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The hardest cut
Matthew Hays is a frequent contributor to Playback, the Montreal Mirror, The Globe and Mail and The Guardian. He joined the Toronto International Film Festival as a programmer in ’08.
Sold!
• Bruce McDonald’s latest feature is headed to the Toronto International Film Festival with Maple Pictures, which has acquired the Canadian rights to his horror Pontypool. The deal was negotiated by Maple co-president Brad Pelman and SVP of theatrical John Bain, and producer Ambrose Roche and executive producer J. Miles Dale on behalf of the film. Pontypool will have its world premiere in TIFF’s Vanguard program.
People
• Canwest has promoted Kenton Boston to VP of Global National News, a new position that puts him in charge of ‘strategic editorial direction’ at the network, and of overseeing the launch of its four new foreign bureaus. The network has also tapped Neill Fitzpatrick as Global National’s executive producer, another new position that puts him in charge of day-to-day operation of the national newscast. Fitzpatrick was most recently at the Global station in Edmonton.
The Burning Question
Savvy buyers and sellers will, of course, keep their best insights to themselves. And film festival markets are unpredictable at best. But with every Toronto International Film Festival comes speculation about trends in the deal-making. And so we ask:
Less Than Kind looks to fill comedy gap
Maury Chaykin’s first thought after reading the script for Less Than Kind was ‘Are they actually doing this?’
Make Believe revisits short-lived shows
A new series from Vancouver’s Make Believe Media takes an insider’s look at an all too familiar industry reality – TV shows that don’t make it past their first season.
Good Times at Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury Films has put Kelly Rowan (In God’s Country, Eight Days to Live) and John L’Ecuyer (In God’s Country, Prom Queen) to work again on The Good Times Are Killing Me, an MOW now shooting in Toronto for CTV.
Victoria Day shapes up for Bezmozgis
Canadian short-story sensation David Bezmozgis is gearing up to shoot his debut feature Victoria Day. Judy Holm and Michael McNamara of Toronto production house Markham Street Films will produce alongside Bezmozgis under his Nada Films shingle. Bezmozgis honed the screenplay for the coming-of-age drama at the 2006 Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
Out of the ghetto and into the world spotlight
‘Festivals don’t get everything they’re asking for,’ says Piers Handling, CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival Group. ‘It’s all about positioning,’ he explains, ‘and in some cases it can be about talent and availability. Sometimes it’s just impossible for them to make our dates.’
Romantic WWI epic a classic Canadian story
OPENING NIGHT GALA: PASSCHENDAELE
Mehta looks to capture immigrant experience
SPECIAL PRESENTATION: HEAVEN ON EARTH
Egoyan gets candid about casting
SPECIAL PRESENTATION: ADORATION
Blindness’ Fichman a hands-on producer
SPECIAL PRESENTATION: BLINDNESS
Raves for Falardeau’s edgy boyhood film
SPECIAL PRESENTATION: C’EST PAS MOI, JE LE JURE!
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