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.
Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. His works depict locations from around the world that represent the increasing development of industrialization and its impacts on nature and the human existence. It is most often connected to the philosophical concept of the sublime, a trait established by the grand scale of the work he creates, though they are equally disturbing in the way they reveal the context of rapid industrialization.
Manufactured Landscapes is a 2006 Canadian documentary film about the industrial landscape photography of Edward Burtynsky. It was directed by Jennifer Baichwal and is distributed by Zeitgeist Films. It was the first of three documentary collaborations between Baichwall and Burtynsky, followed by Watermark in 2013 and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch in 2018.
Peter Mettler is a Swiss-Canadian film director and cinematographer. He is best known for his unique, intuitive approach to documentary, evinced by such films as Picture of Light (1994), Gambling, Gods and LSD (2002), and The End of Time (2012). "His peripatetic lens is ever gravitating toward outsiders in search of ecstatic states", writes José Teodoro in Brick, "strange spectacles that defy straightforward documentation, and sacred places that promise some metaphysical deliverance. There are precedents for his methodologies—the films of Chris Marker and Werner Herzog come to mind—but Mettler’s gifts as an open and unobtrusive interviewer and his capacity to discover shared sensibilities between people of vastly diverse cultures and creeds feels singular."
Act of God is a 2009 Canadian documentary film that investigates the "metaphysical" effects of being struck by lightning. It was directed by Jennifer Baichwal and distributed by Zeitgeist Films. The film's world premier was at the 2009 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on 30 April 2009. It went on general release in Canada on 1 May 2009, and limited release in the United States on 31 July 2009. The film's European premiere was at the 44th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic on 11 July 2009.
Jennifer Baichwal is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, writer and producer.
Watermark is a 2013 Canadian documentary film by Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky. It concerns the history and use of water. Burtynsky was previously the subject of Baichwal's 2006 documentary, Manufactured Landscapes. The film looks at water use practices in ten countries around the world, including the United States, China and India.
The Green Film Network is an international association of environmental film festivals and was founded to support the work of international documentary filmmakers and promote films that raise awareness of environmental topics. The network currently comprises 32 festivals in 23 countries.
Werewolf is a 2016 Canadian drama film directed by Ashley McKenzie and starring Andrew Gillis and Bhreagh MacNeil. It marks McKenzie's feature film directorial debut. The film premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, and subsequently received numerous accolades, including several Canadian Screen Award nominations, and the $100,000 Toronto Film Critics Association prize for best Canadian film of the year in 2017.
Long Time Running is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier. The film profiles the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip during their Man Machine Poem Tour of 2016, which followed the band's announcement of lead singer Gord Downie's cancer diagnosis.
Nicholas de Pencier is a Canadian cinematographer and filmmaker. The spouse and professional partner of filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal in Mercury Films, he is the cinematographer and producer on most of her films as well as codirector of the films Long Time Running. and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch. He was also solo director of the 2016 documentary Black Code.
The 43rd annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 6 to 16, 2018. In June 2018, the TIFF organizers announced a program to ensure that at least 20 percent of all film critics and journalists given press accreditation to the festival were members of underrepresented groups, such as women and people of color. The People's Choice Award was won by Green Book, directed by Peter Farrelly.
Sharkwater Extinction is a 2018 Canadian documentary film directed by Rob Stewart. It premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. A sequel to his 2007 film Sharkwater, the film, which Stewart was working on at the time of his death in a diving accident in January 2017, was completed by the Rob Stewart Foundation in collaboration with director Sturla Gunnarsson and editor Nick Hector.
The Grizzlies is a 2018 Canadian sports drama film, directed by Miranda de Pencier. Based on a true story, the film depicts a youth lacrosse team that was set up to help combat an onslaught of youth suicide in the community of Kugluktuk, Nunavut.
Firecrackers is a 2018 Canadian drama film written and directed by Jasmin Mozaffari. An expansion of Mozaffari's 2013 short film of the same name, the film stars Michaela Kurimsky and Karena Evans as two teenage girls trying to escape their small town.
The Filmmakers is a half-hour Canadian talk show that premiered on CBC Television on July 22, 2017. Each episode focuses on a specific Canadian film which airs in full after the episode. It is produced by CBC Arts.
Jasmin Mozaffari is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. She won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019 for her debut feature film Firecrackers.
On My Way Out: The Secret Life of Nani and Popi is a Canadian short documentary film, directed by Brandon Gross and Skyler Gross, produced by Howie Mandel and Barry Avrich and released in 2017. Profiling the filmmakers' grandparents, Holocaust survivors Ruth and Roman Blank, the film depicts their preparation for their 65th wedding anniversary, and focuses on their revelation to the rest of the family that Roman is gay and Ruth has always known this.
Paseo is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Matthew Hannam and released in 2018. The film stars Sarah Gadon as Alice, a woman who is exploring the city of Barcelona as she copes with feelings of loneliness and isolation.
Roland Schlimme is a Canadian film editor known in particular for his work with filmmakers Peter Mettler and Jennifer Baichwal. He's also worked on several projects with artists Phillip Barker and Laura Taler as well as filmmakers Alison Murray and Cliff Caines.
