Top talent hawks TIFF

The Toronto International Film Festival wants to boost awareness of its year-round initiatives, and to that end has enlisted top local film talent for a new promotional campaign.

Filmmakers whose names and photos are associated with the festival in the TIFF ads include David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, Don McKellar and Deepa Mehta. Ads began appearing in print, on TV and radio, in movie theaters, and outdoors on Oct. 16.

The move comes as TIFF looks to complete financing on the $120-million Festival Centre, its future headquarters in downtown Toronto, slated for a 2006 launch.

In addition to its annual film festival, TIFF runs Canada’s Top Ten, Cinematheque Ontario, the Film Circuit, the Film Reference Library, Sprockets and Talk Cinema.

MGM to carry ThinkFilm

Toronto-based theatrical distributor ThinkFilm has signed an exclusive agreement with MGM Home Entertainment Group to handle home video distribution in Canada for eight ThinkFilm titles. In December, MGM will release Festival Express, a rockumentary about a 1970 music festival, which features rare live performances from the likes of Janis Joplin, The Band and the Grateful Dead. Other ThinkFilm titles to be carried by MGM include the feature documentaries The Story of the Weeping Camel and George Butler’s Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry.