Every year, movie stars, directors and producers flock to Toronto. This week marks the 39th year of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). It’s a 10-day long celebration of movies, with premieres (when a movie is shown to an audience for the first time) and glamorous parties.
The whole city goes movie-mad during the 10-day festival. People wait in line to check out an interesting new movie or documentary and chat with fellow movie-lovers.
The Bell TIFF Lightbox, on King Street in downtown Toronto, is the festival’s main theatre although movies are shown in a number of theatres in the downtown core. There are hundreds of movies shown during the festival, from 9 a.m. until late at night. Often, after a movie is shown, the stars of the movie go onstage to answer questions from the audience.
Many of the celebrities who come to the city for the festival hang out in the city’s posh Yorkville district, where fans flock to see if they can snap a photo or get an autograph.
Hundreds of people also wait outside downtown theatres because they know their favourite actor will arrive to be in the audience for the premiere of his or her film. This year, famous actors visiting the city include Robert Downey Jr., Bill Murray, Jennifer Aniston, Jon Stewart, Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman and Reese Witherspoon.
During the festival, people who are interested in making movies get together to learn from experts at special workshops and seminars. People also meet to sell and market their movies.
This year, TIFF features four children’s movies. In April every year, TIFF also hosts a big children’s film festival, called Sprockets TIFF Kids International Film Festival (April 7-19, 2015).
TIFF goes from Sept. 4 to 14 this year.
Thanks to Pat Zelikovitz for her assistance with this article.
Related link
The website for the Toronto International Film Festival.
The website for TIFF Kids International Film Festival.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
What is your favourite movie? If you could interview the director and/or actors from the movie, what would you ask them? Think of at least 5 questions.
Reading Prompt: Demonstrating Understanding
Many people get excited about TIFF not only because of the movies but because of the celebrities. For example, thousands of people wait outside of popular restaurants and hotels during TIFF, hoping that they will catch a glimpse of a famous person.
Why do you think people are interested in celebrities?
Junior
Use states and implied ideas in texts to make inferences and construct meaning (OME, Reading: 1.5).
Intermediate
Develop and explain interpretations of increasingly complex or difficult texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts to support their interpretations (OME, Reading: 1.5).
Language Feature: Possessive Apostrophe
When a noun (person, place or thing) ends with an ‘s, the noun becomes possessive. For example, in the following sentence – Rachel’s ball is red – the ‘s shows that the ball belongs to Rachael.
Find all of the possessive nouns in the article.
