News

Samuel Goldwyn Films holds Us rights.

Toronto-based Raven Banner’s specialty label Northern Banner has acquired Canadian rights to Cory Bowles’ political satire psychodrama Black Cop.

The film received its world debut at the Toronto International Film Festival and has won multiple awards across Canada, including best film and best director at the 2017 Atlantic Film Festival, and best Canadian feature at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Ronnie Rowe Jr. and Sophia Walker star in the story of an officer struggling between duty and moral obligation who gets profiled by his colleagues off-duty, pushing him over the edge.

Armed with the power of his badge,...

Late spring theatrical release for Toronto Discovery selection.

Toronto-based Raven Banner’s specialty label Northern Banner has acquired Canadian rights to Wayne Wapeemukwa’s Luk’Luk’I that premiered in Toronto’s Discovery section.

Luk’Luk’I follows five people living on the fringes of society during the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Angel Gates, Joe Buffalo, Ken Harrower, Eric Buurman and Angela Dawson star.

Wapeemukwa’s film won Best Canadian First Feature Film in Toronto 2017 and Best British Columbian Feature at the Vancouver International Film Festival and was also selected as part of Canada’s Top Ten.

Matt Drake, Spencer Hahn,...

Oh, Canada, our beloved upstairs neighbors. 2017 marks two essential anniversaries integral to the celebration of Canadian culture: the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation (when British influence receded from Canadian lines allowing all colonies to unite as one nation) and the 50th anniversary of Canada’s Telefilm.

Read More: Tiff and Telefilm Canada Partner to Bring Best New Canadian Films to U.S.

Telefilm Canada is an appendage of the Canadian government that supplies monetary means and financial sponsoring of Canadian cinema. The platform as to which Telefilm functions is through the promotion of Canadian audiovisual talent of today and tomorrow. This year hales the second annual Canada Now film series which will be hosted at the IFC Center from April 6 – 9. Canada Now will screen Canada’s best films from the past year.

On the docket for this year’s screenings are Sundance award-winning “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World,...

Distinguished Canadian features from the last year to screen in New York from April 6-9 at IFC Center

Sundance selection Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World (pictured) will kick off the Canada Now: Best New Films From Canada 2017 series.

The second tour of Canadian excellence is presented in partnership with the Consulate General of Canada in New York.

The series includes Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only The End Of The World, Kevan Funk’s Hello Destroyer, and Bruce McDonald’s Weirdos.

Rounding out the selection are Maliglutit (Searchers) from Zacharias Kunuk, Nettie Wild’s Koneline: Our Land Beautiful, Window Horses (The Poetic Persian Epiphany Of Rosie Ming) by Anne Marie Fleming, and Anne Émond’s Nelly.

“Celebrating in 2017 the 150th anniversary of Confederation across Canada, as well as Telefilm Canada’s 50th, is an opportunity to spotlight what makes Canada, and its cinema, so special—its rich diversity,” Carolle Brabant...

It's Only the End of the World and Operation Avalanche recognized among the 2017 Canadian Screen Award NominationsIt's Only the End of the World and Operation Avalanche recognized among the 2017 Canadian Screen Award NominationsAdriana Floridia1/17/2017 2:50:00 Pm

This morning the Canadian Screen Awards announced their 2017 nominations, recognizing the best of last year's Canadian films.

The awards are given out by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. This year's nominees boast a diverse line up of films that tell stories not just in English and French, but also Mandarin, Atikamekw and Inuktiut.

The most high-profile of the bunch would have to be Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World, which is a likely contender at the Oscars this year in the Best Foreign Language Film category. It made the shortlist of nine films that will be considered at the Oscars, which also includes Germany's Toni Erdmann and Chile's Neruda.

The Weinstein Company has moved up the qualifying run of its Michael Keaton starrer.

The Founder opened in Los Angeles on December 7 for one week ahead of nationwide roll-out on January 20.

