Results tagged “tiff”

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.

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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]

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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.

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Photos by Hannah Sider.

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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.

Remember during last year's TIFF, when Colin Farrell took a homeless man known as "Stress" on a $2,100 shopping spree and gave him $830 in cash to find a place to stay? The Sun reports today that Stress is now "clean and sober, has a comfy bachelor pad, goes to church and the Y and darts around town on a mountain bike," has "taken up yoga," and credits Farrell for giving him the help he needed to turn his life around. There is nothing about this story that is not amazing.

It was 363 days ago that Torontoist trekked down from North York to the NFB Cinema at John and Richmond for a 9:00-on-a-Monday-morning press screening of Boy A, ahead of its world premiere at TIFF. It was worth the schlep. Surprised to learn from the credits that it was a TV movie produced for Britain's Channel 4, we said of the drama about a young adult being assigned a new identity upon his release from prison that "nothing in the film (save perhaps its crisp digital-video aesthetic) suggests that it's anything less than a first-rate independent feature production....Let's hope it gets the theatrical release it deserves." Well, on the second day of the 2007 Festival, before it had even publicly screened, worldwide rights to the film (excluding UK TV) were snapped up by The Weinstein Company. And today it comes out in Toronto—at the AMC, no less (where, apparently, is it playing in 35mm). Do not, however, watch the trailer. It gives away the whole damn movie, up to and including the final scene. As does Ebert's review. As with most movies, the less you know going in, the better.

WORDS: Breaking Dawn, the final installment of author Stephenie Meyer's vampire/romance book series Twilight, is being released at midnight. A masquerade-themed party at Indigo this evening celebrates the book launch, with Breaking Dawn-inspired activities, music, and prizes for the best costume. Plus, you get to buy the book—which will certainly suck—as soon as it goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. Indigo Books (55 Bloor Street West), 8:00 p.m., FREE.

Dr. Steve Brule. Now, that name either fills you with joy, and probably running straight to YouTube, or it rings absolutely no bells at all. We mention him—John C. Reilly's character from Tim & Eric Awesome Show Good Job!—because he's pretty much the reason we rate Reilly so highly. Initially he was lumped in with the list of "people who have been in Paul Thomas Anderson films that we are ambivalent about," but Dr. Steve Brule is such work of comedic genius, he's on the list of "good guys" now.

Really we were. Between the alcohol and the giddiness and the fact that we couldn't think of anything intelligent to ask him about his new movie, Coopers' Camera, we opted instead to snap a few photos from afar. And then when we finally did work up the nerve to approach him, he had just left, leaving us with memories of Homer and Mr. T.

It’s time to rev up film fest season again, folks. This week, Visa cardholders could purchase ticket packages in advance for the Toronto International Film Festival and, starting Monday, so can regular folk. A package of ten tickets will set you back around $170 including taxes and fees, or $17 per ticket. The good thing is that the ten-pack can be shared, so up to four tickets can be used from the pack per screening. Cinephiles may want to go with the Festival Package, which has 50 tickets for around $550 including taxes and fees, or $11 per ticket. The caveat for the Festival Package is that it is only good for one ticket per screening.

We're a little under three months away from the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival, which means it's about time to begin the constant buzz for the festival that many of you will find insufferable. The first announcement? That the festival is to open with the world premiere of Passchendaele, written, directed and produced by Paul Gross. Or "that guy out of Due South" if you're in the mood for a lazy short-hand.

It’s almost time for the Toronto International Film Festival for Children, Sprockets (it runs this year from April 12th to 18th) and the complete line-up of films has been announced. Once again this year all film journalists will find it impossible to mention the festival without bringing up Mike Myers (after all, it’s was one of the best SNL sketches ever, really) but far more relevantly, this year Sprockets features 68 films from 26 countries in 15 languages, maintaining its position as one of the most amazing opportunities for children from ages as young as three to connect with the visual language of other cultures.