TORONTO – Tonight TIFF kicked off its celebration of the best in Canadian film with the announcement of the feature and short film selections for the 13th annual Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival. The 10-day festival runs January 3 to 12, 2014 at TIFF Bell Lightbox and features public screenings of the selected films, accompanied by introductions and Q&A sessions with filmmakers. On January 5, the Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival welcomes Academy Award-nominees Denis Villeneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal to TIFF Bell Lightbox to discuss their recent collaborations. The festival will conclude on January 12 with an onstage conversation between Canadian filmmaker John Greyson and Toronto International Film Festival Artistic Director Cameron Bailey. These announcements were made at an industry event in Toronto hosted by Steve Patterson (CBC’s The Debaters). Established in 2001, the Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival celebrates excellence in Canadian cinema and raises global awareness of Canadian achievements in film.
“Canadian movies are global movies now, and TIFF's Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival is the best opportunity to see our country's creativity on the big screen,” said Bailey. “In addition to 20 terrific films, we will kick off 2014 with exclusive onstage conversations with Denis Villeneuve, Jake Gyllenhaal and John Greyson — conversations that will capture the ideas that power Canadian filmmaking.”
“This festival is driven by TIFF’s desire to shine a spotlight on Canadian cinema and to celebrate the impressive work of our nation’s filmmakers,” said Steve Gravestock, Senior Programmer, TIFF.
Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival feature film selections for 2013, ordered alphabetically. Synopses below.
Asphalt Watches, Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver (Delusional Brothers)
Enemy, Denis Villeneuve (Entertainment One Films)
The F Word, Michael Dowse (Entertainment One Films)
Gabrielle, Louise Archambault (Entertainment One Films)
Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Jeff Barnaby (Entertainment One Films)
Sarah préfère la course (Sarah Prefers to Run), Chloé Robichaud (Les Films Seville)
Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm), Xavier Dolan (Entertainment One Films)
Vic et Flo ont vu un ours (Vic + Flo Saw a Bear), Denis Côté (Films We Like)
Watermark, Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky (Mongrel Media)
When Jews Were Funny, Alan Zweig (KinoSmith)
Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival short film selections for 2013, ordered alphabetically. Synopses below.
A Grand Canal, Johnny Ma (Maktub Films)
Quelqu’un d’extraordinaire (An Extraordinary Person), Monia Chokri (La Distributrice de films)
The Chaperone 3D, Fraser Munden and Neil Rathbone
The End of Pinky, Claire Blanchet (NFB)
In guns we trust, Nicolas Lévesque (Travelling)
Noah, Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg
Nous avions, Stéphane Moukarzel (Travelling)
Paradise Falls, Fantavious Fritz
Subconscious Password, Chris Landreth (NFB)
Yellowhead, Kevan Funk
In Conversation With... Denis Villeneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal — Sunday, January 5 at 3:30 p.m.With the Hollywood studio film Prisoners and the independent Canadian film Enemy, Denis Villeneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal have struck up a potent director-actor relationship. In this conversation with Cameron Bailey, they will discuss inspiration, working methods and the distance between Hollywood and Toronto.
In Conversation With... John Greyson — Sunday, January 12 at 3:30 p.m.
Held for 50 days in a Cairo prison, John Greyson saw his innovative work as a filmmaker suddenly interrupted. In conversation with Cameron Bailey for the first time since they stood on opposite sides of the Toronto International Film Festival’s City to City: Tel Aviv spotlight in 2009, Greyson and Bailey will discuss what it means to make films politically.
Canada Cocktail Party — Wednesday, January 8 beginning at 7 p.m.
TIFF toasts Canadian film with a fun-filled night in the Bell Blue Room at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Guests can enjoy music, cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres, and get the opportunity to mingle with some Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival filmmakers. The event also includes access to the major TIFF exhibition David Cronenberg: Evolution, and a special installation by the creators of Asphalt Watches, Seth Scriver and Shayne Ehman.
Higher Learning presents The C Word: What makes a film Canadian? — Friday, January 10 at 11 a.m.
This free Higher Learning panel features different perspectives from Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival participants, including directors Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls), Alan Zweig (When Jews Were Funny) and producer Luc Déry (Gabrielle). The panel will be moderated by University of Alberta film scholar and Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival panelist Liz Czach. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis at the TIFF Bell Lightbox box office on the morning of the event.
2013 Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival Features Panel
A national panel of seven filmmakers and industry professionals selected the best in Canadian feature films.
