The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre’s 6th annual Toronto Japanese Film Festival will be held from June 8 to 28 and features over 20 films including many International, North American and Canadian premieres. READ MORE
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian) returns for its 20th edition! This year’s programming includes Marquee, Vista, Canadian Spotlight, Pulse, Reel Asian X, Reel Ideas and introduces the inaugural Wee Asian curated especially for kids and in honour of the 20th anniversary, the Cinematic Celebrations commissioned works. The Reel Asian Film Festival begins today November 8 until November 19 in Toronto and Richmond Hill. READ MORE
Theater Of Life
World renowned culinary artist and humanist Massimo Bottura, whose restaurant Osteria Francescana has been voted number one in the world, decided to create a soup kitchen during Milan’s World Fair in 2015. Director Peter Svatek documented the proceedings as sixty of the world’s best chefs joined him to cook for refugees and the homeless of Milan out of the waste food of the Expo. READ MORE
Planet In Focus (PIF) Environmental Film Festival, Canada’s largest and longest running environmental film festival, is proud to announce the dates for next year’s festival. The 17th annual Planet in Focus will take place from October 18th to 23rd. READ MORE
The story begins like this: “Journalist David Farrier stumbles upon a mysterious tickling competition online. As he delves deeper he comes up against fierce resistance, but that doesn’t stop him getting to the bottom of a story stranger than fiction”. READ MORE
The 25th Inside Out LGBT Film Festival, one of the world’s largest LGBT film festivals, celebrates 25 years of showcasing the most ground-breaking, powerful and entertaining work in LGBT cinema from Canada and around the world. Taking over Toronto from May 21 to May 31, this year’s festival will showcase close to 150 films from 35 countries. READ MORE
Last Friday, at a reception hosted by Garvia Bailey, host of Good Morning Toronto! on Jazz.FM91, at the Shangri-La Hotel, 12 awards and $61,000 in cash and prizes were presented to Canadian and international filmmakers, including awards for Hot Docs festival films in competition and those recognizing emerging and established filmmakers. READ MORE
This year Hot Docs Board of Directors chose Patricio Guzmán as the recipient of its 2015 Outstanding Achievement Award. As part of the honour, Hot Docs held a retrospective during the festival celebrating Patricio Guzmán’s distinguished career as a director and writer. The Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award is presented annually by the Hot Docs Board of Directors in recognition of a filmmaker’s enduring contribution to the documentary form. READ MORE
First Nations activist and lawyer Caleb Behn arrived to Toronto this week to attend the International Premiere of the documentary Fractured Land, at Hot Docs. Caleb is the focal point of this film. Filmmakers Fiona Rayher and Damien Gillis have been following Behn for the past four years to learn more about him, his traditional ways, and about his legal work to advocate for Indigenous people against major extracting companies in Northern B.C. READ MORE
With Hot Docs beginning this week, it seems fitting to share part two of my Top Picks at this year’s festival. This second part highlights documentaries from Latin America, which I believe expose its culture, its struggles, its hopes, but also its talents. READ MORE
