Results tagged “tiff”

                     

By now, all the red carpets are rolled back up and sitting in a broom closet at the Elgin (or something, wherever they keep them), Clooney's handsome footprints are stored away for another long year, and all the hottest celebs have flown off to resume being glamourous in their own cities. We're sad, kinda, but we'll always have our special memories of another TIFF gone by. And even better/lazier than memories, we have photos! Now that the shots flowing into the Torontoist Flickr Pool have slowed to a safe trickle, we gladly brings you the best (or just the most celeb-y) of the lot. Eat 'em up.

The TIFF screening of Giuseppe Tornatore's Baarìa on Tuesday night at the Elgin Theatre had all the makings of an incredible film festival premiere: the director was there, and so were his stars; the theatre was packed with excited filmgoers; the popcorn was pretty good—and so, thankfully, was the movie. We're doing our detailed reviews elsewhere, but suffice it to say that Baarìa gets a recommendation. With all that in mind, you might wonder why the crowd let out a long "BOOOOO!" in unison during the programmer's introduction, prior to the film.

This year's edition of TIFF marks the first time in quite a while that the opening film—Creation—isn't a "Toronto film" in some sense. But don't think that that's an indicator the festival has forgotten its hometown roots.

                            

Ahead of this year's Zombie Walk on October 24, organizers held a "Special Directors Cut Edition" Saturday to celebrate director George Romero—already a Toronto resident—becoming a Canadian citizen, as well as the premiere of his new film, Survival of the Dead. Several hundred zombies gathered in Alexandra Park before the walk, and there was a very un-undead-like buzz of excitement as participants fretted over their torn rags and seeping wounds in anticipation of meeting the cult director at their destination, Yonge-Dundas Square. Organizer Thea Munster warned zombies not to mutter "brains" within earshot of Romero, as his zombies do not speak. However, no one mentioned the half-dozen or so people dressed as security agents from the Umbrella Corporation (a creation of the Resident Evil franchise).

ART: The University of Toronto Mississauga's Blackwood Gallery has an ambitious exhibition opening today that will explore and explode Sir Issac Newton's law of gravity. In "Fall Out" each of the nine participating artists explore different aspects and interpretations of the notion of falling or falling out. Some of the concepts explored by the artists involve the pulling of one body to another, the "physiological and psychological impact of gravity," and the fallout of actions or epiphanies. In October, "Fall Out" will have a partner, "Fall In," which will premiere with nine more artists responding to the pieces presented in "Fall Out." University of Toronto Mississauga, Blackwood Gallery (3359 Mississauga Road North), 11 a.m.–5 p.m., FREE.

CAUSE: We should be proud that Toronto—a city of socially minded citizens (although plagued by our issues of urban poverty)—has been chosen to host the North American launch of The Global Poverty Project, in partnership with Chris Adams, executive producer of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and actor and advocate Hugh Jackman. At the Torontoist-sponsored launch, fellow Aussie, humanitarian, and recent "Young Australian of the Year," Hugh Evans, will share "1.4 Billion Reasons," a ninety-minute live presentation based on research about extreme poverty that aims to demonstrate that we can all be part of the solution. As a bonus addition to this provoking and important event, organizers are planning for special remarks via live video link from Jeffrey Sachs, senior advisor on development and the Millennium Development Goals to the United Nations. And, as the launch coincides with TIFF, rumours have it Hugh Jackman has convinced several high-profile friends to be in attendance. Danforth Music Hall (147 Danforth Avenue), 11 a.m., FREE (first come, first served).

And so begins that magical time of year when folks in Yorkville are twice as well-dressed and half as nice to you: TIFF! As usual, we'd be pleased as punch if you'd all be such dears as to point your eyes, ears, and digital picture-taking devices in the faces of Hollywood's best and brightest. Did you just see Oprah Winfrey stumble off the patio of Hemingway's? Was that seriously Werner Herzog in a dust-up with Snoop Dogg? Is Michael Moore canoodling with Megan Fox again (the celebrity list is super wacky this year)? Deliver your finest/funniest/dreamiest celebrity encounters to tips@torontoist.com so we can figure out how to best spend our week living the dream of being a well-fed gossip rag.

In an earlier TIFF post, we joked that the film Five Hours From Paris won our award for the "worst summary we've ever seen from TIFF" with: "In a suburb of Tel Aviv, an Israeli cab driver who longs to fly and a Russian music teacher who is soon to board a plane find out that romance is only a cab ride away."

