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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival Hobo and Rhonda crack TIFFs Best of 2011

Nova Scotia films on Toronto International Film Festival golden list

Posted by Carsten Knox on Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 2:59 PM

TIFF likes us, it really does.

In this year's Canada's Top Ten best films of 2011 list, chosen by industry professionals for the Toronto International Film Festival organization, includes the bloody, modern classic Hobo With A Shotgun. And in the short category, Rhonda's Party made the list. Both were made here in Nova Scotia and have earned a lot of love from Coast readers in our recent Best of Halifax poll.

Canada’s Top Ten was put together to celebrate excellence in Canadian cinema and raises public awareness of Canadian achievements in film. The films will be screened from January 5 to 15 at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, including panel discussions and public screenings accompanied by introductions and Q&A sessions with filmmakers. Select films will tour major cities across the country. No word whether Halifax will be one of those cities, but it would be great if it was since a number of the other films on the list haven't made it to local cinemas, including Café de flore, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, Monsieur Lazhar, directed by Philippe Falardeau and Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz.

And for anyone who might be in Toronto on January 7, consider attending the filmmaker panel discussion A Canadian Gangster at 7pm. Three of Canada's Top Ten 2011 feature filmmakers, Guy Maddin (Keyhole), Nathan Morlando (Edwin Boyd) and our own Jason Eisener (Hobo With a Shotgun) will discuss their re-workings of the gangster/crime film genres.

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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival And now for something more refined

I will always hate The Reader

Posted by Tara Thorne on Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 8:29 PM

Sometimes you get thrown off-schedule by long lines, late starts, transit problems, whatever, and you go for a wild card, or at least a name you recognize. I saw that Page Eight was directed by David Hare—who I temporarily forgot wrote The Reader, my most hated film since Signs, and The Vertical Hour, an overwrought, post-Iraq war play for which I paid too much to see Julianne Moore yelling ineffectually in on Broadway—and I knew who that was, somehow, so I went for it.

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Toronto International Film Festival Inside baseball with Brad Pitt

Plus: Reunion! (Chris Pratt is in both!)

Posted by Tara Thorne on Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 2:17 PM

I really enjoy me a loose ensemble drama-comedy—they mostly come in teen-type films like Empire Records, Can’t Hardly Wait or American Pie, just a lot of promising actors pairing off in interesting combos with low stakes. I enjoy that. Ten Year follows a decent group of 28-year-olds hitting their 10-year high school reunion.

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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival A life-changer

And old-timey vibrators

Posted by Tara Thorne on Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 9:59 PM

Imagine making a movie that got some wrongfully convicted people out of prison, but not in enough time to fix the movie? That’s what happened to Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, whose Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory was finished on August 15. Four days later, the three men they’ve been following for nearly twenty years who’d been convicted of killing three young boys were released from prison.

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Toronto International Film Festival Leone Stars wins TIFF Pitch This competition

Halifax-produced documentary gets $10,000 of development money

Posted by Carsten Knox on Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 5:41 PM

Congratulations to Halifax producer Walter Forsyth and directors Ngardy Conteh and Allan Tong for winning the Pitch This at the Toronto International Film Festival competition over five dramatic film ideas.

A jury of film professionals listened to a six minute pitch and two minutes of questions and answers before awarding the $10,000 prize to Leone Stars. It is the first time in the 12-year history of the program that a doc has won the competition.

Leone Stars is about the members of Sierra Leone Single Leg Amputee Sports Club who are chosen for the national amputee soccer team.

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Monday, September 12, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival Greta Gerwig + Jennifer Westfeldt FTW

Names to remember!

Posted by Tara Thorne on Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 7:51 PM

Whit Stillman hasn’t made a movie since 1998—The Last Days of Disco with Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny—which I was able to see at Empire Bedford, that’s how long ago.

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Sunday, September 11, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival Binoche!

Tara Thorne at TIFF: Also: Todd Solondz

Posted by Tara Thorne on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 11:36 PM

I’ve always appreciated Todd Solondz—I wouldn’t call myself a fan, exactly, because even I don’t hate people that much—but for a guy who riles up such rage, what he’s doing is always interesting, nothing more so than Palindromes, in which eight different actors, including a dude and Jennifer Jason Leigh, played the lead character.

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Saturday, September 10, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival That time I thought it was Ryan Gosling but it was Brian Austin Green

Tara Thorne at TIFF: OH HAI September Christmas

Posted by Tara Thorne on Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 9:23 PM

Always nice to start your festival with a clusterfuck—Alexander Payne’s much-anticipated George Clooney-starring Oscar bait The Descendants came at a very early-seeming 9am, until it didn’t start until 10am, meaning over 500 people, many with entitlement issues, were furiously Tweeting their outrage and, in the case of the British man next to me, calling his editor to announce that they must do a story on this. (I was happy to stand next to Stephanie Zacharek from Movieline for awhile and hear people ask her what she saw at Venice. Sigh.)

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Friday, August 19, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival Even more Nova Scotians at TIFF

Locally produced doc gets a shot at Pitch This!

Posted by Carsten Knox on Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 4:00 AM

The documentary Leone Stars is one of six finalists chosen to compete at Toronto International Film Festival’s Pitch This! where film projects in various stages of development are pitched, competing for a $10,000 prize. Leone Stars is the only documentary in this year's line-up.

Co-directors Allan Tong and Ngardy Conteh will pitch on Tuesday, September 13 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The film is produced by Haligonian Walter Forsyth.

The doc follows members of Sierra Leone Single-Leg Amputee Sports Club who are chosen for the national amputee soccer team. They were young boys when rebel soldiers hacked off their arms and legs during Sierra Leone’s civil war.

