Jury

In 2013 a small programming team will review all submissions, make selections and determine the range of thematic programs. Our guest judge will then select the top awards of the festival.

2013 : Guest Judge - Bruce McDonald

One of Canada’s pre-eminent cult fimmakers, Bruce McDonald is infamous for his comment that he’d buy “a big chunk of hash” with the money he won at the Toronto International Film Festival for his debut feature Roadkill. Anyone who’s seen one of his films knows that he wasn’t joking.

Roadkill was followed by the other two films in his Road Trilogy, Hard Core Logo and Highway 61. In between executive producing and directing the television series Twitch City and directing for shows like Queer as Folk, Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Less Than Kind, McDonald also directed the films Dance Me Outside, Picture Claire, Claire’s Hat, The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess, The Tracey Fragments, Pontypool, This Movie is Broken, Trigger, Hard Core Logo II and the feature documentary Music from the Big House.

Selected Awards:

The Tracey Fragments, Atlantic Film Festival (Best Canadian Feature and Best Director), Berlin Film Festival (Manfred Salzgeber Award).

Highway 61, Brussels Film Festival (Silver Raven), San Sebastien Film Festival  Silver Seashell)

Twitch City (Gemini for best direction)

Roadkill, TIFF (Best Canadian Feature)

Hard Core Logo, VIFF (Best Canadian Feature)

 

2012 : Guest Judge - Jennifer Baichwal

Jennifer Baichwal has been directing and producing documentaries for 18 years. Her films have played all over the world and won awards nationally and internationally. Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles won an International Emmy in 1999. Manufactured Landscapes, about the work of artist Edward Burtynsky, was released in 12 countries. Act of God, about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning, opened the Hot Docs Film Festival in May 2009. She has recently completed an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth with the National Film Board, which is currently in release in Canada, and will be released in the U.S. in April. She is currently in production on a film about water with Edward Burtynsky, Nick de Pencier and Daniel Iron.

2012 : Jury Members

 

Angie Driscoll has programmed and managed a variety of film festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. She is currently an International Programmer for Hot Docs, where she selects international short and feature docs.  She is also the Programming Manager and Interim Artistic Director of the Worldwide Short Film Festival, where she programs Canadian and international shorts for official competition and curates specialty programmes including Sci-Fi: Out There, The Night Shift and the monthly screening series A World of Shorts at the NFB. Driscoll has served on numerous grant and festival juries, and has worked as a film consultant for the Sundance Film Festival, Reel Canada and the Atlantic Filmmakers’ Co-op. She recently curated three online film channels on internet and mobile TV platform Babelgum.   

Sharon Switzer is the Arts Programmer and  Curator for Pattison Onestop and the Director of Art for Commuters, which she founded in 2007 in response to an opportunity to showcase the work of artists and filmmakers to over 1.3 million people on the Onestop network of TTC subway platform screens. Her first curatorial collective, Clamorous Intentions, was active during the early ‘90’s, producing large-scale, multimedia public events in Toronto. Switzer is the also the Director of the Toronto Urban Film Festival, curator of Contacting Toronto, a month-long photo exhibition which part of CONTACT, and DRIFT a program for Nuit Blanche - all annual projects produced by Art for Commuters on the Onestop network of screens. Switzer holds an MFA from the University of Western Ontario, and is an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab. She is presently serving as Vice President of the Board of Directors for the artist-run-centre Gallery TPW. As an instructor she has lectured at U.W.O, Brock University, and OCAD University. Her video-based artwork is represented by Corkin Gallery in Toronto, where she recently had a solo exhibition "Nearly Present.".

2011 : Guest Judge - Atom Egoyan

Atom Egoyan O.C., B.A., D.Litt. (hon.), L.L.D. (hon.). R.C.A.

Atom Egoyan - Photo credit: Sophie Giraud, © Adoration Productions Inc.

