If your humble narrator lived in Toronto, winter would be depressing: cold and snow. Though, making my way to the TIFF Lightbox theatre would make me less depressed.
The TIFF Lightbox will host the TIFF Canada's Top Ten of 2024 starting today through February 9, relevant if you haven't seen as many films (7) as I have seen so far.
We will find out the inaugural Charles Officer Legacy Award winner tonight. Announced in 2023, the award recognizes a Black Canadian director and/or writer whose body of work exemplifies the creative excellence, strong point of view, and community-mindedness of the award-winning filmmaker [using their language to describe the award].
We would definitely have signed up for the February 6 event: A Look Back at Last Night followed by a special screening of the Don McKellar's 1998 apocalyptic film Last Night. An extended Q&A with McKellar follows the screening.
Canadian film review: Last Night
We have spent some time extolling the praises of this Canadian film. We mentioned our love for Last Night to McKellar himself live in person in Windsor in November.
From our review: "Last Night starts out with 6 hours to go before life comes to an end for everyone. How would you spend the last 6 hours of your life."
There are small roles in the film outside of McKellar and Sandra Oh: Sarah Polley, Callum Keith Rennie, Geneviève Bujold, Tracy Wright, Arsinée Khanjian, Bob Martin, François Girard, Bruce McDonald, Jackie Burroughs, and even David Cronenberg. The film won TIFF's Best Canadian Feature Film, Cannes' Prix de la jeunesse, and 3 Genies.
Last Night has some, well, Canadian sensibilities that I appreciate in the independent spirit of most Canadian films.
Twitch City is where my love for Canada started
Canadian film review: Finding Don McKellar
TIFF veteran Ann Marie Fleming celebrates her third time on the Canada’s Top Ten list with her latest film CAN I GET A WITNESS?, starring Sandra Oh & Joel Oulette.
— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) February 4, 2025
Canada’s Top Ten showcase, presented by @mubicanada, begins at TIFF Lightbox February 5. #SeeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/crxkp3CDxE
Your humble narrator understands the cruelty of promoting the ability of those in Toronto to celebrate these films while most of Canada struggles to gain access to seeing these films.
Hopefully, the presence of Sandra Oh will help get this film to more people, in Canada and elsewhere. There is a moment in this film that reminds me so much of Last Night, which also stars Sandra Oh. I cried in the theatre when I saw that moment.
Matthew Rankin’s UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE – which had its North American Premiere at #TIFF24 – has been named one of Canada’s Top Ten films of 2024.
— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) January 25, 2025
It’s Rankin’s fifth film to be selected, after 2019’s THE TWENTIETH CENTURY and the shorts MUNICIPAL RELAXATION MODULE (2022), THE… pic.twitter.com/1vMY2qmLvd
We've heard February 12 as a release date for Universal Language | Une langue universelle. We don't know what that looks like in Canada or the United States. We know when the film is playing in Chicago, though to be fair, the film had 2 screenings during its international festival back in October.
TIFF selects Top 10 Canadian films of 2024
TFCA presents the top 6 nominated Canadian films of 2024
CanadianCrossing.com film reviews
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
The fun in the lists is seeing enough of these films to know what belongs and what doesn't. Like I tell my fellow WIFF attendees, the selections are there to try and find down the road. If you live in Toronto, appreciate this gift and take advantage.
photo and video credit: Last Night
Twitter capture: @TIFF_NET (x2)
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