Category Archives: Toronto film

365 Things to Do in Toronto, Toronto, Toronto events, Toronto festivals, Toronto film

139. Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival

May 19, 2011 Heikki Walden

May 19, 2011

Celebrating years of challenging attitudes and changing lives, the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival exists to support the promotion, production and screening of films made about and by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) individuals. The Festival takes place over 11 days, and includes screenings, panel discussions, artist talks, installations and parties that showcase over 250 Canadian and international film and video submissions.

For more details on the 2011 Festival (which starts today!), including venues, film schedule, and more, check out www.insideout.ca.

365 Things to Do in Toronto, Toronto, Toronto events, Toronto film

131. Packaged Goods

May 11, 2011 Heikki Walden

May 11, 2011

Commercial direction, an all-too-often overlooked genre of filmmaking, has produced some of the greatest filmmakers in the last twenty years. David Fincher (Se7en, The Social Network) and Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Where the Wild Things Are), are both products of the commercial direction world. Highlighting the best in music videos, ads and short-form filmmaking, the TIFF Bell Lightbox will showcase Unsigned Directors, music video production, and special guests including independent director A.J. Bond and executive producer of Radke, the Toronto-based commercial production house.

Packaged Goods starts at 7pm tonight. Tickets are $12.00, regular admission, and $9.50 for students/seniors. For more information, go to tiff.net.

365 Things to Do in Toronto, Toronto, Toronto events, Toronto festivals, Toronto film

127. Toronto Jewish Film Festival

May 7, 2011 Heikki Walden

May 7, 2011

Featuring films from leading Jewish film-artists, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival (TJFF) gets its start today and continues until May 15th. With over 100 films representing 21 countries, you’ll be able to view screenings in several venues across Toronto, including the Bloor Cinema, the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Cineplex Odeon Sheppard Centre Cinemas, the SilverCity Richmond Hill Cinemas, and the Cineplex Odeon Canada Square.

Tonight’s screenings include Looking for Lenny, a documentary based on Lenny Bruce, playing at the Underground Theatre, presented with Thank You Mask Man. The films begin at 9:15pm.

For a full TJFF schedule, check out www.tjff.com. Purchase tickets online, in person at the box office, or by phone.

365 Things to Do in Toronto, Toronto, Toronto events, Toronto festivals, Toronto film

118. Hot Docs Festival

April 28, 2011 Heikki Walden

April 28, 2011

Toronto’s premiere documentary film festival, Hot Docs, starts today!

Tonight’s screenings include POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, and Fightville. Whether you’re looking for a film to inspire, make you cry, lift your spirits, or simply entertain, Hot Docs has something for everyone!

Venues include the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Winter Garden Theatre, Isabel Bader Theatre, Innis Town Hall, the ROM Theatre, Cumberland, and of course, the Bloor Cinema; Hot Docs is truly a city-wide event! A Hot Docs Pass is your best bet for truly enjoying the breadth of this film festival; there are a variety available which cost from $98 (for a Festival Pass which gives you ten Regular Screening Tickets and nine Late Night Screening Tickets that you can share) to $300 (for a Premium for Two Pass which gives you two tickets per screening, resulting in 200+ tickets for documentary fanatics)! Single tickets are also available for $14.

For a schedule of screenings and for information on how to buy your passes or tickets, go to www.hotdocs.ca!

365 Things to Do in Toronto, Toronto, Toronto events, Toronto festivals, Toronto film

96. Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival

April 6, 2011 Heikki Walden

April 6, 2011

The Toronto International Film Festival may be the biggest event on your celebrity-watching, premiere-viewing, red carpet-walking calendar, but the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children is certainly a force to be reckoned with in the world of films created for children.

Created by TIFF, Sprockets affords children and youth the opportunity to learn about the world around them through film.

Weekdays feature School Programming for students in elementary and secondary schools, but Sprockets includes two public weekends for those three and up, so start planning your weekend today! You and your kids will have the opportunity to watch films from around the world – films that may not be shown in Toronto again! For more information on Sprockets, including a calendar of screenings and the opportunity to purchase tickets, go to http://tiff.net/sprockets.

