As the Venice International Film Festival is winding down, the Toronto International Film festival kicks off Sept. 10 and continues through Sept. 19 in a Covid-19 hybrid version with physical screenings and drive-in, digital screenings and virtual red carpets. Whereas Venice is the oldest film festival having begun in 1932, Toronto is relatively new. In fact, it wasn’t even called the Toronto International Film Festival until 1994.
The festival was the brainchild of founders Bill Marshall, Dusty Cohl and Henk Van Der Kolk who launched the inaugural Festival of Festivals in 1976. The mandate was to feature the best pics from other film festivals and to attract major Hollywood productions by being one of the most hospitable movie celebrations.
The first edition of the festival didn’t set the world on fire. Guests Jack Nicholson and Julie Christie never made it. The festival had hoped to open with Hal Ashby’s biopic on Woody Guthrie,...
The festival was the brainchild of founders Bill Marshall, Dusty Cohl and Henk Van Der Kolk who launched the inaugural Festival of Festivals in 1976. The mandate was to feature the best pics from other film festivals and to attract major Hollywood productions by being one of the most hospitable movie celebrations.
The first edition of the festival didn’t set the world on fire. Guests Jack Nicholson and Julie Christie never made it. The festival had hoped to open with Hal Ashby’s biopic on Woody Guthrie,...
- 9/10/2020
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Festival veteran steps aside as Cameron Bailey, Joane Vicente prepare to take the reins.
After 36 years of service to the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), director and CEO Piers Handling bid farewell at Sunday’s awards ceremony and drew a standing ovation from filmmakers and festival staff.
“Ladies and gentlemen we have arrived at the end of another phenomenal festival and I could not be more proud of everything that we have achieved together over the past 36 years,” said Handling in typically understated manner as he presided over the ceremony with artistic director Cameron Bailey.
The Tiff veteran, who joined...
After 36 years of service to the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), director and CEO Piers Handling bid farewell at Sunday’s awards ceremony and drew a standing ovation from filmmakers and festival staff.
“Ladies and gentlemen we have arrived at the end of another phenomenal festival and I could not be more proud of everything that we have achieved together over the past 36 years,” said Handling in typically understated manner as he presided over the ceremony with artistic director Cameron Bailey.
The Tiff veteran, who joined...
- 9/16/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Tiff has come and gone. Masses of Canadians attend the festival which is what gives it such a special atmosphere. In Cannes, only the industry attends the festival; the public sets up chairs and ladders to watch the red carpet galas and take pictures. But here the public is as much a part of the festival as the industry.Tiff Bell Lightbox
The industry action which consists of buying and selling of film rights takes place at the Hyatt Hotel on King Street West. The screenings for both public and industry are down the street at the Tiff Bell Lightbox and around the corner at the Scotia Multiplex. The dense mingling of public and industry at these venues and on the street itself which is closed to traffic for the first weekend but is open to pedestrians, photo-op spots, food trucks creates a festive bevvy of activity to the city.
The industry action which consists of buying and selling of film rights takes place at the Hyatt Hotel on King Street West. The screenings for both public and industry are down the street at the Tiff Bell Lightbox and around the corner at the Scotia Multiplex. The dense mingling of public and industry at these venues and on the street itself which is closed to traffic for the first weekend but is open to pedestrians, photo-op spots, food trucks creates a festive bevvy of activity to the city.
- 9/18/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
If you are a devotee of big screen/Hollywood movies, you already have heard about the Toronto Film Festival, formally known as the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff). A venue for film lovers from all over the world, the festival had its first gathering in 1976 and currently attracts nearly 500,000 viewers from around the world that meet in downtown Toronto. Public tickets for this year’s non-tiff members are a paltry $25 or so per screening, opening it up to virtually anyone. The idea started when three men, Bill Marshall, Dusty Cohl and Henk Van der Kolk, decided to collect the
A Brief History of The Toronto Film Festival...
A Brief History of The Toronto Film Festival...