John Lee Hancock directed the story of McDonald’s entrepreneur Ray Kroc and will take part with the cast in a week-long series of Q&A’s as Harvey Weinstein pushes for awards.

The film also stars Laura Dern as Kroc’s first wife Ethel; Linda Cardellini as his second wife Joan Smith; John Carroll Lynch as Mac McDonald and Nick Offerman as Dick McDonald.

The 16th annual Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival will run from January 13-26 at Tiff Bell Lightbox in Toronto before touring select cities. The line-up showcases the best Canadian features, shorts and student shorts in 2016 selected by a panel of seven filmmakers and industry professionals. Zacharias Kunuk’s Maliglutit (Searchers) opens the programme, which includes...

Last year the The Globe & Mail released an article entitled "What is Wrong with the Canadian Film Industry?" that outlined the problems facing our country’s cinema: low box-office numbers, a crisis of English-Canadian identity, an inability to compete with Hollywood entertainments etc., etc. Focused entirely on the industry, the piece fails to mention the resurgence that had been taking root for quite some time. 2015 was an important year for Canadian cinema, but while Room, Hyena Road and Wet Bum ate up the article’s word count, three of the year’s great Canadian films by emerging directors went unnoticed: Isiah Medina’s 88:88, Kurt Walker’s Hit 2 Pass, and Kazik Radwanski’s How Heavy This Hammer. Equating cinema with ‘content,’ a product to be bought and sold, the article is as much a reflection of the problems with Canadian cinema as an exposition of it. But this insidious...

Below you will find our favorite films of the 41st Toronto International Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.Top Picksfernando F. Crocei.Toni Erdmann, A Quiet Passion, Elle, (re)Assignment, Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee KidsII.Voyage of Time, Moonlight, I, Daniel Blake; Austerrlitz, J: Beyond FlamencoIII.Salt and Fire, Hello Destroyer, Land of the GodsDANIEL Kasmani.As Without So Within, Certain Women, NocturamaII.Cilaos, Yourself and Yours, Incantati, Children of Lir, Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee KidsIII.Into the Inferno, Untitled, Daguerrotype, Venus Delta, Safari, The HedonistsIV.The Dreamed Path, Manchester by the Sea, 350 Mya, Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait, Kékszakállú, Foyer, The Dreamed OnesV.Ember, Salt and Fire, (re)AssignmentMICHAEL Sicinskii.SingularityII.Aquarius, AusterlitzIII.025 Red Sunset, Cilaos, Indefinite Pitch, Luna e Santur, Mimosas, Nocturama, SieranevadaBLAKE Williamsi.Nocturama, As Without So Withinii.The Dreamed Path, Yourself and Yours, Burning mountains that spew flame,...

The strains of “O Canada” faintly emanate from a television set towards the end Hello Destroyer, Kevan Funk's bold, and boldly Canadian, feature debut, which recently premiered in Toronto and will play in the BC Spotlight program of the Vancouver International Film Festival. That it takes place in the world of (junior) hockey makes it recognizably, unmistakably Canadian; that it puts that hallowed institution under an unsparing microscope is what makes makes it daring. Red background—white lettering. Hello Destroyer—hello, Canada. From its opening frames—an intense on-ice scuffle, shot in tight, almost abstract closeups—the film is steeped in the hyper-masculine milieu of professional hockey that Funk first explored in his 2013 short, Destroyer (which shares the same setting, but charts a standalone narrative). But it would be inaccurate to call the feature (or the short film, for that matter) a “hockey movie,” much less a “sports movie.

