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.
Samira Makhmalbaf is an Iranian filmmaker and screenwriter. She is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the film director and writer. Samira Makhmalbaf is considered to be part of the Iranian New Wave. She has won multiple awards, including two Jury Prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, and has been nominated for numerous awards.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf is an Iranian film director, writer, film editor, and producer. He has made more than 20 feature films, won 50 awards, and served as a juror in more than 15 major film festivals. His award-winning films include Close-Up (1990) and Kandahar. His latest documentary is The Gardener and latest feature The President.
The cinema of Iran, or of Persia, refers to the film industry in Iran. In particular, Iranian art films have garnered international recognition. Iranian films are usually written and spoken in the Persian language.
Close-Up is a 1990 Iranian docufiction written, directed and edited by Abbas Kiarostami. The film tells the story of the historic trial of a man who impersonated film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf. He conned a family into believing they would star in his new film. The director received permission to film the trial; with their agreement, he featured the people involved in re-enacting certain events that had proceeded that. All "play" themselves. Through this work about human identity, Kiarostami gained wider international recognition.
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) is a film festival held every November in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is organized by the Thessaloniki Film Festival under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. It features international competition sections, and its program includes tributes to major filmmakers and national cinemas, as well as sidebar events such as masterclasses, exhibitions, live concerts and workshops. In addition to TIFF, the Thessaloniki Film Festival holds the annual Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF) in March.
Hello Cinema is a 1995 Iranian film directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. It was made for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of cinema. The year 1895 is considered the debut of the motion picture as an entertainment medium. The year 1895 was the year of the first film screenings by Auguste and Louis Lumière.
The 2000 Toronto International Film Festival, the 25th annual festival, ran from September 7 to September 16, 2000. Along with special events to commemorate the anniversary, there were a total of 330 films screened. There was a special screening of Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky featuring musical accompaniment by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Also, 25 digital video shorts were made by attending filmmakers.
The 26th Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 6 to September 15, 2001. There were 326 films from 54 countries scheduled to be screened during the ten-day festival. During a hastily arranged press conference on September 11, Festival director Piers Handling and managing director Michelle Maheux announced that 30 public screenings and 20 press screenings would be cancelled during the sixth day of the festival due to the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. The festival resumed for the final four days though some films were cancelled because the film prints could not reach Toronto due to flight restrictions.
The 28th Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 4 to September 13, 2003. A total of 336 films from 55 countries were screened during the festival. Of the feature films, 73% were world, international, or North American premieres.
The 2007 Toronto International Film Festival was a 32nd annual film festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It ran from September 6, 2007 to September 15, 2007. The lineup consisted of 349 films from 55 countries, selected from 4156 submissions. The selection included 275 mid- to feature-length films, of which 234 were premieres, with 71 by first-time directors. The festival was attended by members of the industry, press and general public. It opened with the world premiere of Jeremy Podeswa's Fugitive Pieces, a film based on the international bestselling novel by Anne Michaels, and closed with Paolo Barzman's Emotional Arithmetic.
The 34th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 10 and September 19, 2009. The opening night gala presented the Charles Darwin biography Creation. The Young Victoria, based on the early years of Queen Victoria, closed the festival on September 19.
The Gardener is a documentary film by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. It had its Asian premiere at Busan International Film Festival, its European premiere at Rotterdam International Film Festival, and North American premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival. It is the first film in decades to be made by an Iranian filmmaker in Israel. The film has been shown in more than 20 film festivals and won the Best Documentary award from Beirut International Film Festival and the special Maverick Award at the Motovun Film Festival in Croatia. The film was selected as "Critic's Pick of the Week" by New York Film Critics Circle, "Best of the Fest" at Busan Film Festival by The Hollywood Reporter, and "Top Ten Films" at Mumbai Film Festival by Times of India, and its script was added to the Library of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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 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 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 18th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 9 and September 18, 1993. M. Butterfly by David Cronenberg was selected as the opening film.
The 21st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and September 14, 1996. The festival opened with the film Fly Away Home, and closed with That Thing You Do!.
Aziz Sa'ati,, born in Tehran in 1948, Sa'ati graduated from the School-of Television and Cinema with a specialty in cinematography and videography. After teaching courses on photography and laboratory work at the School, he began his professional career as a still photographer on the set of Bahram Beizai's THE CROW. Sa'ati brought a new seriousness and artistic capability to the job of set photographer, and he is noted for upgrading the standards of that position. He worked as set photographer for many of Iran's best known directors. His set photographs have won many awards and been featured in major exhibitions.
The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the 46th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 9 to 18, 2021. Due to the continued COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, the festival was staged as a "hybrid" of in-person and digital screenings. Most films were screened both in-person and on the digital platform, although a few titles were withheld by their distributors from the digital platform and instead were screened exclusively in-person.
