A celebration of inclusivity and difference
The Toronto International Film Festival, originally named the Festival of Festivals, has become one of the world’s most significant publicly attended film festivals—alongside Cannes—screening more than 300 films from over 60 countries. TIFF features movies from several different genres in cinema, such as big blockbusters, indie movies, and foreign films.
TIFF is an exuberant celebration of cinema and an opportunity for artists, fans, and media to come together to embrace the power of the moving image. After nearly two weeks of famous faces, dedicated film fans, and most importantly, new and promising flicks, the festival has drawn to a close.
After a particularly bumpy year for diversity in film, one could definitely feel the ground shifting at this year’s TIFF, as many of the films rushed forward with an urgency to explore unheard stories of race, gender, sexual orientation, and poverty.
“…the films rushed forward with an urgency to explore unheard stories of race, gender, sexual orientation, and poverty.”
Director Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight is an expressive portrait of a young black man coming to terms with his sexuality as he grows up in a lower-class neighborhood of Miami. Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation is based on the story of Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion in the U.S. in 1831. The film’s TIFF premiere was met with a lengthy standing ovation. Loving, directed by Jeff Nichols, stars Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton as Mildred and Richard Loving whose interracial marriage got them sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958. Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom also focuses on an interracial marriage that caused an international stir in the late 1940s.
With an audience in a city like Toronto that has a vast range of races, sexual orientations, identities, backgrounds, and languages, TIFF chose films that would speak to individuals on an emotional level, as well as shine an even brighter spotlight on diversity.
There is most definitely an energy in the air whenever TIFF rolls through the city; it is a true celebration of film, filmmakers, and film lovers. With the list of films covering many different genres and styles, there is truly something for everyone to enjoy.
Photo by Sarah Regan.