Daniel Cockburn – filmmaker, writer and video artist (You Are Here)
Liz Czach – Associate Professor at the University of Alberta and former film programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival
Simon Ennis – writer and filmmaker (Lunarcy!)
Martin Katz – producer (A Dangerous Method, Cosmopolis)
Anita Lee – producer (Stories We Tell) and founder of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
Jason Ryle – Executive Director of imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
Alison Zimmer – Coordinator, TIFF’s Film Circuit
2013 Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival Shorts Panel
A national panel of five filmmakers, journalists and industry professionals selected the best in Canadian short films.
Rafael Katigbak – journalist (Vice, Strut Magazine)
Nathan Morlando – writer and filmmaker (Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster)
Magali Simard – Manager of Film Programmes, TIFF
Mazdak Taebi – writer and filmmaker (Mitra, Mercy)
David Weaver – writer and director (Century Hotel, Siblings, The Samaritan)
Select films will tour major cities across the country, including Vancouver’s Pacific Cinematheque, Edmonton’s Metro Cinema and Montreal’s PHI Centre. Tickets and ticket packages for Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival events at TIFF Bell Lightbox go on sale December 4 for TIFF Members and December 11 for the public.Purchase tickets online at tiff.net/topten, by phone from 10 a.m. to
7 p.m. ET at 416.599.TIFF and 1.888.599.8433, or in person at the TIFF Bell Lightbox box office from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET. Pricing as follows: standard screening ticket is $10 (feature film or shorts programme); purchase a six-pack for $50 and get six tickets for the price of five; tickets for In Conversation With... Denis Villeneuve & Jake Gyllenhaal and In Conversation With…John Greyson are $20 each; tickets to the Canada Cocktail Party are $15 for TIFF Members and $20 for public (19+. ID required).
Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival films are chosen from features, shorts, documentaries, animation and experimental films. Each film must have premiered at a major film festival or obtained a commercial theatrical release in Canada in 2013. The filmmaker must be a Canadian citizen or resident working on a Canadian production or co-production.
Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival feature film synopses
Asphalt Watches Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver
A feature-length animation based on a real-life hitchhiking trip taken by the two filmmakers, Asphalt Watches details the hilarious and harrowing journey of Bucktooth Cloud and Skeleton Hat as they travel eastward across Canada in 2000. Winner of the Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
Enemy Denis Villeneuve
Adapted from the novel The Double by Nobel Laureate José Saramago, Enemy stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Adam, a man consumed by an overwhelming desire to confront his doppelgänger. The film is a provocative psychosexual thriller about duality and identity where, in the end, only one man can survive. From the Academy Award-nominated director of Incendies, the film also stars Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon and Isabella Rossellini.
The F Word Michael Dowse
When Wallace meets Chantry, it could be love at first sight… except she lives with her long-term boyfriend. And so Wallace, acting with best intentions — and maybe a little denial — discovers the dirtiest word in romance: friends. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Adam Driver and TIFF Rising Star Megan Park. Written by Elan Mastai, one of Variety’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch in 2013.
Gabrielle Louise Archambault
Gabrielle is a young woman with Williams syndrome who has a contagious joie de vivre and an exceptional musical gift. Since she met her boyfriend Martin they have been inseparable. However, because they are “different,” their loved ones are fearful of their relationship. Gabrielle does everything she can to gain her independence. As determined as she is, Gabrielle must still confront other people’s prejudices as well as her own limitations in the hope of experiencing a love far from the ordinary.
Rhymes for Young Ghouls Jeff Barnaby
Kids on the Red Crow reservation are doomed. If you can't pay your "truancy tax", that's you up at the residential school, beat up and abused. At 15, Aila is the weed princess of Red Crow. After being robbed and thrown into the school’s dungeon, she decides to fight back.
Sarah préfère la course (Sarah Prefers to Run) Chloé Robichaud
Sarah is a gifted runner. Her life changes when she’s offered admission into the best university athletics program in the province. Sarah doesn’t have her mother’s financial support for the move to Montreal, but she leaves anyway with her friend Antoine. Though barely out of their teens, they get married because they want the best scholarships and loans. Sarah doesn’t want to hurt anyone with the choices she makes — it’s just that she loves running more than anything else.
Tom à la ferme (Tom at the Farm) Xavier Dolan
Tom, a young advertising copywriter, travels to the country for a funeral. There, he's shocked to find out no one knows who he is, or his relationship to the deceased, whose brother soon sets the rules of a twisted game. In order to protect the family's name and grieving mother, Tom now has to play the peacekeeper in a household whose obscure past bodes even greater darkness for his trip to the farm.
