There isn’t a ton of lead-time pending, but auteurs with a mission should be able to make the June 30 deadline for submissions for the 19th Annual Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival (RWM) which this year runs November 4-12 with screenings at Toronto’s Bell Lightbox and Workman Hall.
The Worldwide Short Film festival kicks off today (May 31) in Toronto and it’s impossible to imagine a broader, more encompassing festival… or one with a less strenuous time commitment, something organizers gamely poke fun at. (Witness the tagline: “Blink at your own risk.”)
With nearly 300 short films gathered from around the world and divided into 33 programs and screening through June 5 (eg: Date Night, Laughter Without Borders, Bromance, Celebrity Shorts) there really is something for everyone. It’s a bit overwhelming but time spent on the WSFF’s website will be richly rewarded in theater.
The insanely diverse Worldwide Short Film Festival (WSFF) launches next week and we here at Hollywood North will have loads of cool coverage to guide you through its multiple programs. Meantime, if you are Toronto-based and don’t have plans tonight (May 29), might we suggest the WSFF free kickoff party at Yonge-Dundas Square.
Canadian-born actor, best-selling author and activist Michael J. Fox will be named an Officer of the Order of Canada, it has been announced.
The star - arguably as well known for his work on behalf of controversial stem cell research as for his role as Marty McFly in the hit Back to the Future movies - will be invested by Governor General David Johnston in Ottawa today along with 13 others. Another 29 people will become Members of the Order of Canada.
Even before it scored the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, Terrence Malick’s existential drama The Tree of Life was a major buzz movie for all sorts of reasons - the director’s small but outstanding output, the all-star cast including Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, the film’s BIG IMPORTANT THEMES.
As audiences count down to Tree of Life’s June 10 opening, programmers at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox are setting the mood by staging a Malick retrospective that will bring newcomers up to speed with the director’s work while allowing fans to enjoy familiar faves in a theatre setting.
Fans of The Trailer Park Boys know that in addition to being a legendary musician, Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson is also a gifted comic actor, something he demonstrated during an outrageously slapstick 2003 appearance as a fictionalized version of himself on the TV show and later, briefly appearing as a traffic cop in one of the TPB’s feature movies.
It’s easy to credit Disney with innovations in animation and puppetry; now they're excelling in oddball marketing - at least where efforts behind the forthcoming new Muppets movie (scheduled for release in November) are concerned.
Recently we told you about the unbelievably awesome live concert film from Aussie rock bruisers AC/DC titled Live at River Plate and chronicling the band’s return, after 13 years, to Buenos Aires, Argentina where they performed for nearly quarter of a million frenzied fans.
Few areas of science are as contentious or contradictory as the impact of food on health. For every apparently rational study in favor of a certain diet, there seems to be an equally rationale counter-argument.
Inevitably (and for better or worse), nutrition-based proclamations get major play in the mainstream press. As such, people have grown to be skeptical of everything, tuning out even when significant research hits the headlines.
The Inside Out Film Festival - spotlighting queer films from Canada and around the world - kicks off today in Toronto, and judging by the roster of films by or about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered folks from places as far-flung as China and Uruguay, the 21st annual edition is going to kick some serious butt.
April 2011
