The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organization behind the film festival is also a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Lightbox cultural centre, located in downtown Toronto.
The Barbarian Invasions is a 2003 Canadian-French sex comedy-drama film written and directed by Denys Arcand and starring Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau and Marie-Josée Croze. The film is a sequel to Arcand's 1986 film The Decline of the American Empire, continuing the story of the character Rémy, a womanizing history professor now terminally ill with cancer.
The Decline of the American Empire is a 1986 Canadian sex comedy-drama film directed by Denys Arcand and starring Rémy Girard, Pierre Curzi and Dorothée Berryman. The film follows a group of intellectual friends from the University of Montreal history department as they engage in a long dialogue about their sexual affairs, touching on issues of adultery, homosexuality, group sex, BDSM and prostitution. A number of characters associate self-indulgence with societal decline.
The 8th Annual Genie Awards were held on March 18, 1987, to honour Canadian films made the previous year. The show was again held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and was co-hosted by actors Helen Shaver, Linda Sorensen and Jean LeClerc. It was broadcast live on CBC Television.
Days of Darkness, also known as The Age of Ignorance, is a 2007 black comedy-drama film written and directed by Denys Arcand and starring Marc Labrèche, Diane Kruger and Sylvie Léonard. Presented as the third part of Arcand's loose trilogy also consisting of The Decline of the American Empire (1986) and The Barbarian Invasions (2003), it was followed by a fourth film with similar themes, The Fall of the American Empire (2018). The film follows a depressed québecois bureaucrat who, feeling insignificant, retreats into a fantasy world.
The 3rd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 14 and September 21, 1978. It showcased 85 films, the lowest number of films in the festival's history. In Praise of Older Women directed by George Kaczender was selected as the opening film. When the Ontario Film Review Board objected to a 40-second scene between Marilyn Lightstone and Tom Berenger, co-producer of the film Robert Lantos cut the scene for the theatrical run. Despite that, some of the TIFF staff managed to smuggle original uncut version of the film and run it into the theatre. The news was well publicised, increasing interest in the film, in turn boosting ticket sales. Difficulties arose when audiences waiting outside the theatre noticed that each ticket admitted two person thus causing anger in the crowd. The audience who were not able to get seats during the first screening were invited to a later screening. The People's Choice Award was introduced this year, which is given to a feature film chosen by a vote of the festival audience.
The 4th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 6 and September 15, 1979. Due to overcrowding in the prior year, the Gala presentations were moved from the 700-seat Towne Cinema to the 1,600-seat Elgin Theatre. The People's Choice Award was awarded to Best Boy by Ira Wohl, which later won Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
The 7th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 9 and September 18, 1982. The festival paid tribute to Martin Scorsese, who attended along with Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall and Harvey Keitel. Scorsese also participated in Q&A at the festival, with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel.
The 8th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 9 and September 17, 1983. This year, the festival introduced Contemporary World Cinema programme. The festival also shone light on Paul Verhoeven's work. The festival also held a retrospective in honor of David Cronenberg, first time for a Toronto-reared director. The censor board insisted that the censored version of Cronenberg's film The Brood, approved in 1979 be used.
The 9th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 6 and September 15, 1984. The festival introduced Perspective Canada programme, devoted to Canadian films. The festival screened 225 feature films and more than half of them were Canadian films.
The 10th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and September 14, 1985. The festival featured 460 feature films, the highest number of films in festival.
The 13th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 8 and September 17, 1988. Midnight Madness programme was introduced at the festival. The festival screened more than 300 films from all over the world. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown by Pedro Almodóvar won the People's Choice Award at the festival, which later nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at Academy Award.
The 14th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 7 and September 16, 1989. In Country by Norman Jewison was selected as the opening film.
The 17th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 10 and September 19, 1992. Léolo was selected as the opening film.
The Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film is an annual juried film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to a film judged to be the best Canadian feature film.
The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the movie rated as the year's best film according to TIFF audience. Past sponsors of the award have included Cadillac and Grolsch.
The Fall of the American Empire is a 2018 Canadian crime thriller film written and directed by Denys Arcand and starring Alexandre Landry, Maxim Roy, Yan England and Rémy Girard. It is about a man (Landry) who, after an armed robbery in Montreal, discovers two bags of money and is unsure what to do with them. Based on a 2010 Old Montreal shooting, it is thematically related, but not a direct sequel, to Arcand's 1986 The Decline of the American Empire and 2003 The Barbarian Invasions.
Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival to identify and promote the year's best Canadian films. The list was first introduced in 2001 as an initiative to help publicize Canadian films. Normally announced in December each year, the 2024 list was not announced until early January 2025.
The Toronto International Film Festival International Critics' Prizes, currently known as the FIPRESCI Prizes, are film awards presented by the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) to films screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Toronto International Film Festival NETPAC Prize is an annual film award, presented by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema to honour the best film from the Asia-Pacific region screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. The award was presented for the first time in 2012.
