The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, founded in 1976 and taking place each September. It is also a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Lightbox cultural centre, located in Downtown Toronto.
Sarah Ellen Polley is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, political activist and retired actress. She first garnered attention as a child actress for her role as Ramona Quimby in the television series Ramona, based on Beverly Cleary's books. This subsequently led to her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea (1990–1996). She has starred in many feature films, including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Exotica (1994), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Guinevere (1999), Go (1999), The Weight of Water (2000), No Such Thing (2001), My Life Without Me (2003), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Splice (2009), and Mr. Nobody (2009).
The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 8 and September 18, 2011. Buenos Aires, Argentina was selected to be showcased for the 2011 City to City programme. The opening film was From the Sky Down, a documentary film about the band U2, directed by Davis Guggenheim. Considerable media attention at the time focused on Madonna's behaviour during the festival.
Silver Linings Playbook is a 2012 American romantic comedy-drama written and directed by David O. Russell. The film is based on Matthew Quick's 2008 novel The Silver Linings Playbook. It stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, with Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, John Ortiz, Shea Whigham, Anupam Kher and Julia Stiles in supporting roles.
Stories We Tell is a 2012 Canadian documentary film written and directed by Sarah Polley and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The film explores her family's secrets—including one intimately related to Polley's own identity. Stories We Tell premiered August 29, 2012 at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, then played at the 39th Telluride Film Festival and the 37th Toronto International Film Festival. In 2015, it was added to the Toronto International Film Festival's list of the top 10 Canadian films of all time, at number 10. It was also named the 70th greatest film since 2000 in a 2016 critics' poll by BBC.
Call Girl is a 2012 political thriller film directed by Mikael Marcimain and written by Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten. It stars Sofia Karemyr, Simon J. Berger and Josefin Asplund. The story is a fictionalised version of events based on the so-called Bordellhärvan political scandal of 1970s Sweden which linked several prominent politicians to a prostitution ring that included underage girls.
The Silver Linings Playbook is a 2008 debut novel of American author Matthew Quick.
The 17th San Diego Film Critics Society Awards were announced on December 11, 2012.
The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's Demolition starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts was the opening night film; Mr. Right by Paco Cabezas was the closing night film.
Deco Dawson is the professional name of Darryl Kinaschuk, a Ukrainian Canadian experimental filmmaker. He is most noted as a two-time winner of the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Short Film, winning at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival for FILM(dzama) and at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival for Keep a Modest Head, and was a shortlisted Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Short Documentary for the latter film at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards in 2013.
The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the film rated as the year's most popular film with festival audiences. Past sponsors of the award have included Cadillac and Grolsch.
The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award for Documentaries is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the film rated as the year's most popular documentary film with festival audiences. The award was first introduced in 2009; prior to its introduction, documentary films were eligible for the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award.
The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the film rated as the year's most popular film in the festival's "Midnight Madness" stream of underground and cult films. The award was first introduced in 2009.
Keep a Modest Head is a Canadian short documentary film, directed by Deco Dawson and released in 2012. The film is a tribute to Jean Benoît, a Canadian artist often credited as "the last surrealist".
Storm Surfers 3D is an Australian documentary film, directed by Justin McMillan and Christopher Nelius and released in 2012. Narrated by Toni Collette, the film centres on Ross Clarke-Jones and Tom Carroll, two Australian surfers who specialize in tow-in surfing.
Crackin' Down Hard is a Canadian short comedy film, directed by Mike Clattenburg and released in 2012. The films stars Nicolas Wright as a man trying to relax in isolation in California's Joshua Tree National Park, when another man shows up to offer him a prostitute.
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.
Women Talking is a 2022 American drama film written and directed by Sarah Polley. Based on the Canadian 2018 novel of the same name by Miriam Toews, itself inspired by the gas-facilitated rapes that occurred at the Manitoba Colony, a remote and isolated Mennonite community in Bolivia, the film follows a group of American Mennonite women who discuss their future, following their discovery of the men's history of raping the colony's women. It features an ensemble cast that includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, and Frances McDormand, who also served as a producer on the film. It is the last film to be released by United Artists Releasing, before it was folded into MGM on March 4, 2023. Subsequent MGM films, starting with Creed III, were distributed by MGM itself under Amazon's ownership.
