On Friday, August 25th, the Toronto International Film Festival announced its stellar lineup, prizes, and jury members. The juries will feature various film critics and filmmakers representing various international film federations. They will include five members for the International Federation of Film Critics. There will also be three members for the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema, as well as three jurors for the Platform. This year’s biggest prizes are being announced on the last day of the festival, so, unfortunately, it will be a bit of a waiting game.
Chief Programming Officer Anita Lee spoke to Deadline about the importance of the awards. “A crucial component of the film industry’s ecosystem, the annual awards presented by TIFF are dedicated to honouring creativity, vision, and excellence,” said Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF. “Every year, we unite to applaud the diverse array of cinematic voices with the support of respected colleagues from the global industry, and this year will be no exception.”
Some of the notable awards the festival will be giving out are the Best Canadian Film Feature Award, Amplify Voices Awards, Short Cuts Awards, Changemaker Award, People’s Choice Award, and the jury awards.
With the film list being almost endless, the top ten films that have gained the most popularity according to Blog To include: The Holdovers, Dumb Money, Pain Hustlers, Next Goal Wins, Hit Man, Stop Making Sense, Woman of the Hour, Dicks: the Musical, Knox Goes Away, and The Boy and the Heron. As the festival will span ten days, these films include big Hollywood directors and stars. Some of them are making their return to the festival. Starting on September 7th, the festival miraculously pushed through the ongoing Writer’s strike. The strike has previously raised questions about if the festival would even be able to happen. Despite this, no matter the circumstances, this year should be the festival’s most exciting year yet.
Update
According to Variety, on Saturday night, September 9th, the screening of Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero faced a delay given a bomb threat by a homophobic caller. The caller was targeting the artist. When Lil Nas X’s car pulled up to Roy Thompson Hall, organizers of the event found out about the threat. They immediately told the artist to stay in his car until they swept the venue for signs of danger. After finding no credible threat, the premiere started thirty minutes behind schedule. Even though other reports tell the story differently, this threat goes to show how common these dangers can be. This is especially true when considering those with discriminated-against identities, such as Nas, who identifies as a Black, queer artist.
Check out more music news here.
