Canadian Films at TIFF

Toronto – Canadian programming at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival celebrates the best of our national cinema, bringing the country’s finest films and filmmakers to the attention of local, national and international audiences. Ticket Packages now on sale. Purchase online at tiff08.ca, by phone at 416-968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM or in person at the Festival Box Office at Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor Street West (main floor, north entrance).  Box Office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The 33rd Toronto International Film Festival runs September 4 through 13, 2008. 

The Festival announces Michael McGowan’s One Week, starring Joshua Jackson, Liane Balaban and Campbell Scott, and Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking, starring Jim Sturgess, Sir Ben Kingsley, Rose McGowan and Kevin Zegers. These titles join the previously announced Opening Night film, Passchendaele by Paul Gross, as Canadian Gala Presentations to date.

Special Presentations include Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth, Fernando Meirelles’s Blindness and Philippe Falardeau’s C’est pas moi, je le jure! (It’s Not Me, I Swear !). These titles join Atom Egoyan’s previously announced Adoration.

This year’s Canadian Open Vault selection is François Girard’s breakthrough feature film 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993). Sumptuously photographed and designed as 32 separate portraits in image and sound, 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould is a compelling and striking exploration of the idiosyncratic world of Gould’s ideas and music.

Canada First! opens with Neil Burns’s Edison and Leo, Canada’s first stop-motion animated feature. Additional Canada First! titles include Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu’s Before Tomorrow, Warren Sonada’s Cooper’s Camera, Justin Simms’s Down to the Dirt, Charles Officer’s Nurse. Fighter. Boy, Ingrid Veninger and Simon Reynolds’s Only, Randall Cole’s Real Time, Terry Miles’s When Life Was Good and Cameron Labine’s Control Alt Delete.

Contemporary World Cinema titles include Rodrigue Jean’s Lost Song, Léa Pool’s Maman est chez le coiffeur, Carl Bessai’s Mothers&Daughters, Francis Leclerc’s Un Été sans point ni coup sûr and Toronto Stories from filmmakers Sook-Yin Lee, Sudz Sutherland, David Weaver and Aaron Woodley.

Real to Reel includes Malcolm Rogge’s Under Rich Earth, Astra Taylor’s Examined Life and Luc Bourdon’s La Mémoire des anges. 

Vanguard includes Bruce McDonald’s Pontypool and Rafaël Ouellet’s Derrière moi.

Exhibiting the originality and creativity of Canadian short filmmakers, Short Cuts Canada presents 38 engaging shorts this year. The programme focuses local and international audience, media and industry attention on some of Canada’s most innovative filmmakers.  Titles include Denis Villeneuve’s Next Floor, Guy Édoin’s La Battue and Helen Lee’s Hers at Last.

Now in its fifth year, Canadian Initiatives’ Talent Lab offers invaluable artistic development opportunities to 22 emerging filmmakers in a four-day intensive programme. This year’s governors include celebrated French director Olivier Assayas (Chacun Son Cinema, Paris, je t’aime, Clean) and internationally acclaimed British producer Stephen Woolley (Breakfast on Pluto, The Crying Game).

Fans of home-grown cinema can keep themselves informed of all things Canadian with the Canadian Film Programmes Blog.  Going live on Wednesday, July 23, as part of tiff08.ca, this enlightening blog offers a forum for TIFF programmers and Canadian filmmakers to discuss the films that will screen as part of this year’s Festival.

In its fourth year, The Canadian Music Café returns to showcase Canada’s vibrant music scene to film and television industry leaders from around the world. Since its inception in 2005, The Café has become the place where film meets music, providing a platform for over 45 Canadian artists to date. Live performances exclusively for Toronto International Film Festival delegates will be held at this year’s new venue, the Hard Rock Café, at 279 Yonge Street. The Canadian Music Café is open September 9 and 10, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and September 11, 1:30 p.m. – 5 p.m.