Voyage of TimeDear Danny,Tiff is indeed an ocean, vast and churning, and we all have lighthouse films—titles around which we build schedules, and that help us situate ourselves amid the bustle. One such lighthouse film for me was Terrence Malick’s Voyage of Time, a long-gestating IMAX documentary being shown here in two versions, one running 90 minutes and another 45 minutes. The longer cut, subtitled Life’s Journey, was the one I caught, and it’s a rapturous work of telescopes and microscopes. The scope is cosmic as well as infinitesimal, as befits a film that ruminates on the very formation of life and nature, beginning with semi-abstract orbs that could be shimmering stars or inflamed ova. Blending natural footage with computer-rendered effects, Malick envisions the shape-shifting universe as a most lavish planetarium light-show. Darkness yields to fire, erupting lava hardens and cools underwater, beguilingly bulbous critters swim and crawl past the camera.

Raven Banner’s specialty label has acquired Canadian rights to two Toronto-bound Cannes triumphs: Un Certain Regard winner The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki and Critics Week winner Mimosas.

The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki marks the feature debut of Finland’s Juho Kuosmanen and tells of the eponymous Finnish boxer’s bid to win the world featherweight title in 1962. It gets its first screening in Discovery on September 8.

Mimosas is the second feature from Spain’s Oliver Laxe and centres on a mysterious caravan carrying a dying sheikh to his resting place in the Moroccan desert. The film first screens in Wavelengths on September 10.

Northern Banner plans a theatrical 2017 release for both titles and negotiated The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki with Les Films du Losange and Mimosas with Paris-based Luxbox.

“It’s a huge honour to be working with such bold and innovative new filmmakers as Kuosmanen...

Programmers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) announced that Isabelle Huppert, Kunle Afolayan and Genevieve Nnaji and Mark Wahlberg will be among the eight participants in the In Conversation With… series.

Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.

A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.

Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.

Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).

Festival Street

For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.

“Festival Street brings great value...

Programmers at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) announced that Isabelle Huppert, Kunle Afolayan and Genevieve Nnaji and Mark Wahlberg will be among the eight participants in the In Conversation With… series.

Moonlight, festival closing night screening The Edge Of Seventeen, Noces and Handsome Devil take their place in the youth-oriented Next Wave strand, while Discovery selections include The Empty Box, Godless, Hunting Flies and The Red Turtle.

A five-strong roster of virtual reality work brings new work from Canadian superstars Felix & Paul as well as Memesys Culture Lab in India.

Overall 397 films will play at the festival from September 8-18, comprising 296 features and 101 shorts, compared to 287 and 110 last year.

Festival organisers received 6,933 submissions (6,118 in 2015), of which 1,240 came from Canada (1,225) and the 5,693 balance from the rest of the world (4,893).

Festival Street

For the third consecutive year, King Street will close to traffic between Peter and University Streets over opening weekend from September 8-11.

“Festival Street brings great value...

Next month’s Toronto International Film Festival has nearly completed its lineup announcements, and each one is more impressive than the last. Today’s Tiff picks feature a number of slate additions for sections as varied as the forward-focused Discovery, their burgeoning Pop Vr section and even a handful of last minute additions to the Tiff Docs list. New titles of note that have just been announced include the Cannes hit “The Red Turtle,” Wayne Roberts’ “Katie Says Goodbye” and the well-regarded “Sand Storm,” all of which will screen as part of Discovery.

Read More: Tiff Lineup: 5 Reasons to Get Excited About the 2016 Program

Both the Next Wave and Tiff Kids section pull titles from other, previously announced sections to create an appealing lineup for the next generation of cinephiles. Standout titles include “Moonlight,” “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” and “The Eagle Huntress.”

Additionally, the festival has...

The Raven Banner specialty label has acquired Canadian rights to Kevan Funk’s film ahead of its world premiere in Toronto’s Discovery section next month.

Hello Destroyer stars Tiff Rising Star Jared Abrahamson as a shy enforcer on a hockey team whose life is shattered by an act of violence during a game.

As he struggles with the repercussions he learns more about the brutal world of his locker room compadres.

Toronto-based Northern Banner plans an early 2017 theatrical release.

Kurt Max Runte, Paul McGillion, Ian Tracey, Sara Canning, Ben Cotton, Maxwell Haynes and newcomer talent Joe Dion Buffalo round out the key cast.