 

With fourteen feature films and related projects, Atom Egoyan has won numerous awards including five prizes at the Cannes Film Festival (including the Grand Prix, International Critics Awards and Ecumenical Jury Prizes), two Academy Award® nominations, eight Genie Awards, prizes from the National Board of Review and an award for Best International Adaptation at The Frankfurt Book Fair.  In 2010, he had a full retrospective of his films at the Filmoteca Espagnol in Madrid, following similar events in previous years at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and The Museum of the Moving Image in New York.  Egoyan won the 2010 Douglas Sirk Award from the Hamburg Film Festival, joining other career honours from festivals and events in Tokyo, Jerusalem, Reykjavik, Las Palmas, Hong Kong, Cairo and The Panorama of European Cinema in Athens.

Egoyan has been President of the Jury in Cannes (Cinéfondation and Shorts), Berlin (Main Competition) and Venice (First Feature), as well as a jury member at several other festivals, including Sundance, Montreal, Toronto, and this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Egoyan’s art projects have been presented around the world including The Venice Biennale and Artangel in London.  His acclaimed production of Wagner’s Die Walkurie won a Dora Award for Outstanding Opera Production, and his adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s Eh Joe was presented by The Gate Theatre in Dublin, where it won The Irish Times/ESB Award for Best Direction before transferring to London’s West End and The Lincoln Center Festival in New York.

Atom Egoyan’s installation, 8 ½ Screens, was commissioned by The Toronto International Film Festival for the opening of TIFF Bell Lightbox in September, 2010.

Egoyan will direct the North American premiere of Martin Crimp’s Cruel and Tender for the Canadian Stage theatre company in early 2012. 

2011 : Jury Members

Angie Driscoll has programmed and managed a variety of film festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival and Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.  She currently programs international documentary features for Hot Docs and will curate the 2011 “Focus On” retrospective of Canadian documentary filmmaker Alan Zweig.  As well, she programs Canadian and international films that appear in official competition at the CFC’s Worldwide Short Film Festival, and curates the Midnight Mania and Sci-Fi: Out There genre specialty programmes.  Driscoll has served on numerous grant and festival juries, and has worked as a film consultant for the Sundance Film Festival, Reel Canada’s high-school tour and the Atlantic Filmmakers’ Co-op.  Angie Driscoll is a short film specialist with a passion for Canadian cinema, an addiction to music videos and a deep, dark appreciation for niche, genre and experimental work.  Her current obsession with streaming video and internet television has led to a collaboration between the CFC’s Worldwide Short Film Festival and internet and mobile TV platform Babelgum, where she curates three online channels.   

Guillermina Buzio is a Toronto-based artist, and holds a BFA from the National University of Fine Arts P. Pueyrredón (Argentina), a Bachelor of Media Arts from the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, and an MFA from the Ontario College of Art & Design. As a visual artist she has worked in a diverse range of media, including video installation, performance, and painting. Her work focuses on human rights and identity and has been shown nationally and internationally at Toronto’s A Space and Xspace Galleries and at the Images Festival; Centro Cultural Recoleta and Museo de Arte Moderno in Buenos Aires and Bogotá; and at the Ushuaia Biennale, Sao Paulo Film Festival, Bienal de La Habana, and the Bienal Arte Nuevo Interactiva, among others. During the past few years, Guillermina has been programming for different festivals and venues including: The Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, The Experimental Media Congress, and the Planet in Focus Environmental Film and Video Festival in Toronto, as well as the Llamalo H Festival de Diversidad Sexual in Uruguay, among others. She was the programming coordinator and co-artistic director of the aluCine Toronto Latin Media Festival. 

2010 : Guest Judge - Deepa Mehta

Deepa Mehta

Director, Producer & Screenwriter

Deepa Mehta on the set of Water

Deepa Mehta was born in India and received a degree in philosophy from the University of New Delhi. In 1991, Mehta produced and directed her first feature film Sam & Me, the poignant story of an unlikely friendship between two outcasts who form a deep and permanent bond despite the fact that neither is welcome in the other's world. Sam & Me won the very first Honorable Mention by the Critics in the prestigious Camera D'Or category at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.  

In 1992, she directed a one-hour episode of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (the adventures of Indiana Jones as a boy) produced by George Lucas for ABC television. "Benares" was filmed on location in Benares, India.  

