The first ever Blue Mountain Film Festival is in the books after five days of industry sessions, music, events, films, and fantastic hospitality. As a movie lover, BMFF was a refreshing opportunity to connect with industry attendees, watch wonderful films, and explore the picturesque Blue Mountain Village.
Although it never fully shakes off the shackles of its stage play roots, Canadian director Patricia Rozema’s big screen production of writer-stars’ Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava’s Mouthpiece is a moving look at self-doubt, grief, and the contradictory, but well reasoned viewpoints that fight for dominance in all of our minds.
Surprise! It’s June and it’s busy! I always know what to expect, and I won’t complain because it’s always a fun, action-packed month full of adventures. Last week started it all off with a few highlights, including the screening for Now You See Me 2, actress Ellen Page and director Patricia Rozema in town to talk about Into The Forest, director Allan Ungar for his film Gridlocked, and star Bianca Del Rio and director Matt Kugelman for Hurricane Bianca at Inside Out Film Festival, to name a few things.
The 2015 Toronto International Film Festival will deliver hundreds of films for cinemaphiles before it wraps up on September 20, and I have been trying to watch as many films as possible to give you a sampling of what’s unspooling this year. Here are fives reviews to get you started: February, Into The Forest, Land of Mine, Miss You Already, and Remember.
Throughout the forty years of the Toronto International Film Festival, the developing and fostering and incubating of Canadian films and Canadian cinematic talent has always been an important priority, and because of that this year’s terrific line-up of Canadian films can be seen as a direct pay off of all those past efforts and the need to keep TIFF a Canadian film festival–one that celebrates international films and film culture probably better than just about any other festival in the world, while remaining still a Canadian film festival.
