Director Maya Forbes gets personal with her new film, Infinitely Polar Bear

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Director Maya Forbes gets personal with her new film, Infinitely Polar Bear

Writer-director Maya Forbes touching dramedy Infinitely Polar Bear played at both Sundance and the Toronto International Film Festival to rave reviews.  Based on her own childhood experiences, the film takes place in 1978 Boston and stars Mark Ruffalo as a manic-depressive bi-polar father struggling to raise his young daughters while also trying to win back his wife (Zoe Saldana). The film’s title refers to Forbes’ own father’s joking description of his disorder.

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Director Olivier Assayas on Clouds of Sils Maria

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Director Olivier Assayas on Clouds of Sils Maria

Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart (who won a 2015 César Award for her performance) and Chloe Grace Moretz star in Olivier Assayas’s Clouds of Sils Maria, a layered character study that debuted In Competition at Cannes 2014. It was also screened this past September at the Toronto International Film Festival to rave reviews.

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Boychoir - Interview with Garrett Wareing and director Francois Girard

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Boychoir - Interview with Garrett Wareing and director Francois Girard

Boychoir is one of those special movies that comes around once in a blue moon. It stars Dustin Hoffman as a demanding choir master at an elite East Coast boarding school who pushes a gifted but troubled orphan (Garrett Wareing) to fulfill his true potential.

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The Last Five Years - Interviews with Jeremy Jordan, Richard LaGravenese and Tony Award winning Lyricist and Composer Jason Robert Brown.

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The Last Five Years - Interviews with Jeremy Jordan, Richard LaGravenese and Tony Award winning Lyricist and Composer Jason Robert Brown.

This Valentines Day weekend is going to be extra special with the big screen release of the musical,The Last Five Years.  The film stars Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan and is based on the off-Broadway hit of the same name by Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown. The film is written and directed by Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King, The Bridges of Madison County).

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Rosewater - Interview with Gael Garcia Bernal

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Rosewater - Interview with Gael Garcia Bernal

Rosewater is a powerful drama written and directed by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, based on the memoir Then They Came for Me by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy.  In 2009, London-based Canadian-Iranian Newsweek reporter Bahari (played by Gael Garcia Bernal) was detained in Iran for more than 100 days because of an interview with The Daily Show's Jason Jones regarding the country's presidential election.

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Director Damien Chazelle on the acclaim for "Whiplash"

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Director Damien Chazelle on the acclaim for "Whiplash"

Whiplash is bar none one of the most intense, often hard to watch and BEST films I have seen in a very long time. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle the film follows Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) a promising young drummer who enrolls at a cutthroat music conservatory. His dreams of greatness are mentored by Terence Fletcher, (J.K. Simmons) an arrogant, perfectionist music conductor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential talent. 

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Simon Pegg and Rosamund Pike discuss Hector and the Search for Happiness

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Simon Pegg and Rosamund Pike discuss Hector and the Search for Happiness

In Hector and the Search for Happiness, Simon Pegg plays the lead character Hector a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara (Rosamund Pike), he feels like a fraud: he hasn't really tasted life, and yet he's offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. 

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TIFF14: And the People's Choice Award Goes To......

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GROSLCH PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD                                                                                          

There were a number of extraordinary films at this year's Toronto International Film festival but there was one that was a clear front runner from the minute anyone laid eyes on it at early press screenings. This year marked the 37th year that Toronto audiences were able to cast a ballot for their favorite Festival film, with the Grolsch  People’s Choice Award. This year’s award goes to Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, the genius British mathematician, logician, cryptologist and computer scientist who led the charge to crack the German Enigma Code that helped the Allies win WWII. Turing went on to assist with the development of computers at the University of Manchester after the war, but was prosecuted by the UK government in 1952 for homosexual acts which the country deemed illegal.  The award offers a $15,000 cash prize and custom award, sponsored by Grolsch.

 

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The first runner up is Isabel Coixet’s Learning to Drive. The second  runner up is Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent starring Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy. 

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS STARRING JEMAINE CLEMENT

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS STARRING JEMAINE CLEMENT

The Grolsch People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award goes to Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement for What We Do in the  Shadows. The film follows three flatmates who are just trying to get by and overcome life’s obstacles — like being immortal vampires who must feast on human blood. First runner up is Kevin Smith for Tusk and the second runner up is Jalmari Helander for Big Game.   The Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award goes to Hajooj Kuka for Beats of the Antonov. Beats of the Antonov follows  refugees from the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan as they survive displacement and the trauma of civil war. Music, a cornerstone of their traditions and identity, becomes itself a vehicle for survival. First runner up is David Thorpe’s Do I Sound Gay? The second runner up is Ethan Hawke’s Seymour: An Introduction.