The film was the first documentary in English Canada to successfully raise $20,000 in funding on the popular crowdfunding site, Kickstarter.com. The funds allowed the production team to take a three-week trip to Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, and the southern province of Bo earlier this year. Additional funding is needed to follow the team to the world championships in 2012.

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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival More TIFF News

Hockey movie set in Halifax but shot in Winnipeg to open

Posted by Carsten Knox on Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 4:00 AM

Oh yeah, something else we noticed about the line-up of Canadian movies at TIFF. A hockey comedy called Goon is opening there, starring Jay Baruchel, Seann William Scott, Liev Schreiber, Alison Pill and Eugene Levy and directed by Michael Dowse (Fubar).

In a douchey move worthy of Hollywood's best penny-pinchers, the producers of Goon, which is set in Halifax, chose to shoot the film in Winnipeg. One can only assume the Manitoba government film people offered them a better deal. According to a Haliwood Insider source in the local business, the Goon squad then sent a crew to "sneak into Halifax" to shoot exterior shots for their movie.

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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival Nova Scotian films get into TIFF

Toronto International Film Festival announces NS line-up

Posted by Carsten Knox on Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 2:05 PM

The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival is rolling out screening line-ups and has announced pictures from Nova Scotia filmmakers will show at the event, running September 8-18 in Hogtown.

Cory Bowles 16-minute short film Heart of Rhyme will get its world premiere at TIFF. It's described as follows:

"When Saxton received a heart transplant, he knew there would be side effects until his recovery was complete. What he didn't expect was the sudden urge to tag his name on mailboxes, drop rhymes in the park, and the ability to witness rhythm come alive around him. When he decides to solve the mystery behind this phenomenon, he discovers a whole new meaning to following your heart."

Also showing as part of TIFF's Special Presentations and in its North American premiere is Mike Clattenburg's Afghan Luke. Variously described as a comedy and drama, here's how TIFF encapsulates its plot:

"Disheartened when his story about Canadian snipers possibly mutilating corpses in Afghanistan is buried, Luke (Nick Stahl) quits his job but is even more determined to return to Afghanistan to get the real story. Starring Nicolas Wright, Stephen Lobo, Vik Sahay and Steve Cochrane."

Here's the trailer:

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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival TIFF to highlight Nova Scotia talent

Nova Scotia short films programmed at 2011 Toronto International Film Festival

Posted by Carsten Knox on Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 4:44 PM

click to enlarge

A Christmas tree gets mean in Jason Eisener and Rob Cotterill's Treevenge

A Christmas tree gets mean in Jason Eisener and Rob Cotterill's Treevenge

Haliwood Insider has learned that a number of quality shorts made in Nova Scotia will be programmed at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. The films chosen are as follows:

Afghan - directed and produced by Pardis Parker
Discrimination of the Dead - directed and produced by Angus Swantee
Like Father - directed by Jesse Harley and produced by Chris Turner
Pawnshop - directed by Andrew Bush and produced by Angus Swantee
Rhonda's Party - directed by Ashley McKenzie and produced by Nelson MacDonald
Super Science - directed by Joel MacKenzie and produced by Mark Purdy
Treevenge - directed by Jason Eisener and produced by Rob Cotterill
The Wake of Calum MacLeod - directed by Marc Almon and produced by Nona MacDermid

The Spotlight Screening of Nova Scotia emerging talent takes place at the BELL Lightbox, 350 King Street West, Toronto, on Monday September 12. Congrats to all the filmmakers. You guys have a blast in Toronto.

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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Toronto International Film Festival Haligonian gets film into Toronto International Film Festival's Student Showcase

Margaret Donahoe's Fat to screen in Toronto

Posted by Carsten Knox on Thu, May 26, 2011 at 4:17 PM

If you're in Toronto Tuesday, May 24, here's an idea of something to see. The Eighth Annual Student Film Showcase from The Toronto International Film Festival is happening, highlighting work from university film programs across the country. One of the dozen entries this year is from Haligonian and Queens University grad Margaret Donahoe, a short film called Fat, which she co-directed (with Gillian Good) and produced.

Screenings take place at the TIFF Bell Lightbox located at Reitman Square, 350 King Street West, Toronto, ON. Call 416-599-8433 or 888-599-8433 for more information.

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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Toronto International Film Festival TIFF DAY 07: Raining, pouring, going home

Thanks again

Posted by Tara Thorne on Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 10:55 PM

An improbably PG rock movie, Janie Jones stars Abigail Breslin in the title role as the long-lost daughter of Ethan Brand (Alessandro Nivola, who does great rock star). When her crackhead mother (Elisabeth Shue) abandons her in Little Rock, Ethan’s stuck with a vibe-harshing 13-year-old on tour. Then his band is dropped by its label, tour support is pulled and the rest of them bail, leaving Ethan to finish up this former arena, now dive bar string of dates alone. But wouldn’t you know talent is inherited and Janie’s a gifted singer-songwriter herself? (Breslin does all of her own singing—and none of her own guitar-playing—and it’s awesome. The music was written by Mercury Prize nominee Gemma Hayes.) It’s even tamer than Almost Famous, but it’s not about The Music, it’s about Fatherhood. It reminds me of one of those Disney movies about sports. I liked it.

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Toronto International Film Festival TIFF Day 06: I'm up, I'm up!

Ballet, wrenches and guns

Posted by Tara Thorne on Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 10:19 PM

Now that the festival is past the halfway point, to say fatigue is setting in is not quite right—it’s seeping, it’s blanketing, it’s practically a plague. People are falling asleep regularly, and if you think you’re fighting against it, that you’re young and vital and alive, well, wait until a middle-aged man’s sweet, rhythmic breathing is two seats away from you. Close your eyes once and you’re a goner.