Toronto International Film Festival

The Movie fraternity has left Venice and now moved onto Canada for The Toronto International Film Festival®.

One of several programming initiatives of the Toronto International Film Festival Group.

It is widely recognized as the most important film festival after CannesThe largest and most successful public festival in the world.

It is the discriminating and sophisticated Toronto filmgoers who make the Toronto International Film Festival a must-attend event for the public, industry, and press alike. Over the last 28 years, the filmgoing public has supported and shaped the Festival into what it is today. Every September, the city opens its doors and experiences the best cinema in the world, and boasts 250,000 admissions annually. The Festival is divided into four sections each with a different cinematic agenda, the categories are:

VIACOM Galas

The Festival's high-profile showcase of premieres includes approximately 20 films, a balance of Canadian and foreign-language films and U.S. studio productions. Many of these films are world or North American premieres. They are presented at Roy Thomson Hall.

Contemporary World Cinema

Contemporary World Cinema is the Festival's core program. Festival programmers scour the globe to find the best of current international filmmaking and the result is a showcase of inspiring new work to thrill Toronto's film-savvy audiences.

The rich diversity of world cinema is highlighted in this program, which consists of approximately 60 films from around the world. It is a lavish collection of films from major directors, featuring premieres and prize-winning films selected from a variety of film festivals and programming trips.

Masters

The Masters programme exhibits new works by the world's most established and renowned filmmakers.

Since 1996, the Festival has been honoured to premiere films from such cinematic icons as Takeshi Kitano, Ken Loach, Carlos Saura, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Claude Chabrol, Nagisa Oshima, Mani Rathnam, David Lynch, Shohei Imamura, Claire Denis, Bernardo Bertolucci and Jean-Luc Godard.

Special Presentations

The Festival presents approximately 20 films in this section. It is a showcase for high-profile films featuring major stars and directors.