Haydn Wazelle of Tabula Dada and Daniel Domachowski of Type One produced Hello Destroyer and Christine Haebler and Trish Dolman served as executive producers. Telefilm Canada participated in the development and financing.

“Like the vast majority of my short film work that I have made leading up to this, the film is...

A selection of films from the 2016 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has been unveiled, with films by Jim Jarmusch, Maren Ade, Tom Ford, Paul Verhoeven, Damien Chazelle, and many more.Opening NIGHTThe Magnificent Seven (Antoine Fuqua)GALASDeepwater HorizonArrival (Denis Villeneuve)Deepwater Horizon (Peter Berg)The Headhunter's Calling (Mark Williams)The Journey Is the Destination (Bronwen Hughes)Jt + The Tennessee Kids (Jonathan Demme)Lbj (Rob Reiner)Lion (Garth Davis)Loving (Jeff Nichols)A Monster Calls (J.A. Bayona)Planetarium (Rebecca Zlotowski)Queen of Katwe (Mira Nair)The Rolling Stones of Olé Olé Olé!: A Trip Across Latin America (Paul Dugdale)The Secret Scripture (Jim Sheridan)Snowden (Oliver Stone)Strange Weather (Katherine Dieckmann)Their Finest (Lone Scherfig)A United Kingdom (Amma Astante)Special PRESENTATIONSLa La LandThe Age of Shadows (Kim Jee-woon)All I See Is You (Marc Forster)American Honey (Andrea Arnold)American Pastoral (Ewan McGregor)Asura: The City of...

After a promising initial line-up, the Toronto International Film Festival has delivered more titles with their full Canadian slate. Among the line-up is Xavier Dolan‘s It’s Only the End of the World, Bruce MacDonald‘s new feature Weirdos, Deepa Mehta‘s Anatomy of Violence, as well as Two Lovers and a Bear, starring Tatiana Maslany and Dane DeHaan, which we have the first trailer for today.

We said in our review from Cannes, “Kim Nguyen’s Two Lovers and a Bear is a film that suffers from a bit of an identity crisis. Like an indie playlist stuck on constant shuffle, unapologetically reveling in a sort of manic unclassifiable genre. This isn’t always necessarily a bad thing, but, for some reason, Nguyen’s scattershot tonal shifts — which hop between a romance on the rocks; a self-serious study of grieving; and a surreal buddy comedy — can prove quite jarring.

A heavyweight roster of world premieres from the leading lights of Canada’s film industry will grace the Toronto International Film Festival next month.

New work from Deepa Mehta, Bruce McDonald and Chloé Robichaud are among the Canadian features set to receive their world premieres, while Xavier Dolan and Kim Nguyen earn North American premieres for their latest films following their Cannes debuts.

Wednesday’s announcement included the slate of Canadian short films, the festival’s four Rising Stars, and participants in the Talent Lab and Telefilm Canada Pitch This! programmes.

Talent Lab alumnus Andrew Cividino is named the 2016 Len Blum Resident. The film-maker will take up residency at the Festival Tower for three months later this year and receive one-on-one script consultations with screenwriter Blum, mentoring from Tiff’s industry and programming teams, and support from Tiff partners.

Cividino will work on his screenplay, We Ate the Children Last, a feature...

A heavyweight roster of world premieres from the leading lights of Canada’s film industry will grace the Toronto International Film Festival next month.

New work from Deepa Mehta, Bruce McDonald and Chloé Robichaud are among the Canadian features set to receive their world premieres, while Xavier Dolan and Kim Nguyen earn North American premieres for their latest films following their Cannes debuts.

Wednesday’s announcement included the slate of Canadian short films, the festival’s four Rising Stars, and participants in the Talent Lab and Telefilm Canada Pitch This! programmes.

