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Coordinates: 43°40′11″N 79°23′22″W / 43.66972, -79.38944

Toronto International Film Festival
Official 2007 poster
Hosted by	Toronto International Film Festival Group
Number of films	300 - 400
Location	Toronto, Canada
Language	International
Official website

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is a prestigious, publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Canada. The festival begins the Thursday night after Labour Day (the first Monday in September, in Canada) and lasts for ten days. Between 300-400 films are screened at approximately 23 screens in downtown Toronto venues.

The TIFF is among the top film festivals in the world. In 1998, Variety magazine acknowledged that "the Festival is second only to Cannes in terms of high-profile pics, stars and market activity." Quoted by the National Post in 1999, Roger Ebert claimed "...although Cannes is still larger, Toronto is more useful and more important...." It is the premiere film festival in North America, from which the Oscars race begins, and the world's largest festival open to the general public.[1]

The festival is centred around the Bay and Bloor area, a part of town with several luxury hotels and movie theatres. Although the Festival has begun to give more attention to mainstream Hollywood films, it still maintains its independent roots. It features retrospectives of national cinemas and individual directors, highlights of Canadian cinema, and a variety of African, South American, and Asian films.

The festival is considered a launch pad for many studios to begin "Oscar-buzz" for their films; for example, Taylor Hackford's Ray premiered at the festival and garnered much attention for Jamie Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles (for which he ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Actor).

The Director and CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival, since 1994, is Piers Handling. In 2004, Noah Cowan became Co-Director of the festival. This began a three-year transition period after which Piers Handling will relinquish the directorship to focus on his role as Festival CEO.

Contents 1 History 2 Criticism 3 References 4 External links

TIFF, known originally as "The Festival of Festivals", was founded in 1976 at the Windsor Arms Hotel.^[1] It began as a collection of the best films from festivals around the world. It has since, through consistent investment and promotion by its organizers and sponsors, grown to become a vital component of Hollywood's marketing machine.

Many notable films have had their global or North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, including Chariots of Fire, The Big Chill, Husbands and Wives, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, Downfall, American Beauty, Sideways, and Crash.

In 2001, Perspective Canada, the program that had focused on Canadian films since 1984, was replaced by two programs:

• Canada First!, a forum for Canadian filmmakers presenting their first feature-length work, featuring eight to 15 films, and
• Short Cuts Canada, which includes 30-40 Canadian short films.

The TIFF Group occasionally polls critics, programmers, and industry professionals, asking them to identify their top 10 Canadian films. The TIFF Group has conducted three such polls, in 1984, 1993, and 2004.

Maclean's magazine named TIFF one of Canada's Top 100 Employers in 2007, making it the only arts group in Canada to receive this honour.^[2]

In 2007, the Festival Group will begin construction on a new facility at the corner of King and John Streets in downtown Toronto (on land donated by Ivan Reitman and family). The facility will open in late 2009 and will provide extensive year-round galleries, cinemas, archives and activities for cinephiles.

There is growing criticism with TIFF, as with the Sundance Film Festival, that Hollywood is having too much influence over the selection process. Both film festivals have "become too big, some say; too slick, too commercial, and even too mainstream." (WeeklyWire.com)

• Official website
• Toronto International Film Festival Group
• Bell Lightbox — Festival centre
• TOfilmfest.ca — Film reviews
• tiffreviews.com
• TIFF coverage at The GATE
• Festival coverage at DigitalHit.com
• FilmFest.ca - Daily coverage
• Festival coverage at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• Festival guide at AOL Canada
• Toronto International Film Festival at the Internet Movie Database
• See Toronto 2007 Festival Favorites on Time.com (a division of Time Magazine)

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