All Toronto articles – Page 148

  • News

    JCVD director El Mechri recruits Paradis for Midwife Crisis

    2008-09-07T06:00:00Z

    As Gaumont racks up major sales on TIFF Midnight Madness opener JCVD, that film's director Mabrouk El Mechri is finalising the original script this month for his next project, offbeat romantic comedy Midwife Crisis.Gaumont will again produce, with New York's Forensic Films also on board. Vanessa Paradis is attached to ...

  • News

    Films Boutique takes on sales for Woschitz's Universalove

    2008-09-07T06:00:00Z

    Berlin-based fledgling sales agent Films Boutique has picked up international rights for Austrian filmmaker Thomas Woschitz's Universalove which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last night.The co-production by Austria's Kranzelbinder Gabriele Production (KGP) with Luxembourg's Red Lion, Serbia's Art & Popcorn and the donaufestival.at was shot ...

  • Reviews

    Heaven On Earth

    2008-09-07T03:55:00Z

    Dir. Deepa Mehta.Canada 2008. 106 min.The yearnings and travails of an Indian emigre bride, a subject recently given a pictorial, naturalistic treatment inBrick Lane, gets a grittier, more mystical workout in Deepa Mehta’s slow-burning and quietly potentHeaven on Earth.The seventh feature of the Toronto-based director opened ...

  • Reviews

    Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

    2008-09-07T03:30:00Z

    Dir. Peter Sollett. US. 2008. 89mins.The highly anticipated second feature of the New York-based independent Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas) valiantly attempts to both enliven and subvert the tendencies and predictability of the teenage romantic comedy - although the whole never quite registers as forcefully as ...

  • Reviews

    Laila's Birthday

    2008-09-07T03:30:00Z

    Dir. Rashid Masharawi. Palestine/Tunisia/The Netherlands. 2008. 72mins

  • Reviews

    Rain (Lluvia)

    2008-09-07T01:55:00Z

    Dir: Maria Govan. The Bahamas. 2008. 93 mins.One of the first indigenously produced films to come out of the Bahamas, Maria Govan’s Rain shows a different side to Nassau where, in the shadows of luxury resorts and ocean liners, lives a subset of islanders battling the ...

  • News

    Match Factory closes Swiss, Italy deals on Venice winner Teza

    2008-09-06T22:40:00Z

    The Match Factory has sold Venice award winner Teza to Switzerland (Trigon) and Italy (Ripley's Film). On Saturday, Haile Gerima's feature won Venice's Special Jury Prize and the Osella for Best Screenplay (also by Gerima). On Friday, it also won the SIGNIS Award special mention and Cinema for UNICEF commendation ...

  • Disgrace
    Reviews

    Disgrace

    2008-09-06T19:43:00Z

    Dir. Steve Jacobs. Australia. 2008. 120 mins

  • Reviews

    Firaaq

    2008-09-06T14:54:00Z

    Dir. Nandita Das. India.2008. 101 mins

  • Reviews

    Dean Spanley (2008)

    2008-09-06T14:52:00Z

    Dir. Toa Fraser. New Zealand/UK. 2008. 99mins.New Zealand director Toa Fraser’s Dean Spanley overcomes an uncertain and sketchy opening section to register as a moving and visually wondrous evocation of magic and imagination. The movie’s tonal shifts are fairly abrupt and the first third is frustratingly ...

  • Me And Orson Welles
    Reviews

    Me And Orson Welles

    2008-09-06T09:30:00Z

    Dir. Richard Linklater. UK . 2008. 107mins

  • News

    Lionsgate UK buys Caine-starrer Harry Brown from HanWay

    2008-09-06T07:00:00Z

    Lionsgate UK has acquired the distribution rights to Harry Brown, being produced by Matthew Vaughn and Kris Thykier's MARV Films.HanWay Films is selling the project worldwide and handled the Lionsgate deal for MARV.Michael Caine has come on board to play the title role, opposite Emily Mortimer. Gary Young wrote the ...

  • News

    Fortissimo strikes Gigantic French deal with La Fabrique De Films.

    2008-09-06T06:40:00Z

    Fortissimo Films has closed an all-rights French deal for Toronto title Gigantic to La Fabrique De Films.Matt Aselton directed the Killer Films and Epoch Films production, which has its world premiere Monday in Discovery.The surreal love story stars Zooey Deschanel, Paul Dano and John Goodman.Fortissimo EVP of International Sales Nicole ...

  • News

    Burns gets CTV backing for My Canada feature series

    2008-09-06T06:15:00Z

    Toronto-based producer Michael Burns has teamed with Canada's largest private broadcaster CTV in the development of My Canada, a series of director-narrated documentary features after the fashion of Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg. Burns, who envisioned the series and commissioned Maddin, has enlisted top Canadian directors to create their own personal ...

  • News

    Venice Film Festival confirms permanent date change

    2008-09-06T06:00:00Z

    The 65th Venice Film Festival artistic director Marco Muller has confirmed that next year's festival will open later, on September 2. More significantly, he said that the shift to the first Wednesday in September would be a permanent one. That means that, while the next two years will not see ...

  • News

    The Works rocks with UK rights to Anvil!

    2008-09-06T06:00:00Z

    The Works UK Distribution has taken all UK rights to Sacha Gervasi's rockumnetary Anvil! The Story Of Anvil.The deal was sealed by the Works UK Distribution's managing director Mick Southworth and director of marketing Laurence Gornall, and CAA's Micah Green and Brian Kavanagh-Jones.The film is about Toronto-based metal band Anvil, ...

  • News

    Magnolia takes North American rights to Julia from StudioCanal

    2008-09-06T06:00:00Z

    StudioCanal has announced a North American sale on Erick Zonca's Julia. Magnolia Pictures has taken the film which stars Tilda Swinton. Julia was released earlier this year by StudioCanal in France and has sold to some 23 territories including Germany's Kinowelt, Spain's Verigo and the UK's Curzon Artificial Eye. In ...

  • News

    Media Luna adds five titles including Katia's Sister

    2008-09-06T06:00:00Z

    Sales company Media Luna Entertainment has added five new titles to its Toronto lineup, including Mijke de Jong's Katia's Sister (Het Zusie Van Katia) which will have its North American premiere in Toronto tonight.De Jong's intimate portrait of a 13-year-old girl living in Amsterdam who loses her Russian mother and ...

  • News

    Generator stirs up Ghost Machine in Belfast

    2008-09-06T05:00:00Z

    New UK genre production outfit Generator Entertainment continues to build its busy slate with principal photography starting yesterday (Friday) on Chris Hartwill's debut feature Ghost Machine.The supernatural thriller stars Sean Faris, Rachael Taylor, Luke Ford and Richard Dormer.Anchor Bay Entertainment has US distribution rights and worldwide sales are being handled ...

  • Reviews

    Ghost Town

    2008-09-06T04:55:00Z

    Dir: David Koepp. USA. 2008. 103 mins.A minor studio comedy notable as the first Hollywood starring vehicle for UK comic Ricky Gervais, Ghost Town takes a formulaic story about a curmudgeon learning to love and spices it up with some Gervais-style sarcasm and smartass dialogue. Making ...