- 9/12/2017
- by Nat Berman
- TVovermind.com
Bill Marshall, who co-founded the Toronto International Film Festival in 1976, passed away yesterday at the age of 77. Tiff — known back then as the Festival of Festivals and co-founded by Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl — announced the unforunate news in a statement, which included thoughts from Marshall’s family. He died early on January 1 from cardiac arrest.
Read More: Critics Pick the Best Films From the Toronto International Film Festival: And the Winner Is…
“In a very real way Bill was in the business of making dreams become reality and he continued doing so to the very end with several new projects in development,” reads a portion of the statement from Marshall’s family. “Now, as the house lights dim, friends and family will remember and honour Bill as a first rate raconteur, famous for his honesty, keen mind and wry humour.” Born in Scotland in 1939, Marshall made...
Read More: Critics Pick the Best Films From the Toronto International Film Festival: And the Winner Is…
“In a very real way Bill was in the business of making dreams become reality and he continued doing so to the very end with several new projects in development,” reads a portion of the statement from Marshall’s family. “Now, as the house lights dim, friends and family will remember and honour Bill as a first rate raconteur, famous for his honesty, keen mind and wry humour.” Born in Scotland in 1939, Marshall made...
- 1/2/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
The producer and Canadian film industry pioneer died of a heart attack on Sunday in hospital in Toronto. He was 77.
Marshall was born in 1939 in Glasgow, Scotland, and emigrated to Canada in 1955. He co-founded the festival in 1976 with Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl.
Marshall was a former president of the Canadian Association Of Motion Picture Producers and notched up numerous documentary and narrative feature credits.
He also produced for stage, including the Toronto production of Hair. He received the Order Of Canada for his contribution to the arts.
Outside of the arts, he served as campaign manager and chief of staff for three Toronto mayors and was a journalist, novellist, and speechwriter for royalty.
In a statement his family said, “Now, as the house lights dim, friends and family will remember and honour Bill as a first rate raconteur, famous for his honesty, keen mind and wry humour.”
Toronto Mayor John...
Marshall was born in 1939 in Glasgow, Scotland, and emigrated to Canada in 1955. He co-founded the festival in 1976 with Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl.
Marshall was a former president of the Canadian Association Of Motion Picture Producers and notched up numerous documentary and narrative feature credits.
He also produced for stage, including the Toronto production of Hair. He received the Order Of Canada for his contribution to the arts.
Outside of the arts, he served as campaign manager and chief of staff for three Toronto mayors and was a journalist, novellist, and speechwriter for royalty.
In a statement his family said, “Now, as the house lights dim, friends and family will remember and honour Bill as a first rate raconteur, famous for his honesty, keen mind and wry humour.”
Toronto Mayor John...
- 1/1/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Bill Marshall, a founder of the Toronto International Film Festival, has died. He was 77.
Marshall passed away Sunday in a Toronto hospital after a cardiac arrest, the festival said. Marshall and two friends, Henk van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl, launched the then Festival of Festivals in 1976 to bring American stars and the best of European cinema to a sophisticated Toronto audience.
Their first year saw 35,000 film lovers attending to watch 127 features from 30 countries. Tiff, which today is a familiar launching pad for Hollywood Oscar campaigns, annually features A-list talent such as Matt...
Marshall passed away Sunday in a Toronto hospital after a cardiac arrest, the festival said. Marshall and two friends, Henk van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl, launched the then Festival of Festivals in 1976 to bring American stars and the best of European cinema to a sophisticated Toronto audience.
Their first year saw 35,000 film lovers attending to watch 127 features from 30 countries. Tiff, which today is a familiar launching pad for Hollywood Oscar campaigns, annually features A-list talent such as Matt...
- 1/1/2017
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bill Marshall, co-founder of the Toronto International Film Festival, died today, his family announced. He was 77 and suffered a heart attack while in the hospital. A Scottish immigrant to Canada, Marshall, who was later awarded the Order of Canada, Marshall co-founded Tiff, originally called Toronto Festival of Festivals, in 1976 with Dusty Cohl and Henk Van der Kolk. Though at first avoided by Hollywood, the festival, which changed to its current name in 1994, would…...
