A couple of weeks ago, my wife was on the phone with her mother, explaining that we were about to sit down to watch Trudeau II: Maverick in the Making.

This year’s Gemini Award special winners recognize long-running CBC comedy talents as well as behind-the-scenes players.

Anticipating its 20 anniversary, the Gemini Awards are heading in a new direction, with Global Television producing the gala broadcast. But there is a back-story here that shows tepid support of the event from the English-Canadian networks.

Well, two down and one to go in what has been a surreal, ugly year among the major Montreal film festivals. It can’t be said that things went smoothly for either the World Film Festival or the fledgling New Montreal FilmFest, and the results are bad for the city as a whole.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has put a cloud over Norman Jewison’s next picture, which had been slated to shoot in New Orleans early next year.
Bread and Tulips, a US$10-12-million remake of a five-year-old Italian romantic comedy, produced by Jewison and his son Michael (The Hurricane), was slated to begin filming in the devastated city in March, after Mardi Gras.

Canuck broadcasters are all a-tingle about their entertainment news shows. Timed to launch around the celebrity-laden Toronto International Film Festival, Global, CHUM and Toronto’s SunTV have all jumped in the pool to see if they can grab viewers away from CTV’s eTalk Daily.

I’m willing to wager that ‘controversial’ is the adjective most frequently used to describe forthcoming Canadian films in our past couple of issues. Of course, it is film festival time, and promoting controversy is one way a production can rise from the fall’s deep cinematic muck. Though keep in mind the rule we used to live by back in the day when I worked at the Toronto International Film Festival box office – the sexier the picture in the TIFF program book, or the sexier the title, often the worse the film.

The focus of the film world will again turn to Hogtown when Deepa Mehta’s period drama Water opens the 30th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 8-17).
TIFF 2005’s movie lineup, consisting of 256 features and 79 shorts from 52 countries, is highlighted by entries from several of Canada’s heavy-hitting filmmakers.

As of press time, the picket lines continue to encircle CBC’s Toronto headquarters and other Ceeb locales across the country.

The Toronto International Film Festival celebrates its 30th birthday this year. In its three decades, TIFF has risen to the top class of world film fests, stirring up an annual fervor among moviegoers who have been more than happy to queue up for hours to ensure advance seats for films selected from a far-reaching menu of international fare. That experience proved so overwhelming to all that cinéastes are now asked to drop off a form with their selections days in advance, and customers are served in order based on a random draw.

By now, a gala screening of the latest David Cronenberg movie at the Toronto International Film Festival is par for the course. Where his new film, A History of Violence, breaks with tradition lies in the fact that, this time, TIFF audiences won’t be weirded out.

WITH A History of Violence, Toronto director David Cronenberg has made the best film of his career.