365 Things to Do in Toronto, Toronto, Toronto events, Toronto film

94. Books on Film Club

April 4, 2011 Heikki Walden

April 4, 2011

Be part of one of Toronto’s most unique book clubs by attending tonight’s “Books On Film Club” at the TIFF Bell Lightbox! This series focuses on the “art of adaptation” by showing films based on books. Tonight’s screening is Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita, based on Vladimir Nabokov’s publication of the same name.

Hosted by CBC’s Eleanor Wachtel, the host of “Writers & Company” and “Wachtel on the Arts,” with special guest David Thomson, author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, tonight’s conversation promises to be a fascinating foray into the world of literature transposed onto the screen!

Single ticket pricing for tonight’s event is available for $35. For more information about the “Books On Film Club,” or to purchase tickets for this and other screenings, go to tiff.net.

365 Things to Do in Toronto, Toronto, Toronto events, Toronto film

53. Mary Pickford & the Invention of the Movie Star

February 22, 2011 Heikki Walden

February 22, 2011

Though she was celebrated as “America’s Sweetheart,” silent film star Mary Pickford was actually born in Toronto! TIFF pays tribute to the spunky actress who, together with her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks, launched the notion of celebrity culture as we know it today.

The TIFF Bell Lightbox is featuring several Mary Pickford Films as part of “the Invention of the Movie Star” exhibit, including Daddy-Long-Legs, Poor Little Rich Girl, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and Sparrows. Check the TIFF website for screening times of these films.

365 Things to Do in Toronto, Toronto, Toronto events, Toronto film

33. The Free Screen: From Ecstasy to Rapture

February 2, 2011 Heikki Walden

February 2, 2011

Celebrating 50 years of Experimental Spanish Cinema, The Free Screen: From Ecstasy to Rapture, finishes its run at the TIFF Bell Lightbox with Iván Zulueta’s Arrebato.

Described as a “raw, personal and unquestionably strange work,” Arrebato combines many of the techiniques for which Zulueta is well known, and addresses themes that mystified the director from an early age. Produced in 1980, this eerie film is rumoured to have almost collapsed because of the “drug-fuelled atmosphere of its making.” See Arrebato tonight at the TIFF Bell Lightbox at 7pm – admission is free.

365 Things to Do in Toronto, Toronto, Toronto events, Toronto film, Toronto neighbourhoods

18. Tim Burton Exhibition + Films

January 18, 2011 Heikki Walden

January 18, 2011

Hosted at Toronto’s fabulous new TIFF Bell Lightbox and organized by New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Tim Burton Exhibition promises to be spectacular.

Follow Burton’s remarkable career via the more than 700 items highlighting the director/author/photographer/illustrator/writer/producer’s development as artist and storyteller. You’ll see everything from some of Burton’s earliest paintings right up to the more recent and sophisticated elements he has created for the likes of Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Planet of the Apes.

The Tim Burton Exhibition is open from Tuesday through Sunday until April 17, 2011. Tickets for the general public are $22.75; double bills of Burton’s films can be enjoyed for $20. To purchase your tickets, or for more information about the film schedule, go to the TIFF website.

365 Things to Do in Toronto, Toronto, Toronto events, Toronto film, Toronto neighbourhoods

17. The Film Buffet Double Bill

January 17, 2011 Heikki Walden

January 17, 2011

Calling all film buffs! The Toronto Film Society presents your opportunity to “go West” with tonight’s films, The Left Handed Gun and Way Out West.

A Billy the Kid film featuring then newcomer, Paul Newman, The Left Handed Gun is a 1958 production with a reputation as “one of the sexiest Westerns ever made.” Way Out West, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, has been dubbed one of the funniest Western films, so you’re in for a night of fantastic Western fun!

Screenings take place at Innis College on the University of Toronto campus, and $15 will get you entrance to this, or any Toronto Film Society double bill; you can also purchase a “Pick 7” membership – $80 for seven double-bills of your choosing. To find out more about the full Film Buffet Double Bill line up, check out the Toronto Film Society’s website.