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.
Atom Egoyan is a Canadian filmmaker. Emerging in the 1980s as part of the Toronto New Wave, he made his career breakthrough with Exotica (1994), a film set in a strip club. Egoyan's most critically acclaimed film is the drama The Sweet Hereafter (1997), for which he received two Academy Award nominations. His biggest commercial success is the erotic thriller Chloe (2009).
Arturo Ripstein y Rosen is a Mexican film director and screenwriter. Considered the "Godfather of independent Mexican cinema", Ripstein's work is generally characterized by "somber, slow-paced, macabre melodramas tackling existential loneliness", often with a grotesque-like edge.
Nine Queens is a 2000 Argentine heist crime drama film written and directed by Fabián Bielinsky. It stars Ricardo Darín, Gastón Pauls, and Leticia Brédice. In the film, con artists Marcos (Darín) and Juan (Pauls) unexpectedly team up to sell counterfeit rare stamps to a wealthy foreign collector.
Laura Mañá Alvarenga is an actress, film director and screenwriter. She was born in Barcelona. As an actress, she has worked for directors such as Bigas Luna or Vicente Aranda. In 1997 she directed Paraules, her first short film and in 2000 her first feature film, Sexo por compassion, selected at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals and awarded at the Malaga Film Festival and at the Festival de Miami, among others.
Paz Alicia Garciadiego is a Mexican screenwriter and scholar, known for The Beginning and the End (1993), Deep Crimson ) (1996), and Bleak Street (2015). She and her husband Arturo Ripstein have worked together on film and television since 1986 with their first collaboration The Realm of Fortune (1986), winning multiple Ariel Awards in different categories. In 2013 Garcíadiego received the Salvador Toscano prize, awarded by the Cineteca Nacional, the Fundación Carmen Toscano and the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences.
Patricio Guzmán Lozanes is a Chilean documentary film director, screenwriter, director. He is most known for his film trilogy The Battle of Chile (1975–1979) and more recently for another trilogy; Nostalgia for the Light (2010), The Pearl Button (2015) and The Cordillera of Dreams (2019).
Arcelia Ramírez is a Mexican actress. She has appeared in more than 50 films and television shows since 1985. She starred in the film Such Is Life, which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
Night Across the Street is a 2012 Chilean postmodern drama film directed by Raúl Ruiz. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, as well as at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, the 2012 New York Film Festival and the 2013 Hong Kong International Film Festival.
Wild Tales is a 2014 Spanish-language satirical absurdist dark comedy anthology film, written and directed by the Argentine filmmaker Damián Szifron. The film, which is a Spanish-Argentinian co-production, is composed of six standalone shorts with a common theme of catharsis, violence and vengeance. The film has an ensemble cast consisting of Ricardo Darín, Oscar Martínez, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Érica Rivas, Rita Cortese, Julieta Zylberberg, and Darío Grandinetti. Because of Szifron's desire to work with Darín and Martínez, these actors were allowed to choose the role they wanted.
Man Down is a 2015 American war thriller drama film directed by Dito Montiel, written by Adam G. Simon, and starring Shia LaBeouf, Jai Courtney, Gary Oldman, Kate Mara, and Clifton Collins Jr. The film follows a Marine who returns from Afghanistan to find his hometown devastated, and his wife and son missing.
Magical Girl is a 2014 neo-noir film written and directed by Carlos Vermut, and starring Bárbara Lennie, Luis Bermejo and José Sacristán. The plot tracks the events triggered by the decision of a father (Bermejo) to fulfill the secret wish of his dying 12-year-old otaku daughter (Pollán).
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.
Incident Light is a 2015 drama film directed by Ariel Rotter. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.
Magallanes is a 2014 Peruvian drama film directed by Salvador del Solar. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2016 it won the Havana Star Prize for Best Film (Fiction) at the Havana Film Festival New York.
Ma Ma is a 2015 Spanish-French drama film directed by Julio Medem. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.
Yoon Sung-hyun is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Yoon's directorial debut, a graduation project, Bleak Night received rave reviews and won several Best New Director awards at the 48th Grand Bell Awards, 32nd Blue Dragon Film Awards and 12th Busan Film Critics Awards.
My Big Night is a 2015 Spanish comedy film directed by Álex de la Iglesia, who also co-wrote it with Jorge Guerricaechevarría.
Zama is a 2017 Argentine period drama film directed by Lucrecia Martel, based on the 1956 novel of the same name by Antonio di Benedetto. It premiered at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. It was also screened in the Masters section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. On 29 September 2017, the Argentine Academy of Cinematography Arts and Sciences chose the film as the national entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards and Best Iberoamerican Film at the 32nd Goya Awards.
Genesis is a Canadian drama film, directed by Philippe Lesage and released in 2018. The film stars Théodore Pellerin and Noée Abita as Guillaume Bonnet and Charlotte, teenage half-siblings simultaneously struggling with romance; Charlotte is in a relationship with Maxime, but is reeling from his proposal that they change to an open relationship, while Guillaume is a student at an all-boys boarding school who is developing a romantic and sexual attraction to his classmate Nicolas.