Toronto International Film Festival announcements come thick and fast in the months leading up to the festival each year, and it quickly becomes hard to work out just what’s being announced and why you should care. After all, it’s not until the festival’s been going for a few days and enough buzz has built that you realize that you’ve got tickets for exactly the wrong unheard-of director, or this year’s un-coolest country, or all of the films that Cameron Bailey selected (that last one’s a killer). Yeah, if we could bet on TIFF, I’m sure we’d end up broke—did you foresee Slumdog Millionaire winning everyone’s hearts and minds at Toronto only to go on and nab a ton of Oscars a couple of months before TIFF 2008 even started? If so, you should let us know what your picks are (maybe in the comments? Actually, no, wait, just tell us, the Oscar odds right now must be insane). Anyway, we’re going to try to pick over the announcements so far and work out what’s interesting before we reach the festival, which runs this year from September 10 to 19. Warning, though: we’re going to concentrate on the best-known names because in most cases they’re all we have to hang on to.

Winter must be a difficult time for construction site voyeurs. Fortunately for them, the Toronto International Film Festival Group has a solution: TIFFG is asking Toronto's photographers to help document the development of their new Bell Lightbox building at King and John streets. It's a neat idea—anybody can take pictures of the construction and upload them to the Lightbox's Flickr pool, and, after the festival in September, five weekly pictures will be displayed on the Lightbox website. Select photos will also be purchased from the photographers and used in publicity for the building as part of the opening ceremonies in 2010.

Feature-length movies that play at the Toronto International Film Festival can broadly be divided into a few categories: those that will be released to theatres within the following five months (i.e. Oscar season); those that will be released to theatres within the next six months to two years; those that skip theatres and, sooner or later, go straight to video; those that never have a life outside of the festival circuit and their region of origin; and those that are never heard from again, anywhere. In this respect, Michael Moore's Slacker Uprising defies categorization; it is almost certainly the first TIFF feature to wind up being primarily distributed online, available as a free download and stream starting today.

Photo by Reza Vaziri from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

              

Linger around any movie theatre exit during the Toronto International Film Festival and the only question you'll hear more than "What did you see?" is "Who?" And yes, there were star sightings aplenty these past ten days. You could have brought binoculars, packed apples and trail mix, and camped outside the Royal Elgin or the Four Seasons, waiting hours on end for a brief glimpse of the back of Michael Cera's head (your fourteen-year-old sister is a huge fan, of course). But for those of you with better things to do on a Tuesday night (uh, new season of 90210? Anyone? Anyone?), we've compiled and captioned a smattering of celebrity snapshots from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Enjoy!

By all accounts, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire was one of the most striking films of this year's TIFF (so striking, in fact, that Roger Ebert was literally hit on the head during a screening) and has been announced as the winner of this year's People's Choice Award. As a result, if you head down to the Elgin Theatre for 7 p.m., you might be able to grab tickets (provided on a first-come, first-served basis; one ticket per person) for a free screening of Slumdog Millionaire there at 9 p.m. There's more info at the TIFF website, and if you're one of the many people who balk at the ticket prices each year this is probably your best bet (and last chance!) to see a film before we all forget about the festival again for another year.

Today's Listings:

Today's Listings:

At a Saturday press screening of Slumdog Millionaire, New York Post critic Lou Lumenick hit Roger Ebert over the head with a big fat TIFF binder, according to the Daily News. Ebert—who can't speak because of thyroid and salivary gland cancer—was sitting behind Lumenick and couldn't see the screen, and he was tapping him on the shoulder to try to get him to move. Lumenick didn't realize it was Ebert he had hit until after the binder hit home, but he apparently offered no apology afterwards anyway. Ebert "walked out of the screening with two thumbs up—and handed [director Danny] Boyle a note saying he's bound to get an Oscar nod." Ebert wins. [via Gawker]

Today's Listings:

Every Wednesday, Torontoist receives transmissions from the travel log of Gleebax, the alien Urbanaut, as he explores the foreign land of Toronto.

Overheard at the Intercontinental Hotel, the morning after the Matt Damon-hosted One x One gala.

Today's Listings:

Today's Listings:

Photos by Hannah Sider.

Today's Listings:

Today's Listings:

Today's Listings:

Today's Listings:

Photo by Ryan Coleman from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

The Toronto International Film Festival lands with a thud today and is going to colour this city in its inimitable fashion for the next 10 days, and, as before, we'll be there to cover the festival inside and out with reviews, listings, and more each day.

You may have already heard that TIFF is bringing a cokeload of celebrities to Toronto. And really, it's totally understandable that the list of five hundred big names visiting our fair metropolis would be cause for excitement. Nothing says "awesome" like catching a glimpse of Zac Efron gaily sipping something expensive on the patio of Sassafraz, after all. So as long as the Toronto International Film Festival is going on, we want to hear about your celebrity encounters. Did you catch Michael Cera being adorable somewhere? Did you awkwardly talk to Brad Pitt? Did Colin Farrell give you thousands of dollars and save your life? Drop us a line throughout the fest at tips@torontoist.com; we'll post the cream of the crop to the site throughout.