The Toronto International Film Festival Group announced their top ten Canadian features for 2007 last night, along with (for the first time) their top ten list of Canadian short films. The top ten Canadian features were: L’âge Des Ténèbres (Denys Arcand), Amal (Richie Mehta), Continental, Un Film Sans Fusil (Stéphane Lafleur), Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg), Fugitive Pieces (Jeremy Podeswa) , My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin), A Promise To The Dead: The Exile Journey Of Ariel......

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve teamed up with the Toronto International Film Festival Group to run a contest each day until the end of the festival for tickets to next-day screenings. Today’s Contest: For your chance to win one of five pairs of tickets to tomorrow’s Doc Talks panel discussion Covering War (at 4:00 p.m. at the ROM Theatre), featuring directors Michael Tucker, Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro debating filmmaking in war-torn nations,......

It begins! Tonight the Toronto International Film Festival opens officially with Jeremy Podeswa’s Fugitive Pieces, so if you want to start soaking up the atmosphere of the festival head down to Roy Thompson Hall before 8 p.m. It’s easy to write off the festival before it’s even begun: maybe you’re already sick of all the coverage, annoyed about how scarce tickets can be (despite some high ticket prices—this year we’re perplexed as to why......

Well, this is it. The Toronto International Film Festival begins tomorrow, and this is the last of our previews, with coverage of Vanguard films Boy A (pictured above) and Help Me Eros from Jonathan Goldsbie and Mathew Kumar, and reviews of a selection of Short Cuts Canada shorts from Mathew Kumar (in which he has the audacity to hand out a 0/5). Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to preview the Wavelengths or Midnight Madness......

If you missed it, yesterday our Toronto International Film Festival preview began with a look at the Gala and Contemporary World Cinema programmes, and if you didn’t know, tickets go on sale tomorrow morning online, at 416-968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM and at the TIFFG Box Office at the Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor Street—so after you’ve read this, you might want to start queuing. Today we have our preview of the Special Presentations, Real To Reel......

It is forgivable to forget that Toronto is the prevailing backdrop to the stories and poems collected in the anthology TOK: Writing the New Toronto. The anthology itself is not exactly about Toronto—devoid of any superficialities of Toronto pride and a "what Toronto means to me" mentality—choosing instead to showcase a continually shape-shifting Toronto. Edited by Helen Walsh, TOK is the first installment of the series—presented by Diaspora Dialogues and published through the Zephyr......

The Toronto International Film Festival madness began today with this year’s Canadian press conference—whereas last year we were unprepared for the experience, this year we were ready. We didn’t eat lunch, instead eating our fill of the finger food on offer. Result! No one was prepared for the appearance of Viggo Mortensen on stage however, discussing perhaps the biggest announcement of the day: Eastern Promises. It makes sense, of course. Last year they had......

Special Presentations 10:30am - The Last King of Scotland (Paramount 2) - See our day 4 round-up. 6:00pm – The Fountain (Visa Screening Room (Elgin)) Contemporary World Cinema 11:45am Offside (Paramount 1) Real to Reel 12:00pm – The Killer Within (ROM Theatre) Dialogues 2:30pm – La Haine (Al Green Theatre) Midnight Madness 4:45pm – Black Sheep (Paramount 1) Gala 6:30pm - Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing (Roy Thompson Hall) Mavericks 8:30pm – Vanguard Cinema:......

Canadian films don't make money. It's almost a certainty in the Canadian film industry but once in a while a film comes along that gives us hope. This year Fido, just might be that film. Our glowing review is here and other bloggers agree that the zombie comedy (zombedy?) about a '50s community where zombies are pets was the right choice to open the Canada First series. Popped Culture's Jeremy Barker gives thumbs up to......

Masters 12:00pm – The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Visa Screening Room (Elgin) 9:00pm – Rescue Dawn (Ryerson Theatre) Discovery 12:30pm – King and the Clown (Paramount 1) – See our review. 6:00pm – The Art of Crying (Paramount 3) 8:15pm – Reprise (Varsity 2) – See our review. Gala 12:45pm – Penelope (Ryerson Theatre) 1:30pm – The White Planet (Roy Thompson Hall) 9:30pm – Babel (Roy Thompson Hall) Real to Reel 3:00pm – Manufactured......

We've finished up our TIFF Preview, so today we begin our daily coverage of the festival, beginning with this, our picks for the first day. Or as we should perhaps say, the first night, because the festival doesn’t really kick off until this evening, other than one screening (Kenneth Branagh’s The Magic Flute, sneaking in early). It’s rather odd that the opening Gala isn’t literally the first film, but we guess that’s the way it......

A sparse and lonely film, Sur La Trace D’Igor Rizzi concerns Jean-Marc Thomas, played by Laurent Lucas. A former European soccer player, he now, in an attempt to be closest to the spirit of his dead lover, wanders the streets of her hometown, the perpetually snowy Montreal. Of course, no longer a famous soccer player, not only has his physique gone but so has his cash, and he resorts to petty crime to pay the......

So… The festival has been on for a full day, and Torontoist has very little to actually report, having stayed in for the night. Well, it did see the star of Short Cuts Canada film ‘Patterns’ (by Jamie Travis) wearing a stylish lime green dress and looking a bit confused, so there is that, if anything. That film is in Programme 5: Genre Redux, if you like the sound of her. Visions -- “The......

So tonight is the big opening of the Festival, with certain sections of the city all abuzz with poseurs yammering into cell phones, except now not in Canadian accents! All the staff and hardworking volunteers will be hoping it all goes off without a hitch, terrified and excited at the thought of nearly two weeks of celebrities, parties, networking… oh, and films, I guess. The opening night Gala tonight is Deepak Mehta’s Water, a......

A whole new lineup of Canadian films you've never heard of will open TIFF's Canada First program. The fest scrapped the Perspective Canada series because they wanted Canadian films to compete on their own merit, so we're not sure how Canada First! figures into this. But this one has us curious.......