TIFF reveals Canada’s Top Ten films
Movies about personal and social revolution, and stories set on snow and ice make up the chosen 2016 features of Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival.
The desire to “show Canadians who we are” as a nation, in the words of TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey, finds root in a coast-to-coastto-coast selection of honourees both well-known and relatively unknown that will screen Jan. 13 to 26 at TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World, which won the Grand Prix at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, is among them. Starring Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard, Gaspard Ulliel, Nathalie Baye and Léa Seydoux, it’s the story of a terminally ill gay man and the family reckoning he’s long dreaded . . . and avoided.
Another Cannes 2016 premiere in Canada’s Top Ten is Nathan Morlando’s Mean Dreams, a love-on-therun drama featuring TIFF Rising Star Sophie Nélisse, plus Josh Wiggins, Bill Paxton and Colm Feore.
Nunavut filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk is back in the Top Ten with Maliglutit (Searchers), a northern family quest inspired by John Ford’s classic western The Searchers.
Angry Inuk, by Alethea ArnaquqBaril, lives up to its title with a documentary study of how a new generation of Inuit activists are standing up to anti-sealing groups and other threats to their traditional way of life.
Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival doesn’t name a top Canadian movie of the year. Instead, Toronto filmgoers will choose a People’s Choice Award winner in a vote conducted throughout the 14-day event.
The complete list includes: Hello Destroyer ( Kevan Funk); Nelly ( Anne Émond); Old Stone ( Johnny Ma); Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves ( Mathieu Denis and Simon Lavoie); Werewolf ( Ashley McKenzie); Window Horses (The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming) ( Ann Marie Fleming).
The films were chosen by a TIFF- selected jury of filmmakers, programmers and other industry professionals.
Now in its 16th year, Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival also honours short films and student shorts, and features interviews and Q-and-A sessions with industry professionals. Go to tiff.net/seethenorth for tickets and information. Peter Howell
Schumer ‘great choice’ to play Barbie
Amy Schumerhas a message for the trolls: She’s not ashamed.
Following news that the comedian, nominated for two Grammy awards, is in talks to play a real-life Barbie in Sony’s live-action Barbie movie, commenters flooded Schumer’s social media feeds with vitriolic cri- tiques about her weight.
Schumer responded in an Instagram post Tuesday, with an essay about body positivity that accompanies a shot of her in a bathing suit.
“I want to thank them for making it so evident that I am a great choice,” she wrote. “It’s that kind of response that let’s you know something’s wrong with our culture and we all need to work together to change it.”
She also made it clear she’s not buying into the shaming. “Is it fat shaming if you know you’re not fat and have zero shame in your game? Where’s the shame? It’s not there. It’s an illusion.”
The Barbie movie, scheduled for a summer 2018 release, is the first liveaction adaptation for the Mattel toy, putting “a contemporary spin on beauty, feminism and identity,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. USA Today
Singer puts on blizzard concert
Travellers stranded by a blizzard in Virden, Man., got a treat on Tuesday night when singer Tom Jacksonput on an impromptu concert in the storm shelter. A dump of snow and howling wind shut down the Trans-Canada Highway at the Manitoba-Saskatchewan boundary. Jackson and his Huron Carole musical group were travelling from Regina to Brandon, Man., and were among those stranded.
The Huron Carole musical production raises donations for food banks.
With local hotels fully booked, about 60 people were staying in the shelter. About 200 people braved the snow to hear Jackson, best known as an actor on TV show North of 60.