- 1/1/2017
- Deadline
Putting a film festival on a cruise ship is nothing new; Dusty Cohl and company have been putting on The Floating Film Festival for about 20 years, and there are undoubtedly others as well. But the Floating Polar Film Festival, which brings together Quark Expeditions and HotDocs, still feels rather fresh, if only for the small size of the vessel, the length of the voyage, and the South Pole itinerary along South Georgia and the Falklands (Malvinas). The Sea Spirit heads out from Buenos Aires on November 2nd, 2013 for a 23 day voyage with fewer than 120 passengers.Their programming is excellent for this as well, leaning heavily on environmental documentaries that are deeply infused with strong characters as well as global messages. Films like the...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 8/14/2013
- Screen Anarchy
In addition to the announcement of 44 new films today, the Toronto International Film Festival also set an extensive industry program, and plans for a 35th anniversary celebration. The latter will involve a series of free public screenings showcasing films from the festival's past, all of which will take place at the new Tiff Bell Lightbox. “When our founders Dusty Cohl, Bill Marshall and Henk Van der Kolk started the Festival ...
- 8/17/2010
- Indiewire
The Toronto International Film Festival's influence on awards season is bigger than ever, and fest purists are grumbling. That's how longtime Toronto Sun film writer Bruce Kirkland summed up the state of the Toronto fest in a front page op-ed a year ago. It was a bold, unflinching commentary on a film event that has, for the most part, skillfully avoided drama over the years. But Kirkland didn't stop there. In lamenting how far he feels the fest has veered off course, the scribe declared that original co-founder Dusty Cohl "would be appalled." Full story...
It's been more than 25 years since Billy (Silver Dollar) Baxter last graced the Cannes Film Festival, and yet as I pack for this year's event, I am thinking about him even now, and I am smiling. Billy single-handedly created an alternate reality at Cannes, and such was the force of his personality that those who came within earshot were seduced. In the words of Elaine May, he carried on a way of life that was extinct before he was born.
Billy was a loudmouth operator from the pages of Damon Runyon, whose gift was creating scenarios to entertain us. He didn't want our money, he didn't want publicity, he didn't want a free lunch, he only wanted our laughter, and to know that we would pass around the latest "Billy Baxter story." We are still passing them around. Billy is still very much alive, and we are in touch; he lives not far from Broadway,...
Billy was a loudmouth operator from the pages of Damon Runyon, whose gift was creating scenarios to entertain us. He didn't want our money, he didn't want publicity, he didn't want a free lunch, he only wanted our laughter, and to know that we would pass around the latest "Billy Baxter story." We are still passing them around. Billy is still very much alive, and we are in touch; he lives not far from Broadway,...
- 6/11/2009
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
The 10th Anniversary Ebertfest begins tonight in Urbana-Champaign. It is with some melancholy that I write these words on a legal pad in a hospital bed in Chicago. After consulting with my doctors, I have decided it may not be prudent to try to make the journey today with a fractured hip.
Sigh. I was really happy with this one. The films, the guests, the friends. Chaz, Nate Kohn, Mary Susan Britt and I had all the pieces in place. The only tweak I didn’t have time for was a proper full-length review of “Shotgun Stories.” It was on the to-do list. What I’m using now is what I wrote after seeing it at the Chicago Film Festival. The rest is almost a turn-key operation---the little festival that runs itself, with the help of countless volunteers.
It’s hard to express what it means to me that the festival is in my hometown.
Sigh. I was really happy with this one. The films, the guests, the friends. Chaz, Nate Kohn, Mary Susan Britt and I had all the pieces in place. The only tweak I didn’t have time for was a proper full-length review of “Shotgun Stories.” It was on the to-do list. What I’m using now is what I wrote after seeing it at the Chicago Film Festival. The rest is almost a turn-key operation---the little festival that runs itself, with the help of countless volunteers.
It’s hard to express what it means to me that the festival is in my hometown.
- 5/11/2008
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
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