Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The festival begins the Thursday night after Labour Day (the first Monday in September in Canada) and lasts for eleven days, although closing night is celebrated on the tenth evening (the second Saturday). Between 300-400 films are screened at approximately 37 screens in downtown Toronto venues. Total attendance at TIFF has exceeded 250,000 in the last few years, with figures from the 2009 edition at 287,000 for public and industry admissions and a further 239,000 from the free programming scheduled at Yonge-Dundas Square.

Founded in 1976, the TIFF is now one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. In 1998, Variety magazine acknowledged that "the Festival is second only to Cannes in terms of high-profile pics, stars and market activity." Quoted by the National Post in 1999, Roger Ebert claimed "...although Cannes is still larger, Toronto is just as great...." In 2007, Time noted that the festival had "grown from its place as the most influential fall film festival to the most influential film festival, period." It is the premiere film festival in North America from which the Oscar race begins.

The festival was once centred around the Yorkville neighbourhood, but the Toronto Entertainment District has now overtaken Yorkville in its importance to TIFF. The festival is known for the celebrity buzz it brings to the Yorkville area with international media setting up near its restaurants and stores for photos and interviews with the stars. With the Fall 2010 opening of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the festival's permanent home in the Entertainment District, it seems likely that the festival will increasingly spread out from its traditional centre to embrace other locations in the city.[6] Content-wise, though the festival has begun to give more attention to mainstream Hollywood films, it still maintains its focus on independent cinema. It features retrospectives of national cinemas and individual directors, highlights of Canadian cinema, as well as a variety of African, South American, and Asian films.

The festival is considered the launching pad for many studios to begin "Oscar-buzz" for their films due to the festival's easy-going non-competitive nature, relatively inexpensive costs (when compared to say European festivals), eager film-fluent audiences and convenient timing. In recent years, films such as American Beauty, Taylor Hackford's Ray premiered at the festival and garnered much attention for Jamie Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles (for which he ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Actor); and Slumdog Millionaire, that went on to win eight Oscars at the 2009 Academy Awards. Precious, which won the 2009 People's Choice Award at the festival, went on to win two Oscars at the 2010 Academy Awards.

The Director and CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival has been Piers Handling since 1994. In 2004, Noah Cowan became Co-Director of the Festival. In late 2007, Cowan was promoted to Artistic Director of Bell Lightbox, the Toronto International Film Festival Group's (TIFFG) future home, while long-time programmer Cameron Bailey succeeded as Co-Director.

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TIFF, known originally as "The Festival of Festivals", was founded in 1976 at the Windsor Arms Hotel. It began as a collection of the best films from festivals around the world. In its inaugural year, Hollywood studios withdrew their submissions from the festival due to concerns that Toronto audiences would be too parochial for their products.At the 1976 festival, attendance was 35,000. The festival concentrated on continuing to bring the best films from around the world. Through consistent investment and promotion by its organizers and sponsors, TIFF has also grown to become a vital component of Hollywood's marketing machine.

Many notable films have had their world or North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, including Chariots of Fire, The Big Chill, Husbands and Wives, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, Downfall, American Beauty, Sideways, Crash, Antichrist and Up In The Air.

In 1994, the decision was made to replace the name "Festival of Festivals" with "Toronto International Film Festival". From 1994 to 2009, the umbrella organization running the festival was named "Toronto International Film Festival Group" (TIFFG). (In 2009, the acronym TIFFG was jettisoned; the umbrella organization now has the same name as the festival itself, "Toronto International Film Festival" or TIFF.)

In 2001, Perspective Canada, the programme that had focused on Canadian films since 1984, was replaced by two programmes:

Canada First!, a forum for Canadian filmmakers presenting their first feature-length work, featuring eight to 15 films, and

Short Cuts Canada, which includes 30-40 Canadian short films.

The TIFF Group occasionally polls critics, programmers, and industry professionals, asking them to identify their top 10 Canadian films. The TIFF Group has conducted three such polls, in 1984, 1993, and 2004.

In October 2008, TIFF Group was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine. Later that month, TIFF Group was also named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers, which was announced by the Toronto Star newspaper.

In 2004, TIFF was featured as the site of murder mystery in the film Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, a comedy film starring Martin Short.

In 2007, the Festival Group began construction on the Bell Lightbox, a new facility at the corner of King and John Streets in downtown Toronto on land donated by Ivan Reitman and family. The facility is named for founding sponsor Bell Canada, with additional support from the Governments of Ontario and Canada. The facility opened September 12th, 2010 and provides extensive year-round galleries, cinemas, archives and activities for cinephiles.

In 2009, TIFF's decision to spotlight films from Tel Aviv created a controversy with protesters, saying it was part of an attempt to re-brand Israel in a positive light after the January 2009 Gaza War.

People's Choice Award

Given that the festival lacks a jury and is non-competitive, regular awards handed out at other festivals for categories such as "Best Actress" or "Best Film" do not exist at the Toronto International Film Festival. The major prize, the People's Choice Award, is given to a feature-length film with the highest ratings as voted by the festival-going populace. The following list shows past winners:

2010 The King's Speech (2010)

2009 Precious (2009)

2008 Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

2007 Eastern Promises (2007)

2006 Bella (2006)

2005 Tsotsi (2005)

2004 Hotel Rwanda (2004)

2003 Zatôichi (2003)

2002 Whale Rider (2002)

2001 Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)

2000 Wo hu cang long (2000)

1999 American Beauty (1999)

1998 La vita è bella (1997)

1997 The Hanging Garden (1997)

1996 Shine (1996)

1995 Antonia (1995)

1994 Priest (1994)

1993 The Snapper (1993) (TV)

1992 Strictly Ballroom (1992)

1991 The Fisher King (1991)

1990 Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)

1989 Roger & Me (1989)

1988 Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (1988)

1987 The Princess Bride (1987)

1986 Le déclin de l'empire américain (1986)

1985 La historia oficial (1985)

1984 Places in the Heart (1984)

1983 The Big Chill (1983)

1982 Tempest (1982)

1981 Chariots of Fire (1981)

1980 Bad Timing (1980)

1979 Best Boy (1979)

1978 Girlfriends (1978)

Other awards

The festival also presents seven other awards for People's Choice Best Documentary, People's Choice Best Midnight Madness film, Best Canadian Feature, Best Canadian First Feature, Best Canadian Short Film, FIPRESCI's Special Presentation Winner and FIPRESCI's Discovery Section Winner. The first two were inaugurated in the 2009 edition of the festival.

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