The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, located in Downtown Toronto. TIFF's mission is "to transform the way people see the world through film".
William Norman McLaren, LL. D. was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including hand-drawn animation, drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound. McLaren was also an artist and printmaker, and explored his interest in dance in his films.
Atom Egoyan is a Canadian filmmaker. He was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge in the 1980s from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica (1994), a film set primarily in and around the fictional Exotica strip club. Egoyan's most critically acclaimed film is the drama The Sweet Hereafter (1997), for which he received two Academy Award nominations, and his biggest commercial success is the erotic thriller Chloe (2009). He is considered by local film critic Geoff Pevere to be one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation.
FIN Atlantic International Film Festival is a major international film festival held annually in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada since 1980. FIN is the largest Canadian film festival east of Montreal, regularly premiering the region's top films of the year, while bringing the best films of the fall festival circuit to Atlantic Canada.
Rob Stewart was a Canadian photographer, filmmaker and conservationist. He was best known for making and directing the documentary films Sharkwater and Revolution. He drowned at the age of 37 while scuba diving in Florida, filming Sharkwater Extinction.
Xavier Dolan-Tadros is a Canadian filmmaker, actor, and costume designer. He began his career as a child actor in commercials before directing several arthouse feature films. He first received international acclaim in 2009 for his feature film directorial debut, I Killed My Mother, which he also starred in, wrote, and produced, and which premiered at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight section and won three awards from the program.
Ahmad Abdalla El Sayed Abdelkader is an Egyptian film director, editor and screenwriter.
Andrey M Paounov is a Bulgarian writer and director best known for his documentary feature films. His debut Georgi and the Butterflies won the Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. His first feature The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories was included in the 46th International Critics' Week of the Cannes Film Festival 2007. The Boy Who Was a King (2011), Andrey's second full-length documentary, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. It won the Best Documentary Feature Jury Award at the 2012 RiverRun International Film Festival. Walking on Water, following renowned artist Christo's Lake Iseo project, premiered at Locarno Festival 2018.
The Wild Hunt is a 2009 Canadian horror film produced and directed by Alexandre Franchi and starring Mark Antony Krupa, Ricky Mabe, and Kaniehtiio Horn.
Evelyn Lambart was a Canadian animator and film director with the National Film Board of Canada, known for her independent work, and for her collaborations with Norman McLaren.
The Duke of Burgundy is a 2014 British erotic romance drama film written and directed by Peter Strickland, and starring Sidse Babett Knudsen as Cynthia and Chiara D'Anna as Evelyn.
It's Only the End of the World is a 2016 drama film written, edited and directed by Xavier Dolan. The film is based on the 1990 play of the same name by Jean-Luc Lagarce and stars Gaspard Ulliel, Nathalie Baye, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, and Vincent Cassel. It is about a young playwright who reunites with his family after a 12-year absence to inform them he is going to die.
Two Lovers and a Bear is a 2016 Canadian drama film written and directed by Kim Nguyen and starring Tatiana Maslany and Dane DeHaan. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The film was released on 7 October 2016, by Entertainment One. It is Gordon Pinsent's final feature film.
Raw is a 2016 French-Belgian coming-of-age horror drama film written and directed by Julia Ducournau, and starring Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, and Rabah Nait Oufella. The plot follows a young vegetarian's first year at veterinary school, where she tastes meat for the first time and develops a craving for flesh.
Boys in the Trees is a 2016 Australian fantasy drama film directed by Nicholas Verso. It was screened in the Discovery section at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. The plot follows two boys who reconnect over their memories and fears as they walk through the woods on Halloween night, 1997.
The 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 7 to 17 September 2017. There were fourteen programmes, with the Vanguard and City to City programmes both being retired from previous years, with the total number of films down by 20% from the 2016 edition. Borg/McEnroe directed by Janus Metz Pedersen opened the festival.
Under the Tree is a 2017 Icelandic dark comedy drama film directed by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was selected as the Icelandic entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but did not get nominated.
Cardinals is a 2017 Canadian thriller film directed by Grayson Moore and Aidan Shipley. The film stars Sheila McCarthy as Valerie Walker, a woman who has just recently been released from prison after killing a coworker in a drunk driving incident, when Mark, the son of the man she killed, shows up on her doorstep demanding answers of his own.
Float Like a Butterfly is an Irish drama film, directed by Carmel Winters and released in 2018. The film stars Hazel Doupe as Frances, a young Irish Traveller girl who idolizes Muhammad Ali and aspires to become a boxer.
Sofia Bohdanowicz is a Canadian filmmaker. She is known for her collaborations with Deragh Campbell and made her feature film directorial debut in 2016 with Never Eat Alone. Her second feature film, Maison du Bonheur, was a finalist for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the 2018 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. That year, she won the Jay Scott Prize from the Toronto Film Critics Association. Her third feature film, MS Slavic 7, which she co-directed with Campbell, had its world premiere at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival in 2019. She has also directed several short films, such as Veslemøy's Song (2018) and Point and Line to Plane (2020).