In 1993, Mehta directed her second feature film, Camilla, a Canadian / UK co-production starring (the late) Jessica Tandy and Bridget Fonda. Other cast members included Elias Koteas, Maury Chaykin, Graham Greene and Hume Cronyn. It was shot on location in Toronto, Ontario and Savannah, Georgia. Camilla had a worldwide release early in 1995.  

Mehta directed the final episode of George Lucas's Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1994. “Travels with Father” was shot on location in Prague, C.R. and Greece.  

Fire, Mehta's third feature film, based on an original screenplay, was written, directed and produced by Mehta. Fire opened the Perspective Canada Program at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was runner-up (with Fly Away Home) for the Air Canada People’s Choice Award. It was one of 29 films selected from over 1400 entries, worldwide, for the prestigious New York Film Festival. At the Vancouver International Film Festival, Fire won the Federal Express Award for Best Canadian Film as chosen by the audience. At the Chicago International Film Festival, it won two Silver Hugo Awards for Best Direction and Best Actress. In Mannheim, Fire won the Jury Award and in Paris, it was voted Favourite Foreign Film. Fire has currently been sold to 30 countries and had its North American release on August 22, 1997, followed by releases in Europe, Australia and India in September 1997.  

Earth, based on Bapsi Sidhwa's critically acclaimed novel, Cracking India, is the second film in Mehta's trilogy of the elements, Fire, Earth and Water. Earth was shot in New Delhi, India, in January of 1998. It had its world premiere as a Special Presentation at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival where it was received with a standing ovation and critical acclaim. Earth won the Prix Premiere du Public at the Festival du film Asiatique de Deauville (France) in March 1999 and the Critics' Award at the Schermi d'Amore International Film Festival (Italy) in April of the same year. Currently, Earth has been sold to 22 countries and was selected by the Film Federation of India as India's nomination for consideration for an Academy Award in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.  

Her film Bollywood/ Hollywood opened the Perspective Canada Program at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, and has remained in the top 10 grossing English movies since its Canadian opening on October 25, 2002. In 2003, Mehta co-wrote and directed Republic of Love, starring Bruce Greenwood and Amelia Fox, and based on the novel of the same title by the world-renowned author Carol Shields. In the same year, Mehta won the prestigious CineAsia “Best Director” Award – an acclaim awarded to Steven Spielberg in 2002.  

Water, the third film in the “elements” trilogy, opened the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. Water is the first Canadian film ever acquired by U.S. distributor Fox Searchlight and was released in the United States in the spring of 2006.  

Initially, Water was to be shot in India, but Hindu fundamentalists created riots, burnt the sets and issued death threats to the director and actors forcing the film to stop production in early 2000. The film was remounted and completed shooting in Sri Lanka in June 2004.  

Water has played many film festivals in North America and internationally, winning festival awards in Sudbury, Edmonton, Italy, Valladolid, Bangkok and San Francisco. The film received the Taormina Arte Awards for Cinematic Excellence in 2006. Water received the Golden Kinnaree Awards for best picture from the Bangkok International Film Festival. The film was nominated for nine Genie awards, winning three. The Vancouver Film Critics Circle named Deepa Mehta the Best Director of a Canadian Film in 2006. More recently, the film was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 79th Annual Academy Awards.  

In June of 2008 Mehta received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University for her achievements in the arts. In July of 2008 Mehta received an International Tribute from the Republic of Mexico and its various film and cultural institutions for her outstanding career in film. In fall of 2009, Mehta received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Victoria.  

Mehta’s latest film, Heaven On Earth, is about immigration, isolation and the power of imagination. Starring Preity Zinta, the film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008 and was awarded a Silver Hugo for Best Actress at the Chicago International Film Festival. It also received Best Screenplay award at the Dubai International Film Festival, the Youth Jury Award a the Schermi d’Amore Film Festival in Verona, Italy and the Audience Award at the River to River Florence Indian Film Festival.  

In 2009 Mehta collaborated with her brother Dilip Mehta, co-writing the light hearted comedy Cooking with Stella, which had a gala presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival.  

