News

Co-financing, co-production forum takes place September 11-12.

New projects involving the producer of The Babadook, Game Of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin and Lemon Tree filmmaker Eran Riklis will be front and centre when the first in-person Ontario Creates International Financing Forum (Iff) in three years kicks off at TIFF next month.

Now in its 17th year, the two-day co-financing and co-production market takes place from September 11-12 in association with TIFF and features 42 feature film producer teams – 20 from Canada and 22 from as far afield as Australia, India, Norway, Scotland and the US.

The producers will participate in one-on-one producer...

Co-financing, co-production forum takes place September 11-12.

New projects involving the producer of The Babadook, Game Of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin and Lemon Tree filmmaker Eran Riklis will be front and centre when the first in-person Ontario Creates International Financing Forum (Iff) in three years kicks off at TIFF next month.

Now in its 17th year, the two-day co-financing and co-production market takes place from September 11-12 in association with TIFF and features 42 feature film producer teams – 20 from Canada and 22 from as far afield as Australia, India, Norway, Scotland and the US.

The producers will participate in one-on-one producer...

The Ifp organized a screening series at Tiff this year for Rbc, the Royal Bank of Canada, at the Thompson Hotel. The event turned into a four-night run of Ryan O’Nan’s festival selection, The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best, which knocked out the crowd each night. As I moderated the Q&A’s, I can attest: this film plays.

The movie was selected for the Ifp’s Narrative Lab just this past summer, and it happily surprised all of us by finishing so quickly and making it to Toronto. The Brooklyn Brothers is a totally winning tale of a makeshift band on a haphazard cross-country tour. It speaks to both a Diy-youth generation as well as to boomers mulling their own life choices and vicariously living out through the movie their own “what if…?” scenarios. Above are pictured, from left to right, producer Kwesi Collison, writer/director/star O’Nan,...

Several years ago director Alison Murray moved to Buenos Aires, where she danced tango competitively, married her tango partner, had two daughters and, now, has completed her fourth feature. Not surprisingly given these life changes, the film, Caprichosos, deals with dance. But instead of tango, Murray has focused on the murga — what she dubs “tango’s poor cousin.” Performed by groups of costumed dancers who rehearse their theatrical presentations for months before premiering them at Carnival, the dance is a local tradition suffused with beauty, drama, and a slight undertone of menace. Writes Murray in a director’s statement, “Unlike its cultural cousin the tango, murga is not taught in any institution; it’s a tradition of social protest and commentary that has remained hidden in the arrabals, the slums of Buenos Aires. With this film we are infiltrating the world of the murgeros, and meet some of the characters...

By Sean O’Connell

Hollywoodnews.com: Brad Pitt, Keira Knightley, George Clooney, Carey Mulligan, Rachel Weisz, Gerard Butler and Ryan Gosling are heading to Toronto for the 36tht international film festival, which kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 8.

The fest today confirmed the hundreds of celebrities that will be attending the can’t-miss event, promoting films and making the rounds as the annual awards season starts to take shape.

Davis Guggenheim, Francis Ford Coppola, Alexander Payne, Luc Besson, Oren Moverman, Malgoska Szumowska, Bennett Miller, Sarah Polley, Jessica Yu, Michael Winterbottom and Werner Herzog are just a few of the filmmakers who have confirmed their attendance.

Celebrities making the trek include Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Clive Owen, Jon Hamm, Shahid Kapoor, Michael Fassbender, Michelle Yeoh, Freida Pinto, Glenn Close, Matthew Goode, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Salma Hayek, Viggo Mortensen and Woody Harrelson. Musicians U2, Pearl Jam and Neil Young also are expected to...

Toronto - The 36th Toronto International Film Festival® welcomes hundreds of guests this year. Filmmakers expected to present their world premieres in Toronto include: Davis Guggenheim, Francis Ford Coppola, Alexander Payne, Agnieszka Holland, Guy Maddin, Luc Besson, Bill Duke, Oren Moverman, Malgoska Szumowska, Bennett Miller, Darrell Roodt, Sarah Polley, Jessica Yu, Michael Winterbottom and Werner Herzog.

Actors expected to attend include Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Clive Owen, Gerard Butler, Jeon Do-Yeon, Jon Hamm, Shahid Kapoor, Michael Fassbender, Michelle Yeoh, Freida Pinto, Glenn Close, Matthew Goode, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Ryan Gosling, Salma Hayek, Viggo Mortensen and Woody Harrelson. Musicians include: U2, Pearl Jam and Neil Young.

