Several world premieres for Canadian features will be occurring at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, from the likes of Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls), Seth Scriver and Shayne Ehman (Asphalt Watches), Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires (Triptych), Bruce Sweeny (The Dick Knost Show), and Bruce McDonald (The Husband). Getting the special presentation treatment will be Denis Villenueve (Enemy) while North American premieres will be given to Xavier Dolan (Tom At The Farm), Bruce LaBruce (Gerontophilia), and Richie Mehta (Siddharth).
“The scope of this year’s feature films is as broad as Canada’s filmmaking community and demonstrates the deep versatility of our filmmakers,” stated Steve Gravestock, Senior Programmer, TIFF. “From clever, biting satire to intimate social commentary, powerful dramas and even a truly magical comedy, the settings and themes vary, but the perspectives are always uniquely Canadian.”
Handing out the City of Toronto and Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film and Best Canadian First Feature Film Award will be the Canadian awards jury which includes Liz Czach, author, Associate Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta; Laurence Kardish, film historian, author and Senior Curator Emeritus of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Martin Katz, prolific feature film producer and founder of Prospero Films; and award-winning director, writer and actor Jacob Tierney.
39 short films from 15 returning filmmakers will be screened as part of the Short Cuts Canada program selected by Magali Simard and Alex Rogalski. 24 hours after appearing at the festival, the line-up will be available to screen at YouTube.com/TIFF until September 19, 2013.
“As with everyone involved in the Short Cuts Canada programme, I am thrilled at the prospect of hosting Festival shorts on the TIFF YouTube channel,” remarked Simard. “It's a major opportunity for the filmmakers to bank on this kind of wide exposure and to reach as large an audience as possible.”
Snap shots:
Anatomy of Assistance Cory Bowles, 13’ World Premiere
15-year-old Talia is defiant, refuses the system and thinks she’s got it all figured out. When she challenges the assistance envelope given to her by her school, she’s suddenly thrust into a daisy chain of errors that led her to face a larger system: growing up.
Firecrackers Jasmin Mozaffari, 15’ World Premiere
Lou and Chantal are two shit-disturbers from a town whose only remaining attraction is truck-stop prostitution. Their dreams of escaping are shattered when Lou's savings are stolen by her mom's alcoholicboyfriend. With nowhere left to go and nothing left to lose, Lou heads into the night, with a bottle of whiskey in hand and no regrets.
Method Gregory Smith, 8’ World Premiere
Officer Daniel O'Shea must go to extraordinary lengths to get a confession.
We Wanted More Stephen Dunn, 15’ World Premiere
A psychological thriller about a singer who loses her voice on the precipice of her first world tour, We Wanted More is a hypnotic fever dream about the sacrifices a young artist makes for her career.
Canadian Short Film Jury which presents a $10,000 cash prize for Best Canadian Short Film sponsored by YouTube comprises of Rafael Katigbak, a Montreal-born writer and Canadian editor of Vice magazine; writer, director and co-founder of Euclid 431 Pictures Nathan Morlando; and documentary filmmaker Nisha Pahuja (The World Before Her).
Want to make a movie? Six teams will be given six minutes to sell their cinematic ideas in front of a jury and a live audience of 200 industry professionals at the Telefilm Canada PITCH THIS! competition on September 9, 2013 at 1 p.m; the winner will receive a $15,000 reward.
The 2013 Telefilm Canada PITCH THIS! finalists are:
Rumba Kaveh Nabatian
A Cuban man who desperately wants to leave the island believes he must first seduce a foreigner in order to be with the woman he loves. Rumba is a fictional film about identity, power and prophecy as seen through the eyes of a black immigrant to Montreal.
Stay Girl John Christou, Daniel Beirne, Aisling Chin-Yee and Jacob Tierney
Exploring grand themes of identity, technology and family, Stay Girl is a comic drama about a family. When their beloved dog becomes terminally ill, the Isaac family begins to unravel as they each undergo a journey to discover themselves.
Tempest Storm: Burlesque Queen Nimisha Mukerji
Tempest Storm, the undisputed queen of burlesque, was a mistress to both Elvis and John F. Kennedy, a friend to Bettie Paige, and, more recently, a collaborator of musician Jack White. In this documentary, one of America's greatest sex icons bares all and takes the audience into her private life.
