Articles
Filmmakers, festival addicts, and cinema lovers have it made here in Toronto. Not only do we boast, and I actually mean boast, the largest number of film festivals in the world, but some, including TIFF and Hot Docs, are considered leaders in the industry. That’s huge! Because Toronto has so much to offer in the way of film, we at Toronto Film Scene thought we should check out some awesome festivals the rest of the world puts on that you may or may not have heard about. By no means is this a comprehensive list, but here are just...
So, this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was, to put it mildly, one gigantic party for filmmakers, film-lovers and film industry types. Just our kind of party, then. While we were out and about snapping this famous actor and that famous director, we met and chatted to some of the most interesting people known to, well, anyone who knows anything about cinema. So many people, in fact, that we tried to snap as many as we could just so we wouldn’t forget them. Having said that, a few of the faces below aren’t exactly ones you’re likely to forget. Time...
When I spoke over the phone with Mark Little, writer and lead actor of the upcoming feature comedy Roller Town, we discussed what led he and co-writers Andrew Bush and Scott Vrooman to decide to make a feature-length film. “I think my approach to comedy has always been “˜just try everything,’” says Little. It was when B.C.-born Little moved to Halifax that he and his peers founded the incredibly popular YouTube sketch group Picnicface, famous for its viral Powerthirst videos. From there, Little tells me, “the natural extension of that was to try and move into areas where people could...
With Dredd 3D showing up at TIFF this year, and arriving in theatres country-wide soon, I got to thinking about Karl Urban and his weird and wonderful career. You may ask, “Karl who?” You wouldn’t be alone. Despite Urban’s appearance in blockbuster films like RED, Star Trek, The Bourne Supremacy and the second and third Lord of the Rings films, The Two Towers and Return of the King, he is somehow still not a household name. One of the things I really like about Karl Urban’s character choices is that they alternate back and forth between good and evil. He...
What you get when you sit down with Rob Stewart is pretty much what you get when you watch his movie, Revolution. It’s the same. He’s just a guy trying to get the word out that we’re doomed. What you don’t get when you sit down with Rob Stewart is the same thing you don’t get when you watch his movie: guilt, brow-beaten and shamed into doing good things for the planet. A self-admitted hater of environmental documentaries, I sat down to chat with Rob about why that is. He was lovely, genuine and passionate about his cause, just like...
When the opportunity came up to speak to Ruba Nadda and Alexander Siddig about their newest film Inescapable, I jumped at the opportunity. Together for a second time, they have created a wonderful political thriller with a touch of action that is very Canadian. Alexander Siddig strode into the room at the Intercontinental wearing black Chucks and blue jeans and sat down to have one of the loveliest chats about a film I’ve ever had with an actor. Siddig has had a long career, from television franchises such as Deep Space Nine and Primeval to blockbusters like Clash of the...
For the second year in a row, a black and white silent film is generating buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival. Blancanieves, the second feature film from Spanish director Pablo Berger, has audiences lining up to see the film twice. On Tuesday morning, Berger learned that the film has been shortlisted to represent Spain in this year’s Oscar nominations. Esteemed film critics have lodged rave reviews and Roget Ebert even went so far to as to suggest that Blancanieves has a fair shot at the coveted Blackberry People’s Choice Award. Unlike last year’s buzzy silent film The Artist, Blancanieves...
Let me tell you a little something about how festival coverage works here at TFS. We have one accredited member of the site, we generously receive press and industry vouchers from TIFF for the rest of our staff and if staff happen to purchase their own ticket packages and would like to write about the films they see, we will gladly give them a place to do that. As this year I am the accredited member of the site, the majority of coverage has fallen to me, and to our Managing Editor, Kristal Cooper, who remains on most of the...
It’s that time of year again. The calm before the giant, honking brouhaha that is TIFF sets in. It’s a time when Toronto gears up to truly become Hollywood North, hosting Hollywood big wigs and crazed film fans alike for a glorious 10 days of red carpets, flashing cameras and stories from everyone you run into about what famous person they saw shopping in Indigo or buying a frozen yogurt. TIFF madness has become a way of life for most Torontonians — you’re either in on it all, lining up and eagerly taking in as many movies per day as...
Canadian filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska previewed their second feature, American Mary, at Film4 FrightFest this August. The twins burst onto the film scene with their riotous debut, Dead Hooker in a Trunk, but their sophomore effort is a different beast all together. A startling horror film packed with rich thematic concerns and delivered with exceptional style, American Mary is destined for cult classic status. Grolsch Film Works caught up with the sisters and lead actress Katharine Isabelle in London to discuss their new movie. GFW: American Mary is very different from your first film. Sylvia Soska: Yeah, we never...
The Imposter is a thought-provoking documentary based on the bizarre true story of a Frenchman who convinced a grieving Texan family that he was their 16-year-old son who had been missing for 3 years. Grolsch Film Works recently met up with the film’s director Bart Layton, and the Private Investigator on the case, Charlie Parker, to find out more about this strange tale and how the film came about. GFW: How did you guys meet initially, and did you get on? BL: Well, the person who deserves a great deal of credit for a lot of the access in the...
One of the most interesting ways costume designers can flex their creative muscle in the movies is by inventing fashions that might be worn in the future. Envisioning what our world – or perhaps another world – might look like in a time that has not yet come to pass is a task of limitless possibility. I imagine it would be any designer’s dream to have such freedom to experiment and explore. So why is it that so many films set in the future feel so dated? On the TV end, the most hilarious examples of “future costume design” can...