Talent Lab alumnus Andrew Cividino is named the 2016 Len Blum Resident. The film-maker will take up residency at the Festival Tower for three months later this year and receive one-on-one script consultations with screenwriter Blum, mentoring from Tiff’s industry and programming teams, and support from Tiff partners.

Cividino will work on his screenplay, We Ate the Children Last, a feature...

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced an additional selection of feature picks — all falling under the banner of Canadian-made films, appropriately enough — along with their Tiff Rising Stars group, the recipient of the Len Blum Residency and a selection of Canadian shorts. Major programming standouts including Xavier Dolan’s Cannes Grand Prix winner “It’s Only the End of the World” and Nathan Morlando’s Cannes debut “Mean Dreams.” Other films of note include April Mullen’s “Below Her Mouth” and Kim Nguyen’s Dane DeHaan-starring “Two Lovers and a Bear.”

This year’s Tiff Rising Stars — four Canadian actors who will take part in a series of specialized programming organized by Tiff’s Industry team — include Jared Abrahamson, Grace Glowicki, Mylène Mackay and Sophie Nélisse. Additional international Rising Stars will be announced in the coming weeks.

Screenwriter and filmmaker Andrew Cividino is the 2016 Len Blum Resident. Cividino,...

Up-and-coming actor Jared Abrahamson (AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead”) is set to star in Kevan Funk’s first feature-length film “Hello Destroyer,” TheWrap has learned. Abrahamson will play a young hockey player whose life is shattered by an in-game act of violence. As he struggles with the repercussions of the event, his personal journey illuminates troubling systemic issues around violence. The indie film co-stars Joe Buffalo, Sara Canning, Ben Cotton, Max Haynes, Darren Mann, Paul McGillion, Phil Prajoux, Kurt Max Runte, Ian Tracey and newcomer Shane Leydon. Also Read: Jared Abrahamson Joins Tye Sheridan, Bel Powley in Indie Thriller...

The funding body’s Canada Feature Film Fund allocation applies to the 2014-15 cycle and includes films from Kim Nguyen and features actors such as Dane DeHaan and Catherine Keener.

The projects selected for funding are:

Away From Everywhere (Justin S Simms);

Chokeslam (Robert Cuffley);

Coconut Hero (Florian Cossen);

Destroyer (Kevan Funk);

The Education Of William Bowman (Ken Finkleman);

Grand Unified Theory (David Ray);

The Sabbatical (Brian Stockton);

The Saver (Wiebke von Carolsfeld);

The Second Time Around (Leon Marr);

Todd & The Book Of Pure Evil: The End Of The End (Craig David Wallace);

Two Lovers And A Bear (Kim Nguyen);

Unless (Alan Gilsenan);

The Unseen (Geoff Redknap); and

Your Money Or Your Wife (Iain Macleod).

“I’m delighted to see the variety of genres and stories represented by these new productions, which truly reflect the diversity, scope and originality of Canadian filmmaking,” said Telefilm Canada executive director Carolle Brabant.

“This selection includes dramas, comedies and thrillers...

The luxurious banquet hall in Toronto’s Royal York hotel was electric with excitement as Tiff senior programmers including Steve Gravestock and Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo announced the robust lineup of Canadian films (several world preems) at this year’s Tiff plus the 40+ short titles (out of an astounding 840 short films — an increase of over 200 titles from last year) that will screen at the prestigious festival. With features populating almost every section at the fest, among the headliner items from English Canada, Cairo Time‘s Ruba Nadda returns to the fest with October Gale, while also world preeming is Bang Bang Baby — Jeffrey St. Jules marks his feature film debut with a film that is equal parts Rocky Horror Picture Show and early Cronenberg. Starring Jane Levy of the recent About Alex, it revolves around a small-town teenager in the ’60s whose dream of becoming a famous singer is dashed...

