Cameron Bailey Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Seven Veils,” a drama starring Amanda Seyfried, will have its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Atom Egoyan directed the movie, which also stars Rebecca Liddiard, Douglas Smith, Mark O’Brien and Vinessa Antoine. TIFF runs from Sept. 7-17, and the full lineup for the 48th edition will be released in August. “We are honoured to premiere Atom Egoyan’s extraordinary film at this year’s festival,” said TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey. “Egoyan’s cinematic works are unmatched, and we’re excited to bring ‘Seven Veils’ to our TIFF audiences and to the city of Toronto, his home.”

TIFF has added the world premiere of Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils to their 48th lineup. It’s the director’s 18th title to premiere at TIFF.

TIFF 2023.“We are honored to showcase Ladj Ly’s remarkable talent once again with the World Premiere of his latest work, ‘Les Indésirables,’” Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF, said. “This deeply personal film beautifully captures the struggles and aspirations of a community, reflecting Ly’s unparalleled storytelling skills.”The film – whose title is a nod to the Victor Hugo novel – is set in the suburbs of Paris and follows a young doctor (Alexis Manenti) who is appointed to replace the mayor after the politican’s sudden death.

“Next Goal Wins” will have its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Wednesday.Waititi’s Oscar-winning feature “Jojo Rabbit” also premiered at TIFF and won the festival’s People’s Choice Award in 2019. His most recent film was “Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022) for Marvel/Disney.A sports comedy starring Michael Fassbender, “Next Goal Wins” is based on the story of the 2014 American Samoa soccer team, which lost a FIFA match 31-0 and then hired a Dutch-American coach, Thomas Rongen, to help them prepare for World Cup qualifiers.

In exciting news for movie lovers and soccer enthusiasts alike, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced that Taika Waititi’s soccer comedy, “Next Goal Wins”, will have its world premiere at the 48th edition of the festival.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Taika Waititi’s sports comedy “Next Goal Wins” will have its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. “We’re thrilled to welcome Taika back to the Festival and share his audacious take on the most popular sport in the world,” said Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF. “’Next Goal Wins’ is perfect for TIFF fans of the beautiful game looking for their football fix until the 2024 World Cup arrives.” Waititi, who most recently directed Marvel’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” was last at the festival in 2019 with “Jojo Rabbit.” The offbeat comedy, about a 10-year-old Hitler Youth member whose imaginary friend is the Führer himself, won the TIFF People’s Choice Award and an Academy Award for adapted screenplay. Waititi is also known for “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” “Our Flag Means Death” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”

The Toronto International Film Festival is beginning to reveal its feature slate for its 48th edition, starting off with Searchlight’s Taika Waititi soccer comedy Next Goal Wins.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International The Toronto International Film Festival has hired veteran Canadian media executive Judy Lung as its VP of public relations and communications. Lung, who starts in the role on Monday, most recently served as director of communications for Canadian exhibition giant Cineplex. Over her 20-year career, Lung has handled public relations and communications for some of Canada’s leading arts and entertainment organizations. Her recent publicity campaigns span titles such as “Scarborough,” which is based on the novel by Catherine Hernandez, and David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future.”

After two truncated years of pandemic-related disruptions, film festivals around the world returned with full-flowing in-person events this year.

Jeff Barnaby, a filmmaker and member of the Mi’kmaw tribe who brought Indigenous cinema to greater attention, has died at 46. He had a yearlong battle with cancer, his representative confirmed.

Steven Spielberg is enjoying another triumph, with his quasi-autobiographical drama “The Fabelmans” earning this year’s People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Kathy A. McDonald Celebrities and industry pros are back in full force for TIFF.  Toronto restaurateurs, hoteliers and event planners are thrilled they are back. TIFF’s CEO Cameron Bailey points to the fest’s economic boost for Toronto and the country as well.  Toronto’s re-energized hospitality sector includes a slew of long-planned, major hotel openings now come to realization from the W Hotel in Yorkville to Canada’s first Ace Hotel. These new and updated spots for refined cocktails, memorable meals, restful staysand post-screening celebrations are where TIFF attendees and Toronto visitors can reliably chill out and spot A-listers.