The Festival also welcomes thousands of producers and other industry professionals bringing films to us.

The following filmmakers are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:

Adam Shaheen, Adam Wingard, Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr., Agnieszka Holland, Akin Omotoso,...

News is rolling out of Toronto for this year's festival, with the Galas and the Special Presentations sections announced.  As always with Tiff, the sheer number of films can seem overwhelming, but with new films by David Cronenberg (A Dangerous Method, pictured above), Terence Davies (!), Francis Ford Coppola, Wang Xiaoshuai, Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud, and William Friedkin added to big names that premiered already this year (including Almodóvar, Von Trier, Nanni Moretti, and Nicolas Winding Refn) it looks like the 2011 iteration will be as packed with must-see cinema as ever before.  We'll be updating this listing as new lineups are announced.  See Tiff's official website for details.

Galas

Albert Nobbs (Rodrigo Garcia, Ireland) Butter (Jim Field Smith, USA) A Dangerous Method (David Cronenberg, France/Ireland/UK/Germany/Canada) From the Sky Down (Davis Guggenheim, USA) A Happy Event (Rémi Bezançon, France) The Ides of March (George Clooney, USA) The Lady (Luc Besson,...

Shawn Ashmore, Ashley Bell, Shannyn Sossamon, Dominic Monaghan and Cory Hardrict in The Day

Photo: Content Media The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival announced 56 more movies added to its festival line-up this year with selections in the Vanguard, Midnight Madness, Documentaries, City to City and Tiff Kids programs. And to be honest, the line-up is filled with titles, most of which are absolutely new to me.

I have seen one of the films under the Vanguard banner, a selection of young and cutting edge features and I've heard of Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31, Ben Wheatley's Kill List (watch the trailer to the right) was a hit at South by Southwest earlier this year and the documentary selections include familiar names such as Werner Herzog, Morgan Spurlock, Jonathan Demme, Alex Gibney and Wim Wenders, the latter of which is delivering a 3D documentary centered on the dance world of Pina Bausch and her company.

The Harold Greenberg Fund Script Program, a financing program from the entertainment company Astral Media, unveiled twenty-four upcoming Canadian films - chosen out of ninety-nine films - that will get its financial support.

Moreover, the selection of films include Neuromancer, an adaptation of William Gibson's cyberpunk novel directed by Vincenzo Natali (Cube), and Prisoner of Tehran, from Kari Skogland (Fifty Dead Men Walking). If you're an enthusiast of literature, you'll notice the presence of the film Cockroach, which is an adaptation of a novel by award-winning author Rawi Hage.

Now, without further ado, let's have a cursory look at the films that will get funded.

Story Optioning

Bottle Rocket Hearts

Sonia Hosko, Michelle Mama and Stephanie Markowitz

Screenwriter: Zoe Whittall and Linsey Stewart

Cockroach

Films du Boulevard Inc.

Screenwriter: Arto Paragamian

The Program

Acqua Films Inc.

Screenwriter: Hal Niedzviecki

Consecrated Ground

Emotion Pictures Inc.

Screenwriter: Thom Fitzgerald

Prisoner of Tehran

Miracle Pictures Inc.

Release Date: June 3

Director/Cinematographer: Alison Murray

Starring: Murray, Derek, Todd Lewendon, Wendy Schale, Andrea Oliver, Steve, Lindsay Berniche, Travis, Firecracker, Aimee, Skot

Studio/Run Time: Mjw Productions, 50 mins.

Up-and-coming director’s simple but affecting train-hopping doc

Before Alison Murray garnered acclaim for directing Ellen Page in Mouth to Mouth, she made Train on the Brain, a concise meditation on modern train-hopping. Murray illegally rode the rails across North America, sometimes in relative comfort and sometimes in filthy coal cars, with an assortment of young punks and self-described hobos. Train was originally released in 2000, and Murray’s greenness is apparent in her sometimes-facile narration, especially in her condescension toward the workaday slaves she espies from her freewheeling boxcar. But the characters—from Murray herself to the slant-smiled Todd—are indelible. When one of them does a funny dance in funny sunglasses for Murray’s camera, it’s just like a...