Toronto Film Festival
TIFF: PETA Activist Disrupts Pharrell Williams Biopic Premiere in Toronto
A protester with PETA, the animal rights group, stole the limelight on Tuesday night as Pharrell Williams talked about his animated biopic Piece by Piece at the Princess of Wales Theatre during the Toronto Film Festival. The PETA activist approached the stage as Williams held a post-screening Q&A and slammed the singer and producer […]
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‘Heretic’ Review: Hugh Grant’s Chilling Performance Gives Religious Horror Film Some Sinister Edge
Two Mormon evangelists are tasked with converting a reclusive older man in 'A Quiet Place' duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods' feature co-starring Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East.
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Documentary ‘Russians at War’ Sparks Protest, Heated Debate in Toronto
Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova has responded to a protest at the Toronto Film Festival on Tuesday against her controversial Russians at War documentary ahead of a North American premiere on Friday. Trofimova tells The Hollywood Reporter her first-person film has her talking to ordinary Russian soldiers over seven months in Ukraine to get a perspective no one […]
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‘Bliss (Hemda)’ Director Talks Israeli Film Backlash by Major Festivals: “They Don’t Want Us Anymore”
Israeli novelist and director Shemi Zarhin is set to screen his latest movie, Bliss (Hemda) at the Toronto Film Festival with virtually all the certainties in his life and work scrambled by the current war in Gaza that followed the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel. “I can’t explain my people. I can explain […]
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TIFF Film ’40 Acres’ Facing Claims by IATSE Over Alleged Unpaid Crew, Vendors
Producers of 40 Acres, a dystopian thriller starring Danielle Deadwyler that had its world premiere at TIFF, have addressed cost overruns during the movie’s production a year ago that led to some local crew and vendors being left unpaid, according to the U.S.-based union IATSE. “We had cost overruns on the production. It’s a big, […]
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Francis Ford Coppola Says His Dystopian Epic ‘Megalopolis’ Is a “Vision of Hope”
Francis Ford Coppola says his twist on the dystopian sci-fi movie genre in Megalopolis reflects his utopian ambitions for the world. “It’s a roman epic, what can I say? It’s a dive into a world that exists more than it should. Of course, it’s about loyalty, but ultimately in the end it’s a vision of hope,” Coppola […]
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‘Conclave’ Director Edward Berger On How Vatican Power Politics Mirror U.S. Presidential Election
Director Edward Berger says the backroom power politicking in Conclave, his Vatican conspiracy thriller, has an echo in U.S. president Joe Biden recently being replaced as the Democratic Party nominee by Vice President Kamala Harris. The German director told a Toronto Film Festival audience on Monday that the script for his Vatican conspiracy thriller was written […]
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‘Sketch’ Review: A Tender Tony Hale Anchors an Audacious, Intensely Colorful Tween Adventure
A 10-year-old girl's grief manifests as violent drawings come to life in writer-director Seth Worley's Spielbergian debut feature, also starring D'Arcy Carden.
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Native Trans Director Sydney Freeland Talks Authentic Casting: “I’m Double Used to Being Misrepresented”
Sydney Freeland in the long journey to complete her Netflix basketball-focused feature film, produced by LeBron James, had as a key goal to show real native lives on screen. But finding Indigenous basketball players was easier said than done, or at least at first, Freeland told a Toronto Film Festival audience on Monday. “Netflix bought the […]
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‘Without Blood’ Review: Salma Hayek Pinault and Demián Bichir in Angelina Jolie’s Overly Cautious War Parable
Adapted from a novella by Alessandro Baricco, the director's latest feature focuses on two strangers revisiting their memories of an unnamed war over a long evening.
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TIFF: Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie, Amy Adams Add Star Wattage at Post-Strikes Toronto Fest Tribute Awards
Cate Blanchett thanked Knix, the underwear maker, for sponsoring her TIFF Tribute Award on Sunday night, which was ironic because the Elizabeth and Carol actress apparently went bottomless to the glittering festival event. “I’m not actually wearing any underwear,” Blanchett revealed, jokingly or not, while wearing a long party dress on stage at the Royal […]
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‘The Assessment’ Review: Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander and Himesh Patel Star in a Sci-Fi Chamber Drama That Impresses, Until It Doesn’t
Fleur Fortuné's drama takes place in a government-controlled future where a couple undergoes a strenuous examination to determine if they are allowed to have kids.
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