Jordan Peele’s third feature, “Nope,” focuses on a group of characters (played by Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea and Michael Wincott) attempting to track down an unidentified flying object spotted in the air around the Agua Dulce desert. Many of the film’s scenes take place in the dead of night, but as Peele describes it, the majority of them weren’t filmed at night. Instead, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot most of the scenes during the day using some innovative technological approaches “I haven’t wanted to ruin the illusion, but I’ll ruin it for you today,” Peele said at a Toronto International Film Festival Q&A on Sept. 12. “The night shots, for the most part, were shot in the day, which is due to a technological and strategic thing that [Hoytema] brought to the table. ”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Damien Chazelle was itching for a change of pace. “After the quietness of ‘First Man,'” he says, referring to his 2018 astronaut drama, much of which unfolded in deep space, “I wanted to do something big, boisterous and loud.” The result is “Babylon,” a star-studded homage to Hollywood’s silent era, a movie that captures “humanity at its most glamorous and animalistic,” the director teases. “It’s a mostly fictional film.” Chazelle brought a never-before-seen trailer to the Toronto Film Festival, where he spoke at length about his career — namely “Whiplash” and “La La Land” — in a keynote conversation with CEO Cameron Bailey. The Oscar-winning filmmaker is still in post-production on “Babylon,” which opens in theaters on Dec. 25. “I’ll be very happy to finally finish it.”

Today at TIFF, months before its Christmas Day theatrical opening, Oscar-winning filmmaker Damien Chazelle came to show off the trailer of his Hollywood period opus, Babylon. It will drop tom’w. The pic is still in post.

Brent Lang Executive Editor It was supposed to be all about the movies. But even here at the Toronto International Film Festival, an ocean away from the United Kingdom, the death of 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II has loomed large. It has provided an opportunity for festival organizers, filmmakers and talent to reflect on the life and legacy of a monarch whose 70-year reign ranks as the longest in her country’s history. That’s partly due to Canada’s status as a member of the British Commonwealth, but it’s also because the festival is such an international A-list affair, one that attracts movie stars and directors who have often had personal encounters with the queen.

Brendan Fraser fought back tears as “The Whale” received a passionate standing ovation at its Toronto International Film Festival premiere on Sunday. The crowd stood for roughly five minutes until festival organizers quieted the applause to begin a question and answer session with Fraser, director Darren Aronofsky, writer Samuel D. Hunter and cast members Sadie Sink and Ty Simpkins. The reception was one of the strongest yet at this year’s festival, a gathering that has already included the premieres of Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” TIFF was set to be a big festival for Fraser even before “The Whale” screened to huge acclaim. The actor is receiving the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance at the 2022 festival, with TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey saying, “Brendan Fraser gives a performance of staggering depth, power, and nuance in ‘The Whale.’ This former Torontonian has been an action star, a screen comic, and a romantic lead. We’re thrilled to welcome him home as the actor behind one of the finest performances of the year.”

Manori Ravindran International Editor The stars descended on Soho House in downtown Toronto on Saturday for Variety and Chanel’s Female Filmmakers’ Dinner during the Toronto International Film Festival. Guests in attendance included Tilda Swinton, star of Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter”; Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of “The Woman King”; Darren Aronofsky, director of “The Whale”; and Anna Kendrick, who’s in Toronto shopping her new AGC Studios project “The Dating Game” to market buyers. Stars mingled on a packed rooftop before convening in the club’s private dining room, which gathered around 100 of the festival’s bright lights in filmmaking. They dined on a bespoke Soho House menu of beef tartare with black truffle, black cod and bok choy, and wagyu rib cap with porcini purée.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Steven Spielberg has said that mining his family history to make “The Fabelmans” was a “very daunting experience” that was at times “very, very hard to get through.” The iconic filmmaker’s latest project world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday night to raves from critics and largely favorable reviews. The semi-autobiographical movie, which is already being tipped as an Oscar contender, tells the story of Sam Fabelman, a young boy who falls in love with cinema, but finds himself fighting family turmoil to keep his dream alive. In a so-called press conference on Sunday, that was effectively a Q&A with TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey (the festival did not take any questions in the room from the gathered journalists, who had to submit questions almost 24 hours in advance), the “Jaws” director said he thought making the movie “would be a lot easier than it turned out to be because I know the material and I’ve known the characters for my entire life.”

Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” earned a roaring standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, as the crowd of movie lovers cheered loudly for the Oscar-winning auteur as he made his first appearance at the gathering. “I’m really glad we came to Toronto,” a visibly moved Spielberg said after taking the stage as the credits rolled.  The director said he was inspired by the COVID pandemic to tell his most personal story yet, a look at his early filmmaking efforts, his childhood in Arizona and Northern California, and the dissolution of his family. However, he reassured the crowd at TIFF that this would not serve as his farewell to movies.“This is not because I’m going to retire and this is my swan song,” he said. “Don’t believe any of that.”

Christopher Vourlias The weeks leading up to a world premiere are typically a time of celebration and anticipation for the filmmakers, particularly when that premiere is taking place at the Toronto Film Festival. But for the team behind “Elesin Oba, The King’s Horseman,” which is produced by Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife Films and Netflix and will screen in the festival’s Special Presentations section, there will be a long shadow cast across the red carpet on opening night. Just weeks ahead of the film’s world premiere on Sept. 10, director Biyi Bandele died in Lagos, Nigeria. His sudden, tragic passing on the eve of what would have been his crowning achievement as a filmmaker sent shockwaves through the film community, particularly in Africa and across the diaspora.

Taylor Swift fever hit the Toronto Film Festival on Friday night as the singer-songwriter star passed through with actress Sadie Sink to present her 10-minute work All Too Well: The Short Film, followed by an hour-long In Conversation event with festival CEO Cameron Bailey.

William Earl In the wake of winning the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year, Taylor Swift brought “All Too Well: The Short Film” to the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9 for a discussion in front of scores of devoted fans. How devoted? The first group of fans in line arrived at midnight, the second group at 5 a.m. — and they didn’t even have tickets yet, but were hoping that will call would answer their prayers, or that they would catch a glimpse of Swift walking by. The talk, alongside TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, focused on her directorial process and thinking of her music from a visual angle. It was also coupled with the first 35mm screening of “All Too Well,” which she wrote, directed, produced and makes an appearance in.

Manori Ravindran International Editor The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off on a historic day with one of its strongest opening films in years in Sally El Hosaini’s “The Swimmers,” but what some audience members will likely remember is the stressful experience of getting to Roy Thomson Hall in the first place. TIFF, which has gone digital this year via Ticketmaster, has been plagued with ticketing issues all week thanks to a complicated voucher process for public tickets. While it was hoped that many of the technical kinks would be ironed out by opening night, this wasn’t the case. Media outlets, including Variety, that received opening night tickets from the film’s studio — in this case, Netflix — didn’t receive their tickets in time for the screening due to “technical glitches” and had to be rounded up and escorted to their seats by representatives for the streamer.

Veteran producer Mel Eslyn’s feature directorial debut Biosphere, starring Emmy winners Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) and Mark Duplass (The Morning Show), will be making its world premiere as a surprise Special Presentation at the 47th edition of the Toronto Film Festival. The film will make its festival bow in the Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre at 2:30 p.m. on September 10th.

Taylor Swift is set to make an exciting appearance at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Taylor Swift is about to become the hottest ticket at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The singer and songwriting star will appear in conversation with TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey and introduce her short film, “All Too Well,” at the annual celebration of movies. “In Conversation With… Taylor Swift” will take place on Friday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox, so start lining up now (only kind of joking). The event will mark the first-ever screening of “All Too Well” on 35mm. “We love the intersection of film and other art forms, and Taylor Swift is a brilliant visual thinker,” said Bailey. “We’re excited to hear Taylor’s version of how absorbing influences from cinema led to her creating ‘All Too Well: The Short Film.'”

The Everything Everywhere All at Once and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actress is set to receive the Toronto International Film Festival’s  inaugural TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award presented by BVLGARI at the fest’s upcoming Tribute Awards on Sunday, Sept. 11 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Michelle Yeoh will receive the Toronto International Film Festival’s inaugural Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award. The TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award recognizes a woman who is a leader in the film industry and has made a positive impact for women throughout their career. The award, sponsored by Bulgari, will be presented at an in-person gala fundraiser on Sunday, Sept. 11 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. “Michelle Yeoh is the definition of groundbreaking,” said Cameron Bailey, TIFF CEO. “Her screen work has spanned continents, genres and decades. This year she delivered a performance in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ that shows her limitless abilities.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor The Toronto Film Festival will honor composer Hildur Guðnadóttir with the Variety Artisan Award at this year’s Tribute Awards. Along with Guðnadóttir, Welsh Egyptian filmmaker and screenwriter Sally El Hosaini will receive the TIFF Emerging Talent Award presented by MGM at the annual TIFF Tribute Awards. This awards season, Guðnadóttir composed the scores for two films, Todd Field’s “Tár” and Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking.” Guðnadóttir cemented her place in Oscar history when she became only the fourth woman to win an Academy Award for original score for “Joker.”