The Engineers Daniel Cockburn and Daniel Bekerman
A crime novelist, desperate to understand his characters inside and out, hires actors to go to therapy in character and report their insights and epiphanies to him — but soon enough his experiment turns into a Dr. Frankenstein’s creation with a life of its own.
Window Watching Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith, Svjetlana Jaklenec and Laura Perlmutter
Window Watching tells the story of the sexual liberation of an illegal immigrant who is captive to her emotionally abusive mother-in-law, and fascinated by the sexuality of the younger woman who moves in next door.
You Can Live Forever in a Paradise on Earth Mark Slutsky and Sarah Fobes
When a gay teenage girl is sent to live with her Jehovah's Witness relatives in small-town Alberta, she finds herself drawn into a passionate secret romance with the daughter of the community's most prominent elder.
Producers Lab Toronto formed by European Film Promotion and the Ontario Media Development Corporation four years ago runs from September 4 to 7, 2013, and will be welcoming partners from Screen Australia and the New Zealand Film Commission as part of the event.
Lasting from September 4 to 7, 2013, the 10th anniversary edition of Talent Lab will feature Canadian and international participants including Juan Andres Arango, Alexandre Auger, Annick Blanc, Valerie Buhagiar, Naomi Jaye, Jason Lepeyre, Shannon Masters, Evan Morgan, Carlo Guillermo Proto, Grace Wang, Jens Assur (Sweden), Aristotelis Maragkos (Greece), Catriona MacInnes (Scotland), Byoung-Gon Moon (Korea), Kareem Mortimer (Bahamas), Deepak Rauniyar (Nepal), Marialy Rivas (Chile), Anocha Suwichakornpong (Thailand), Musa Syeed (USA) and Bassam Tariq (USA/Pakistan).
“A decade ago we dreamt up a programme that would pair emerging filmmakers embarking on pivotal moments in their careers with distinguished names in the industry,” stated Piers Handling, Director and CEO, TIFF. “This was an opportunity to share knowledge, provide guidance, and really tear down the divide between emerging and established — even master — filmmakers. The results are impressive, the success stories inspiring and make us proud to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Talent Lab.”
Mentoring the aspiring filmmakers will be filmmaker Danis Tanović (No Man’s Land) and Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter Patricia Rozema(Mansfield Park). Guests speakers will include Alfonso Cuarón(Gravity), Tom Tykwer(Cloud Atlas), Jason Reitman(Labor Day), Deepa Mehta(Midnight’s Children), and Jennifer Baichwal(Watermark).
Finalists for the 2013 RBC Emerging Filmmakers Competition who will have to make a one to five minute short film on the topic of memory are Dan Popa, Christoph Rainer, Kevan Funk, Rafael Baluluand Mako Kamitsuna. On September 4, 2013, the winner and honourable mention will be announced with prizes of $20,000 and $10,000 being presented respectively.
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| Evelyne Brochu |
And finally the 2013 TIFF Rising Stars have been announced who will be participating in an intensive boot camp run by international casting directors, agents, managers, producers, filmmakers and development executives.
Evelyne Brochu
Evelyne can currently be seen at the Festival in Xavier Dolan’s Tom à la ferme. Her major film break came when she had a supporting role in Denis Villeneuve’s 2009 drama Polytechnique.
Cara Gee
Cara has landed a leading role in her first feature film — the 2013 Festival selection Empire of Dirt, directed by Peter Stebbings; she made her first television appearance as a guest star in the Showcase police drama King.
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| Megan Park |
Megan Park
Megan stars opposite Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Karan in the 2013 Festival selection The F Word directed by Michael Dowse. Megan recently completed Demonic, directed by Will Canon and produced by James Wan.
Johnathan Sousa
Johnathan Sousa can next be seen on the big screen in the 2013 Festival selection The Animal Project, directed by Ingrid Veninger, and in Maxime Desmons’ highly anticipated What We Have.
“The Toronto International Film Festival draws industry, press and audiences from around the world and we feel privileged to be able to offer this global stage and these valuable connections to Evelyne, Cara, Megan and Johnathan — the 2013 TIFF Rising Stars,” remarked Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival. “We have no doubt that this year’s unstoppable quartet of emerging artists is on the rise to enjoy sizzling careers like the stellar Rising Stars alumni before them.”
The 38th Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5 to September 15, 2013.