Category: media

Aren’t film festivals all about the buzz? “So was there any single film at TIFF 2007 that earned universal praise and set the colony vibrating?” Maybe not…

“With new technologies exploding left and right and new media competing for eyeballs, there is the sense of being on the brink, a precipice, the last little beat before “the tipping point” is reached, but no one knows for sure what we’re going to tip into.”

“Digital radio — marketed in this country as HD Radio — has been available in the United States for more than two years but has made hardly any impact on the listening public. Yet the same technology is being adopted quickly and happily in Britain.”

“Eastern Promises, a London-set thriller by director David Cronenberg, won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, which closed on Saturday after screening 349 films over 10 days. The award came with a $15,000 prize. The top Canadian award went to Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg.”

Ken Burns’s new documentary on World War II begins airing on public television next weekend, and if you haven’t heard about it, you’re probably alone. “The War” is being rolled out with a promotional campaign unlike any PBS has ever mounted before, and for good reason. “The world of broadcasting has changed enormously over the last 17 years. So has the world of documentaries.” What hasn’t changed is the trademark Burns style, and PBS is counting on the combination of quality and familiarity to deliver a ratings bonanza.

“Hollywood is male-driven and the women directors who made it on to the list of the 250 top-grossing American films in 2006 comprise only 7 per cent of the total number of directors, according to an annual survey conducted at San Diego State University. The number was the same in 2005. Women screenwriters made up 10 per cent of the total – but that number is going down. In 1998, it was 13 per cent. The Toronto International Film Festival, and by implication the international film world, presents a different picture. This year’s tally of 52 women directors on the list of 332 new films amounts to more than 15 per cent.”

“In its 32d year, the Toronto International Film Festival is a binary experience… Toronto is now the official starting gun of Oscar season; what used to be an evenly spread 10-day smorgasbord of cinematic riches (for the most part) is now front-loaded with studio premieres and red carpet photo ops. By contrast, the back leg of the festival has become a parade of unheralded world-cinema pleasures and unfilled theaters.”

“Any description of the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival undoubtedly will depend on which part of the festival got sampled. Even looking at the reviews of some high-profile pictures, a reader can only conclude that the festival played a dirty trick on poor critics by screening entirely different films with exactly the same titles.”

“Slowly but surely a seismic shift is occurring across the entertainment landscape: men are dropping trou, and penises and testicles are seemingly everywhere, flapping in the breeze.”

“The award-winning producers of TV shows Thirtysomething and My So-Called Life are taking their latest project online, citing ‘frustration’ at US TV networks.” The show, which was rejected by ABC, will debut later this fall on MySpace, where producers believe it will find a wide audience.