After circulating through Venice and Toronto to great, albeit controversial buzz, Todd Phillips’ The Joker is finally set for wide release next month. There’s a lot to dissect here, and anyone who has seen the film will know that classifying The Joker as a superhero movie would be a complete joke (!) of a statement. No, this is far from a superhero film, and the marketing team has been quite open about this too. In fact, there...

When one thinks of the great Julie Delpy, her work as an actress is likely what comes to mind for most people. But every couple of years, she reminds the world of her multi-hyphenate status by flexing her muscles as a truly talented filmmaker. Beyond sharing screenwriting credits for both Before Sunset and Before Midnight, she’s also written and directed a number of films since 1995. And with her latest outing, My Zoe, she mig...

Norwegian filmmaker Jorunn Myklebust Syversen has been emerging onto the world stage as a powerful voice in cinema. Her first feature film was Hoggerenin in 2017, and she now brings her new film Disco to TIFF. The film is a remarkable examination of the religious cult scene in Norway, with a thoughtful interplay of popular culture and traditional spiritual beliefs.

throwdown815: Going through your filmography, you were ini...

The prospects of seeing an Israelian rock musical with references to both La La Land and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg should be exciting to any fan of the genre. And it was with these pretences that I walked into Red Fields, with little more information than the paltry synopsis written in the TIFF program book and the single still image that accompanied it. It’s honestly the best way to walk into any film, and one of the perks o...

It’s been six years since Anthony Chen made his award-winning feature film debut, Ilo Ilo, and he finally returns to the cinematic stage with a new endeavouring effort. Wet Season is a welcome return to cinema from one of Asia’s most talented young filmmakers.

Set in the midst of Singapore’s rainy season, the film centers on an elementary school teacher (Yeo Yann Yann) who forms a seemingly innocent relationship with one of her...

Anna Maguire (director) and Julia Lederer (writer) are both at TIFF to promote their short film It's Nothing, which is screening as part of the Short Cuts Programme. The film is a powerful representation of the mental struggles afflicting individuals with eating disorders, and takes a unique approach in depicting the disorder on screen. It's Nothing will also be screening at the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival on Sept...

Capturing the mundane nuances of urban/suburban life doesn’t always make for the most compelling cinema. But when it’s done right, these types of cinematic narratives can become exhilarating experiences that tug right into our humanistic tendencies by threading the line between reality and fiction. Kazik Radwanski does exactly that with Anne at 13,000 ft. It’s not the most exciting of films, but it’s certainly a striking effor...

Ra Vincent is one of the most prominent production designers working in the industry, having started his filmmaking career as a sculptor on The Lord of The Rings films. His credits since then have included The Hobbit films (for which he received an Oscar nomination for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), King Kong and Alice Through the Looking Glass. He is currently in Toronto promoting his work as the Production Designer for ...

With an already established career producing music videos and directing short films, Oualid Mouaness presents his first full length feature at TIFF this year. 1982 is a notable debut from Mouaness, who has surely set himself on a long and successful career path as a filmmaker. A full review of 1982 can be found here.

throwdown815: Going through your profile, I see you did an MFA degree in film at Florida State University, but y...

As a Canadian, I’m embarrassed to admit that my exposure to Indigenous cinema has been rather limited. Part of this has to do with the relative lack of commercially available Indigenous films, but most of it has to do with my own lack of effort in exploring this part of Canadian cinema. Watching Jeff Barnaby’s Blood Quantum wasn’t just a soft nudge to rectify this wrong, it was a deservedly hard kick in the can.

Set in the 1980...

Finnish filmmaker Zaida Bergroth returns to TIFF with Maria's Paradise, a film profiling the rise and fall of evangelical cult leader Maria Åkerblom. This is the third time she's premiered a film at the festival (The Good Son in 2011, Miami in 2017), and like her previous films, Maria's Paradise is an emotionally charged piece of cinema that defies any one genre. Her next film is slated to be a biopic on Tove Jansson, a Finnis...

Films about war and separation have almost become a quiet subgenre of cinema. Whether it’s the pain of separating from one’s family, lover or even country, filmmakers have a tendency of effectively conveying this unfortunate byproduct of war. In 1982, Oualid Mouaness crafts a beautiful tale of impending separation primarily through the innocent lens of children. It’s an impressive feature film debut that certainly cements his...