TIFF’s new competitive program Platform, Toronto’s bid for a juried trophy hunt similar to the Palme d’Or race in Cannes, now has movies to go with its name.

The 12 globe-spanning films announced Thursday by the Toronto International Film Festival for next month’s annual event span both the globe and artistic interests while featuring distinct directorial visions, including one from right here at home.

“From a stark coming-of-age story, a retro-futuristic science-fiction and a lyrical post-western to an abduction thriller, a raw documentary and hard-hitting and topical dramas, this lineup reflects the diversity of international directors’ cinema today,” said TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey, unveiling a Platform slate chosen for its “unique visual and narrative styles.”

An international jury composed of acclaimed filmmakers Jia Zhang-ke, Claire Denis and Agnieszka Holland will view the dozen contenders during TIFF, which runs from Sept. 10-20. They’ll choose the film to receive the $25,000 Toronto Platform prize and trophy at the Sept. 20 awards ceremony.

The Platform films are all world, international or North American premieres:

Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) (Eva Husson, France): A risky group game tests the limits of personal sexuality for a group of suburban high schoolers. Daisy Broom, Fred Hotier, Lorenzo Lefebvre, Marilyn Lima, and Finnegan Oldfield star.

The Clan (Pablo Trapero, Argentina/Spain): The family that preys together stays together. Fact-based story of an Argentine family which made its living through kidnapping and murder to fatten bank accounts and advance brutal government policies. Guillermo Francella and Peter Lanzani star.

French Blood (Diastème, France): The story of a ferocious French skinhead, born in 1965 on the outskirts of Paris, and his clashes with the races, religions and cultures that infuriate him. Alban Lenoir, Paul Hamy, Samuel Jouy and Patrick Pineau star.

Full Contact (David Verbeek, Netherlands/Croatia): A man who accidentally bombed a school through a remotely operated drone must face his victims, if he has any hope of rebuilding his own life. Grégoire Colin, Lizzie Brocheré and Slimane Dazi star.

High-Rise (Ben Wheatley, United Kingdom): In this screen adaptation of this dystopian novel by JG Ballard (Crash), manners and morals quickly vanish after a London doctor moves into a soulless high-rise. His sanity may follow. Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans and Elisabeth Moss star.
HURT (Alan Zweig, Canada): Whatever happened to Steve Fonyo, the one-legged cancer survivor who heroically ran across Canada for charity in 1985? This doc by Toronto filmmaker Zweig has the answers, and they shock.

Land of Mine (Martin Zandvliet, Denmark/Germany): The Second World War is over, but not for a group of young German POWs captured by the Danish army, who are forced into a dangerous new path. Roland Møller, Louis Hofmann, Joel Basman, Emil Buschow, Oskar Buschow and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard star.

Looking for Grace (Sue Brooks, Australia): Teen runaway Grace has escaped her family home in western Australian, with retired detective Norris in hot pursuit. Lives are about to change in ways no one could anticipate. Richard Roxburgh, Radha Mitchell, Odessa Young and Terry Norris.

Neon Bull (Gabriel Mascaro, Brazil/Uruguay/Netherlands): An ad hoc Brazilian family of oddballs care for rodeo bulls in this film Bailey describes as “Lynchian” as well as “lyrical” and “bizarre.” Juliano Cazarré, Aline Santana, Carlos Pessoa and Maeve Jinkings star.

The Promised Land (He Ping, China): A small-town Chinese woman loses her fiancé in Beijing. A broken heart brings her home, with all the complications that implies. Jiajia Wang, Yi Zhang, and Zhiwen Wang star.
Sky (Fabienne Berthaud, France/Germany): A Palm Springs holiday for a vacationing European couple turns serious after an argument changes life plans for one of them. Diane Kruger, Norman Reedus, Gilles Lellouche, Lena Dunham and Q’orianka Kilcher star.

The White Knights (Joachim Lafosse, France/Belgium): The Zoe’s Ark controversy of orphaned West African kids being sold for adoption goes from 2007 headlines becomes a 2015 abduction thriller. Vincent Lindon, Valérie Donzelli, Reda Kateb, Louise Bourgoin and Rougalta Bintou Saleh.

More information and ticket details are available at tiff.net.

Source: Toronto Star

Boundary-pushing films from Gaspar Noé, Jeremy Saulnier and programming mainstay Takashi Miike are heading to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, organizers revealed Tuesday.

The announcement was the latest in TIFF’s summer-long rollout of titles, and included details of the ever-popular Midnight Madness program, which focuses on genre films considered perhaps too extreme for mainstream audiences. Highlights of this year’s Midnight slate include Green Room, Saulnier’s much-anticipated followup to his acclaimed horror-comedy Blue Ruin, starring Patrick Stewart; Sean Byrne’s The Devil’s Candy, whose marketing emphasizes its producer connection to the so-called “mumblegore” hits You’re Next and The Guest; and Miike’s excitedly titled Yakuza Apocalypse, the latest gonzo horror-fantasy-sci-fi fever dream from the prolific director, a favourite of TIFF.

