The 46th Toronto International Film Festival returns this September, and the annual celebration of cinema will feature over 100 films, including Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. Perhaps the biggest detail, however, was that in-person screenings and red carpets are also set for a comeback, and TIFF will also screen films across Canada.
The 10th annual Toronto Japanese Film Festival kicks off on June 5, and runs until June 27 this year, with a lineup of 24 films, including North American and Canadian premieres. Among the major premieres at the 2021 TJFF Hiroki Kadokawa’s historical drama, Mio’s Cookbook, Keisuke Yoshida’s boxing epic, Blue, Katsuhide Motoki’s period dramedy, Angry Rice Wives, and Shuichi Okita’s Ora, Ora Be Goin’ Alone.
As part of an exclusive virtual event, I got a chance to watch the first 11 minutes of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Introducing the footage was director Michael Chaves, who takes over from James Wan. Wan created and directed the first two films in the franchise and produced this one.
What a night! The 2021 Oscars are a wrap, and Nomadland was one of the big winners, walking away with three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director for Chloé Zhao, and Best Actress for Frances McDormand.
The 93rd Academy Awards are live from Union Station in Los Angeles tonight, and the press room has gone virtual this year, so I’m tuned in from Toronto, getting ready for the winners to answer questions backstage.
Mostly one for the fans, but still offering an engaging (if almost punishingly long) profile of a pop star, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry charts the meteoric rise and overwhelming success of its teenage subject.
The most talked about documentary of the year thus far, Framing Britney Spears gives an impassioned overview of efforts to free one of the biggest pop stars in the world from a court order that has restricted her career and personal life since 2008.
Lee Isaac Chung’s period drama Minari is one of the best films ever made about the Asian-American immigrant experience. It’s also one of the best films ever made about rural living and the seemingly never-ending chase for some to achieve “the American dream.”
Some Kind of Heaven, the first feature-length documentary from filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, is a moving and honest look about people growing older but never fully growing up.
A keenly detailed and emotionally charged snapshot of a young woman in free fall (both figuratively and literally), Canadian filmmaker Kazik Radwanski’s Anne at 13,000 ft. is a monumental achievement on an intimate scale.