Last night in a packed theatre at the Tiff Bell Lightbox an eclectic group of film critics, the who’s who of top local film producers and filmmakers, and Tiff executives gathered to hear the unveiling of the 13th annual Canada’s Top Ten films of the year. The room buzzed with excitement with many discussing the Nyfcc winners, predicting the Board of Review winners and, of course, noting which filmmakers were in attendance (assuming that was a clear cut sign of who made the list).

A hushed silence came over the crowd when Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of Tiff, took to the podium on stage to introduce the evening’s host, beloved local comedian Steve Patterson. “As a 15 year veteran of comedy, I know what it’s like not to be recognized”, Patterson cracked, making light of Canadian gems often going overlooked on the world stage. This year, however,...

Enemy, The F-Word, Sarah Prefers To Run make it on to annual list.

Enemy, The F-Word, Sarah Prefers To Run have made it on to Tiff’s annual list.

The Tiff hierarchy announced on December 3 its feature and short film selections for the 13th annual Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival.

The 10-day festival is scheduled to run from January 3-12 2014 at Tiff Bell Lightbox and features public screenings of selected films accompanied by introductions and Q&A sessions with film-makers.

Director Denis Villeneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal will appear at Tiff Bell Lightbox on January 5 to discuss their recent collaborations on Prisoners and Enemy (pictured).

The festival will conclude on January 12 with an on-stage conversation between Canadian film-maker John Greyson and Toronto International Film Festival artistic director Cameron Bailey.

“Canadian movies are global movies now, and Tiff’s Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival is the best opportunity to see our country’s creativity on the big...

The Royal Bank of Canada and the Toronto International Film Festival has announced its winners for the 2013 edition of Rbc’s Emerging Filmmakers Competition.

Austrian director Christoph Rainer [pictured] was awarded the $20,000 grand prize for his short film, Requiem for a Robot, with honourable mentions and $5,000 going to Canadian filmmakers Dan Popa and Kevan Funk for their shorts Tales of Santa Fe and Destroyer.

“These winning films demonstrate the work of unique, emerging voices in filmmaking,” said Piers Handling, director and CEO of Tiff. “The Emerging Filmmakers Competition is a platform to share these voices and we are thrilled to partner with Rbc once again on this initiative.”

Each year, Tiff offers a four-day intensive program to a select group of filmmakers to develop a one-to-five minute short film based on a certain theme to guide their creative process. This year’s theme was based on the idea of memory.

A panel of producers, directors and film...

The 38th Toronto International Film Festival has released an incredible guest list of celebrated talent from around the globe. Filmmakers expected to present their world premieres in Toronto include: Catherine Breillat, Nicole Garcia, Pawel Pawlikowski, Bertrand Tavernier, Steve McQueen, Godfrey Reggio, Denis Villeneuve, Bill Condon, Jean-Marc Vallée, John Wells, Ralph Fiennes, Richard Ayoade, Atom Egoyan, Matthew Weiner, John Carney, Jason Reitman, Jason Bateman, Yorgos Servetas, Liza Johnson, Megan Griffiths, Fernando Eimbcke, Alexey Uchitel, Johnny Ma, Biyi Bandele, Rashid Masharawi, Paul Haggis, Ron Howard, Eli Roth, Álex de la Iglesia, Bruce McDonald, Jennifer Baichwal, John Ridley, and Justin Chadwick.

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

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

Ahmad Abdalla, Hany Abu-Assad, Yuval Adler, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Alexandre Aja, Bruce Alcock, Gianni Amelio, Thanos Anastopoulos, Madeline Anderson, Nimród Antal, Louise Archambault,...

This afternoon, with poutine and local wine to mark the occasion, the Toronto International Film Festival announced their Canadian film selections. Programmers Steve Gravestock and Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo proudly pronounced that this year both new and seasoned filmmakers had the “curiosity and courage to show troubling issues occurring in our country in new and exciting ways.” Past festival favorite (and one of my personal own as well) Xavier Dolan, the always controversial Bruce Labruce and Jennifer Baichwal’s films garnered applause from the crowd at the majestic Royal York ballroom. Titles sure to draw headlines and attention in the Canadian slate are Denis Villeneuve’s locally filmed ‘Enemy‘ which has Jake Gyllenhall playing a man with two identities, torn between a mistress and a wife. Villeneuve’s other recent feature ‘Prisoners‘ was previously announced as a festival title. It’s worth mentioning that two feature films being presented at...

The Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) is partnering with Rbc for the fourth year to present the 2013 Rbc Emerging Filmmakers Competition.

Five artists were chosen from a group of filmmakers from the four-day Tiff Talent Lab. Each filmmaker was given a $500 bursary donated by Rbc to make a short anywhere from one to five minutes long on the topic of memory.

The 2013 Rbc Emerging Filmmakers Competition finalists are:

Rafael Balulu from Tel Aviv, Israel, for My Name Is Solomon Hagos;

Kevan Funk from Vancouver, Canada, for Destroyer;

Mako Kamitsuna from Los Angeles, Us, for The Lull Breaker;

Dan Popa from Montreal, Canada, for Tales Of Santa Fe; and

Christoph Rainer from Vienna, Austria, for Requiem For A Robot.

The winner and honourable mentions will be announced on Sept 4 at a press conference prior to the start of the festival.

The winner will receive $20,000 and the honourable mention will receive $10,000.

South Australian director Anthony Maras has picked up Best Australian Film at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival Short Awards, for his offering The Palace.

Based on true events The Palace follows a family as they flee the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

The Palace won Best Short Film (Live Action) and the Audience Award at Sydney and Adelaide Film Festivals respectively – making it eligible for consideration in the short film category at the 2012 Academy Awards.

The award for the Emerging Australian Filmmaker was awarded to Andrew Kavanagh for his short At the Formal , and Best Animated Short Film went to Australian directors Alister Lockhart and Patrick Sarell for Nullabor.

The Grand Prix was picked up by Canada’s Kevan Funk for A Fine Young Man.

2011 Miff Short Awards Winners List:

Transmission Films Award for Emerging Australian Filmmaker : Victorian Andrew Kavanagh for At the Formal. Film Victoria Erwin Rado...

The 4th annual Sydney Underground Film Festival, which runs for three days on Sept. 9-11, will screen about 10 features from all over the world and a veritable ton of short films from even further out there.

The fest will open with the latest documentary by a Hollywood icon. It’s Oliver Stone’s South of the Border, which has the director meeting with South American politicians and dignitaries. (The film opened to mixed reviews here in the States earlier this year.) Also screening is Trash Humpers, the latest film by indie rabble-rouser Harmony Korine, which has been confounding audiences on the indie film fest circuit, and Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void, which has been earning rave reviews.

The rest of the features in the lineup are an eclectic, oddball concoction, including Mladen Djordjevic‘s Serbian atrocity Life and Death of a Porno Gang, Victor Nieuwenhuijs and Maartje Seyferth’s twisted Netherlands tale Meat,...

The 28th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (Viff) will be held October 1-16, 2009. Founded in 1982, Viff's mandate is "...to encourage the understanding of other nations through the art of cinema, to foster the art of cinema, to facilitate the meeting in British Columbia of cinema professionals from around the world and to stimulate the motion picture industry in British Columbia and Canada..." Over 150,000 people are expected to attend 640 screenings of 360 films from 80 countries. Here is an up-to-date list of directors, confirmed to attend Viff 2009, along with their films : "1428" Du Haibin "1999" Lenin Sivam "65_RedRoses" Philip Lyall & Nimisha Mukerji "Adelaide" Liliana Greenfield-Sanders "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector" Vikram Jayanti "Ana & Arthur" Larry Young "The Anchorage" Anders Edström & Curtis Winter "Antoine" Laura Bari "Argippo Resurrected" Dan Krames "The Art of Drowning" Diego Maclean "At Home By Myself... With You" Kris Booth "At The Edge Of The World" Dan Stone...