, starring in and providing original music for K-Pops, which also happened to be his feature […]
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TIFF Hot List: Sydney Sweeney, Mads Mikkelsen and Pamela Anderson Films to Tempt Buyers in Toronto
At this time last year, picketers were walking outside of studio gates, still two months away from resolving Hollywood’s dual strikes. Of the big festivals, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), with its focus on star-heavy independent projects, was hardest hit by the labor action, with empty red carpets turning much-hyped premieres into damp squibs. […]
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Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Rom-Com ‘Jane Austen Wrecked My Life’ Before Toronto Bow
Sony Pictures Classics has swooped in to acquire key world rights to Laura Piani’s debut feature Jane Austen Wrecked My Life ahead of a Sept. 9 world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. The U.S. specialty distributor will release the romantic comedy from France in North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. […]
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TIFF According To: Kindred Spirit’s Caroline Clark
Kindred Spirit’s development & production executive Caroline Clark will be on the ground at the year’s Toronto Film Festival for the premiere of the Elliot Page drama and popular sales title Close to You. Ahead of this year’s fest, the exec shared with THR the snack she can’t travel without, why she gets nostalgic at […]
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Toronto Hidden Gem: Farah Nabulsi Crafts a Palestinian Socio-Political Suspense Drama in Feature Debut ‘The Teacher’
Few filmmakers have to experience the very real thing they’re dramatising on camera actually happening around their set. But then few films are set and shot in the Occupied West Bank. As Farah Nabulsi recalls, while making The Teacher around the city of Nablus, she witnessed the forced demotion of a Palestinian home by Israeli forces and […]
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Toronto Hidden Gem: Following a Wartime Government in Real Time in Ukraine Doc ‘Defiant’
Karim Amer has made documentaries about seismic geopolitical events as they unfolded before. In the Oscar-nominated documentary The Square — which he produced — footage of the chaos and carnage in Cairo’s Tahrir Square helped offer an uniquely immersive account of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. But nothing he’d made previously compares to Defiant, premiering in Toronto […]
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Meet the Saudi Producers Who Toppled James Cameron, Beat ‘Barbie’ And Are Transforming Their Country’s Film Industry
Long before it was officially announced, in late 2017, that Saudi Arabia’s 30-year ban on cinemas would be lifted, there’d been widespread gossip across the kingdom that the news was incoming. “There was this rumor going around that there were theaters in malls already, and they’d just pull the curtain back and be like ‘tada, […]
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Toronto: Why Patricia Arquette Decided to Go ‘Gonzo’ With Her Directorial Debut
“It’s like asking a woman when she’s crowning, ‘Do you want to give birth, again?’ ” explains Patricia Arquette of being asked about future directing ambitions while still waiting to screen her debut. “You’re like, ‘Not now!’ ” Arquette’s feature, Gonzo Girl, is an adaptation of the book by Cheryl Della Pietra, who drew on […]
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Strike Interim Agreements Stir Debate at Fall Festivals
During an Aug. 31 news conference at the Venice Film Festival, Adam Driver threw his support behind SAG’s interim agreement efforts. “Every time people from SAG go and support a movie that has agreed to these terms, the interim agreement, just make it more obvious that these [producers who sign interim agreements] are willing to support […]
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Toronto Rising Star Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne on Embodying Her Maori Ancestors in ‘The Convert’
It was a joke that kickstarted Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne’s film career and, as she freely admits, not a good one. After a casting call went out around schools in her region of New Zealand for Taika Waititi’s beloved comedy-drama Hunt for the Wilderpeople, her parents forced her to audition. “They made me do it — I didn’t […]
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Hollywood Strikes Shift Spotlight to Local Filmmakers at TIFF
Navigating the U.S. actors and writers strikes is producing a host of winners and losers during a period of peak disruption for the film industry. Count as clear victors local Canadian filmmakers as their homegrown films and TV series grab the spotlight at the Toronto Film Festival. “It’s a tough time in the industry. It’s […]
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