The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was in full swing starting September 5, opening with the world premiere of comedy actor Ben Stiller’s Nutcrackers. More than 270 films were set to premiere at the film festival this year, which marks a return to form after the COVID-19 pandemic and film industry strikes limited the event’s ambitions. The festival was founded in 1976 by Henk Van der Kolk, Bill Marshall and Dusty Cohle, who were looking for a way to showcase Canadian films. Noting the dominance of big budget American movies, their plan for the festival was to host big foreign films with star power behind them to catch the public eye, then capitalize on the attention by premiering local Canadian indie films to the same audiences. This method of marketing Canadian content is still one of the festival’s missions today and many Canadian filmmakers are excited about the buzz around the event this year. In an interview with CBC, Olivier Gauthier-Mercier, the vice-president of Toronto-based distribution company LevelFilm, said, “after the first few days of the festival — where the bigger films and celebrities are mostly concentrated — the real work of promoting and selling smaller, independent movies begins […] This is when it becomes the people’s festival.”
The city has been swarmed by Hollywood stars attending big premieres, such as Pharell Williams’ upcoming Lego styled biopic Piece by Piece and David Reitman’s new film Saturday Night, which chronicles the hectic night of the first Saturday Night Live broadcast. Other big name stars attending the festival include Will Ferrell, Barry Keoghan, Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez, Matt Damon, Jennifer Lopez, and Elton John.
Some Canadian films premiering at the festival this year include Paying For It, a film set in Toronto’s own Kensington Market and Young Werther, an adaptation of the 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther set in modern day Ontario. As well, for the first time in 10 years, a film based in New Brunswick played at the festival. Fredericton based director Arianna Martinez’s film, Do I Know You from Somewhere? was selected to screen as part of the festival’s discovery program. TIFF provides one of the best opportunities for Canadian filmmakers to market their work and show off the talent here that is often overshadowed by our American neighbours. In an article with CBC about the importance of the festival, Canadian filmmaker Jennifer Holness said: “That early affirmation and support for the work allowed us to go around the globe, in America in particular, as Black artists and have a body of work that people took serious, […] I think if TIFF didn’t exist, I don’t know if we would have been able to sustain our careers.”
Sharp Corner, a Canadian indie film directed by Jason Buxton, had its global premiere at TIFF on September 6. The film stars Ben Foster as a man obsessed with saving the lives of car accident victims, co-starring Cobie Smulders . The movie was filmed just outside Halifax, Nova Scotia and produced by the local production company Shut Up and Color Pictures. Atlantic Canada has been garnering more focus from the film making world in recent years, after the Nova Scotia government invested $8 million into the development of the province’s first ever purpose-built soundstage for TV and movies. More recently, Nova Scotia’s provincial government began offering bonuses for production teams to film in rural areas of the province, or at least 100 km from Halifax’s city hall.
On September 11, the Atlantic International Film Festival (AIFF) also began at Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane in downtown Halifax. AIFF also aspired to showcase a mix of big-budget international films, along with exciting local talent. Sharp Corner had a gala and screening event on September 11, joining the ranks of other films on the festival circuit such as: Anora, which won top prize at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump, and the newest film from local Halifax based director Kevin Hartford, To the Moon. Beyond these feature-length films, the AIFF also featured showings of collected short films by local and international creators. With big-budget hits flocking to both festivals and creating opportunities for indie filmmakers, more eyes may be on Canada’s film scene in the coming years.