FILMOGRAPHY

SAM AND ME 1991

CAMILLA 1994

FIRE 1996

EARTH 1998

BOLLYWOOD/HOLLYWOOD 2002

REPUBLIC OF LOVE 2003

WATER 2004

LETS TALK ABOUT IT 2006

HEAVEN ON EARTH 2008

2010 : Jury Members

Chris Gehman is a filmmaker, curator, educator and critic based in Toronto. His most recent film, Refraction Series (2008), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and won the Peter Wilde Award for Most Technically Innovative Film at the 2009 Ann Arbor Film Festival. Chris currently works as Finance Manager at Vtape, and was the Artistic Director of the Images Festival from 2000 to 2004. He has also worked as a programmer for Cinematheque Ontario and the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Min Sook Lee premiered her latest documentary My Toxic Baby at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Her other titles include: Tiger Spirit - a reunification road trip through the two Koreas (winner of the Donald Brittain Gemini Award for Best Social/Political Documentary in 2009); Hogtown: The Politics of Policing (Best Feature-length Canadian Documentary award at the 2005 Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival); and El Contrato - a look at the lives of migrant farm workers in Canada (nominated for the Donald Brittain Gemini in 2005). 

Jorge Lozano is a Colombian-Canadian film and video and installation artist whose work deals with hybridity and the multiple subject-positions, aspirations, and contrasts caused by migration. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. He also facilitates video workshops with marginalized Youth in Canada and Colombia. Jorge is founder and curator of aluCine Toronto Latin Media Festival. Currently he is finishing his masters in film production at York University.
 
Kathleen Mullen is the Director of Programming for Planet in Focus: International Environmental Film & Video Festival overseeing the various programs all year round. For over fourteen years she has programmed at film festivals internationally including the Toronto International Film Festival, as the Short Cuts Canada programmer, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Vancouver International Film Festival and Provincetown International Film Festival. 
 
Haema Sivanesan is a curator, and the Executive Director of SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre). She relocated to Toronto from Sydney, Australia in 2006, where she previously held the position of Assistant Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales (1996-2004). In 2006 she curated a major exhibition of South Asian contemporary art for the Commonwealth Games Cultural Festival, Melbourne, and was a zone curator for Nuit Blanche, Toronto, 2008. 
 
Sarah Robayo Sheridan is Director of Exhibitions and Publications at Mercer Union, a centre for contemporary art in Toronto. She holds an MA in Curatorial Practice from the California College of the Arts where she completed research on the visual culture of sleep. In the past she has worked at Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, the Toronto International Film Festival Group and held research internships at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. 
 
Michael Zryd is Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at York University. He researches experimental and documentary film and other forms of North American alternative media. His major research projects include a conceptual reconstruction of Hollis Frampton’s never-completed Magellan project (1972-1980); an institutional study of the relationship between experimental film and the academy in Canada and the United States (1960s-present); and a critical examination of irony in documentary and experimental film. 
 
2009 : Guest Judge - Don McKellar

Don McKellar was born in Canada and has had a varied career as a writer, director and actor. He was the screenwriter of Roadkill and Highway 61, and co-writer of Dance Me Outside, the Genie Award-winning Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould and The Red Violin (he also appeared in the latter two). He received a Genie Award as Best Supporting Actor for his role in Atom Egoyan’s Exotica and the Prix de la Jeunesse at Cannes for his directorial debut, Last Night, which he also wrote and starred in. He also wrote, directed and played the lead in his second film, Childstar.

His stage writing credits include the five plays he co-created with the Augusta Company and the book for the musical The Drowsy Chaperone, for which he won a Tony Award. He also wrote and starred in the CBC television series Twitch City. Other film and television appearances include David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ, Atom Egoyan’s Where the Truth Lies and the series Slings and Arrows for the Sundance Channel.

Recently he collaborated on the film adaptation of Jose Saramago’s Nobel Prize-winning novel Blindness. Directed by Fernando Mereilles, he wrote the screenplay and stars with Julianne Moore, Gael Garcia Bernal and Mark Ruffalo.