News

• only 22% of 2015’s movies had female protagonists

• best and worst representations of women on film in 2015 (and the average Watw score for the year)

• critics are slightly more likely to rate a film highly if it represents women well

• mainstream moviegoers are not turned off by films with female protagonists

• movies that represent women well are just as likely to be profitable as movies that don’t, and are less risky as business propositions

The Where Are the Women? project was designed to drill deep down into the films of 2015 in order to determine how well — or how poorly — they represented women. The project has now come to its end, and you can examine the final ranking here. The ranking includes 270 films released in the Us, Canada, and the UK, in both limited and wide release (including every wide-release North American film and most of the UK wide-release films). The...

The Imitation Game

Autumn has always been my favorite time of year, and for the past few years, the pleasure of the arrival of crisp air and turning leaves has been increased, because it means that London Film Festival time has come around again. Though the public festival runs for 12 days — this year it’s October 8th though 19th — for the press it runs for a full month. (Press screenings will start on September 22nd.) It is a veritable orgy of cinema, and I love it. It’s exhausting, but I love it.

Yesterday morning the full program for the 58th BFI London Film Festival was announced. I already knew that two of my most anticipated films of the fall were on the slate: The Imitation Game, Headhunters director Morten Tyldum’s film about Alan Turing and the WWII Enigma codebreaking project, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the mathematician; and Fury,...

Exclusive: In a bid to drive acquisitions, Toronto top brass are understood to be collaborating with select sales agents to allow festival staff and volunteers to attend four early-stage private buyers screenings.

Screendaily has learned the move is being orchestrated to replicate the buoyant atmosphere of public screenings in an effort to stir up sales.

The timing of the move is dictated by a growing recognition that most decision-makers at distribution companies will have left town by the time these films officially premiere in the second week, despite Toronto’s efforts to spread its riches across the duration of the festival.

That strategy was informed in part by the festival’s new and well documented policy of holding back until the second week premieres of anticipated films that will receive their actual world premiere in Telluride.

Two cases in point are North American premieres of The Weinstein Company’s Benedict Cumberbatch starrer The Imitation Game and Fox...

The Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin zombie drama Maggie, Dustin Hoffman drama Boychoir, Kristen Wiig comedy Welcome To Me and Sophie Barthes’ Madame Bovary have landed world premieres, Tiff gala and special presentation slots.

Also in line to screen for the first time anywhere at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 4-14) are crime thriller The Forger starring John Travolta, Christopher Plummer and Tye Sheridan, thriller Escobar: Paradise Lost starring Benicio Del Toro, Thomas McCarthy’s The Cobbler starring Adam Sandler, and Paul Bettany’s directorial debut Shelter.

Tiff top brass also unveiled the Wavelengths, Future Projections, Tiff Cinematheque and shorts programmes.

Wp = World premiere / Nap = North American premiere / IP = International premiere / Cp = Canadian premiere.

Galas

Boychoir (Us), François Girard Wp

The Connection (La French) (France-Belgium), Cédric Jimenez Wp

Escobar: Paradise Lost (France), Andrea Di Stefano Wp

The Forger (Us), Philip Martin Wp

Infinitely Polar Bear (Us), Maya Forbes Cp

Laggies (Us), Lynn Shelton IP

Ruth & Alex...

The Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin zombie drama Maggie, Kristen Wiig comedy Welcome To Me and Sophie Barthes’ Madame Bovary have landed world premieres, Tiff gala and special presentation slots.

Also in line to screen for the first time anywhere at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 4-14) are crime thriller The Forger starring John Travolta, Christopher Plummer and Tye Sheridan, thriller Escobar: Paradise Lost starring Benicio Del Toro, Thomas McCarthy’s The Cobbler starring Adam Sandler, and Paul Bettany’s directorial debut Shelter.

Tiff top brass also unveiled the Wavelength, Future Projections, Tiff Cinematheque and shorts programmes.

Wp = World premiere / Nap = North American premiere / IP = International premiere / Cp = Canadian premiere.

Galas

Boychoir (Us), François Girard Wp

The Connection (La French) (France-Belgium), Cédric Jimenez Wp

Escobar: Paradise Lost (France), Andrea Di Stefano Wp

The Forger (Us), Philip Martin Wp

Infinitely Polar Bear (Us), Maya Forbes Cp

Laggies (Us), Lynn Shelton IP

Ruth & Alex (Us), Richard Loncraine Wp

Special...