“One I want to point out is this Turkish film Baskin, which I’m over the moon about,” said Colin Geddes, international programmer for TIFF. “Any time we have a film from a country that has never played Midnight Madness is special, but this is different: It’s a very disturbing descent into hell. If you want a master class of how to manipulate an audience and create a tense atmosphere, come to the last 10 minutes of that.”

Notably absent from the Midnight Madness lineup, though, is Crimson Peak, the new gothic horror from director Guillermo del Toro, though it could still pop up in TIFF scheduling announcements later this month. The fact that the film was made in Toronto – and part-time local Del Toro previously brought Pan’s Labyrinth to the fest in 2006 – led some observers to believe Crimson Peak was a lock.

“All I’ll say to that is that it is not playing Midnight Madness or Vanguard,” Geddes said. “There’s a lot more fun stuff coming down the pipeline.”

In addition to its Midnight Madness and Vanguard programs, TIFF announced the lineup for its Masters, documentary and Cinematheque programs. The last features a selection of restored films, including Frederick Wiseman’s Titicut Follies in a new 35mm print, and Harlan County, USA from Barbara Kopple. Both directors will screen new films in the festival’s documentary program, which includes such other marquee names as Amy Berg (Janis: Little Girl Blue), Davis Guggenheim (He Named Me Malala), and Laurie Anderson (Heart of a Dog).

Tickets to all the Cinematheque screenings will be free, and distributed on a first-come, first-served basis two hours before each screening.

In terms of awards bait, the most likely candidates can be found in the Masters program, with such popular Cannes selections as The Assassin from Hou Hsiao-hsien (who recently enjoyed a career retrospective at the Bell Lightbox), and Cemetery of Splendor, courtesy of critical darling Apichatpong Weerasethakul, plus Wim Wenders’ Every Thing Will Be Fine, which stars James Franco, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Rachel McAdams, fresh from a much-agonized-over run on HBO’s True Detective.

The most controversial film set to screen at TIFF, at least of the films announced so far, will likely be Noé’s Love, a sexually explicit drama following a romantic triangle. The Buenos Aires-born director, best-known for his headline-grabbing rape-revenge drama Irreversible, received mostly critical shrugs for his latest, though it did cause conservative hearts to skip a beat when it was revealed to contain un-simulated sex acts, all filmed in 3D.

“Noé is definitely the bad boy of French cinema, and this will definitely cause a scandal,” Geddes said of the Vanguard selection. “But the film is not quite as transgressive as what he’s known for. Above anything else, it’s just beautiful and stunning – a very caring look at how we make love.”

The 40th edition of TIFF runs from Sept. 10 to Sept. 20.

Source: Globe and Mail

No “Netflix tax” in Canada. That was the word from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper promised not to tax streaming services last week, saying, “I’m 100% against a Netflix tax — always have been, always will be.”

He warned, however, that his opponents might do just that, claiming, “Some politicians want to tax digital streaming services like Netflix and YouTube,” Harper says. “Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair have left the door wide open to doing just that.”

Liberal spokesman Cameron Ahmad called Harper’s statement a “fiction” and a “distraction” to take away focus from the country’s economic situation. Ahmad says that the current administration is trying to shift focus from the fact that Canada has weathered a number of deficits and “is on the verge of a second recession.”

In the United States, Chicago made news when it imposed a 9% add on for the privilege of streaming entertainment, promptly dubbed the “Netflix tax.” Officials were quick to say that the tax wasn’t new, merely an interpretation of the city’s existing amusement being extended to “any paid television programming, whether transmitted by wire, cable, fibex optics, laser, microwave, radio, satellite or similar means.”

The tax in Chicago was widely criticized. However, the idea of taxing streaming services isn’t limited to the Windy City: the notion has been bandied about in many places – like Canada. Harper’s comments suggested that he is firmly against such a proposal in Canada but leaders in the Liberal Party say that’s not true. They point to last year’s budget when the Conservative Party (Harper is the Leader of the Conservative Party) encouraged an increased focus on collecting a “sales tax on e-commerce sales to Canadians by foreign-based vendors.” The U.S. based Netflix is an example of a foreign-based vendor.

It may sound like just a lot of back and forth. Only there’s a big piece of that discussion missing: Department of Finance Canada says that Netflix isn’t tax free. Yes, while the politicians are fighting about who hates the idea of the Netflix tax more, Canada, it would appear, already has one. And while Netflix doesn’t tack it onto their bills for users to pay (remember, they’re US based), Netflix subscribers should be paying it anyway. Similar to what we think of as a use tax, if the business doesn’t charge the applicable sales tax, the end user is responsible for remitting the tax.

So how much money is Canada missing out on? Quite a bit if estimates are correct. Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, says that “Roughly 40 per cent of English speaking households [in Canada] subscribe to Netflix.” Chances are, very few of them are voluntarily paying the tax. That translates to millions of dollars going missing every year – from the very tax that Canada’s political leaders don’t seem to believe exists in the first place.

Source: Forbes