TIFF welcomes you back with open arms — and safety measures
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TIFF this year is going to be an interesting combo of sparkle and safety.
The annual festival turns Toronto into a movie mecca from Sept. 9-18 with a return to in-theatre screenings that has fans counting the days.
Rolling with the COVID punches has been a bit of a roller-coaster for organizers, but protocols are in place and the Toronto International Film Festival is ready to roll out the red carpet for 2021.
“It’s been challenging,” said Joana Vicente, co-head of TIFF. “But we are prepared.”
For this 46th annual event, the Princess of Wales Theatre, TIFF Bell Lightbox, and Roy Thomson Hall are back in business, as is the IMAX theatre and three outdoor theatres at Ontario Place.
And satellite theatres across Canada will show TIFF movies in a new “Coast to Coast Screenings” event that celebrates a return to movie theatres.
On Sept. 13, theatres from Summerside, P.E.I. to Prince Rupert, B.C. will show TIFF features to lucky audiences.
The festival will be a hybrid of in-person and digital screenings, which errs on the side of safety. And yes, there will be red carpets this year, but they too will have strict safety protocols.
For anyone not ready to go back into a theatre, “we have a very robust digital platform,” said Vicente. “Canadian audiences can have access to the films in the festival even if they can’t get to Toronto.”
That digital platform, which started last year because of the pandemic, is a bit of a silver lining — it’s given TIFF national reach.
Vicente said she’s particularly excited about the Tribute Awards this year.
They are always a high point of the festival, attracting plenty of the star wattage TIFF is known for, and they’ve become a bellwether of awards season. Last year, Sir Anthony Hopkins was honoured, later winning the Best Actor Oscar for The Father, while fellow honouree director Chloe Zhao was also an Oscar winner for Nomadland.
Those being honoured at the third annual Tribute Awards include Jessica Chastain, Benedict Cumberbatch, filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, and Abenaki artist and filmmaker — as well as Canadian icon — Alanis Obomsawin, subject of a retrospective called Celebrating Alanis.
Jessica Chastain, bringing The Eyes of Tammy Faye to the festival as producer and star, will receive the TIFF Tribute Actor Award. She’s a TIFF veteran, having been at the festival with such films as Take Shelter, Crimson Peak, Molly’s Game and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, among others.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye, directed by Michael Showalter, looks at the rags to riches story of TV evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker and her husband Jim (Andrew Garfield). Chastain is also in TIFF film The Forgiven (directed by John Michael McDonagh) with Ralph Fiennes and Caleb Landry Jones.
Benedict Cumberbatch is likewise receiving a TIFF Tribute Award this year. He’ll be at TIFF in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog and Will Sharpe’s The Electrical Life of Louis Wain.
Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, who is bringing Dune to the festival, will receive the TIFF Ebert Director Award.
It’s too soon for TIFF’s announcement about 2021 attending celebrities, but the Tribute Award winners are a safe bet to be here and so are dozens of others — just as they attended Cannes a few weeks ago.
(If you want to speculate based on the movies that have been announced, look for Andrew Garfield, Anya Taylor-Joy, Naomi Watts, Timothee Chalamet, Ben Foster, Ethan Hawke, Jake Gyllenhaal and Melissa McCarthy, for starters. And Riz Ahmed — who’s heading up the jury for the 2021 Platform Competition.)
TIFF is working with Medcan and with the COVID officers who designed safety protocols for all the film and TV shoots in Toronto.
“We are really ready for anything,” said Vicente. “Canada is in the great position of being one of the most vaccinated places on earth.”
“We’re taking all precautions so audiences can come back and enjoy the magic of the theatrical experience, and feel safe. For us, that is absolutely paramount,” she added.
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