The Toronto Black Film Festival is an annual film festival in Toronto, Ontario. [1] Held in February each year as part of Black History Month, the festival programs a selection of African, Caribbean, African American and Black Canadian films. [1]
The festival was launched in 2013 as an outgrowth of the Montreal International Black Film Festival, which was created by actress and filmmaker Fabienne Colas, [2] and is sponsored by the Global Television Network and TD Canada Trust. [3] The inaugural festival included the films Last Flight to Abuja , Phone Swap , Turning Point , Case départ , Fair Sex (Les Manèges humains) and War Witch (Rebelle). [3]
Films are screened at a variety of venues in the city, including the Carlton Cinema, the Isabel Bader Theatre and the Art Gallery of Ontario's Jackman Hall.
Since 2015, the festival has presented an annual career achievement award to an important figure in African diaspora film. The festival honoured Fred Williamson in 2015, [4] Alfre Woodard in 2016, [5] Lou Gossett Jr. in 2017, [6] Robi Reed in 2018, [7] Tarana Burke in 2019, [8] Spike Lee in 2020, [9] and Taraji P. Henson and Clement Virgo in 2021. [10]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the 2021 festival was presented online. [11] It opened with Youssef Delara's film Foster Boy , and closed with Mia Donovan's documentary film Dope Is Death. [11]
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".
Eugene Levy CM is a Canadian actor and comedian. From 1976 until 1984, he appeared in the Canadian television sketch comedy series SCTV. He has also appeared in the American Pie series of films and the Canadian sitcom Schitt's Creek. He often plays flustered and unconventional figures. He is a regular collaborator of actor-director Christopher Guest, appearing in and co-writing four of his films, commencing with Waiting for Guffman (1996).
Alfre Woodard is an American actress, producer, and political activist. Considered one of the most versatile and accomplished actors of her generation, she has received four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and two Grammy Awards. In 2020, The New York Times ranked Woodard seventeenth on its list of "The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century". She is also known for her work as a political activist and producer. Woodard is a founder of Artists for a New South Africa, an organization devoted to advancing democracy and equality in that country. She is a board member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The 52nd ceremony of the Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television for 1994, was held on January 21, 1995, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The nominations were announced on December 21, 1994.
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.
The Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) is an annual ceremony that awards the Beaver for achievements in Canadian comedy in live performance, radio, film, television, and Internet media. The awards were founded and produced by Tim Progosh in 2000.
Clement Virgo is a Canadian film and television writer, producer and director who runs the production company, Conquering Lion Pictures, with producer Damon D'Oliveira. Virgo is best known for co-writing and directing an adaptation of the novel by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (2015), a six-part miniseries that aired on CBC Television in Canada and BET in the United States.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Achievement in Direction to the best work by a director of a Canadian film.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Achievement in Cinematography, to honour the best Canadian film cinematography.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Achievement in Music: Original Song to the best original song in a Canadian motion picture.
The Canadian Screen Award for Best Animated Short is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian animated short film. Formerly part of the Genie Awards, since 2012 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.
Andrew Cividino is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature film directorial debut Sleeping Giant, which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and for his frequent work as a director on the Emmy winning comedy Schitt's Creek, for which he won a Primetime Emmy at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.
Clemency is a 2019 American drama film written and directed by Chinonye Chukwu. It stars Alfre Woodard, Richard Schiff, Danielle Brooks, Michael O'Neill, Richard Gunn, Wendell Pierce, and Aldis Hodge. The plot follows the lives of prison warden Bernadine Williams (Woodard) and death row inmate Anthony Woods (Hodge).
Hey Lady! is a Canadian comedy web series that is directed by Adriana Maggs, Will Bowes and Sarah Polley, and airs on CBC Gem. The series was created by playwright Morris Panych for Jayne Eastwood and is Eastwood's first leading role in her 50-year-long career. Eastwood portrays Lady, a wild and foul-mouthed woman in her 70s who is constantly getting into trouble with her friend Rosie.
The Porter is a Canadian television drama series which premiered on CBC Television on 21 February 2022.
Shasha Nakhai is a Filipino-Iranian Canadian film director, most noted as codirector with Rich Williamson of the 2021 film Scarborough. The film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Picture, and Nakhai and Williamson won the award for Best Director, at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022.
Rich Williamson is a Canadian film director, cinematographer and editor, most noted as codirector with Shasha Nakhai of the 2021 film Scarborough. The film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Picture, and Nakhai and Williamson won the award for Best Director, at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022.
The Hot Docs Award for Best Canadian Feature Documentary is an annual Canadian film award, presented by the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival to the film selected by jury members as the year's best Canadian feature film in the festival program. The award was presented for the first time in 1998; prior to that year, awards were presented in various genre categories, but no special distinction for Canadian films was presented. The award is sponsored by the Documentary Organization of Canada and Telefilm Canada, and carries a cash prize of $10,000.