Vic et Flo ont vu un ours (Vic + Flo Saw a Bear) Denis Côté
Victoria, an ex-convict in her 60s, wants to start a new life in a remote sugar shack. Under the supervision of Guillaume, a young, sympathetic parole officer (Marc-André Grondin), she tries to get her life back on track along with Florence, her former cellmate with whom she shared years of intimacy in prison. Stalked by ghosts of the past, their new life together is unexpectedly jeopardized. Winner of the Alfred Bauer Silver Bear award at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.
Watermark Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky
From the filmmaking team behind Manufactured Landscapes, Watermark is a feature documentary film that brings together diverse stories from around the globe about our relationship with water: how we are drawn to it, what we learn from it, how we use it, and the consequences of that use. Watermark is shot in stunning 5K ultra high-definition video and full of soaring aerial perspectives.
When Jews Were Funny Alan Zweig
Insightful and often hilarious, the latest from documentary filmmaker Alan Zweig offers up a history of Jewish comedy, from the early days of Borsht belt to the present, ultimately exploring not just ethnicity in the entertainment industry, but also the entire unruly question of what it means to be Jewish. Winner of the City of Toronto + Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival short film synopses
A Grand Canal Johnny Ma
A Greek tragedy told in a Chinese pop song. Tragic events of a boat captain trying to collect a debt to save his fleet of boats, as remembered by his 10-year-old son.
An Extraordinary Person Monia Chokri
A 30-year-old scholar, intelligent and beautiful yet socially crippled, is forced to attend a bachelorette party where her quest for authenticity leads to an unavoidable confrontation with old acquaintances.
The Chaperone 3D Fraser Munden and Neil Rathbone
The Chaperone 3D tells the true story of a lone teacher who fought off an entire motorcycle gang while chaperoning a middle school dance in 1970s Montreal. This film recreates the scene using hand-drawn animation, miniature sets, puppets, live-action kung fu and explosions all done in stereoscopic 3D.
The End of Pinky Claire Blanchet
The End of Pinky revolves around three fallen angels seeking companionship and humanity in the shadows of the red-light district, in a mythic, magically realized Montreal. The film’s hand-drawn pencil and pastel animation, rendered in stereoscopic 3D, conjures a seedy world whose sepia-toned palette evokes cheap whiskey and nicotine stains.
In guns we trust Nicolas Lévesque
In Kennesaw, a small American town in the state of Georgia, a good citizen is an armed citizen. By law, since 1982, each head of household must own at least one working firearm with ammunition.
Noah Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg
In a story that plays out entirely on a teenager's computer screen, Noah follows its eponymous protagonist as his relationship takes a rapid turn for the worse. Winner of the YouTube Award for Best Canadian Short Film at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
Nous avions Stéphane Moukarzel
Montreal, 1999. Every Sunday, a modest Pakistani immigrant family picnics in a dead end next to the airport, and watches the planes land. On this special day when the Legendary Concord is expected, 17-year-old Akram, the eldest of three kids, creates a family commotion when he decides to take off to live his own life.
Paradise Falls Fantavious Fritz
Deep in the heart of suburban hell, two adventurous youths explore a haunted mansion and fall in love with its ghost.
Subconscious Password Chris Landreth
Subconscious Password uses a common social gaffe — forgetting somebody’s name — as the starting point for a mind-bending romp through the unconscious. Inspired by the classic American TV game show Password, the film features a wealth of animated celebrity guests who try to prompt Charles to remember the name.
Yellowhead Kevan Funk
A middle-aged worksite safety inspector defiantly maintains a tireless occupational routine, traversing across Canada's lonely northern landscape from one expansive industrial operation to the next. As the cracks in his crumbling personal life become more and more apparent, he slips deeper into willful ignorance and denial, providing a striking parallel to the altered physical landscape and exploitative industry that surrounds him.
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About TIFF
TIFF is a charitable cultural organization whose mission is to transform the way people see the world through film. An international leader in film culture, TIFF projects include the annual Toronto International Film Festival in September; TIFF Bell Lightbox, which features five cinemas, major exhibitions, and learning and entertainment facilities; and innovative national distribution program Film Circuit. The organization generates an annual economic impact of $189 million CAD. TIFF Bell Lightbox is generously supported by contributors including Founding Sponsor Bell, the Province of Ontario, the Government of Canada, the City of Toronto, the Reitman family (Ivan Reitman, Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels), The Daniels Corporation and RBC. For more information, visit tiff.net.
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